Ray LaMontagne has come a long way with his stage craft since the early days when he couldn’t even face the audience, choosing to stand stage right, facing the void opposite, so crippling was his shyness. Tonight the Belfast audience in the sold-out 2,000 capacity Waterfront Hall were in a buoyant mood, not having had a visit from LaMontagne for several years. Shouts of 'Keep ‘er lit, Ray' may have been somewhat lost in translation, but the warmth they conveyed must have been obvious to him and his three piece band. Giving his band equal billing by arranging them in a row across the stage alongside himself is an unusual layout, but he seemed quite comfortable when he emerged and asked the audience to indulge him by listening to a few recent songs. Roll Me Mama, Roll Me, It Takes Me Back and Such A Simple Thing followed without further ado, and just a simple 'Thank you' from LaMontagne.
Then the backdrop changed to the familiar and iconic Jason Holley image of a blindfolded woman dancing with the devil and we knew that he was going to play his 2004 debut album TROUBLE - the tour was, after all, billed as the “Trouble 20th Anniversary Tour”. (I’m not sure why he’s two years late getting here, but no-one was complaining tonight). He launched into Trouble, and then proceeded to play the whole record, all ten songs. He opened up surprisingly and briefly, just before this. He told us that he is still amazed at how these songs have gone on to have a life of their own, so long after he wrote them as a young man and father of two little boys aged 2 and 4, ‘just trying to figure it all out'. And he has 'just celebrated his 30th wedding anniversary, and his boys are now older than when he wrote those songs' in his mid-twenties. In response to an audience member shouting up that he had seen him playing in Chicago in the early days, he laughed and explained that he was ’so full of rage in those days’ and that he still has that first guitar that has blood dried into it. In fact, he admitted, at one stage he came home after being on the road forever and pulled the guitar out from under the bed to realise that his wife had driven a steak knife into it. He laughingly said that he decided to stay home for a while after that!
Each song from TROUBLE was greeted with whoops from the audience and they sang along quietly with the choruses. The supporting musicians were all multi - instrumentalists, and added backing vocals behind LaMontagne’s raspy vocals when needed. Mat Davidson (Big Thief, The Low Anthem) switched effortlessly from pedal steel to fiddle to keyboards, while the percussionist switched to guitar occasionally, and the electric bass player also played a floor drum. Most of the time, Ray characteristically stood rooted to the spot, moving only to accept a change of acoustic guitar from his guitar tech. He looked exactly as he always did - bearded, lanky and dressed in a check shirt. After a standing ovation, the band returned to the stage for a generous three song encore, which included Yearning from 2024’s LONG WAY HOME.
Opening act Natalie Jane Hill is pretty much unknown to Irish audiences, although the Texan native has just released her third album, HOPEFUL WOMAN. Her set consisted mainly of songs from that record, and her quiet presence belied the fact that this was the biggest audience she had ever played in front of. She accompanied her thoughtful, slow paced, folk songs with some deft fingerpicking and her sweet yet powerful voice achieved a hushed reverence from the audience. Every song was met with considerable applause and the long queue at her merch table afterwards set her apart as ‘one to watch’.
Review and images by Eilís Boland