By Steve Hochman, Special to The Times
Damien Rice continues the line of Irish sensualists that runs from William Butler Yeats through Van Morrison. But it's a safe bet that Yeats never performed wearing a sparkly red Lucha Libre mask. Rice having received that item as a birthday present on Thursday did in fact don the disguise for the third number of his show Friday at the Orpheum Theatre, his first of two nights at the lovely deco downtown house.As the song was the dark, frenzied sexual impressionism of "Me, My Yoke and I" a highlight of his new album, "9" the result was a disturbing mix of menace and comedy. Striking contrasts, if not always that twisted, helped make Rice such a find with his 2003 debut album "O" and his mercurial concerts. Rice and his four-member band (co-singer Lisa Hannigan, cellist Vivienne Long, bassist Shane Fitzsimons and drummer Tom Osander) reaffirmed that Friday with an in-the-moment approach to his vividly involving material.
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