Ok, so maybe K-Fed doesn’t have the best intentions in mind as he seeks custody. Maybe this is all a ploy for him to get more child support to help out his financial situation. In a way, that makes me all the more impressed. That would imply that K-Fed is able to perform basic math and I really thought that was well past his capabilities. The guy amazes me daily.
So, I saw Ryan Adams in concert tonight and I lived to tell the tale. The show was at the Uptown and Ryan drew the same size crowd as Weird Al (think about that and add in the fact that the Weird Al tickets were more expensive.) The show got off to an auspicious start as the 8 PM time on the ticket was replaced with an announcement of “Tonight’s performance will begin at 8:30.” First off, this meant that it was highly possible that Ryan was drunk off his ass already. It also marked the first time I’ve ever heard of one of his shows being referred to as a performance. We’re talking about a guy who couldn’t play guitar earlier this year because he broke his wrist skateboarding after having to cancel previous tours due to breaking his other wrist by falling off the stage. It’s less performance and more organized chaos.
(Oh, and Ryan didn’t seem drunk. More like hopped up on Red Bull and dealing with the fact that he quit smoking two days ago and was having serious coping issues. For a guy whose grip on reality is rather slight to begin with this is not entirely a good thing.)
In an interesting change of pace, the stage was barely lit. It was intentionally dark and given that the Uptown is a rather dark place to begin with it created this whole dangerous vibe to the entire show. Like you couldn’t tell what was going to come out of the shadows at any time. The set started off really well but seemed to peter out towards the end. Part of that is probably just my perception. While I’m a big fan of Ryan’s I kind of fell off the bandwagon a few discs ago. The music had gotten sloppy and I was pissed at him for writing a song about Beth Orton breaking up with him. I’m sorry but if you’re dumb enough to let Beth Orton get away you do not have the right to sing about it in an “oh look at how sad I am” way. Anyone with half of brain would hold on to her and not let go even if someone used the frigging jaws of life. But I digress… Basically, I’ll always like the guy for writing the lyric “So, that’s how the story goes. Can we cut to the scene where I’m holding you close” but wish that he would settle down a bit.
Easy Tiger, his latest disc, is a step in that direction but Ryan still seems hyper as hell on stage. He stormed off the stage in Minneapolis last week and seemed to be really on edge this week. He tried to do stage banter and it might have been funny to him but for those of us in the crowd it seemed off. It was also the first show I’ve ever attended where I seriously wondered if the guy was going to come out for the encore. It was a several minute wait and I really wondered if he had just gone “screw it.” You really don’t know with him.
It’s strange to see someone with that much talent not really waste it but not harness it properly. The guy releases one or two discs a year so it’s not like he isn’t productive. But you just think that with a little more work, a little more focus, a few less substances and maybe there would be utter brilliance. He’s already pulled it off a few times in his career. I just hope there is another trick up his sleeve.
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