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.
Just in case you missed it just before leaving London the master for my debut album I Think We Both Know was delivered into my eager little hands. Every time I’ve listened to it its taken me straight back to Rush House. Memories of all night vocal sessions, Willie working the Wurlitzer (and the lamp), Dan drumming his heart out in the stair well, Matt trying to sneak some interesting notes under the radar, Jesse taking great photos (and retrieving the ball from the prickle patch), sneaking in some FIFA06 between takes, wondering if the cops would bust in any second and tell us to shut up . . . after all I did just tell the landlady we were using the place to take some quiet time out to write music – not setup a band and make a record! Great memories. I’ll start sneaking some videos and pictures and stuff up from the sessions soon too.
I Think We Both Know will be released by weeksweeksweeks on April 13, 2009. Available from this site and all the normal digital music sites (iTunes, eMusic, Amazon, Napster etc). Yeehah!
January 25, 2009 at 11:54 am · Filed under General
Getting back to Oz I’ve been keen to see whats cooking on the music front. I really haven’t done as much as I would have liked but I have had the chance to catch Mike play in Newcastle, have a coffee with him, and totally fall in love with his album The Harrowing Account of John William Tate. The songs are beautifully crafted and delivered with heart. Its all I’ve been listening too. Buy the CD or find it here on iTunes.
January 25, 2009 at 10:52 am · Filed under General
There’s been lots of movement since my last post. As most of you know we’d been in London for seven years and we were feeling the itch to get home. While we were at it we figured we’d hit the USA on the way – see the sights and delights and make a bit of an adventure of it all. The short version was that we had a crazy time. New York City was mind numbingly out of control and exhausting. We got our butts scammed on an apartment and had one hell of a stressful first night sorting things out but it all came good. After a few nights bunking down in a prison style YHA we ended up in a fantastic apartment right near Central Park. Highlights for me would have to be Dylan’s Candy Bar, Central Park, freezing our parts off, the whole Christmas vibe around the lighting of the tree at the Rockefeller, watching the girls skate (of course I couldn’t take part . . . I had to take photos. . . .). Crazy times. Kinda stressful. Kinda fun. What a place. Read the rest of this entry »
