Last night Ryan Adams & the Cardinals were in town, playing at Madison’s Overture Center in support of their upcoming release Cardinology. Because of the venue, I expected good acoustic sound and I wasn’t disappointed. This could have been one of the best sounding shows I ever attended. Musically the band seemed to give it their all, playing for almost three hours (with a 15 minute break between sets).
The concert started off with two new songs, which went over fairly well with the audience. Next was a solid “Everybody Knows,” a pained and somber cover of Oasis’ “Wonderwall”, followed by another new song. By this point Ryan and the band seemed to be functioning like a well-oiled machine, and came to the first big highlight when they played “Goodnight Rose.” It included a wonderful instrumental jam featuring harmonizing guitars, an almost whispering chant of “goodnight, goodnight” toward the end, which segued into the signature musical riff of the song at full volume to finish.
After a few more songs (including another new one), Ryan finally addressed the fools in the crowd who were shouting out their requests. What brought him over the edge was someone who wouldn’t stop shouting a song from his former band, Whiskeytown. “No” he finally responded, “not going to happen.”
He then mentioned something about they were here to play for the people who came with an open mind, which got a nice round of applause. In my opinion, the only thing more annoying at a show than people who shout out unsolicited requests are those who feel the need to scream “wooooooo!” in the middle of a quiet part of the concert.
A few songs later, the band played “Desire,” which was very much an ensemble piece, highlighting the performance of the entire band. As was printed on the tickets, this was The Cardinals (not Ryan Adams and the Cardinals). After a few more songs Ryan mentioned how well he thought the show was going, and the band took a well deserved break.
The tightness of the first set continued after the intermission as the band started off with another new song. While that new one was a straight-up rock ‘n’ roll number, most of last night’s tunes were more laid back, fitting comfortably into the alt-country style the band is known for. Highlights of the second set included “Magnolia Mountain” and “Easy Plateau,” both of which featured beautiful extended jams (which at times were reminiscent of the Grateful Dead). I really got the feeling the band was having a great time playing together, which again speaks to how well they perform as a group. And they kept it up, song after song.
As the band paused between songs around 11:25pm or so, someone from off stage walked on to talk to Ryan Adams. After they spoke, Ryan told us they completely lost track of time, and went over their curfew. Then he joked about how much it just cost for him to tell us that. Next the band huddled up for a minute and decided to finish the show with a stellar version of one of my favorite songs, “When The Stars Go Blue.”
After 31 songs, and almost three hours, the show was over. Maybe it was the late hour, but I walked out of the Overture Center almost dazed by the concert. What a great show.
Setlist.fm has a setlist from this concert.
Update: November 15, 2008
A bootleg recording of this show is available on the Internet Archive.