7.10.11 NSW - Hornsby RSL

[astrokath]

Thanks for the reports ladies.
Love the visual image of Damien's face lighting up when Eils came in - it's truly wonderful to see two people so much in love.

[Trilly]

Thanks ladies.

Like everyone else feels, it is always so wonderfully heartening see the love Damien and his wife share. What a gorgeous moment. We live in what appears to be such a self-centred and often cruel world, but knowing that real love exists between people is such an antidote to cynicism.

It's bit of a worry about Damien's voice though. I noticed in Cessnock that it was mainly his falsie/upper reg that was giving him the trouble, the middle and lower were as fabulous and powerful as ever. He has always said that it is this area which shows fatigue. I'd presume he's getting professional advice as how to best manage it. Resting it would seem to be logical, when he can. I see you're saying his speaking voice is affected too now. Get better soon, D.

Interesting that Cesar and Chris were missing. I saw on FB that Eric thanked Sam McNally and Tina Harris, whom one assumes were the fill-ins. He said they smashed it, which I'd reckon was high praise from him. ;D

Looking forward to further reports. More news to come, I gather.

[nixter]

great to read your reports. Look after your voice Damien.

[shimmery]

What a show!!! What a fabulous evening, great atmosphere! So much love in the room and so many wonderful memories!


Has been a huge week and weekend of crazy hours plus all the fun of the show, am exhausted now but definitely wanted to write about the show tonight before I crash. I'm not sure now that chasing champers with espresso was the best idea late last night


Damien's performance was, as always, stunning! He can take the show from spellbinding to rockin' so seamlessly with so much heart and laughter and warmth in between. Wouldn't matter how many shows you go to, they are always a joy and always so many highlights!


Personally this was also a very emotional, rare and happy occasion for me as it was the first time I've been able to have my family with me to watch a show and they absolutely loved every moment. Great catching up with so many of you and thank you so much to everyone who made my family feel welcome it's a big deal for them to head out to an event these days. This was probably my last show for the year, what a really lovely one to finish on.


This was the first show I've been to since the Enmore in July so in addition to so looking forward to seeing Damien and the guys playing again, it was also great to see the organic progression of the show itself over the intervening months. Fantastic also to be near enough to the stage to see Damien's face so clearly again as he's performing and all the gestures between him and the band members, always one of the joys of seeing the show live.


In fact, of all shows, this proved to be one of the most incredible to witness the working of the show and band on stage. It's such a testament to how amazing pro musicians are the way Damien and all the guys (and girl) formed such a united band when three of the band members had to be called in at short notice (not sure why, hope the regulars are all ok ). We were mesmerised watching Eric and Damien direct the musicians with subtle signals and they in turn watching to take their cues from Damien and Eric so gently while, if you didn't know they weren't the usual band, you could never tell. It was so beautiful to see all these pros create this performance together and their care for one another, much in the similar way you hear of generosity between actors on stage.


We were truly lucky as an audience to have Sam McNally helping out on keyboards in this circumstance, a veteran lead performer in his own right. We've seen him do shows around town before and have had his CD in the car for a while since buying it at one of his shows. His beautiful touch and subtle changes were so lovely and his presence & experience made for a wonderful contribution to the show after what was possibly a very unnerving preparation time for Damien. Tina Harris was on bass & guitar and also added beautiful harmonies to the vocals. Drummer Aiden Haworth (also filling in last minute) has played with them on this tour before but I haven't seen him previously, thought he was also excellent! I have no idea if they even had a chance to rehearse together as a group but the show was seamless, they all did the most amazing job!


Jess Chalker was lovely again as support act. Kazza had told me before the show she does an amazing version of "Vincent" and indeed she does, as we were lucky to hear her perform for her final song. During her set she also spoke about the wonderful time she has had being Damien's support act the last few months and that he is "a darling", which of course we already know to be entirely true The audience was wonderfully attentive and supportive of her as support act and she mentioned on stage how she appreciated it


So many musical highlights during the main show! I adore "In Dreams" as it is but there was something incredible & emotional in the way Damien sung it last night that just moved me to tears. I asked around after the show and many many people said it was the highlight of the show for them. You could hear a pin drop during the entire song, the audience was utterly spellbound.


"Beautiful" while not only being beautiful was also quite different!! Very exciting to witness a new arrangement, with Eric starting the intro with slide guitar! We were loving it! I always think of Morgs during this song as she loves it and does a mean cover version of it herself! It also always reminds me of the atmosphere and times of the first Swoon City concerts Damien did when this song was in its earliest form and he was giving it a tryout. It had a different tempo back then which is invariably still the version I launch into if I'm humming it around the place, it's forever stuck in my mind (a good thing!).


I love that this song which is so Damien is part of the set and introduces some of himself into the show alongside the Roy songs. And, because it is so personal a song to Damien, what more beautiful moment could you have than to see his face totally light up midway into the song when his muse walks into the room The moment we saw his face, we just knew without even seeing her that Eils must have arrived. It was a gorgeous moment filled with love! It was so fantastic to see Eils and her sister there to enjoy the show together.


"Handle With Care" is a real favourite of mine and I loved the version last night, it was a lot of fun and we all got into it! The audience was fantastic all night and got into all the singalongs.


"Pretty Woman" totally went off like it did at the Enmore, Damien & the band just exploded and the room was bouncing. I can't even find the words to describe "Hallelujah", it was so special and incredible and one of the best versions I've ever heard Damien do. The audience took him by surprise and spontaneously started singing along - and they were really good! He said wow he hadn't expected that but keep going, it was sounding beautiful - so we all did and it really did sound magical. Damien changed the way he sung the final note but I loved it, actually I like it more than the original way! What an ending to a beautiful beautiful show!

[dmac]

Jess Chalker also did a fine cover of "Landslide"
Set List:
D did acknowledge that he knew the ladies down on the front table and they were trouble......oh no they're lovely ha!
*Anything you Want
*Only the Lonely
Gave Damien his new g-string forever to be nown as the 'nose warmer' ,but apparently the right colour "hot pink" and it then spent the night on the mic but apparently Jess's husband doesn't have one and D already has one
*Dream Baby
at this point damien was talking about his time on DWTS and his weight loss so gave him a box which had 'The New Pie Diet' and inside were too creamy apple turnovers, which Eric volunteered to taste test
*Love Hurts
*Working for the Man
Black velvet jacket came off accompanied by cheers and encouragement for more
*Blue Bayou with Jess
*Beautiful which always is, but more so when his lovely Eileen walked in and Damien's smile lit up the room ;D
*Goodnight
Then D talked about his experiences with Barbara Orbison
*In Dreams
*Running Scared
*Mean Woman Blues accompanied by multiple hip movements and a hip roundhouse, audience participation and a broken string
*Crying
*Handle with Care
Encore:
*Pretty Woman
*Hallelujah with a dedication
There was a couple dancing down the front of the stage and a Special Ed girl, also dancing....unfortunately she left too quickly as Eric was looking for her to take to see Damien
Was lovely to spend time with so many damienites and on the way out catch up with the lovely Eils and her sister who is flying back to Ireland on Monday, but was delighted to catch her first show with Damien performing

[Glawz]

Thank you Dawn and Shims... beautiful reports. Just makes me lust over the thought of our concerts coming up!!

[thebraff (Braffy)]

Your photo of the 'nose warmer' has come out brilliantly Dawn


The audience cracked up totally, especially with the way that Damien joked and took it and ran with the gag.


Not happy with Jess Chalker though Damien showed it to her when she came out to sing Blue Bayou and she made a remark about 'who would give you something tacky like that?'
She obviously doesn't know Damien as well as she thinks. He thought it was a hoot. ;D

[thebraff (Braffy)]

We also had GLORIA sung which went over really well with the crowd.

(Thanks Brian for the reminder)

[Roxy]

Sounds like you all had a great show! I kinda like it when Damien gets "husky", I know it must annoy him when his voice is stressed, but I actually like it! (sorry D )

What a wonderful moment that must of been for Damien when Eils walks in while he is singing BEAUTIFUL, it's such a gorgeous song too!

what was dedicated and to who? or have they not been in yet to reveal?


Lovely reports ladies

[thebraff (Braffy)]

Hopefully when the person reads your post Roxy they will reveal all.
It wasn't me, so I don't feel I should mention the very special moment.

[KrisLovesDamien]

Thanks for the reports girls.

Awww that's so beautiful about when he saw Eils.

[dmac]

Sorry Braffy, didn't include Gloria as it was a snippet of the song, but as you all know it's a great karaoke song to get the audience singing along and clapping. Forgot to mention about when Eric held up his turned on mobile and encouraged the audience to do the same with their arms swaying and D kept saying what a surprise and how lovely it looked ;D
As the girls said in the other thread we were unable to see D because of his voice (he even forgot to plug his merchandise up the back :, but 2damienfans and Shims and family were taken out by George, so lucky them.
oh well, guess that now I've been tagged as trashy by Jess, will have to start giving home baked cakes
Very glad for the Dapto girls that D has his voice back to par

[shimmery]

Being on the same weekend I'm criss-crossing between here and the Dee Why threads to read the differences between the shows. Wow yes GLORIA was awesome at Hornsby, Damien did the main chorus bit as part of "Pretty Woman", I'm not sure if it then became a bigger version at Dee Why but at Hornsby the reaction to it was great, the crowd LOVED it!


I added my more personal memories of the show in C&A last night when I had some time, my continued show report is in there as usual.


Thanks Dawn, like I was saying in the other thread it's more than difficult to post about being happy if you've been fortunate to have a little chat with Damien when it turned out that others may not have had a chance to see him that time round.


So glad you got to say hi as well 2Dfans and thank you for filming, your videos are always great! You were so lucky to go to both shows, did you got some footage of Dee Why too? Would love to see how "For All of Time" was in a big hall like DW, can imagine it was spinetingling


I totally forgot the part where Eric got everyone swaying their iPhones in the dark to the song, that was a gorgeous moment!! It looked really beautiful too and Damien loved it!


Damien looked amazing the other night, he's looking the picture of glowing health at the moment! He was wearing the most gorgeous velvet jacket at the start of the show. I'm not sure if it was purple black or blue black but it just dazzled under the lights, and then he took that off (must have been sweltering!!) and had teh cool white shirt and tie look for the rest of the show - LOVE teh style


Meant to add like I did elsewhere that my family cannot get over Damien's voice LIVE - they were absolutely stunned by his voice and what he can do with it and the way he can bring all this power together, they were astonished It's just proof that having a record is wonderful, but nothing in the world can beat seeing him live, to see him actually creating that magic.


He has so many skills at work in each song, you can see how insanely difficult these songs must be to go from bellowing it out to the perfect softness and subtlety they must also have to convey the beautiful emotions. I lost count of how many times I heard gasps coming from all over the audience. Every time you hear Damien sing it's a privilege.

[thebraff (Braffy)]

Well said Shims. It certainly was a fabulous concert and he received more than one standing ovation too.

[Glawz]

Agree Braffy, thank you Shims.