https://guitarnoise.forum/reviews-of-instructional-material-cds-and-shows/ryan-adams-the-cardinals-the-paramount-seattle-wa/ Guitar Noise Discussion Board en-US Fri, 05 Jun 2026 09:42:57 +0000 wpForo 60 https://guitarnoise.forum/reviews-of-instructional-material-cds-and-shows/ryan-adams-the-cardinals-the-paramount-seattle-wa/#post-29994 Sun, 27 Jan 2008 20:52:52 +0000
A friend of mine (a real Ryan fanatic) and I had said if we had a chance see Ryan we'd do it. I got the tickets. He, his wife and I took the plunge… and as you will hear, we were rewarded with a great show by ‘good' Ryan and the Cardinals. :)

The Paramount Theater is a moderate sized venue that seats about 2000. I think the show was sold out (not many empty seats). The stage had a sparse, southwestern theme with cutout cacti, pastel-like colors and sunrise/sunset kind of twilight-lighting sense to it. It made it hard to see the band members unless they stood into some of the spots, which was a bit of a bummer, but not a real problem. In any case, it set a mood. The show was set to start at 8:00 with no opening act. The show actually started at 8:00! Ryan and the Cardinals hit the stage and started in on a few songs from Easy Tiger. They are excellent musicians and really nailed the initial songs. My friend and I were cautiously optimistic. Hmmm… Maybe good Ryan had showed up.

The show was broken into two sets. The first was about an hour and 45 minutes long. After the initial few songs, Ryan and the band initially interacted a bit with the sell-out audience and continued with more songs from Easy Tiger (Goodnight Rose, Two, Everybody Knows) and his other solo and Cardinals CDs. He played a few of my favorites, such as … Beautiful Sorta, Cold Roses and Nightbirds. As the set got going, Ryan stopped, at various times, to talk with the audience about a number of topics: his cold and allergies; how he had mentioned to his guitar tech that ‘sometimes don't you get a hankering for a Squirt' (and his guitar tech brought him a Squirt); how a concert should be interactive and an experience for everyone (like hanging out with your favorite band for an evening). Wow. Who is this guy? I'd heard worrisome things, but he's giving me an entire experience. Excellent! He also chatted a bit about how much fun he's having with the Cardinals and he can't wait for us to hear the next Cardinals album.

Apparently Ryan was feeling under the weather (which he mentioned it a couple of times) and apologized for his voice (he had an interesting dialog in which he said that to get through his poor voice, he was channeling Dean Martin on a date with Julie London at Sardis :shock: ). Frankly, I could not tell he was not feeling well and neither could my friend. We found him in fine voice, spirit and he was quite engaged with the music, the band and the audience. He shows great emotion when singing, as though he is pulling his voice and emotion from deep within himself. As mentioned before, the Cardinals are really tight, with special nods to the rhythm/lead guitarist (Neal Casal) and pedal steel (Jon Graboff?) players. The drummer and bass player were no slouches either, it's just as someone learning guitar, the 'guitar' guys stood out for me. There's a lot of interplay between the band and changing up the songs (which I like!). BTW, Ryan is no slouch on guitar. He's a great rhythm and lead player in his own right.

As the first set came to a close, he told us to pretend that we had clapped for five minutes for the encore and to go have a drink or have a … well… go use the bathroom. The band took a 5 – 10 minute break, which I used to get a limited edition poster (178/200) that was made for the Seattle show. It is a painting of Jimi Hendrix burning his Strat and coming up from the flames is the Cardinals rose symbol (I was going to post a pic, but one of my kids has borrowed my camera). During the second set, we had, what I can only call, an odd interaction with Ryan in which he filmed a little movie that he says he's putting on YouTube. Basically, he had the house lights come up, we were to be zombies, we had to say “Cardinal Powers Activated” and make our heads look like eyes by putting our arms up around our heads. If you don't believe me, someone posted it: http://youtube.com/watch?v=rIHjYZSdvM0. Anyway, he was really into it.

The show ended at 10:50 and I walked out feeling as though I had gotten more than my money's worth (my friend and his wife felt the same way). The band is extremely tight. Ryan is in good spirits (I really wish the best for him on his journey). I got to see a great performance with some of my favorite Ryan songs. Some real treats for me included: A stellar, stripped down version of Wonderwall (yeah… by Oasis) which was mostly just Ryan, a bit of electric guitar and a touch of the Cardinals in the background (BTW, you can find his version of Wonderwall on his CD: Love is Hell, Part 1); 2) A piano-driven and somewhat slowed down version of Halloweenhead from Easy Tiger.

All-in-all, a great night!]]> Reviews of Instructional Material, CDs and Shows Anonymous 22752 https://guitarnoise.forum/reviews-of-instructional-material-cds-and-shows/ryan-adams-the-cardinals-the-paramount-seattle-wa/#post-29994