KEY POINTS:
Who: Ryan Adams and the Cardinals
Where: Bruce Mason Centre
Reviewer: Russell Baillie
It began with a goodnight and ended with a start.
In between Ryan Adams and the Cardinals confounded the first of his two sold-out Auckland audiences seeing the American alt-country figurehead in New Zealand for the first time.
If Bob Dylan delivered a name-that-song quiz at the weekend, then the prolific Adams's set drawing mostly from the latter half of the nine albums he's he's officially released in the past five years was equally testing for those wanting the "old" _ as in 2001-02 - chestnuts from his early albums which won him his profile in the first place.
And if his setlist felt like a challenge to his faithful, the presentation was a risk to the eyesight - Adams' lightshow barely switched from deep dark blue to deep darker purple which was kind of restful and its low wattage undoubtedly earned itself a few carbon credits.
But if life in the metaphorical spotlight was what caused Adams his since-kicked booze and drugs problems of past years, surely that doesn't mean he has to do without an actual one.
So while it was nice seeing Adams in the intimate seated environs of the Bruce Mason Centre - due to the St James being out of action - but to actually see Adams would have required night vision goggles. Didn't help the between-song comedy much either. Sure didn't help the sight gags.
Phew. Otherwise, it was confoundingly great. Starting in dramatic fashion with Goodnight Rose, the first track off new album Easy Tiger, it was a night that proved just how good Adams, his songs and his backers are.
If the lack of illumination was to prove he is part of the band rather than its hood ornament, then that shone through in the arrangements too as Adams guitar doubled in spiralling leads with that of sideman Neal Casal which were while the band's vocal harmonies on the likes of the gospel-tinged Peaceful Valley were rich and wondrous.
In between the songs Adams proved an abstract motormouth goofball, running a fine line between amusing and infuriating and building an uneasy rapport with those out front.
But as he dug out another nugget from his deep songbook and the Cardinals would transform it into cosmic American music, a sort of tumbleweed psychedelia which burned bright and with power in the darkness for most of the two-plus hour performance.
Until, that is, having delivered the fragile Neil Young-like melody and cascading guitars of Easy Tiger track Off Broadway, Adams quickly said another goodnight and in a leave-them-wanting-more kind of way, that was it. A sharp finish to a truly edgy evening.
