With six albums' worth of material to draw on – and that's just the solo stuff – it's little wonder that Ryan Adams and his sometime band The Cardinals saw fit to play without a support band, and for almost a full three hours.

Mercifully, this included a midway intermission ("so you can go get drunk and stuff"), but unfortunately it meant this reviewer missed the first half hour of tonight's set.

After founding alt-country band Whiskeytown, staunch New Yorker Adams has gone on to be acclaimed for his prolific output, both alone and collaborating with The Cardinals over the last three years. While rarely straying from under the 'alt-country' banner with Cardinals material, he has mainly drawn mainstream attention with his more gentle and melodic solo efforts (although with regular nods to a good old bit of rock 'n' roll).

Obviously when one is prone to churning out three albums within a year, along with EPs and experimental internet musings, there is bound to be some degree of hit-and-miss.

But earlier solo outings such as Heartbreaker and Gold, and recent acclaimed solo release Easy Tiger have earned a devoted (some would say borderline obsessive) fanbase – made clear by the rapturous receptions for each song, and the ever-present proclamations of love from audience members (usually male!).

This is all at odds with his usual moody onstage presences (crowds have often felt the sharp end of his tongue for inappropriate interruptions – and for goodness' sake don't request Summer of '69).

However there is something intriguing about Adams's reclusive nature, and along with a shadowy history of heroin addiction and alcoholism, he seems to have acquired the 'tortured genius' mantle and become a target of idol worship for disaffected twenty-something chaps.

Because of this it seems a great privilege that he is on fine form with audience interaction tonight, and even cracks a few jokes. For regular attendees of his shows it's the equivalent of a stand-up comedy performance, as he chats self-deprecatingly and goes off on some tangents about the Leeds Christmas lights. This nicely breaks up the long set, as do occasional songs sung by Neal Casal from the new Cardinals' album Cardinology.

However, despite stellar musicianship all round, gold star of the night goes to Adams and his solo work, with his voice always sounding far more spine-tingling than you'd expect on the classic When The Stars Go Blue, a rousing Cold Roses and his own haunting interpretation of Oasis's Wonderwall.

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