Kevin Bronson on October 10th, 2014

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Recap and photographs by David Benjamin

Only a few songs into his show Thursday night in the Cathedral Sanctuary at Immanuel Presbyterian Church, Damien Rice drew blood. It was during “Woman Like a Man,” and while fidgeting with a broken guitar cable, Rice sliced open his finger. There was a pause while the Irish singer-songwriter asked a member of the crew for a tissue. At which point someone in the crowd yelled out “Bleed for us!”

Rice did, metaphorically, for two hours. It was the 40-year-old’s first Los Angeles show in eight years, presaging the Nov. 10 release of his first album in eight years, “My Favourite Faded Fantasy.”

Rice played only three songs off the new, Rick Rubin-produced album: “Trusty and True,” “I Don’t Want to Change” and the title track – halting in the middle of the latter and explaining he didn’t know it well enough yet to play it live. He promised a return engagement after the album’s release.

While regaling the crowd with anecdotes about the inspirations for his various songs, Rice played tunes such as “Rootless Tree,” “Amie,” “9 Crimes,” “The Professor” and “I Don’t Want to Change You,” and he included a cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.” There was also a mini-drama, during which he invited a female fan on stage to play the part of the girl in the story of how he was inspired to write “Cheers Darlin’.” Together, they downed an entire bottle of wine over the course of 5 to 10 minutes. At the end of the song he transitioned to the piano, where he played a song he just made up, even commenting that he was probably too drunk now to keep singing.

For most of the show, it was just Rice either with guitar or on piano, but he welcomed a choir to back him for “Trusty and True.” And the finale, 2003’s “Volcano,” featured an assist from the talented Amy Kuney (and another bottle of wine).

Wine, women and song? For a night of intimate music, you could hardly have done better.