Saturday, November 17, 2007

Ryan Adams and the Cardinal @ Hammersmith Appollo - 16/11/2007

After the amount of times I have missed Mr Adams on his recent visits to these shores, it was great to be able to catch him (and the Cardinals) at last. Being sat down in the Circle was not ideal, but hey, what can you do.

So, was it worth the wait? I'd have to say a resounding yes. I have been getting well into this years release, 'Easy Tiger', of late so was in the mood. Adams is not exactly the most chatty person on stage - and my girlfriend did complain that he didn't do enough to 'work' his audience - but that's fine when the music is so good you can let it speak for itself. Another ove which put the focus on the music was the very low lighting chosen by the band - who were performing almost in darkness - in the shadows, one might say for the majority of the set. Again, this didn't bother me, and indeed it made for some quite cool lighting effects late on.

So, what did they play? Well a 2 hour set with a 30 min encore:

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
Why Do They Leave
Everybody Knows
Goodnight Hollywood Blvd.
Two
You Don't See Me Crying (Neal Casal)
Halloween Head
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

HIghlights? Actually quite a lot of them: Dear John, A Kiss Before I die, Two, Cold Roses, NIghtbirds, Rip off, Let it Ride, Stars go Blue ...

Great stuff. The band were tight, the harmonies great.

Downside? Usual wankers in the audience 'whooping' and shouting out bollocks, and of course all those people who always seem to end up near me that seem to come to gigs to have a chat, and obviously have to raise their voices to make themselves heard over those annoying people down on the stage.

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