MULTIMEDIA

Ryan Adams

Write your own review of the show here.

Ryan Adams and the Cardinals played Bicentennial rock against a postmodern storyline Wednesday at the Murat Theatre.

On the Bicentennial side, more than two hours of earthy, guitar-based tunes were comparable to what the Band and Grateful Dead churned out in 1976.

On the postmodern side, Adams offered plenty of 21st-century anecdotes from the stage.

Unaware of the local time zone (our burden now and apparently forever), Adams arrived late and began on a contrite note.

He joked about needing noted clock man Flavor Flav to set things straight -- a good-natured contrast to surly manners that have dogged Adams throughout his career.

The 32-year-old wore a Bad Brains T-shirt with hipster devotion, and he called on nonchalant irony to mention a Whitesnake T-shirt he purchased earlier in the day at Circle Centre mall.

Adams and his band mates also paused to marvel at the odd sensation of wearing in-ear audio monitors, technological gadgets that the Band and Dead didn't have in '76.

Regardless of what the musicians heard, the sold-out audience was treated to an excellent sonic experience.

The Cardinals worked in two primary ways: Adams and Neal Casal played electric guitars as a tight tandem, and steel guitar player Jon Graboff complemented the high, lonesome lilt of Adams' voice.

When one audience member bellowed that more people should be standing during the show, Adams heard that OK and he weighed in that people should listen however they like.

An energetic pairing of "A Kiss Before I Go" and "Shakedown on 9th Street" made it difficult to be a passive observer, but the concert's best moments were more relaxed.

Adams has said the Cardinals worked up more than 100 songs for this tour to promote current album "Easy Tiger." At the Murat, they dialed in perfection across a succinct string of five:

"Please Do Not Let Me Go" conveyed desperate isolation; Adams played piano and resembled John Lennon at his most self-aware during "The Rescue Blues"; the vocalist channeled the dramatic flair of Morrissey when crooning "The Sun Also Sets"; Casal and Adams swung from tender to towering on the guitar passages of "Goodnight Rose"; and "Bartering Lines" boasted the swirling dread of hard luck and poverty.

POSTSCRIPT:

After I filed my deadline report on this show, I could hear Ryan Adams & the Cardinals still going strong in the Murat Theatre.

When I returned to my seat (most in the audience had agreed to stand at this point), Adams continued his postmodern ways by offering an impromptu song about Ross and Rachel from 1990s sitcom "Friends."

The show eventually came to a close with a cozy cover of Oasis' "Wonderwall" and a blistering rendition of "I See Monsters."

The band called it a night at 12:20 a.m.

Subtracting an intermission and encore breaks, Adams and Co. played a three-hour concert Wednesday. That effort warrants a comparison to another musician who rode high in 1976: Bruce Springsteen.