Ryan Adams - Barbican Theatre

Took my work buddy Vaughan to see Ryan Adams at the Barbican Theatre. It was a solo acoustic show - one of only a handful across Europe as Ryan's "return" to the music industry after a 2 year hiatus.

As even occasional Ryan Adams fans know - he can be very much a hit-and-miss proposition in concert.

Fortunately, this was practically my dream Ryan Adam's show.

He was engaging and fun, really seemed to be enjoying himself. The setlist could have been ripped straight from my ipod playlist "RAdams faves". You'd think it would be hard to top kicking off with 3 in a row from 'Heartbreaker', but he managed it with the encore by dipping back all the way to Whiskeytown (first time he'd played them in 10 or 15 years?) for '16 Days'.



Full Setlist:
To Be Young (Is To Be Sad, Is To Be High)
Oh My Sweet Carolina
Damn, Sam (I Love a Woman That Rains)
Everybody Knows
If I Am A Stranger
Firecracker
My Winding Wheel
Invisible Riverside
New York, New York
Ashes And Fire
Let It Ride
Desire
The Rescue Blues
English Girls Approximately
Blue Hotel
AMY
Encore:
16 Days
Two
This House Is Not For Sale
Stop

INXS - Clapham Common

My buddy Nick persuaded me to come along to see INXS play at Clapham Common as part of the Southern Sounds festival.

We managed to snag a 2-for-1 deal from a tout on the way in, and it was easy to see why when we arrived as the crowd was clearly well down, and struggling to fill the large space.

We spent the first hour or so there avoiding the light rain and the multitude of pissed ex-pats giving all the Aussies/Kiwis and Safa living in London a bad reputation!

I wasn't expecting much but INXS, fronted by Rock Star winner JD Fortune, managed to put on a pretty good show. They started with a fairly indulgent stomp-esque drum-off, but once they started pulling out the hits - and you got used to JD Fortune's slightly racier stage mannerisms - things got along well.

The original band-members even gathered, campfire singalong style, around a single mic from a stripped back "Don't Change" which was actually pretty good.

The problem really started mid-set when they started bringing out some guest-vocalists to promote their most recent release 'Original Sin' - which has them doing -covers- sorry re-workings of INXS songs with different vocalists. The problem was none of the big names from the record seemed to be available, so we were left with one of the backing vocalists having a crack, and some strange lady from Paris giving it a try as well. It was like a giant hand-break in the middle of the show and really lost any momentum the band had gathered.

Things picked up again with the return of JD for 'Beautiful Girl' - and from then til curfew it was hits a plenty.




Full setlist:
Drum instrumental
Suicide blonde
Devil inside
Kiss the dirt (falling down the mountain)
Pretty Vegas
Taste it
Don't change - vocal
Mystfie - guest
New sensation - guest
Beautiful girl
The stairs
Mediate
Need you tonight
Not enough time
Disappear
Bittertears
Original sin
What you need
Never tear us apart
By my side - Encore
Mystify