Ryan Adams @ TPAC Download

I have been on a big Ryan Adams kick lately, and since he is slowly releasing tour dates I thought it would be a good time to post one of his concert. I had also planned to celebrate the one year birthday of this blog by posting 4 concerts that I reviewed. But I got sick and didn't post for a while. So figured that I would also use this as anexcuse to post the first of these concerts.
Ryan and the Cardinals performed last year at the Tribeca Perfoming Arts Center as part of the Downtown Rising concert series. It wasn't Ryan's best show but it was definetly a fun time.

Ryan Adams & the Cardinals
Tribeca Perfoming Arts Center
New York, NY
11/18/05

Set 1
Intro
Shakedown on 9th Street
What Sin
Nightbirds
Peaceful Valley
Beautiful Sorta
Chatter
A Kiss Before I Go
Please Don't Let Me Go
Hello Jane
Love Is Hell

Set 2
The End
Jacksonville Skyline
Hard Way to Fall
Now That You're Gone
Games
Rescue Blues
Magnolia Mountain
To Be Young
Monsters Intro
I See Monsters
Monsters Cont.

A 20 minute conversation with Ryan Adams

After being discharged from the hospital a few weeks ago I wondered home in the rain. On my way home I decided to stop by the Virgin Mega Store in Union Square to buy some new DVDs to watch while I rested for the remainder of the weekend. I was in a weird mood having seen a new side of American Health care, still being sick, and kind of bummed to have missed Pearl Jam and My Morning Jacket , but at the same time relieved to have avoided surgery. So I am wondering around the DVD section of Virgin Mega Store, when Katy points out a clean-shaven, denim clad Ryan Adams in the book section. I make my way over to Ryan and introduce myself. I mention I am a big fan and so on and so on. But instead of getting the regular ambiguous “thanks” I begin a 20 minutes conversation with Ryan. We spoke of the upcoming Cardinals tour. Dates have slowly begun to leak out so check your local venues. He mentioned that Neal Casal would be playing lead guitar for the tour. We also spoke of his upcoming album that he produced for Willie Nelson. Ryan seemed very excited about this album and he mentioned he was really excited to play with Willie at the Hollywood Bowl in September. I also talked about his playing with Phil Lesh and about how hard it is to fill in for Jerry. I also asked Ryan what had brought him to the Virgin Mega Store and he told me he was looking for the tablature books to Dylan’s “Blood on the Tracks” and for the Stones “Exile on Main Street”. Ryan said that he was hoping to go into the studio and cover both of these albums in their entirety. Just him and a guitar. I said I was impressed and he said it was because he was bored. After this our conversation moved towards the Internet and how his new website would have a drive in movie theater feel and feature live tracks from previous shows. After a while I thanked Ryan for taking the time to talk with and I said I should probably get going.

A few tour dates:
7/20 The Starland Ballroom, Sayerville, NJ
7/21 Sonar, Baltimore
7/22 The NorVa, Norfolk
7/27 House of Blues, Myrtle Beach
8/1 The Ryman, Nashville
8/2 The Pageant, St. Louis
8/4 Lollapolooza, Grant Park, Chicago, IL
9/10 Hollywood Bowl, Hollywood, CA(with Willie Nelson and Neko Case)

More O'Death!

Last night I decided to take it easy and go see O'Death at Pete's Candy Store. These guys are rapidly becoming one of my favorite bands playing around New York. Their mixture of bluegrass, noise, and rock and roll is almost everything I look for in music. There was a pretty large turn out last night for their weekly residency at Pete's. Although their set was much shorter than the one at Fireproof last Friday it was still a great hoot and hollerin' time.


If you haven't yet heard O'Death here are a few MP3s.
Down to Rest
Only Daughter

The Black Keys @ the MSG Theater

The Black Keys "warmed up the stage" for Radiohead last night at the Theater at Madison Square Garden. I have seen the Black Keys a lot over the past five years and never once been disappointed. But last night I felt that their set was just o.k. It might have been because the room felt very empty when they took the stage. The new songs that played all sounded pretty good to me. If you have never seen them perform before I do strongly suggest you show up to tonight's show early. They come on around 8pm.

Radiohead @ the MSG Theater

Radiohead absolutely rocked the Theater at Madison Square Garden tonight. I am still in shock at how great this concert was. Everything seemed to work just perfectly. The energy of both the band and the audience was off the charts. Overall it was just a an awesome evening.

Setlist for Madison Square Garden Theater June 13, 2006
You And Whose Army, The National Anthem, 2+2=5, 15 Step, Morning Bell, Arpeggi, Videotape, Kid A, Fake Plastic Trees, Climbing Up The Walls, Nude, Bangers 'N Mash, Idioteque, There There, Street Spirit, Bodysnatchers, Lucky.
Encore 1
I Might Be Wrong, Down Is The New Up, The Bends, Everything In Its Right Place [Thom sings,'Silent Night']
Encore 2
House of Cards, How to Disappear Completely




See a few more photos here

Renegade Craft Fair in Brooklyn this Weekend

The Renegade Craft Fair returns to Brooklyn's McCarren Park this weekend. This is a really cool event with a lot of great artist, printe makers, and crafters. If the weather is nice I strongly suggest that you check it out.

Sonic Youth: New Record and Live Download

Tomorrow Sonic Youth will release their new record "Rather Ripped". I have yet to hear the album but most reviews I have read have been pretty positive. Sonic Youth will be celebrating the release by playing CBGB's. I unfortunately don't have tickets to tomorrows show but do have tickets to the next best show in town, Radiohead. Who Driving the Bus is also celebrating the release of Sonic Youth's new record by offering a classic show for download. Sonic Youth has played CBGB's many times and even when they out grew the club they would still go back and perform secret shows. The following show was billed as "Drunken Butterfly" and is a great example of Sonic Youth's energy and ability to rock. Enjoy!

Drunken Butterfly aka Sonic Youth
Live at CBGB's
Friday, July 3rd, 1992
New York City, New York, USA

Teenage Riot
Burning Spear
Dirty Boots
Drunken Butterfly
Theresa's Sound-World
Youth Against Fascism
Swimsuit Issue
Orange Rolls, Angel's Spit
100%
Sugar Kane
Expressway To Yr Skull

Folk Fridays @ Fireproof

On Friday night I headed over to Fireproof to catch part of their on going Folk series. Fireproof have put together a great lineup of this set of concerts. They had Jason Molina of Magnolia Electric Co. perform, they have TK Webb this week, Vetiver will play there on July 19th and they have Bonnie "prince" Billy and Hazel Dickens wrapping it all up at Joe's Pub in August.

First up on Friday was 2% Majesty. 2% Majesty is boy girl duo that plays quiet traditional folk music. I wasn't really that impressed with their set but they seemed to be having a good time. It was also a nice relaxing way to start the evening.

Up next was Alex K Redfearn & the Eyesores. I never saw Alex k perform while I lived in Providence but supposedly he has been playing around Rhode Island for a number of years. Although I thought their performance was rather flat their noisy eastern European folk music did intrigue me.

The final band of the night was O'Death. Who have been getting a lot of blog attention lately, both Jerry Yeti and Heart on a Stick have written about them in the past few weeks. O'Death put on a great show. It was very fitting that a bottle of Jim Bean was passed throughout the crowd and onto stage through out the entire night. The crowd of about 30 people were hooting and hollering during the entire set. O'Death play every Wednesday during June at Pete's Candy Shop be sure to check them out, you won't be disappointed.