My review from CMJ.com...
“Let’s play some more songs of the summer,” Ryan Adams joked as he continued his stripped down, raw, mostly-acoustic set with his band the Cardinals at Hiro Ballroom in New York City last night. The small gig was a mostly private party in celebration of his ninth studio album Easy Tiger (Lost Highway), although 100 tickets were released over the weekend for die-hard fans. Dressed in a suit and tie and wearing sunglasses all night, Adams stayed perched on his stool for the entire set, most likely due to a hand injury in May. Instead of strumming the guitar, he instead focused on lyrics from tunes back from Heartbreaker to the latest effort, giving fans (and a large part of the industry) something to write home about.
Ryan Adams is one of those artists that you go see live for both the music and the in-between banter. Notoriously fighting a battle with both drugs and alcohol for years, he’s now switched to Diet Coke and sarcasm in-between the 19 song set. Joking that his songs are “feel good summer hits” and repeating his now signature line “oh snap,” Adams seemed to be in good spirits upon the release of the well-received new album (so far). And perhaps the less partying, and more recording has done him justice – his voice was crisp and startling soaring through the venue last night, where at times the crowd was so quiet you could hear the popping of his Diet Coke top. Highlights included a unique performance of “I See Monsters,” an old favorite “Winding Wheel” and new song “Halloweenhead,” (although he refrained from the classic “guitar solo” yell found in the recording.)
Adams ended the set with Gold favorite “Goodnight Hollywood Boulevard” before coming back on stage for an encore of Alice In Chain’s “Down In A Hole.” And although you could only catch a glimpse of his eyes behind the dark shades, they appeared wide-eyed…most likely for finishing a set without any interruptions, fights, or a mistake to be found.
Video of Ryan performing "Halloweenhead" below....
0 Comments:
Post a Comment