Ryan Adams

The last time DiS saw Ryan Adams , He was playing the London Astoria aided only by a cellist and violinist. After playing a selection of covers and songs that he had written the day before, he got the huff with an inattentive crowd and wandered off. The time before that, at the same venue, he appeared as his own support act, played for three hours and covered ‘Rocket Man’ by Elton John. In short, the mercurial man is the tin of Christmas Roses; sweet, indulgent, occasionally sickly and likely to hang around a bit too long.

After the first four songs of tonights gig, it appears that the new Springsteen/Dylan/Not Bono is on a bit of a mardy one; ‘To Be Young’ from first album ‘Heartbreaker’ is destroyed with nary a concession to the fact that he has just hurricaned his way through one of his standout tunes, and ‘Firecracker’ and ‘Rescue Blues’ are dispatched with equal abandon. When he strikes his Sweetheart Revolution band into a slow, creeping, largely tuneless song that could either be new, adlibbed or just unreleased, it appears that it’s going to be one of those nights. Fortunately its not.

p? Whether our Ryan is in an incredibly belligerent mood, or he’s decided to play it straight and take over the world (doubtful), I don’t know, but he proceeds to spend the next 2 ½ hours making Brixton his. Starting with a blazing rendition of ‘Somehow, Someday’, careering through the best part of ‘Gold’ through to the last song; a Noel Gallagher graced cover of ‘What’s The Story Morning Glory’, Adams puts in a set of blistering pace, shimmering grace and quiet beauty.

The highlights of the set were a heartbreaking ‘Oh my Sweet Carolina’, a swooning ‘Heart Goes Blue’ and the encore newie, 'World War 24', premiered at his previous London gig, the disastrous (for Ryan) Warchild event.

One person leaving early in order to catch the last train (the gig finished at 11:45pm) was heard to moan, “I can’t believe I have to leave early! it’s like a leaving football match before the end and not knowing the result!” Don’t worry, it’s a 5-0 home win.

_“See you tomorrow!” the diminutive legend in the making cried; I’m off to mug someone for ticket money.