11/23/02 Ryan Adams Reported Set List: Previous
Apollo Sweet Lil' Gal (23rd/1st) Next
Manchester, UK Oh My Sweet Carolina
Tomorrow
Prison Letter (a/k/a Oh, Charles)
To Be Young (Is To Be Sad, Is To Be High)
Damn, Sam (I Love A Woman That Rains)
SYLVIA PLATH
Call Me On Your Way Back Home
Bartering Lines
My Winding Wheel
La Cienega Just Smiled
Like A Virgin (partial)
Last Nite (partial)
Dear Chicago
You Will Always Be The Same
Sweetest Decline (on piano)
Brown Sugar

Encore:

When The Stars Go Blue
The Rescue Blues
Firecracker
  1. Jesse Malin opened.
  2. Ryan Adams (vocals/guitar/piano/harmonica); Ruth Gottlieb (violin/vocals); Sarah Wilson (cello/piano).
Fan Review:
Well before Ryan appeared support Jesse Malin turned
in a much stronger performance than at the London
show, maybe it was because it was more of a
rock'n'roll venue, it was definitely a more
rock'n'roll audience, but Jesse went for it and got a
good response from the lively crowd.  He did a signing
after his set so I stood in line to talk to him, soon
as I got to him he spotted my Paul Westerberg T shirt,
said he loved the Replacements and his song 'Riding On
The Subway' was inspired by the Replacements classic
'Skyway', so he signed a flyer for me, when I looked
at what he wrote it was 'Here Comes a Regular - Jesse
Malin', I loved that!

Jesse had done such a good job of warming up the
audience that when the Ramones Blitzkreig Bop came on
as Ryan's introduction everyone joined in with the
chants of 'Hey Ho Lets Go'!  Now that didn't happen at
the Royal Festival Hall!  Ryan started with Sweet Lil
Gal, and was clearly afflicted with sniffles of some
sort, tissues were flung from the crowd to help him
out, needless to say this didn't stop the endless flow
of the Marlboros.  Both in this show and the London
show, Ryan has been mumbling between songs 'Why am I
doing this?  What the fuck am I doing here?' etc. 
and at one point he said 'If this tour has told me
something, it's that I should stop', all this
negativity however doesn't translate into the
performances of the songs though which are clearer,
more powerful and  focused than ever.  The strings
were a little better mixed in with Ryan's guitar here,
not as dominant as they were in London, and few little
effects like echoes on certain vocals have crept in
(the word 'train' in the line 'waiting on a train' in
'Winding Wheel' for example). Tonight we were treated
to the unreleased 'Prison Letter', although Ryan
introduced the song by saying he didn't like it, it
was a stunning rendition.  The other standout was Beth
Orton's  'Sweetest Decline' done solo on piano, with
the repeated line 'Like catching snow on your tongue'
which Ryan recently declared was a line he wished he'd
written.

This was the most talkative Ive seen Ryan in a while,
we were treated to whole diatribes on Star Wars, how
it would be if directed by Quentin Tarantino, and
starred Joe Pesci and Tony Soprano, (for the encore
Ryan actually came out with a toy light sabre!).  He
also joked that would be on for the lunch time session
at The Comedy Hut, flipping burgers between sets. He
then talked us through some of the nightmare venues he
had been booked into on this tour, including a church
and a city hall.  During these long rambles there was
one heckler who shouted 'Get On With It!' a little too
much and annoyed both the audience around him and
Ryan, who just showed a little edge in his voice when
after about the fifth heckle Ryan said 'Wow that guy
has a really loud voice', we didn't hear the heckler
again.  This was another show where there was no
'Summer of 69' or equivalent shout, (sorry Mr. Fulks).
 'Like a Virgin' and 'Last Nite' were played for
laughs rather than seriously, partly to confirm what
extra guitarist Chief had said that they were in fact
the same song!   Below is the set list, no 'Come Pick
Me Up' or surprisingly, considering it was in
Manchester, 'Wonderwall'.  

Patrick

Part of www.AnsweringBell.com