Gig Review: Ryan Adams and the Cardinals, Tuesday 3rd February, The Opera House

8:35pm: "I'll give you ten bucks if you set off the fire alarm." I give the boyfriend a dirty look. He looks back pleadingly. "Twenty bucks?" Cue another dirty look. "Okay, fifty."

"You know, I didn't force you to come to this concert," I say, more amused than irritated. The excitement is mounting and, as lame as it would be to see a concert by myself, I'm looking forward to seeing Ryan Adams so much that if Jacob decided he just wanted to leave, I probably wouldn't notice.

"I didn't say I didn't want to be here," he clarifies. "I just said I'd give you fifty bucks if you set off the fire alarm." This is, of course, Jacob's way of saying "I'm bored", which in all honesty is probably fair enough. The concert hasn't started yet and we've been here since 7.30. Why oh why do I never remember that gigs never ever start on time? I should know this by know. I've done enough gigs myself. We have already seen a duo singing rather modern arrangements of Maori waiata which involved lots of "come on guys, you know this, sing along!" so I'm assuming this means that we'll get Ryan Adams and the Cardinals onstage at about 9pm. This means, of course, that there's 25 more minutes to keep the boyfriend entertained.

When I went to the ticket office a week after tickets to Ryan Adams and the Cardinals went onsale, I was informed that there were very few left, so I bought two on the spot, figuring I'd be able to find someone to go with me. Boyfriend seemed the easiest option. Rewind to three weeks ago when Jacob realised he'd never actually heard Ryan Adams before. I lent him the Cardinology album I'd gotten from my sister for Christmas. A few days later, we had the following conversation:

Jacob: "So, I listened to that CD you lent me."
Rose: "Oh yeah? What did you think."
Jacob: *pause for effect, then continues* "Well... it made me really angry."
Rose: *pause, as is unsure how to continue* "Okay..."
Jacob: "I tried to like it. I really did. It just... it made me really angry."
Rose: *silence - is still unsure how to continue, thoughts flying through her head like 'Ryan Adams is one of my favourite artists ever' ... 'how is "it made me really angry" any kind of response to listening to his album?' ... 'clearly, I have nothing in common with this man and should break up with him immediately'....*
Jacob: "I'm sorry! I really tried. Maybe they'll be better live?"

This lead to an ensuing conversation where I decided it was best not to take him to the concert if all it was going to do was make him "really angry". He seemed to agree. I was sure I could find someone else to go along. I had someone lined up who unfortunately couldn't make it at the last minute. So there I was on February 2nd, looking forward to the prospect of going to see a concert all by myself. Jacob called that evening and I commented that I was going alone. His reaction was surprising. "I'll just get work off and go with you." I took a moment to point out that going to a concert where you don't like the music was a bit like drilling a hole through your ear - pointless, messy and painful. He insisted, however, that he had listened to the CD again and really liked it. "But you gave the CD back to me." He then informed me he'd dropped the files to his MP3 player and had listened again and really liked it. "You're completely full of it." No, he informs me - in fact, he's deadly serious. This went on for some time until I realised he probably wasn't going to let this go. Oh well, I figured. I always like Jacob's company and he's a theatre student - if he truly, truly hated the music, he'd just have to act like he liked it, considering all the fuss he made about going to the concert with me. Consider it a test of his acting abilities.

8.55pm: I have not set off the fire alarm. Jacob has not given me fifty dollars. He has, however, bought a drink and is sitting there, looking slightly less agitated and slightly less bored. The lights in the room start to dim. I look at the time on my phone and realise my estimate of 9pm start was pretty much right on schedule. And here we go...

First impression: that's one hell of a weird stage. The band's symbol is right there in the middle of the stage behind the drum kit and attached to it is a giant gong. I wonder what they're going to do with the giant gong. Also, two giant blue roses hanging from either side of the stage. Fairly certain it's a reference to Cold Roses. It really does seem like Ryan Adams has a thing about roses. I think there was one in the middle of his webpage for awhile, if I recall correctly. Probably my musings about the stage, along with trying to figure out which one of the many skinny looking men on stage is actually Ryan Adams, is the reason why I can't remember for the life of me what the first song he played was. I enjoyed it - to be honest, I've yet to met a Ryan Adams song I can't stand to listen to - but I cannot remember what it was. From that song, they went straight into something I actually knew - "Two", which I've always very much enjoyed (I like the opening lyrics: 'if you take me back / back to your place / I'll try not to bother you, I promise') Knowing the song made it a lot easier to appreciate but I still felt like they hadn't quite warmed up yet.

Going into the third song, I realised that aside from a "Hello, Wellington", no one in the band had really said all that much yet. I was quickly distracted by the awesomeness that was a guitar driven version of "I See Monsters" which culminated in the truly epic wailing of guitars and my realisation that this band know what they're doing and play extremely well together. My earlier comment about not having warmed up yet - not necessarily a general hadn't warmed up but hadn't warmed up to the audience. I felt like they were a bunch of guys having an awesome time jamming together but not necessarily engaging with the audience. Sometime after "I See Monsters" finished, Jacob commented to me "okay, so that was cool"... and I felt quite justified in having brought him along.

I'm going by memory on the set list here and I'm going by what stuck in my mind. There were songs that were completely inoffensive that I enjoyed at the time but were easy enough to forget. I'm fairly certain that the next song that stuck in my head was "Crossed Out Name" from Cardinology. Despite the boyfriend's non-appreciation of Cardinology, I actually thought it was a pretty decent album and "Crossed Out Name" was one of my favourite tracks from it. They do it very differently live! It's got a more melancholy feel to it recorded and less frantic instrumentation, whereas to me live it sounded... well, frantic. Frantic in a good way. "Crossed Out Name" has some fantastic lyrics in it that I love that were perhaps lost to someone who hadn't heard the studio version due to the noise but to me the frantic instrumentation really worked with the feel of the lyric. What sticks out in my head lyrically is "I kiss her mouth and I know / for everything there is a word, for everything but this..." Studio version conveys this quieter sense of desperation but in the live version, the sense of desperation is stronger and more urgent. I can't say which I prefer as both have their merits but I did thoroughly enjoy this song.

"When The Stars Go Blue" was a crowd favourite, being one of the more well known of Ryan's songs and was done beautifully live. (I admit - there was singing along, right from the moment I found a song I knew the words to). Here's where the order of what went on in my head gets a little hazy so I'm just going to go with a vague approximation of order and the songs that stuck out in my head. "Everybody Knows" was decent, not amazing, but decent and I do always enjoy it (although it reminds me of "Two" and I liked "Two" better from Easy Tiger... Easy Tiger is a little same-y in places). "Fix It" was pretty awesome - done kind of reggae styles, which I did enjoy, and also seemed to loosen the band up, as they started bantering right after the song. From then on in, things started to feel more comfortable. They had a bit of a rave about how much they liked Wellington - Ryan dubbed it "Chillington" and continued to call it thus the remainder of the concert.

I was not expecting to hear "Come Pick Me Up" at the concert but I was very, very, very happy to, as I adore the song. He announced first that he didn't necessarily agree with this song anymore... or at least, wasn't wearing the right outfit for it. Cue about 2 minutes straight of clothing related puns. Then he was into it and I recognised it within a few seconds and was insanely excited because a) awesome song and b) harmonica! Oh, and have I mentioned I love "Come Pick Me Up"? I think it's something to do with a mellow sounding song with hilariously depressing lyrics. "Come pick me up / take me out / f**k me up / steal my records / screw all my friends / they're all full of sh*t" .... I did quite like his announcement at the end: "So, that was my well-adjusted ballad".

One of the standout songs of the night was "Cold Roses" with some fantastic 4 part vocal harmonies that were just so, so, so tight. Great vocal harmonies are something I really, really love so I was pretty darn excited. They really did a fabulous job and it almost made up for the distraction of the two big blue lit up roses at the back of the stage (although to be fair, you got used to them in the end). And of course, the crowd went pretty nuts for the cover of Oasis's "Wonderwall" that Ryan Adams does so well. The key to a good cover is always making it different from the original and it was sure as hell different. I'm a big fan of the Ryan Adams "Wonderwall" because of the lack of whiny Oasis vocals - I do realise that others feel differently, but allow me my opinion - Ryan Adams > Oasis. Always.

Somewhere around here they had a break where Ryan waxed poetic about Laser Force and how gutted he was that he wouldn't be around for Thursday, where apparently you can pay $15 and play all the arcade games you want and laser tag between 7 and 11. Sounds like a good deal. You may have sold me on that, Ryan. Maybe next week.


"Oh My God, Whatever, Etc." was a happy surprise. It had a real quiet intensity to it and reminded me exactly what that was the first song that really got stuck in my head on my first listen of Easy Tiger. The lyrics are quite something - stand out in my mind "everybody tips, but not enough to knock me over". This had a really great feel to it and I really, really enjoyed it. Somewhere around here they did a couple of numbers where Ryan went without guitar - did I mention the guitar swapping? I don't think I mentioned the guitar swapping. The first few tracks, I swear he changed guitar pretty much every song, it was mildly distracting but also really kept me thinking "how many guitars does one guy need?" and "poor guy who has to keep coming onstage to swap guitars". Anyway, Ryan did comment that he didn't like being the front man, he didn't have the right jacket and then proceeded to do... something involving his wrist, which he then described as a bracelet made with metal from outer space (this guy is nuts, I love crazy guys... I wasn't the one yelling "I love you, Ryan" but had boyfriend not been sitting next to me, I may have). I did particularly enjoy him sitting on an amp reading what looked like a comic book while the rest of the band rocked out an instrumental break. Heh.

He got the guitar back for "Born Into A Light" and... something else that they finished on, I can't remember the song but I do remember being impressed and entertained. The whole way through they looked like they were having a heck of a lot of fun and by the end it was clear they were just enjoying themselves. I like nothing more than watching musicians enjoying themselves. So the show finished, we clapped for ages and ages and ages for an encore... and then something awesome happened.

Firstly, I have to insist that I've been a Ryan Adams fan long before this song, but I was absolutely entertained to discover that the first encore song they played was "Goodnight Rose". When the lyrics came in at the chorus and Jacob realised what they were singing, he did give me a rather bemused look. In response... shut up, that's awesome. I could hold to the illusion that he was singing to me, though he clearly wasn't. Still... Ryan Adams sang my name, how cool is that? Then a second awesome thing happened. I'd been hanging out for "Magick" from Cardinology and that's what they finished the show on. "Magick" is two minutes and seventeen seconds of really tight, really rocking awesomeness and I pretty much squealed when I heard it start. I got given a bemused look for that, as well. In my defense, it's a great song.

11.03pm: A very, very happy Rose leaves the Opera House. Boyfriend is appeased. Comments to me at the bus stop "they're much better live". All in all... a win.

STORIES TO TELL - I finally did it!

Finally!

I am releasing my debut album, Stories To Tell. I have a truly awesome box full of CDs in my living room and am selling them for $15 a copy. If you are interested in purchasing a CD, please get in touch. The track listing is as follows:

1. No Expert
2. Bill Stickers Is Innocent (lyrics by Stephen Wordsmith)
3. Aquamarine
4. Bibliophile
5. Song For Shane
6. Hollowed Out Hillside
7. Things I Shouldn't
8. Better Than You Know
9. Not So Much
10. This Is Not A Love Song
11. Without Me
12. The Hand You're Dealt

This has been a long, long road and I am so excited that I finally have these babies in my hot little hands. Sooooo many people have been sooooo amazingly helpful and stuff all throughout this that I just have to mention them on my blog. Just because. So here we go.

First off, there's this guy Jacob and he's actually kind of awesome. He has been amazingly supportive with this CD in so many ways so I have to mention him in my thank yous. He has been a very dear friend for quite some time but something really random happened recently - we started dating, it's completely insane. I'm going to have to stop writing songs about unrequited love. Oh, I hope I don't start writing really horrible soppily romantic drivel - if I'm ever tempted, I'm going to have to bang my head against a wall repeatedly until the urge passes (or until I pass out, whichever comes first).

There has been much praise of the incomparable Stephen Wordsmith on this blog. I am sure the trend shall continue. He has been an encouragement, an inspiration and a fantastic sounding board throughout this entire process - not to mention the whole letting me use Bill Stickers on the album thing, which I am thrilled to be able to include. Through it all, he has also been a supportive friend and I am very, very grateful for his contribution.


The wonderful Libby did some rather awesome backing vocals for Bill Stickers, both on the album and during certain gigs. She was there when I finally got the music sorted for Bill Stickers so she's pretty much my muse and I really value her contribution.

Album photography was taken care of by my dear friend Matt, who took some awesome photos that I managed to sort out into some kind of form of... album artsy stuff. It looks great, honestly. If you get a copy, you can actually see Matt's toes in one of the shots. Look really closely. There are no prizes for finding those toes except the satisfaction that comes from discovery.

My parents. Who bought me recording equipment. Oh, how I appreciate that. Mum and Dad have been nothing but encouraging throughout the entire process and I am so, so glad that my mother is in the country as this album comes out. I graduated from university this week, which is why Mum is over (my parents live in Sydney) but it's even cooler that she's here for CD. So yes. I have awesome parents. And I love them lots and hope they're proud.

All gig organisers - particularly Jimmy (Folkin' Good Times) and Patricia (Music and Artist's Social Club). It's been great getting the chance to play and I've had so much fun doing so. It's definitely brought my confidence up and without that, I never would have made the CD so it's all pretty fantastic. Patricia booked me my first ever gig and that's where I met Jimmy, who got me involved with Folkin' Good Times which has been a seriously awesome thing to be involved with.

50/90 and FAWM. Where do I start? Songwritng inspiration. Actually making me write. Feedback feedback feedback. Not to mention an awesome community of fellow songwriters. My fellow 50/90 and FAWMers are all kinds of awesome. Special mention must go to three songwriters I've worked with closely - Nancy, Helen and Meg. These lovely ladies have become dear friends as well as fellow musicians and always inspire me to keep writing and do better.

The original version of this CD was worked on by my friend Chris - he put in so much time and effort and I learned a lot from him. So he deserves to be showered with praises for all his hard work - even though I didn't end up using his material (except for the hidden track at the end of the album... yes, there's a hidden track!) it was all part of the process and it really paved the way for what I've come up with now. Also deserving thanks for the first version are Charlene, Stuart, Grace and Phil. It is very much appreciated.

My flatmates Tamsin and Elle put up with the weird sounds coming from my room. How crazy is that? They were really good about being quiet, not throwing things in the hallway, not running around screaming when I was trying to record, all that good stuff. Which is appreciated. On a slightly more serious note, Tamsin and Elle have been really, really encouraging and great friends to me throughout this entire project so they deserve massive amounts of thanks. They also have to put up with me singing and guitaring and generally being odd most of the time so they deserve massive amounts of sympathy.

I've been expanding on my liner notes because this is a blog with no space constraints and I missed out some people on the liner notes which is very sad but I will quote this bit from the liner notes because I can:

"Jacob, Stephen, Libby, Louise, Lorenz, Matt, Val, Krista, Tal, Tamsin, Elle and Jonny. For help through rough times, for supporting my music and for (sometimes quite literally) catching me when I fall."

There are many other people who've been a part of this, who've encouraged me and been generally supportive which is awesome but the 12 people I just listed have gone the extra mile for me in so many different situations and places and will always be people I feel deeply grateful for.

This is getting awfully long-winded, which is terrible, but I am allowing myself a little self-indulgence here. I'm excited. I've finally done it. This is a great feeling.

If you're interested in buying a copy, email me at rosedeschamps@gmail.com - if you're out of New Zealand, however, hold tight for a bit as I will sort out selling them through CD Baby in the New Year. Copies are selling pretty fast at the moment so I might have to do a reprint! It's insane! But it's exciting and I'm very, very proud of the album itself. I think I did okay :)

Much love,
Rose
who is still pretty much floating through sheer excitement

Fame! On the internets!

Well, not so much.

(I've been advised I'm not allowed to say "not so much" anymore, due to the song of the same title. I swear it's got nothing to do with anything.)

But yes, I did an interview for a songwriting blog called Songwright which you can find here. It was a heck of a lot of fun and I'm in good company if you read the other interviews, so go have a look if you so desire.

ALBUM UPDATE: It's at the printers. We're gonna be in action sometime next week, all going according to the plan!

*grins*
Rose

Album Recording For Dummies

I have nothing definitive to say on this subject.

However, I will say that I am recording an album - it's called "Stories To Tell" and will include 12 original songs by Rose Deschamps. That is me. I am Rose Deschamps. So the songs by Rose Deschamps are also songs by me. We are one and the same. Hopefully this is not too confusing. I am tired and therefore a bit silly. So yeah, 12 songs! I won't give you a definite track listing right away because I might change my mind (I am a fickle creature) but it's more or less decided.

"Stories To Tell" should be hitting... well, not stores, persay, but I'm sure it'll be hitting something - possibly my doorstep? In a large box? At any rate, I'll be getting copies printed and then the real party starts - they will be for sale at the beginning of December. You will be able to buy them! It will be glorious and the villagers will dance and there will be much rejoicing and merriment.

A tentative release date is November 28th. Despite a few hiccups along the way, it's looking like that date is a goer. Woot woot! If you're interested in investing in Wellington singer/songwriters and want a copy of "Stories To Tell", flick me an email at rosedeschamps@gmail.com and we will sort something out.

And the awesome thing is this, folks - all going well, this CD will be out by Christmas! So if you're having trouble deciding what to buy your mother, or your brother, or your brother's girlfriend's cousin, or your ex-flatmate's sister's cat, why not buy them a copy of "Stories To Tell"? Why not buy 6 copies for a set of very cute coasters? Or you could listen to the CDs. That works, too.

But yes. Rose Deschamps has "Stories To Tell". Coming soon. She's excited. And since I am Rose Deschamps, I am also excited. On a slightly more serious note - I'm proud of these songs, I've put a lot of work into my songwriting and I really feel like it's paid off. So yay. Musics!

Rose
who is taking the third person thing a little too far

50/90 is over... but Rocktober is just warming up!

So I bid farewell to the 90 days of absolute songwriting madness last Wednesday. It was sad, to be honest. I've had a fantastic time. I've written a ton of new songs, I've collaborated with some amazing people and I've grown as a songwriter - well, at least I think I have. I don't think you're supposed to stop growing, so this is probably a Very Good Thing. I have managed to write about all sorts of things this time around - life, love, friendship, loss... not to mention the silly things like cute guys filling up gas bottles, allegedly drunken pilots, hair cuts gone wrong and, of course, Dick Hubbard's secret identity (not so secret anymore, huh?) It has been a blast. I can't wait for FAWM where the madness recommences :)

In the meantime, though, I have heaps to do. Rocktober is a Dan Wallbank invention, and a change to keep up the recording. 15 covers. If you head to this site here, you will find my Rocktober contributions. So far I have covered "Toxic" by Britney Spears (thanks to Louise, who insisted I do something by Britney... well, it was the lesser of many evils presented to me) and "Maps" by Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Personally, Yeah Yeah Yeahs > Britney any day of the week, but I am pretty proud of both versions so far. Upcoming plans for songs include a little Arcade Fire, a little The Killers, possibly a little Sam Phillips and maybe, just maybe some Metallica for my brother. Watch this space,

Rocking out,
Rose

Gig Report: Folkin' Good Times @ The Adelaide, September 18th

Yes, this one is late. Which is lame of me, I know. This'll be a short gig report.

Rachel from my Birthday Gig and I decided to combine forces and do a duet set between our sets - I've got to say, it's a very different experience playing with someone else and I very much enjoyed it. We did a set that mostly consisted of covers but did write a song together pretty much off the cuff at one of our rehearsals, which was a lot of fun. Rachel opened up the night with a couple of pretty guitar and vocal numbers - that girl is a fantastic musician. Seriously. Piano, guitar... not at the same time, cos that's just silly but she really does have mad skills and it was a pleasure working with her.

After our combined SuperPower set, I did a shorter than usual set consisting entirely of 50/90 material. The cool thing about this was that I performed both of Stephen's songs - Bill Stickers and Tok Pisin. As he was one of my few fans who braved the disgusting weather to come out, it was nice to be able to do that. (In defence of those who didn't make it... the weather sucked and most of them were in the middle of rather horrific university assignments so I harbour no ill will towards anyone.) Still, it was nice to see some new faces as opposed to always just my friends and all in all I think I did alright.

We finished the night with "three quarters of Mushroom" - as in Mushroom with no drummer. Well, that's what it started as... the evening finished in the wee hours of the morning after about 2 or 3 hours of mad, mad jamming. It was pretty hilarious to watch and definitely, as we pride ourselves on, a "Folkin' Good Time".

Coming up to the end of 50/90 now - the local contingent will be partying once this is over, let me tell you! It's so great that I now have other people around me doing this crazy thing... I'm especially proud of Stephen Wordsmith. That boy will go far. And, for the time being, he is my lyricist. Mine. Hands off. (Well, actually, no, I'm not that selfish and he's a big boy so he can do what he likes... I just like to think his loyalty lies with me. Kind of. Sort of. Maybe.)

Off to squeeze more songs out of this last week of 50/90,
Rose

The Massive Update Post...

Hmmm. What has been happening in the last month that I have not blogged about? *slaps hand* Bad Rose.

Firstly, and most importantly... I hit 50 songs yesterday!

There was much rejoicing in the village. The village of tiny people. In my head. But yes, it's a fantastic feeling of accomplishment, and I am quite proud of myself.

Secondly.... my dear friend Valerie emailed Hubbards Foods about "Dick Hubbard Is Batman". Consequently, I received a message from the Chief Financial Officer of Hubbards. The song has entertained the office and has been sent to Dick for his listening pleasure. Also, I spotted a "Diana Hubbard" signed up on the 50/90 page... I'm going to assume that's his wife. This is really, really quite hilarious.

Thirdly.... there was birthday gig.

It was fantastic :)

We opened the night with The Farmer's Daughter, aka the lovely Rachael. It turns out that Rachael is the older sister of a guy I went through high school with - how's that for a coincidence? I was really, really impressed. She has one hell of a voice and her confession about how nervous she was after the gig really surprised me because I found her really confident. Pretty voice, pretty guitar and she's just so nice :) She gave me a big hug for my birthday. Despite the fact that we'd only just met. I like people like that.

I then did a longer than usual set, which included some rather stellar moments. Such as dragging Libby onstage to sing harmonies for "Bill Stickers", singing "When The Fire" and apologising to my mother mid-song for the reference to a boy in my bed and dropping my pick at the most hilariously appropriate moment in "No Expert":

"He buys a drink
It's pretty quick
You must think you're awful slick"
*drops pick*
"I dropped my pick... hey, that rhymes!"

It was also the debut of "Better Than You Know", verses 1 and 2 because I forgot the lyrics midway and it's a pretty long song. I have also discovered a way to fix my lost set list problem. Post It note. On the top of guitar. The mind boggles.

We finished up the night with Jimmy Stearn and Nick Burfield - I think the highlight for me was a really unusual cover of Stairway to Heaven. It was one of those things that initially makes you go "huh?" but it was actually really, really cool. My brother and my father were entertained... my sister didn't get it. Poor kidlet. But yes. Jimmy and Nick combo for the win, as far as I'm concerned. They really sound quite awesome together. Have I mentioned in the past that Jimmy plays a mean harmonica? Because he really does. It's all kinds of awesome. I hadn't met Nick previously but he's got one hell of a voice on him. I'm looking forward to hearing the Nick/Jimmy combo again. Good stuff.

In general, though, an amazing birthday. Heaps of friends there. My entire immediate family (Mum, Dad, brother and sister) - which is awesome, because Dad moved to Sydney on Tuesday so it was a great chance to have the whole family together. Friends and I went out for late food fillup after the gig and managed to cram all eight of us in the 4 person booth. Then we headed back to my flat for a rather glorious carrot cake, courtesy of my lovely flatmate. All in all... a really, really great day.

I will hopefully update more late, but for now that's a pretty decent overview. I am taking a small break from the songwriting, as I must clean flat and cook foods sometime today. We are having a party to farewell yet another traveller (this is the week of departures). I need to go buy pastry because I'm too lazy to make it.

Basking in that 50 song glow,
Rose