Ryan Adams Concert Review
 

I seem to recall a few Ryan Adams fans here, so here's a little info on last night's concert in Dallas:

The stage was set up with only a couple of guitars and a piano. Ryan came out and sat in a chair at the center of the stage. He seemed a little nervous as everyone went nuts while he was setting up the guitar. He started with Oh My Sweet Carolina.

He did several songs from Heartbreakers, switching between the guitar and the piano. After a set of Heartbreaker songs, he had a cello and violin come out and play with him for several songs which were mainly Gold songs. That was pretty cool.

He did play a couple of songs on an electric guitar. He said he had to stand up for Come Pick Me Up. He couldn't sit down for that one.

The crowd was full of drunk sorority girls so I figured that they would be yapping the whole time. It was unreal how quite it got during the songs. You could hear people tapping their toes.

Surprisingly, he only played a couple of songs from Demolition. He covered Brown Sugar and Lovesick Blues.

The show was barely an hour and a half. I figured it would be a little longer. Overall, it was a great show. I would recommend catching him if he comes to your town.

Chris

Sounds like it was a good show, if a bit short. I'll be seeing him at the Ryman on October 14, so I'll let you know how that goes. I've been a bit wary about seeing him in concert at all, because I've heard horror stories about how volatile he can be from one performance to the next.

He wrote somewhere else that he would be doing some songs from the next album while he's on tour. Strange that he didn't. What songs did he play from Demolition ?

The first time I saw Whiskeytown (around '97) there were only about 20 people at the show. Adams was obviously pissed about it and did not say one word to the crowd the entire time.

He seemed to be in a real good mood last night. Everyone went nuts when he came out on stage. He kept saying all the yelling and clapping was making him nervous.

He played Desire, Dear Chicago, and You Will Always be the Same from Demolition. Actually, I'm not sure about the last one but I think he played it. I was surprised that he didn't play Nuclear.

Apparently, Elton John showed up at his concert in Atlanta at the Tabernacle last night. He sang "La Cienega Just Smiled" with Adams.

I saw that review at the ryan-adams.com message board. The more I think back to Saturday's show, the more I wish I could catch a few more of his shows.

I'm psyched too cuz I'm goin' to Nashville to see RA at the Ryman Auditorium.

90 minutes is about all anyone plays anymore unless you see Springsteen or some of the legendary bands etc.

The Strokes only played for 45 minutes when I saw them but tickets were only about $7.

Really? I'll be there, too. Did you get good seats?

I don't have good seats but I was third row earlier this year so that's ok.

I'm just excited to be there. The guy is just plain talented.

So Frank, what did you think of the Nashville show?

Let's hear some reviews!

I just wrote mine for Tinymixtapes.com, but it hasn't been posted yet. I'll post a link when it is. What I can tell you now, though, is that I love Ryan's music as much as I ever did. The show, pre-encore, was very good, and Ryan is incredibly witty. I loved the bit about "Hold on, let me find the gas pedal" when he was searching for the damper pedal on the piano. The encore was awful, though. Self-indulgent and masturbatory, and him asking the guy to leave and all the taunting involved was over the top. I'll let you know more soon. Until then, tidbits and tidbits only! I can tell you that he stole my Sharpie pen, though. :(

What's the story with the Bryan Adams request?

This guy requested the song and Ryan stopped what he was doing, ran to the guy with $30, and asked him (really told him) to leave or he wasn't going to play another song. I'm surprised you haven't heard about it yet; apparently it's raising quite a ruckus with the press. I'm kindof glad I was there to see it all go down, now.


pics here

Or from a non Ryan Adams fan perspective, the guy made a (admittedly unoriginal) joke, in a concert where Ryan himself had been acting like a total fool. Ryan then threw a hissy fit, whipped out his wallet, jumped off the stage, told "get the f*** out", told security to remove the guy, played a little ditty about "how it's so sad to have to leave", and just generally taunted the guy. It was completely and totally uncalled for, and it ruined what until that point was an otherwise respectable performance.

Fan ejected for requesting a Bryan Adams tune!
 

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Entertain...1016_1356.html :lol:

Re: Fan ejected for requesting a Bryan Adams tune!
 

It was pretty funny, but I couldn't help feeling bad for the poor schmuck.

Also, the story is misleading when it says Adams began "spewing expletives". He was "spewing expletives" all night. Anyone who's ever read an interview about Adams or seen him in concert knows that his favorite word seems to be "f**k".

Yep. That sounds like the volatile Ryan Adams we all know and love. Happy one minute, pissed as hell the next minute.

Apparently, Ryan Adams has now gone insane. He called up the critic from the Tennesean who wrote the first article about Adams "spewing expletives" and left a message on his machine. They posted it online. Here's the lovely Mr. Adams, himself:

''You're just so smart, aren't you, man? You're so (expletive)
smart. 'I'm so smart. I'm so post-collegiate with all my (expletive)
little references.' 'Punkish hardcore.' What about 'Quintessential
(expletive) band,' moron?

''What the (expletive) is wrong with you? Little redneck newspaper.
Ooh, The Tennessean. Blah, blah, blah, blah. Whatever. You wouldn't
know a (expletive) good show if it bit you in the (expletive).

''You and your senior citizen, little redneck (expletive)
(expletive). Whatever, you know? Let's like … let's create it,
let's
judge it, you know? Like, 'Let's turn it into what it's supposed to
be.' But you don't know (expletive). You and your (expletive)
(expletive) paper. (Expletive) you.''


The Tennesean

That's crazy. He gets stranger by the minute.

Not handling 'fame' very well it would seem. It's a shame because the guy has talent, but he's going to f**k himself up big time if he continues on this path.

He cuts me up like a knife.

I've heard of him doing the $30-stop the concert-performance at two or three shows in a row. Sounds like a little skit.

Yeah, CM thought that maybe he planted the guy and told him to say that. Not that someone else wouldn't be dumb enough to say it if he didn't.

Alt.country singer-songwriter is offering merchandise for people to disrupt future Ryan Adams concerts.

Details at robbiefulks.com

Robbie Fulks is a great singer-songwriter, and I'd encourage anyone who likes Adams to check him out. I like him even better than Adams actually.

It sounds like Ryan Adams has some growing up to do. The music industry's already got enough spoiled self-centered whiny brats, and he's too talented to be another one. I thought he was done with these sort of antics after he settled his feud with the Old 97's...

well my review of the Ryman show has FINALLY been posted. Here it is if you are interested:

www.tinymixtapes.com

Ryan Adams / Tegan and Sara (Nashville, TN; Ryman Auditorium)
10.14.02

Great show! Well, sort of. To be honest, I am extremely ambivalent about Ryan’s performance at the Ryman. I don’t want to get ahead of myself, so I’ll go back to the opening act, Tegan and Sara. These girls are sisters from Canada, and their instrumental sound is very basic. At the show they both played guitar while Sara was the main vocalists. She has an abrasive, scratchy voice, that is smoothed out in great part by her sister’s backup vocals. They were pretty humorous onstage, although they did commit the faux pas of admitting they used to like New Kids on the Block (popularly known as NkotB). Seriously, that was pretty cool of them, seeing as how most of us lie and say we were listening to "cool" bands like Bon Jovi and Guns ‘n Roses back then. The highlight of their performance was the song "City Girls", and the closer, "Don’t Confess" comes in a close second. Overall, Tegan and Sara are a surprisingly pleasing duo, definitely worth lending your ears to.

After about twenty or thirty minutes of the Ramones combined with one classical number, Ryan Adams came out and opened with "Tomorrow". Ryan finally spoke to the crowd after two or three songs, and when he did he was full of witty (however cheesy they may have been) jokes. Sitting down at the piano to play a self-indulgent, soulful rendition of the Stones’ "Brown Sugar," Ryan quipped that he would now "continue with my suck." Most of the songs Adams performed before "the Esquires" (David Rawlings and Gillian Welch) joined him were beautiful. The minimalist approach of a simple acoustic guitar joined by the cello and bass of his guest instrumentalists suits his songs well and compliments the simplistic imagery of his songwriting style. "When the Stars go Blue" is exemplary of this beauty; all the instruments harmonized and rang out clearly, not one overpowering another. Ryan’s voice drifted loftily above the delicate harmonies and brought to the forefront the dreamy, ethereal qualities of the song.

Eccentricities of the night include Ryan playing along on his guitar with a record of Madonna’s "Like a Virgin" and his shouting out (some of) the lyrics to a Minor Threat song in true Andy Kauffman style. Mixed in with the sleepy mood of the early half of the concert, these performances provided a good, amusing contrast. Before long, however, someone in the crowd yelled out the expected trite joke of probably every concert Ryan Adams has ever played: "Summer of 69!" Being true to his volatile personality, Adams behaved unpredictably to this offensive request; he sought out the man in the crowd and asked him to leave: "Grab that guy and make him leave! I won’t ****in’ play till you do." Adams’ tirade was quite the infant temper tantrum. He took $30(about the price of the concert ticket) out of his wallet and gave it to the man, saying "I’ll tell you what you can spend it on–an education!" Then he told him he could probably buy three of Bryan Adams’ records with the money, a cheap shot undeserved by Bryan. As the man was escorted out of the auditorium by Ryman staff, Adams hopped back on the stage and yelled, "Get the **** outta here, goodbye!", chiding him with a made-up-on-the-spot goodbye song.

For the remainder of the show, Adams turned back on his boyish charm, playing a lovely rendition of Hank William’s "Lovesick Blues." Up until the encore, Adams played a variety of songs from Heartbreaker, Gold, and Demolition. Most of these were lovely and pristine, for Adams’ voice rang out true and clear during the finest moments. After playing "La Cienega Smiled", Adams said goodnight and ran offstage.

Adams shortly reappeared on the stage for an encore, during most of which he seemed oblivious to the audience. He was joined onstage by Gillian Welch, David Rawlings, and a drummer, and what followed was a self-indulgent, musical-masturbatory performance that made me feel as if the audience members were then expected to leave as Adams and company played a reunion-of-old-friends jamfest. Like a private joke that we weren’t a part of, like a cool group we couldn’t join, they positioned themselves toward the back of the stage, and Adams eventually retreated to the drums and allowed Rawlings and Welch to take over lead vocals. When Adams did sing on "What Sin", his annoying distorted vocals sounded remarkably like the equally annoying performance of the lead singer of The Strokes, Julian Casablancas, when he and his band performed "Last Night" on Saturday Night Live last fall. With Adams on drums, the group performed Bob Dylan’s "Joey", a fifteen minute yawn catalyst that sent most of the audience through the exit doors. Finally, he concluded the show with "Come Pick Me Up," with Welch and Rawlings accompanying. It was a rather poor performance of what is an amazing song, probably because, as Adams readily admitted, they had never played it together before. Definitely a disappointing end to what promised from the start to be an intimate, stellar performance.

Overall, I retain my respect for Ryan Adams’ music. I think he is a wonderful songwriter; this is a statement that has been proven true time and time again. My biggest problem with this performance was neither his onstage antics nor his booting of the offending Bryan Adams fan. I would encourage an artist to let his personality shine through during performances. However, the fifteen minute performance of "Joey" was a bit infuriating; I mean, really, the song was too ****ing long when Bob Dylan did it. I would only ask that Adams remember that his fans paid $30 to see him perform his songs, not mediocre, at best, songs by other artists. Thus ends my personal constructive criticism bit for Adams. That said, I retain my contradictorily ambivalent stance on his overall performance that I stated earlier.

- Leah

Setlist:
Tomorrow
Oh My Sweet Carolina
Sweet Lil Gal
To Be Young (Is to be High)
Fools We Are as Men
Brown Sugar
Like a Virgin (record with Adams on guitar)
Bartering Lines
Sylvia Plath
"cookie monster" version of Oh My Sweet Carolina
When the Stars Go Blue
Dear Chicago
goodbye song to offending Bryan Adams fan
Lovesick Blues
Rescue Blues
Minor Threat song (record with Adams shouting)
You Will Always Be the Same
La Cienega
Tell Me Why
What Sin
Rosalie Come and Go
Joey
Come Pick Me Up

Good review, Leah. I can see that Master's in English is finally starting to pay off. ;)
I must say, though, I'm surprised that you know Bob Dylan stuff. I guess I still picture you as that "Metallica chick." 8-)

Fear not. I can still air guitar my way through "Call of Ktulu." ;) And thanks for the compliment, btw.

It sounds like a plant. I've now heard of a few more concerts where this happens.

I got to talk to him yesterday on "Live at the Lounge" with Ryan Seacrest. If it is broadcasted in your area, you can hear me and my goofy accent talking to Ryan Adams about Joyce Carol Oates and Hamlet.