I was very privileged to get to the Ryan Adams gig in Newtown last night. I have to admit to being a bit of a half-hearted fan of the guy in the past. I appreciate his way with a song for sure but I find myself skipping through his albums. Maybe I just need to press ‘skip’ less and let it soak in a bit more. In any case I took a night out for him last night and I wasn’t disappointed. It really has to rank up there with the best gigs I’ve been to.
Rough clips are popping up on Youtube but they don’t really do the whole thing justice. Listen here at 0:30 for a very friendly punter asking his buddy “do you wanna get a water?”. Very kind. You’d think he was in the desert or something.
Ryan’s a phenomenal talent. Charisma to burn, great vocals, a really harsh (but funny) sarcastic edge, a beautifully tight but rootsy band, he seemed to be having fun too . . . I really loved the whole thing from the get go. The other thing I think really made it for me was that there was no sign of an acoustic guitar all night (as much as I love the things ). The fact he played electric all night just muscled the whole thing up. It all sounded bigger than I expected – like a proper classic rock band. Tight in some places but perfectly loose in others. I could have imagined them on a bill headlining Kings of Leon and The Raconteurs. Or equally between Lucinda Williams and someone else not as good as her. These Cardinals killed it . . . killed it I tells ya.
Confirmed fan here. Whiskeytown’s Strangers Almanac is one of my fav pop/rock albums.
Thanks for the review, sounds like a great gig!
..how about support by KRIS MORRIS… BAM UP THE ADAMS!!
fernando: thanks – i’m going to give that album a spin now!
dan (aka fried.ip.lover): he supported himself which was great . . . no messing around!