Ryan Adams In Ann Arbor...WOW

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Bonochick

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I just got home from the show.

Oh...my...God...

Fucking INCREDIBLE.

I was holding a piece of paper and a pen the entire night...I have all sorts of notes written down...I don't want to forget a single moment. Therefore, I have quite a detailed review!

First...the setlist...

1974
This Is It
She's Lost Total Control
Luminol
Note To Self: Don't Die
Boys
Liar
Wish You Were Here
Wish You Were Here
Wish You Were Here (performed very fast!)
Do Miss America (barbershop style)
Shallow
Does Anybody Wanna Take Me Home?
(song mentioning Michigan and stuff...will post details)
To Be Young (Is To Be Sad, Is To Be High)
Love Is Hell
Firecracker
Come Pick Me Up
Burning Photographs
So Alive

Now...my review/reflection...

Dad and I were the first people in the theater. It was cool to look around and see everything empty, knowing that it was soon gonna be a rock and roll palace.

Ryan and the band kicked into a blistering "1974", and you could tell that it was going to be a fun night. Ryan was genuinely enjoying himself. They plowed through "This Is It" and "She's Lost Total Control" before Ryan began speaking to us. He told us how he has the flu. He said that it's okay though because it's the "cool flu"...it's like "tripping for free".

They then launched into "Luminol", followed by "Note To Self: Don't Die" and "Boys". The next song was "Liar", where at one point he was punching the back of his guitar.

Ryan took off his jacket, and we were then treated to 3 versions of "Wish You Were Here". The first two were quite similar, but the third one had Ryan going over to the right side of the stage and singing and strumming super fast. It was very funny yet very cool. Before he had started singing it, he was adjusting the mic, and it screeched. He jumped back and looked up at the light on the wall and said, "Fuck you!" He ended up bashing into the mic stand, but somebody caught it for him before it fell.

"Do Miss America"...barbershop style...cool as fucking hell. It was awesome. "Shallow" was next, and after Ryan finished, he played with his hair a bit and sipped some wine. A different guitar was brought to him before performing "Does Anybody Wanna Take Me Home?" Afterwards, he was surrounded by a lot of smoke. His band provided cheesy, "scary" music, and Ryan was acting all dramatic, as if he was scared of the smoke. Hilarious!

The next song began with the line, "What is the key of the song that's gonna stump the band?" During the song, he repeated, "I love Michigan", and he also repeated, "I'm in Michigan...not in Detroit...Ann Arbor." With mentioning Detroit came what could only be a dig at Jack White. "Because I don't have to wear red to have character. Just because you are a character doesn't mean you have character."

Ryan dedicated the next song to "Michael Jackson's ex-wife", and then performed "To Be Young (Is To Be Sad, Is To Be High)". During part of it, his singing sounded nice and floaty, as if being drugged up...after that came the "Ooh the days" part, and he tucked the bottom of his guitar under his chin like a violin. When the song was over, he threw his pick in the crowd.


Ryan began talking to us again. He said, "Everybody's so nice here," and thanked us all. He then said, "I wore my new slacks tonight, whoa, they're tight!" They were too...if you ladies know what I mean...*cough*ass*cough*. ;)

He continued talking in a deadpan yet hilarious voice. He was talking so much that I couldn't write it all down...but I got bits and pieces. He was talking about getting off of work from the factory, and he kept asking one of the band members to run to the store for him to fetch various things. He talked about getting a 6 pack, a copy of Maxim, and watching Sex In The City on DVD. Then he said he needed Marlboro Reds, duct tape, tomato paste, and some other things I didn't have time to write down...to make a casserole. Staying in character still, he said he was wasted on Jack Daniels and broke his leg while playing touch football in the backyard, so he needed someone to run to the store and pick up candles for his bath and bath salts. Then he said, "All them gays, they all look damn good. I went to the titty bar for a lapdance and missed Queer Eye For The Straight Guy. I gotta call my mom and then beat off. Do I have to go to the library again to pick up girls? But they got books on football."

Dropping the voice, he said, "I think my fever's breaking. I'm really thirsty. I'm still gonna rock for you. I'm really dehydrated, so I look marvelous." He said he was just kidding, of course. He also said, "I have enough razor burn for every guy in the audience." Then he cracked a joke: "There were two flies on a toilet seat, and one of 'em got pissed off."

Ryan switched guitars again for a performance of "Love Is Hell". He got down in the audience, and somebody onstage was shining a flashlight on him. He got back onstage and was bouncing around like a little kid...it was so cute! When he was finished, he said to us, "Without you, I'd just be a weirdo with bad hair."

Ryan came back onstage without his band...just him, a guitar, and a harmonica. Dad said that this was the highlight of the evening for him. Ryan said that there was an 11:00 curfew, which meant he only had 15 minutes left. He said he would play as much as he could. With that, we were treated to a beautiful version of "Firecracker", with an even more beautiful "Come Pick Me Up" after it. As soon as the crowd heard the first few notes of it, everybody was cheering. I cried during it...it was so damn good. When he played his harmonica, everybody showed their approval. A funny moment...when he sang, "Screw all my friends...they're all full of shit...", he directed a middle finger towards where the band was backstage.

The band returned, and Ryan put his jacket back on. During "Burning Photographs", Ryan got back down into the crowd...but as he was singing, his mic came unplugged. He had to go back onstage to plug it in, and then he promptly got back down by the audience. He walked down the aisle, looked up, and sang to the people in the balcony. It was so cool to look up and see them all leaning over the railing. I was in the balcony for the Ryan show I saw last year, so I know how it feels. I looked back at the fans in the aisle, and I saw them holding up his microphone cord. I then noticed the security guard by the exit over there groovin' to the music. Ryan got back onstage and ended up taking a spill...he landed quite hard on the stage...so hard that I actually gasped and was concerned for about 5 seconds...until I saw Ryan get right back up and go on like nothing had happened. I had to laugh at it then. He started jumping around stage and playfully picking fights with the band.

The final song..."So Alive"...WOW. He came down to the other side of the audience (the side I was on), but he was getting crowded so much that he couldn't get down the aisle (which sucked cuz I had an aisle seat not many rows back from where he was!). He went back onstage. Towards the end of the song, he was crawling around on the stage.

I spent the entire night scribbling all these notes down. While watching him finish up "So Alive", I quickly scrawled the first thing that came to my mind:

So fucking passionate.
 
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So Alive sounds passionate driving down the freeway going 80mph with all the windows down... I con only imagine him singing it in person.

I hope to someday see him perform in person. Maybe even Jesse too if I can only get the showdates right ;)

Thanks for the very details review :heart:
 
AcrobatMan said:
can someone give a mp3 link to any (pref HIT SONG) COMPLETE ryan adams song ( album or live) on the web

so that i can say i have heard ryan adam

You can stream all of his songs at his site: http://www.ryan-adams.com

Go to the Music or Discography section for more choices.
 
I'm glad you had such an awesome time! I saw him at the Riv in Chicago last night and had an equally awesome time. It was GA, and I was right up front. Consequently, I was touching sweaty Ryan when he dove off the stage three times at the end of the night. :) Another highlight for me was the Cookie Monster version of Wish You Were Here. :D It was a great show.

Did Whornet play in Ann Arbor?
 
The Stills played. They were okay...I hear that the album work is better than their live shows.

I heard he did a Cookie Monster version...how fucking sweet is that????

I think Ann Arbor was the only show on this tour that wasn't GA. :der: It worked out good for me though cuz we wouldn't have been able to get there to line up early.
 
Hee hee. "Whornet" came on before the Stills in Chicago and played 3 really quick punk songs. The lead singer was the drummer from the Stills, the guitar player was another member of the Stills, and the drummer ... was Ryan! In a hoodie and sunglasses. :lol:
 
That's great! :lmao:

I think my dad is warming up more to Ryan...he said that since the concert, he's found himself to be humming Ryan tunes. :D
 
I tried to get tickets, running to a couple of stores and calling the venue...as well as having a friend call some connections. No help. BUTTTTTT...............sounds like Ryan had a bit of a meltdown. NOT COOL making fun of Paul Westerberg. :mad:

Concert review: Ryan Adams has a meltdown at First Avenue
Chris Riemenschneider, Star Tribune

December 16, 2003

Lambasting everything from the sound system to music journalists to local rock legend Paul Westerberg, young Americana rocker Ryan Adams gave an unwieldy, erratic performance that turned into a personal meltdown Sunday night at First Avenue.

The 29-year-old former Whiskeytown singer's reputation as a bratty, gabby rock star had added to the charm of past concerts, but he was anything but likeable Sunday.

His two-hour show started as a clumsy deluge of uncharacteristically fast and furious rock noise, and it turned into a disheveled acoustic set when the electricity didn't work in Adams' favor. As the music got worse, so did the singer's diva-like behavior.

Before his second of two stormy huffs off stage, he stood by himself, holding a cocktail and whining, "I just want to go home for Christmas."

Make no mistake, Adams is one of rock's most gifted modern songwriters. His prolific proficiency -- he releases at least one album a year -- impresses as much as his knack for turning old formulas like heartache and hard living into fresh inspiration.

However, that musical genius was buried Sunday beneath three or four blaring guitars and overeager rhythms. Even the best songs off his loud new album "lloR 'n kcoR" fell flat, including "This Is It" and "Wish You Were Here" -- each of which he played twice, not satisfied the first time.

The first clue to his off mood was the fact that Adams barely spoke for the first hour. After a snide, uninspired version of "To Be Young (Is to Be Sad, Is to Be High)," the floodgates opened, and fans probably would've paid a second cover charge to shut him up.

Apparently, three things set Adams off: problems with the amplifiers, which likely stemmed from his inexperience with so many guitars; a bad review for opening band the Stills in the local weekly City Pages, and a York, Pa., newspaper article in which former Replacements singer Westerberg said Adams "needs to get his teeth kicked in."

Admitting that the Replacements "dominated my record collection," Adams went on and on about how Westerberg had dealt him a cheap shot.

"You don't trash the people you inspired," he said, calling the local singer "a bitter old bitch."

Westerberg and the Stills review kept coming up even after the sound problems were averted by temporarily ditching electric guitars. The ensuing acoustic set was an improvised disaster, with Adams making up lyrics about the Replacements and his own public image, including, "Yeah, so I dated an actress . . you would, too." (His current girlfriend is film star Parker Posey, plus he dated Winona Ryder.)

"This is one of my worst shows ever, but I like it," he said defiantly near the end.

By then, half of the sellout crowd had left. Of the ones who stayed, some were no doubt hoping Westerberg would show up and meet Adams' needs.
 
I do think his behaviour could improve
but I also think that many artists would get way with most of the stuff Ryan has done without anyone in the media writing about it
they would probably even applaud it if some artists did it because it would show that they aren't merely entertainment machines but human or something
 
Agreed, Salome.

This is what I love about Ryan...he is real. He won't hide his emotions and be a little darling for the sake of looking wonderful to the public and the media. He is who he is. I'm a firm believer that when you buy a ticket to a concert, you are at the mercy of the performer...whatever he chooses to give is what you get. I can't say that if he had come onstage in Ann Arbor and told us all we sucked and played 5 songs and then left that I wouldn't be pretty pissed and disappointed, but that's the risk you take.
 
Ryan is both a great songwriter and a big brat. I think that you can show you are human and not just an entertainment machine without being an ass to an audience who pay good money to see you. There is definitely a middle road there.

BUT, it's hilarious that Paul Westerberg would criticize Ryan. Pot-kettle-black, that one.
 
This is the full quote from Paul Westerberg that seemed to have set Ryan off:

"I see his fuckin' haircut, I hear his fuckin' whine, I see his fake clothes, and then he opens his fuckin' mouth, and all I want to do is smash the fucker's teeth down his throat."

Wow.
 
Jeez. Poor Paul. When was the last time he wrote a good song? That is actually a real question. I lost track of him.
 
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