Saturday 31/03/07 Damien Rice, Fionn Regan @ Usher Hall, Edinburgh

The singer-songwriter tradition as of late has become a debased form for the spoutings of mush and rocketing stardom. Damien Rice and Fionn Regan are cut from a different cloth that takes in the great heritage of Dublin scribes and wordsmiths, those masters of innovation with the novel only these chaps front bands. Damien with his lusty verse and tumultuous engagements with women, the dirt under the fingernails of relationships - what makes a relationship click and lovers tick, and grit in the knees of their dissolvement; and then Fionn with symbolist-saturated verse. With some years of success between their emergence, it's been an hiatus since Damien released his second album '9' last November and a conscious stance of anti-stardom that has seen no interviews and no tour until now, whereas the new wonderboy Fionn Regan has been taking to the road in promoting his debut delight 'The End Of History' like a concerted troubadour.

Mop-topped like a beatnik Bob Dylan when parlaying with the media - "the more hair you have on the outside, the less you have on the inside cluttering up your head" enables Fionn Regan to deliver the canny lyricists turn of phrase with a confidence that betrays his years. Opening with two strutting numbers not to be found on his album, 'Coat Hook' singing "...keep talking or shut up..." with the low-key, full sound of Fionn fronting with an acoustic guitar, accompanied by drums and double bass, and 'Toadeaters' reminding  of The Waterboys Mike Scott with a bravado and new songs up his sleevie. "...I like to walk with you in the evening..." of 'Underwood' has a fresh breeziness, 'Be Good Or Begone' has a lyrical melody and sadness with "...I have become an aerial view/ of a coastal town/ you once knew...". 'Snowy Atlas Mountains' is a Dylanesque symbolist-laden song with the poesy showing in verse such as "...if I become antique/ you collect me/ if I become cheap then you'll respect me...my jumper's soaked in pig's blood...", and 'The End Of History' has an eloquent Fionn sounding like there's a Gaelic connection with Scotsman King Creosote assisted by broody bass and clashing cymbals.

Damien Rice's performance tonight and on this tour is noted as much for his presence as for an absence. That of Lisa Hannigan. Lisa, with her beatific voice always acted the balancing yin counterpoint to Damien's yang male perspective. With tousled locks and dressed down for the occasion, Damien Rice ends the brief UK leg of the tour here in Edinburgh with a raucous audience by opening with a caustic, belting 'The Professor' - with musings and a devil-may-care poke in the eye to Cupid. 'Older Cheats' and the painterly observations of "...older gents sit on the fence with their cap in hand...they watch the city change..." is delivered to pin-drop silence in the Hall, and 'Volcanoes' takes an upbeat jazzy verve with a balladering twist, Damien growling on piano and there's a danger the night might be torn apart to reveal it's startling dynamo-reality with "...what I am to you is not real...", great timing showing from the band with a grungy denouement. 'Rootless Tree' has panache leading to the scorched-flesh chorus - "...**** you, **** you, I love you" and Vyvienne Long modest with supporting cello.

One of the rawest tracks from '9' 'Me, My Yoke And I' sucks the marrow from the bone as rock devours roll and the yelping delivery "...I'm in/ like a big dog/ and I'm in/ like a big dog yeah..." teeters over Kurt Cobains grave with his grunge-guitar, noise and lights of the auditorium fully lit like a Mack truck gunning down on you - "...me, my yoke and i/ gonna make us choke...". Damien comes over all the lonelier on the quiet numbers with the absence of Lisa Hannigan, the opening verses of '9 Crimes' missing her duet at once noticeable for her feminine harmonies "...it's the wrong kind of place to be cheating on you/ it's the wrong time she's pulling me through...", and no explanations tonight of the demise.