Ryan Adams & The Cardinals – Cambridge Corn Exchange 16/11/08

17 November 2008, 14:58 | Written by Rich Hughes

(Live)

It was perhaps unsurprising that we had, on a sleepy Sunday in Cambridge, a quiet Ryan Adams & The Cardinals. Without a support act, the band took to the stage early and played for two hours, but with barely a word from Mr. Adams and co. throughout who stood hidden to the back left of the stage, a heavy fringe covering his face. A muffled intro before they kicked into an aggressive and charged version of ‘Cobwebs’, the sound not actually at its best as Adams’ lyrics appear muted through a wall of guitars. However, a couple of numbers in and they seem to have sorted it all out.

The thing with The Cardinals is that they’re a great live band. There’s no two ways around it, and certainly their recent support slots with Oasis seem to have beefed up the sound a bit, augmenting the ROCK side of their Country Rock sound. It’s nice to get a waltz through the back catalogue with new variations on old favourites. ‘Broadway’ gets a thumping intro and is barely recognisable to the sparse, delicate original whilst ‘Wonderwall’ also gets a steroid injection. It quickly becomes apparent that Adams has decided to rejuvenate his back catalogue in an attempt to fully embrace his new found happiness at being the boy in the band.

And yet, despite all these oddities – the silence from Neal Casal as well as Adams, the oddly aggressive reworking of the back catalogue – I still find I’m enjoying myself. The band are tight, their rolling taking centre stage with ‘Let It Ride’ and ‘Easy Plateau’ from the pinnacle of his career so far, Cold Roses. The only sound of indulgence appears during their Grateful Dead inspired elongated coda’s for some of these songs. Adams and Casal sparing guitar solos, which might come across a touch Eagles in places, but the crowd seemingly in awe enough to let this slip.

This was an oddly disconnected evening that flirted with greatness but, in the end, missing that one crucial level of involvement that would have sent the entire crowd home happy – some words of wisdom, or even an acknowledgment, from Mr. Adams.