Guigsy's Goods: Ryan Adams and The Cardinals, Sept. 19/07, Theatre St. Denis, Montreal

well, i only got 1 song from my mental list of tunes i wanted to hear (cold roses), but that didnt matter at all, this show was absolutely stellar, top to bottom. got in around 8:30, missed the first couple tunes, but still got a full 2 hours out of him.. was a little nervous when they left the stage at 9:27, but the 3 encores amounting to another hour or so more than made up for it. not only do i think they were just having a ton of fun up there, part of me thinks they burned through a lot of songs fairly quickly and just realized how early it still was each time they got backstage. mockingbird almost felt like it was in double time, and dear chicago also felt a little sped up.. i actually felt that way about a bunch of the tunes in general, though things like easy plateau, i see monsters, and magnolia mountain were jammed out. setlist looked like this:

1. Please Do Not Let Me Go
2. Peaceful Valley
3. Beautiful Sorta
4. Wildflowers
5. Off Broadway
6. Dear John
7. Goodnight Rose
8. Blue Hotel
9. Mockingbird
10.Magnolia Mountain
11.Shakedown on 9th Street
12.I See Monsters
encore I:
13.SYLVIA PLATH (solo piano)
14.Sweet Lil' Gal (solo piano)
15.Rescue Blues
16.Dear Chicago
17.Cold Roses
18.Games
encore II:
19.Nightbirds
20.Goodnight Hollywood Boulevard
encore III:
21.Easy Plateau

highlights:

first, the atmosphere. really dark and subdued, sometimes you could hardly see the dudes on stage... the big curtain behind them was lit up with tons of small lights that kinda looked like stars, and there was a massive disco ball.. totally enhanced the headiness, and the band definitely plays to that as they got pretty pyschadelic at times.

the cardinals in general totally knocked my socks off.. what a tight tight band!! and such a sweet smooth sound, those guys can certainly play and they're definitely well tuned to each other. the harmonies they were creating, as well, were out of this world. such depth, at times the harmonies were as pyschadelic as the playing. dear john blew me away, and the end of easy plateau, where they kept repeating "heeeeeaaaaaaaad.. heeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaad.. etc etc.." was great, too, not only because of how good it sounded but for its borderline comedic effect for how long it went on for. ryan, on his own, has some of the most incredible vocals... so clean, so crisp and straight from the heart. soul-baring. i was really amazed at how great he sounded, considering he had the flu/fever this week - you'd never guess he even had it in the past year!

the banter was pretty good, too, some good self deprecating humour (ryan "captain reasonable" adams).. and the summoning of the "god's of fret action" before starting up games with a big "oh, fuckin right!" - fuckin right, indeed!

as for the tunage, well, damn, whats to say after looking at that setlist.. so good.. a little surprised that we only got 2 songs from the new album, but the biggest surprise was probably the Sylvia Plath! where did that come from?!?! i loved all the piano tunes.. sylvia, sweet lil gal, rescue blues, nightbirds... sweet lil gal had me tearing up a little.. ok, maybe a little more than a little... made me miss my dog - i had found out a couple hours before the show that our family dog had passed away that afternoon, and that was one of the tunes where she came wandering through my mind. magnolia mountain was a little "birdsong-esque" in the middle, the closing easy plateau jam was awesome, and the chords coming out of the jam in the middle of cold roses, before they sang the last part, it sounded like ryan had cranked it up to 11 - i just leaned back and loved it!

all in all, i was really impressed with the show - the band was stellar, ryan's vocals were awesome, they all seemed to be in a great mood, and it didnt look like ryan was ever gonna pull the plug on this one. hell, when they came back for the 3rd encore, the lights were on, the music was on, and half the people were leaving. the guy sitting behind me was pretty funny, though - everytime someone yelled something out, he got a little nervous... "ooohhh shit.. oh shit!", to big nervous breaths and sighs.. hilarious. ryan musta been in a pretty good mood, though, some of my friends ended up meeting him and the band when they were having their post-show meal and they got him to pose for a picture with them.. i totally regret not going down the street with them. next time...

steph w/ r.adams and the cardinals

negman, kat, and crystal w/ a golden god.

none of these pictures are mine. i stole them from my friends. :)

the rest of the day in montreal was pretty awesome, too.. after checking out a couple record shops we wandered into this park o' crazies, where we were entertained by the family tree flag guy, the birdman, a group of scavenger hunters, a dude riding around in circles on his bike with headphones on *singing* nonsensicly very loudly, mr. manboobs across the way, and 2 drunk girls with 5 teeth between them who needed their beers opened, then proceeded to tiptoe around the park hiding from the cops. fucking awesome. also got to hang out with the carpenter for a few hours before the show, and that was absolutely tops - been far too long since i'd seen the fish.