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Ryan Adams & Cardinals Acoustic


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Well... where to start with this... amazing night... Ryan was on top form, plenty of chatting with the audience and the band, improv songs about teeth rotting in diet coke and Neal going for a pee half way through the set. A couple of stories about Dylan and Neil Young "The godfather of grunge" and debates about old 80's metal acts.

 

The Borderline is a tiny venue and I was very close to the front, I'll see if the pictures off my phone came out ok as I stupidly left my digital camera at home.

 

Offended some people with the laid back attitude - they change the stage set up half way through... lots of mutters about "vibes" with heavy irony... Neal opened with a really lovely set - don't know much of his stuff but definitely going to check it out...

 

Dear John

Peaceful Valley

Tears Of Gold

Arkham Asylum (song based on old batman theme!)

What Sin

G'night Rose

Blue Grass jam about Neal Casal going for a pee (Improv)

A Kiss Before I Go->

Cold Roses->

The End->

Dear Chicago->

Please Do Not Let Me Go->

Blue Hotel

Your Teeth Dissolve in A Jar Of Diet Coke (Improv)

Let It Ride

La Cienaga Just Smiled

Hickory Wind

 

Fantastic to hear these songs stripped down with just two acoustic guitars and mandolin accompanyment... best gig I've been to since the last Ryan Adams show. The man is a genius - easy as :)

 

Some Youtube stuff from last night:

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Glad to hear you had a good night mate. That Neal Casal album is well worth checking out - I have it if you want? Let me know.

 

Did he set the piano up in the middle of the audience like the Bush hall gig?

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Cool pics. Im gonna take my Camera with me to the Corn Exchange next week.. ill try and get some video too. I'll do my best to upload that Casal album at some point today.

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It was Helen's first gig as well.... I'm going to have to do something special to top that for her :D

 

You'll have to get close to the front to take any good shots at the Corn Ex... hope it's a good one, he was awesome there last time.

 

If I cant get to the front where would you recomend standing for best view etc. I've never been there before and don't know what to expect...

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neal's solo stuff is great.

 

i'd give anything to be in europe right now, seeing some of these tiny shows that seem to keep popping up. was this one a regular show or a secret show? i know ryan's been hinting on his forum about a lot of secret shows in the near future.

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Ryan Adams, Bush Hall, London

By Kevin Harley

Published: 25 September 2006 The Independent

 

"Just bear with me," says Ryan Adams as he takes the stage tonight. And you think to yourself: that sounds familiar. It takes patience, being an Adams fan. The former boy wonder of alt-country caused much hoo-ha in the early Noughties, thanks to a great debut solo album of sublime Americana, Heartbreaker, and its vibrant, luminous follow-up, Gold. On top of famous friends and girlfriends, and oodles of press, he played great gigs to boot. But then he went AWOL, releasing a bloody-minded album of Eighties-styled rock, tumbling drunkenly off stages, and cancelling tours.

 

Happily, he seems to be back on track, albeit a meandering one. He's doing less interviews, the music on the three albums he made in 2005 has reverted to a rootsy sound, and he tours incessantly. The quality control on the 2005 releases is mixed, but he's focusing on the music rather than his wayward image.

 

He's certainly reconnected to his fanbase, who snapped up tickets for this "secret" gig at a rapid rate. They hang on every word he says - and he does a lot of wry yacking (winningly at first). They turn as one when he ploughs through the crowd to play a song at a piano in the middle of the audience. And, despite fansite-based rumours that he would play Heartbreaker, they stick with him during a solo set of largely piano-based new material.

You can see why, too, as songs such as the Broadway-ish "Don't Get Sentimental" and the pleading "Two" are a fine showcase for his broken-hearted balladeering. "Funny Face" hints at a potential new direction, mining another seam of Americana with Tin-Pan-Alley-ish vim. And when he digs into his back catalogue, much of it is starkly lovely, from Heartbreaker's "Sweet Lil' Gal", to the plaintive "Strawberry Wine" and "Elizabeth, You Were Born to Play That Part" from his best album of 2005, 29.

 

The lachrymose balladry does pall. "More sad-bastard songs," Adams quips. He's joking, but the self-satire isn't off the mark. When fellow members of his band, the Cardinals, join him, the chitchat gets equally wearing. "When you're ready!", someone shouts, as Adams and the guitarist Neal Casal sap any sense of momentum by debating the set-list among themselves.

 

The middling moments frustrate because the more focused flashes of Adams's talent do, finally, light up the joint. "A Kiss Before I Go" prompts a rousing singalong. A fluidly finger-picked "Cold Roses", aided by Jolie Holland, formerly of the Be Good Tanyas, on violin, sees Adams at his folk-country finest. But after all the faffing about, there's no time for an encore. Adams has still got it, but, boy, he can be exasperating.

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Got Gold for a fiver this morning. Only the second album of his I've heard :blush

 

 

Great album, whats the other one?

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Love Is Hell. That was the first one and put me off for a long time to be honest.

I can understand that if it was your first.

 

You need Heartbreaker. Run out and buy it now!!!

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There is a torrent of the Soundboard recording of this show here:

Ryan Adams Archive

 

This will keep me going until I see him tomorrow....

 

Do you have a username / password I could use to d/l it??

 

I can understand that if it was your first.

 

You need Heartbreaker. Run out and buy it now!!!

 

You definitely need Heartbreaker... what an album!

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