Ryan Adams & The Cardinals - Hammersmith Apollo
Fantastic show from Ryan Adams and The Cardinals tonight at the Hammersmith Apollo. With the exception of the first time I saw him play in Melbourne (supporting ‘Gold’ with the LAX his original backing band) this was easily the best show I’ve seen from him.
The band was in great form. Incredibly tight and they seem to have found a good groove, that can lean to the somber (especially when Ryan plays piano), the more countrified (with the pedal steel coming to the fore) or the rocking (with the dual electric guitar attack). Guitarist Neal Casal even took on lead vocals for a couple of his own tunes: "Freeway To The Canyon" and "You Don't See Me Crying".
It probably helps that I think Ryan’s latest album ‘Easy Tiger’ is the best thing he’s done in 3 or 4 years (which is an absolute eon in Ryan Adams world where he can put out three albums in 2005 alone). It marks a great return to more pop orientated songs like ‘Gold’ and ‘Heartbreaker’.
Tonight the new material sounded fantastic – especially the double-header of “Off Broadway” into “Goodnight Rose”. Standout for me was “Everybody Knows” and “Two”.
As if to highlight the stylistic connection with ‘Gold’ – we also got a bunch of material from that record: a piano heavy “Rescue Blues” straight into “When The Stars Go Blue”, plus “Wild Flowers” and “Goodnight Hollywood Boulevard”
Like most people I found Ryan’s 2005 triple-treat of ‘Jacksonville City Nights’, ‘Cold Roses’ and ‘29’ a lot to take in. So it was great tonight to hear those records paired back to just their essential moments: opener “Peaceful Valley”, “A Kiss Before I Go” and “Dead John” from ‘Jacksonville City Nights’. From ‘Cold Roses’: “Beautiful Sorta”, “Let It Ride”, “Easy Plateau”, “Cold Roses” and “Mockingbird”. While ‘29’ gave us the outstanding “Nightbirds”.
The crowd tonight veered a little on the painful side, with a sprinkling of hecklers who kept yelling random shit through the quiet moments. I guess they were trying to provoke some sort of outburst or incident (Ryan does have a reputation for storming or occasionally falling off the stage).
To their credit, the band simply put their heads down and got on with a cracking show. On the couple of occasions he did address the crowd between songs, Ryan seemed to have developed a pantomime showman approach “welcome friends and neighbors”.
Anyway – despite the minor quibble on the crowd. The show was amazing. The band played a lengthy two-hour set – before returning for a quick encore, including Ryan’s own take of “Blue Hotel” that he wrote for ‘Songbird’ the album he produced for Willie Nelson. I got the feeling they would have kept on playing had the 11pm curfew not arrived four songs into the encore.
Setlist:
Peaceful Valley
Beautiful Sorta
Rescue Blues
Stars Go Blue
Off Broadway
Goodnight Rose
Nightbirds
Sun Also Sets
Let It Ride
Freeway To The Canyon (Neal Casal)
Please Do Not Let Me Go
Bartering Lines
Mockingbird
Wild Flowers
Cold Roses
Halloweenhead
Why Do They Leave
Everybody Knows
Goodnight Hollywood Blvd.
Two
You Don't See Me Crying (Neal Casal)
"Graboff Joke/Happy Birthday Spacewolf"
Rip Off
A Kiss Before I Go
Shakedown on 9th St
I See Monsters
Encore:
Dear John
Blue Hotel
I Taught Myself How To Grow Old
Easy Plateau
The band was in great form. Incredibly tight and they seem to have found a good groove, that can lean to the somber (especially when Ryan plays piano), the more countrified (with the pedal steel coming to the fore) or the rocking (with the dual electric guitar attack). Guitarist Neal Casal even took on lead vocals for a couple of his own tunes: "Freeway To The Canyon" and "You Don't See Me Crying".
It probably helps that I think Ryan’s latest album ‘Easy Tiger’ is the best thing he’s done in 3 or 4 years (which is an absolute eon in Ryan Adams world where he can put out three albums in 2005 alone). It marks a great return to more pop orientated songs like ‘Gold’ and ‘Heartbreaker’.
Tonight the new material sounded fantastic – especially the double-header of “Off Broadway” into “Goodnight Rose”. Standout for me was “Everybody Knows” and “Two”.
As if to highlight the stylistic connection with ‘Gold’ – we also got a bunch of material from that record: a piano heavy “Rescue Blues” straight into “When The Stars Go Blue”, plus “Wild Flowers” and “Goodnight Hollywood Boulevard”
Like most people I found Ryan’s 2005 triple-treat of ‘Jacksonville City Nights’, ‘Cold Roses’ and ‘29’ a lot to take in. So it was great tonight to hear those records paired back to just their essential moments: opener “Peaceful Valley”, “A Kiss Before I Go” and “Dead John” from ‘Jacksonville City Nights’. From ‘Cold Roses’: “Beautiful Sorta”, “Let It Ride”, “Easy Plateau”, “Cold Roses” and “Mockingbird”. While ‘29’ gave us the outstanding “Nightbirds”.
The crowd tonight veered a little on the painful side, with a sprinkling of hecklers who kept yelling random shit through the quiet moments. I guess they were trying to provoke some sort of outburst or incident (Ryan does have a reputation for storming or occasionally falling off the stage).
To their credit, the band simply put their heads down and got on with a cracking show. On the couple of occasions he did address the crowd between songs, Ryan seemed to have developed a pantomime showman approach “welcome friends and neighbors”.
Anyway – despite the minor quibble on the crowd. The show was amazing. The band played a lengthy two-hour set – before returning for a quick encore, including Ryan’s own take of “Blue Hotel” that he wrote for ‘Songbird’ the album he produced for Willie Nelson. I got the feeling they would have kept on playing had the 11pm curfew not arrived four songs into the encore.
Setlist:
Peaceful Valley
Beautiful Sorta
Rescue Blues
Stars Go Blue
Off Broadway
Goodnight Rose
Nightbirds
Sun Also Sets
Let It Ride
Freeway To The Canyon (Neal Casal)
Please Do Not Let Me Go
Bartering Lines
Mockingbird
Wild Flowers
Cold Roses
Halloweenhead
Why Do They Leave
Everybody Knows
Goodnight Hollywood Blvd.
Two
You Don't See Me Crying (Neal Casal)
"Graboff Joke/Happy Birthday Spacewolf"
Rip Off
A Kiss Before I Go
Shakedown on 9th St
I See Monsters
Encore:
Dear John
Blue Hotel
I Taught Myself How To Grow Old
Easy Plateau
