Ryan Adams - London Palladium

Went with Kimbo to another fantastic solo Ryan Adams show on his ‘Ashes and Fire’ tour. The impact of him playing a selection of his greatest songs in respectful troubadour mode was slightly diminished by having seen a similar show at The Barbican last year – but the evening really did remind me how fantastic a singer and songwriter Ryan Adams is.

The show did seem to have a few issues with his main acoustic guitar staying in tune, but whereas in previous tours this would make for a black mood that would color or potentially curtail the whole show – this time it was just laughed about with a few jokes and moved on to using his standby guitar.

The setlist was a great mix of the new album, plus a selection of some of his finest older material. While it’s always great to hear anything from his solo debut ‘Heartbreaker’, and it was thrilling to hear “Sweet Lil Gal (23rd/1st)” solo on the piano, the standouts for me were the older Whiskeytown songs “16 Days” and a “Jacksonville Skyline”, plus the newer material “Lucky Now”, “Chains of Love” and “Do I Wait”.

1. Oh My Sweet Carolina

2. Ashes and Fire

3. If I am a Stranger

4. Dirty Rain

5. Winding Wheel

6. Rescue Blues

7. Please Do Not Let Me Go

8. Do I Wait

9. Firecracker

10. Everybody Knows

11. Sweet Lil' Gal

12. Why Do They Leave?

13. English Girls Approximately

14. Chains of Love

15. 16 Days

16. New York New York

17. Let it ride

18. Lucky Now

19. Jacksonville Skyline

20. Come Pick Me Up

encore

21. Mother (Danzig cover)