'and so it is'... 37 candles

Yup, counted and recounted all the tealights on the stage of Damien Rice's sold-out concert on Thursday night at a limited seating Suntec City 600 seat theatre with lots of leg room.

A very Druid, New Age-y effect to a rather cosy affair. Just a couple of tall smoldering candelabras and jars of candles, a short table, a piece of carpet and 1 guitar on a stand.

We waited and waited and waited. And when he came on, there was hardly any fanfare or introduction and he just plain launched into it. And wowed everyone away.

The way he strummed and sang and hollered, he made it sound like there was a backup band somewhere behind.

Very rousing and steady vocals. Not much of a talker but wry humour here and there and a bit of slapstick at some junctures. It was pretty much quite an amazing experience. After feeling foul throughout the day, that voice and those songs were quite a cool outlet. And quite a blazing encore finale too.

But the neat part was when Gene and Wee got backstage to meet him!

My - never knew Gene is suuuuuch a shameless groupie. Made the poor Irish fella sign loads of CDs which he did obligingly. The icing being he had his pink shirt doodled and sketched by Damien Rice. He even came this close to naming their son after him.

Wee was sooo starry eyed - once in a lifetime, up close and personal with Someone like him, a rather quiet down to earth guy - in a blazer made up of different coloured patches and materials - despite freely cursing on stage, chatting and joking and staring at his blue eyes.

And Gene collecting snapshots and TAPING their chatter with him. Gosh - envious all around from the rest of us.

Will be cloud nine for a whole month for some folks.

And quite some tales to tell the little boy when he gets older...