The Empire Strikes Back*

It's taken me a while to come around to Ryan Adams. I've been aware of him for ages, and viewed his crowning as the new Messiah of R'n'R with some suspicion. Last year he released three albums, including a double, which just seemed like grandstanding to me. However after recently hearing the last of those; '29' I thought I might have been being overly critical. So Hywel and I went along to see him at the Shepherds Bush Empire for our first London gig since March. Sadly we were up in the gods, I didn't realise we were on level freakin' three! Hywel was a good sport about it, and I was quite relieved to be able to sit down occasionally after too much bouncing around last night. The support act was Neal Casal, who was pleasant enough, and who I realised later had Ryan Adams playing drums for him, and was himself one of The Cardinals, Adams' backing band.

Everything was running late, and so the band didn't some on 'til about 9.30. The sound was surprisingly good from way on high, even though we saw more of the tops of the band's heads than anything else. It didn't take long to realise what all the hype was about, I had tried to listen to as much of his stuff, that I'd managed to download, as I could over the last week or so, concentrating on the songs featured on recent set lists. All of the songs were consistently good, despite the sheer volume there were no real weak songs, but similarly there were no true standouts, maybe that's what seems to be missing according to my canonical assessment criteria. Played live though every song was a classic, he always seems to range over his entire output, never playing the same set twice, and throwing in loads of new songs and cover versions, so despite my best efforts I only knew about half the songs. 'Magnolia Mountain' was one song that I'd listened to a lot and felt it could really open out live, and it was magnificent. The twin guitars of Adams And Casal reminded Hywel of vintage Wishbone Ash, but even the arch cynic Mr. Thomas had to admit there was a concentrated intensity that was impossible to resist. We could see the ground floor audience standing in rapt delirium, there was no dancing or drunken shenanigans, and the silence between songs was spooky. Ryan is a notoriously sensitive soul though and despite this obvious reverence, following one of his few between song chats (something about drinking tomato juice to battle a chest infection) somebody said something to piss him off, and after an abusive tirade aimed at the heckler he lead the band into one final barricade bursting number, and stormed off the stage - no encore.

This was the second show at Shepherds Bush, and if I'd been the previous night, I would have been straight back again, and paid whatever the touts were asking without blinking. Sometimes I need to get back in touch with what I love about groups playing electric guitars, and there's something elemental about Adam's performance that will re-kindle the flame for a while. He taps into something that makes him a definite must see anytime he's anywhere nearby.



* Adam's is alleged to have recorded an album called 'Star Wars' which was supposed to be released this year, one of the tracks he's been playing live recently is called 'Han Solo's Medicine Cabinet'.