A Complete Explanation Of Everything
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Trying to keep the overhead low...
Sunday 22nd October: Ryan Adams & The Cardinals with Neal Casal, Olympia - Dublin
Meant to get to this earlier but a wrong headed review of this gig in today's Irish Times has provided the motivation to kickstart this short piece into gear.
First off, let's start by admitting that the presence of Neal Casal was a welcome and unanticipated bonus. No, I hadn't done my homework and I didn't know that The Cardinals had been reinforced by the addition of Neal nor that he would be performing warm-up duties. I'm familiar with Casal from the days long past when a little gem of a song, "Today, I'm gonna bleed", was included on an Uncut magazine promotional CD. One of my first dabblings in alt-country really, hell, it was so good I taped it and returned it to my friend but years later I was still humming it when I picked up the excellent CD, "Leaving Traces", a kind of anthology of Casal's work.
So. Bonus, like I said.
Even better, 3/4 songs into Neal's acoustic warm-up, only one song I was familiar with, Monsieur Adams saunters out and gets on the drums to give Neal a hand. Now, this is rockin', this is what music and shows should be all about. No egos, just kicking it back and playing for the heck of it. What main act comes on at 8:15 to play drums for his support? But oh no, The Irish Times review guy fails to mention this o'course, instead making the usual thinly veiled references to Adams bring "difficult" and whatever.
Casal made a point during the opening set that you know it's alright if an artist gives out to his/her audience and I entirely agree, audiences need to be challenged these days. It's a feature of gigs these days, like at a Gemma Hayes thing recently, that people tend to forget the reason they come out to shows, we want to hear these artists playing!!! So, when it's a quiet little tune a bit of respect, eh? A bit of hush? Is it too much to ask? Or have the Celtic Tiger cubs grown so vacuous that their own self importance now grandstands moments of musical sophistication? I think mostly they're pepped up on goofballs.
But back to our Irish Times friend, he talks about how Ryan is admittedly ill at ease with audiences, well, that might be true in a certain light but I think when Ryan was quoted in pitchfork magazine saying something along the lines of if I piss people off so what, the only ones who really get pissed off are the third of the audience I couldn't stand in the first place, he's not really outta line in my opinion.
Kurt Cobain had a hard time dealing, reportedly, with guys from the military writing him letters about how much they thought "Smells Like Teen Spirit" rocked and it's similar for any artist I believe, at least, artists that are honest.
And that's what Adams is, refreshingly honest. He's upfront that he ain't there to please the kids, he's there to give them a musical experience, like all gigs should be. The set list is not the same as the night before, and there will be new versions of old songs, it helps keep it interesting for the artist! And imagine an artist wanting to keep a connection with his music by trying different things out? Why it's absolutely outrageous and sinful and should be banned immediately.
The Irish Times guy took issue with Ryan's disdain for encores. I liked it. Bold as brass, Adams says listen, I think encores are stupid and you have this law here where I can't smoke on stage, so I've got my watch alarmed and I'm going to be back in three minutes so you guys run to the loo, grab a beer and be back here in three and we're going to play till curfew. A few disappointed "awwwws" from the audience, quick as a flash, he's back: "No, it'll be cool, two hours is great..."
And he's right! I can think of many performers down through the years who have been poor value for their audience, who've made them suffer pointlessly through double encores after cutting the main set ridiculously short. I can go for less of that stage managed bullshit.
Tonight was music as should it be.
And sure Ryan's sound is looser, loose as a goose. But that's how we like it.
Maybe that's a problem, he's a little too country for the mainstream.
"Farewell to the city and the love of my life,
Least we left before we had to go..."
Meant to get to this earlier but a wrong headed review of this gig in today's Irish Times has provided the motivation to kickstart this short piece into gear.
First off, let's start by admitting that the presence of Neal Casal was a welcome and unanticipated bonus. No, I hadn't done my homework and I didn't know that The Cardinals had been reinforced by the addition of Neal nor that he would be performing warm-up duties. I'm familiar with Casal from the days long past when a little gem of a song, "Today, I'm gonna bleed", was included on an Uncut magazine promotional CD. One of my first dabblings in alt-country really, hell, it was so good I taped it and returned it to my friend but years later I was still humming it when I picked up the excellent CD, "Leaving Traces", a kind of anthology of Casal's work.
So. Bonus, like I said.
Even better, 3/4 songs into Neal's acoustic warm-up, only one song I was familiar with, Monsieur Adams saunters out and gets on the drums to give Neal a hand. Now, this is rockin', this is what music and shows should be all about. No egos, just kicking it back and playing for the heck of it. What main act comes on at 8:15 to play drums for his support? But oh no, The Irish Times review guy fails to mention this o'course, instead making the usual thinly veiled references to Adams bring "difficult" and whatever.
Casal made a point during the opening set that you know it's alright if an artist gives out to his/her audience and I entirely agree, audiences need to be challenged these days. It's a feature of gigs these days, like at a Gemma Hayes thing recently, that people tend to forget the reason they come out to shows, we want to hear these artists playing!!! So, when it's a quiet little tune a bit of respect, eh? A bit of hush? Is it too much to ask? Or have the Celtic Tiger cubs grown so vacuous that their own self importance now grandstands moments of musical sophistication? I think mostly they're pepped up on goofballs.
But back to our Irish Times friend, he talks about how Ryan is admittedly ill at ease with audiences, well, that might be true in a certain light but I think when Ryan was quoted in pitchfork magazine saying something along the lines of if I piss people off so what, the only ones who really get pissed off are the third of the audience I couldn't stand in the first place, he's not really outta line in my opinion.
Kurt Cobain had a hard time dealing, reportedly, with guys from the military writing him letters about how much they thought "Smells Like Teen Spirit" rocked and it's similar for any artist I believe, at least, artists that are honest.
And that's what Adams is, refreshingly honest. He's upfront that he ain't there to please the kids, he's there to give them a musical experience, like all gigs should be. The set list is not the same as the night before, and there will be new versions of old songs, it helps keep it interesting for the artist! And imagine an artist wanting to keep a connection with his music by trying different things out? Why it's absolutely outrageous and sinful and should be banned immediately.
The Irish Times guy took issue with Ryan's disdain for encores. I liked it. Bold as brass, Adams says listen, I think encores are stupid and you have this law here where I can't smoke on stage, so I've got my watch alarmed and I'm going to be back in three minutes so you guys run to the loo, grab a beer and be back here in three and we're going to play till curfew. A few disappointed "awwwws" from the audience, quick as a flash, he's back: "No, it'll be cool, two hours is great..."
And he's right! I can think of many performers down through the years who have been poor value for their audience, who've made them suffer pointlessly through double encores after cutting the main set ridiculously short. I can go for less of that stage managed bullshit.
Tonight was music as should it be.
And sure Ryan's sound is looser, loose as a goose. But that's how we like it.
Maybe that's a problem, he's a little too country for the mainstream.
"Farewell to the city and the love of my life,
Least we left before we had to go..."
posted by Christophe at 24.10.06
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