Ryan Adams and The Cardinals - Stellar in Columbia

Ryan Adams and The Cardinals

03.12.2009  Township Auditorium, Columbia, SC

Let me preface by saying, I jumped on the RA & the Cards bandwagon way too late. I had listened lightly to Jacksonville City Nights, Cold Roses and 29 lightly, but didn’t really “get it” until Easy Tiger. ”Everybody Knows” is probably the song that pulled me in by my feet. I was paying zero attention during the Whiskeytown years. I started listening to shows on a regular basis on Live Music Archive about a year ago. Ryan’s reputation over the years has been less than admirable due to his little mid-show tantrums, and this is probably the main reason why I would never travel to see one of his shows…you never knew which RA you were gonna get. I have completely wiped that slate clean simply because of his taping policy. Soundboard recordings are abundant and easily accessible. Enough blabbering, on to the review.

Let me start off by saying this was a very unique show for me. I have been seeing shows by a plethora of bands for 20 years, and this was one of three shows I have seen completely sober (no nothing). The first was my first (Madonna/Beastie Boys 5/30/85 at the Mothership) and some random Dead show in ‘91. So my focus was sharp…I had a pre-game of diet cokes and red bull with the gang pre-game at a nearby bar. As it got closer to showtime, the whole crew of about 14 deep saddled up for the 5 block move to The Township. For those of you that aren’t familiar with Township Auditorium, it’s a 75 year old theater that hosts a ton of different types of acts from music, to plays and comedy shows. It seats around 3,200 people and I would venture to say there isn’t a bad seat in the house. Ryan would announce later how jacked the Cardinals were to play there. It was their largest room of the tour and a sell out. I always look forward to seeing shows there. The sound is great, and that place can get loud, as proven by WSP. Outside by the fountain, I just watched people. I never realized how cross-genre his music is. Within a span of 10 minutes, I talked to a bunch of my “head” friends, a couple of “emo tats and piercings” I knew from the restaurant business and art shows, one of the top real estate guys in town, and Columbia’s head Public Defender and his attorney wife. I was expecting to be in the minority, surrounded by black clad, sad, pierced people. I was very, very wrong.

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you know two things about this RA tour. 1. This is the last tour. Ryan has decided to go into “retirement” and write books. and 2. Ryan married Mandy Moore in Savannah two days before this show. We talked do to friends outside while we were waiting that had been to the Charleston show the previous night and they weren’t too enthusiastic. It seems the wedding night might have taken a little toll (purely speculation) on Ryan and led to a short uninspired show. Basically the setlists have been pretty similar this tour. The truth would be in the jam. I really didn’t know what to expect, but I expected a lot. My theory is this drugs and alcohol equal great RA writing, sex and sobriety equal great RA playing. The lights blinked three times in theater fashion to let us know we had about five minutes to get to our seats, and then the lights went down, letting onto a basically dark stage. As the Cards took the stage, two neon blue roses burned lightly in the background, and the symbol from Adams’ latest album, Cardinology, loomed largely behind the drums. The stage would very rarely be lit anymore than this the whole night. Just a blue glow, which would sent a warm feeling around the room all night. No on stage theatrics to distract us, just a focus on great music.

The band took the stage rather quietly and then launched into my first pick of the evening, Beautiful Sorta. Don’t be that impressed, this has been the go-to opener this tour and gets the crowd in quick. I was pulling for six songs all night (I see Monsters, Beautiful Sorta, Easy Plateau, Come Pick Me Up for my boy, Randy, one of the largest incognito RA fans I know, Let It Ride, and Everybody Knows).The Cardinals would gracefully flow through songs from most of the albums, not becoming fixed on their freshest effort, Cardinology. The most surprising tune to me all night was Wonderwall. I remember my friend Brooke turning to me and saying “better than the original” and I had to agree. Adams’ voice was sweet and crisp and his falsettos in that song gave me chills. Same with Stars Go Blue. Goodnight rose has been the big jam song of the tour and this one didn’t disappoint. The jam lilted into a Grateful Dead-esque feel. The dueling leads stacked on each other over and over for about 15-20 minutes, backed by Jon Graboff’s georgeous pedal steel riffs and color, and then quietly smoldered out. Jon really gives the band an alt country feel, which is my genre of choice right now. After this the band did a little birthday song for Chris Feinstein, the bass player. The band joked with us all night. There was tons of banter from everybody in the band. Ryan babbles a lot like he writes his books, in poetic streams of consciousness. In the case on this night, it was about the suit shoulder pads in the ’80s Cameo videos, and other randominities. The band was jovial and just did not want to leave the stage. I was a little worried about how the crowd would react to the Neal Casal songs, but they took it all in stride.

The Monsters>Let It Ride was unquestionably the highlight of the show for me. The place absolutely fell apart during the mini Let It Ride jams. This has certainly become a crowd favorite over the years. Magick was the perfect 3 minute rocker to finish off the set. We still felt pretty good that we’d get a Sweet Carolina. Every crowd does a little applause overcompensation when their geography is mentioned in a lyric at a live show. This would be no different when Ryan serenaded us with “Oh my sweet carolina, what compels me to go?, oh my sweet disposition, may you one day carry me home.” The crowd went nuts. Then bang, into a sweet sullen Easy Plateau. I found myself looking for somebody to hold.

For those of you that are going to the tour closer in Atlanta at The Fox, I’m a little jealous. I may just have to scare up a ticket.

Setlist (for the statisticians)

Beautiful Sorta
Born Into a Light
Cold Roses
Come Pick Me Up
Everybody Knows
Wonderwall
Freeway to the Canyon
**weird banter about a cameo video
Fix it
When the Stars go Blue
Grand Island
Shakedown on 9th Street
A Kiss before I go
Goodnight Rose
**band intro and a birthday song for Chris
Monsters
Let it Ride
Lost Satelite?
Two
Rescue Blues
Oh my God, whatever, etc
Evergreen
Magick

Encore
Oh my sweet Carolina
Easy Plateau

p.s. No Mandy Moore-Adams sighting at the Township.