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ch-scene - Re: Ryan Adams Raleigh 6/8/05 non-review

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  • From: Michael Schey <mscheynjSPAMBLOCK AT yahoo.com>
  • To: ch-scene AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: Ryan Adams Raleigh 6/8/05 non-review
  • Date: Thu, 09 Jun 2005 13:19:52 -0400

On 9 Jun 2005 10:09:12 -0700, jgmclean0 AT yahoo.com wrote:

>Not a review, just a few observations:
>
> - A sign on the door stated "2 sets, show starts promptly at 8PM".
>The band came out at 8:20 and played a bit less than 3 hours without a
>break. The first hour and a half was nearly exclusively songs from the
>new Cold Roses disc; the songs are mostly good-to-great but the
>overly-similar arrangements and much of the crowd's unfamiliarity with
>the new material, combined with bad sound (see below), muddy lighting
>(somebody get a follow spot up there) and long pauses between songs
>(see below also) made for a rather grim early response from the
>hometown crowd. The mood finally lightened when Adams moved to a block
>of songs from Heartbreaker that featured more dynamic and varied
>arrangements, including an absolutely stunning, goosebump-inducing
>version of "Oh My Sweet Carolina" that raised a spontaneous roar as the
>last note faded out.
>
> - Not to put too fine a point on it, but Adams is absolutely barking
>nuts, taking long minutes between songs with stream-of-consciousness
>babble: movie quotes, riffs on other acts including Billy Corgan,
>Wilco, and (especially) Robbie Fulks, (who, according to the guy in the
>row behind me, disparged Adams at a recent gig here -- ah, the
>alt.country drama), and general twitchiness. Most of the band is
>clearly scared to death of him, their yukking it up at times recalling
>Elvis-entourage syncophancy; only the drummer was willing to cut the
>nonsense short by counting in tunes while Adams fidgeted, chain-smoked,
>and swilled from several different bottles.
>
> - He's also a genius. I've never seen anybody, Springsteen included,
>who so is so instinctively spot-on with phrasing, dynamics, and timing.
> This was especially evident late in the set when Adams left the band
>behind and played piano or solo acoustic guitar/harmonica. Playing
>around with '70s concert conventions, he went from delicate
>Jackson-Browney piano/vocal work to crawling-on-the floor, stomping the
>neck of the guitar feedback heroics, without a trace of irony or
>distance on either end. The transitions from off-the-wall mumbling and
>stumbling to laser-sharp playing and singing were startling; at one
>point Adams seemed to interrupt *himself* in mid-sentence when his
>hands, unbidden, started playing a song.
>
> - Criminitley, the sound was awful. In an acoustically-perfect
>orchestral hall, no less. Even the world's-loudest-band Dead -- who
>Adams seems to be emulating lately -- understood the difference between
>clean-power decibels and overdriving everything to distortion. I don't
>know how much was the sound-man's fault and how much stems from Adams'
>retro-penchant (all guitars were miked from tube amps, several live
>mics were placed to the PA and Adams constantly fiddled with his amp
>settings); the sound was just OK (aside from some annoying amp buzz)
>when dynamics were on the quiet side but routinely devolved into
>earsplitting mush whenever both guitars (plus pedal steel) kicked in.
>I know, if it's too loud you're too old, and loud is fine, but there's
>just no excuse for this kind of crap sound. When some wag in the
>balcony Skynyrded "Turn it up!" early on, a half dozen people sitting
>around me spontaneously called out "NO!". (I had a similar complaint
>about Lucinda Williams at the Ashville concert hall last year -- maybe
>such halls are just too reverberative for rock, I dunno).
>
> - Of course, the big news here, for die-hard triangle music fans or
>Adams back-catalog devotees, was the brief, unexpected reuinion with
>Caitlyn Cary (his old Whiskeytown and compatriot and foil). The band
>vacated the stage and the two lurched their way through a short set of
>Whiskeytown tunes -- to say these were rough duets is an
>understatement, they were more like tentative rehearsals as the pair
>were often in search of lyrics and a common key -- but the thrill of
>the moment stayed intact. For a guy who's often criticized as an
>egomaniacal jerk, he showed amazing *generosity* towards Cary, letting
>her pace the songs, feeding her forgotton lines between verses and
>pulling her back onstage for final bows as the ridiculous 11PM Raleigh
>concert curfew kicked in.
>
> - I wouldn't call this the best show I've ever seen, but I'm glad not
>to have missed it as the high points were amazing and the rest was
>bearable. I also can't shake the sad feeling that this guy is not
>likely to be around or intact in a few years (and I wonder if he knows
>it too, given the rate at which he's pushing out music right now).
>
>JGM


Barking nuts, a genius, etc, is what I have heard many times about his
shows. I have NOT seen him live yet, but really want to, but am so
afraid that my expectations of him (based on the studio recordings)
will be shattered to bits by his on-stage persona. A few of the
boots I have of him are basically unlistenable due to the crap that
goes in between songs (the babbling, the smoking, etc). Perhaps I
need to spend the time and edit the crap out?

Perhaps he just needs to grow up or mabye get some people around him
that can handle him better?




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