damien rice talks

a friend took me to Benaroya last night to see Damien Rice... beautiful show... had never seen anything in there besides a couple symphonies and this was much louder and more intense. what was interesting though is that the show was an Earth Day thing put on by KMTT (radio) and so midway through the concert Mr. Rice spoke for probably 10 minutes about environmental concerns... he didn't rant and seemed pretty balanced on the "who do we believe" question, which i found refreshing. mostly though he told a story of how he found a paralyzed seagull in Dublin and ended up saving it... it healed... and was released. it was something he did personally. i did find it odd though that he is doing a benefit album with a bunch of friends and still doesn't know yet who the beneficiary will be (just for the Earth is all they've got so far). this just goes to show again that bands & audiences need a lot better help to connect with good non-profits they can trust.