My favourite Ryan Adams album is the largely acoustic Love is Hell, thus I feel quite lucky that my first opportunity to see him live was on this solo acoustic tour. By the time I realised he was coming to Oxford, there were very few tickets left. I ended up in the nosebleeds, and it was one of those theatres with a very steep incline, so I feel very aquainted with the top of his head. Despite the less than ideal seating, it was an impressive performance. Two of my personal favourites, Desire and I See Monsters, were included in the set list, and the piano only version of New York, New York was gorgeous. His in-between song banter was entertaining, the best line being a description of Oxford as 'looking like the sort of place we should be defending from dragons'. Unfortunately, the ushers took the 'no cameras' policy very seriously, and I only managed to get one photo.
