Ryan Adams - 3 March 2012, Regent Theatre

There has been a lot of traffic to this site from Ryan Adams fansites, so I know a lot of people are keen to hear this.  As I've already mentioned, the sound here isn't everything I hoped it would be (although looking on the brightside its a problem that should be easily fixable for future recordings).  Having said that the show itself outshines any audio problems.

Reading a fan review of the Brisbane show I saw someone describe him as a 'delicate genius', which is about right.  He seems to have a tendency to be in either an extremely good or an extremely bad mood (with resulting effects on the show), and the cause of either could be something relatively minor.  For that reason there was a lot of tension early in the show, exacerbated by the fact that he was very quiet for a long time.  There was an almost audible intake of breath as an obnoxious fan yelled out for the lights to be turned up (apparently he also made more comments that weren't audible from where I was).  Fortunately as the show went on Ryan's mood seemed to get better to the point that by the end of the show he was positively gregarious.

The setlist started off relatively predicatably, but the fact that this was his first ever solo tour of Australia meant that most people would never have had the chance to hear some of the material played.  The regular Mr Cat improv didn't appear in Brisbane, so their was some nervousness that it might have disappeared for good, but it made an appearance late in the set, along with a nice improv based on Jason Isbell's 'Outfit'.  Other highlights were the piano-based version of Rescue Blues, the always-great Let it Ride, and Hardest Part.  Previous encores had been a cover of Alice in Chains' 'Nutshell', which would have been great.  While we didn't get that, we did get a three song (rather than the more usual one song) encore, including a very good cover of 'Holy Diver' by Dio.

The house lights and music came up before Ryan Adams had even left the stage, which disappointed those holding out for a very unlikely second encore, but overall no one should have left the venue with any disappointments (particularly if they caught Jason Isbell's opening set as well).

Oh My Sweet Carolina
Ashes & Fire
If I Am a Stranger
Dirty Rain
Winding Wheel
Rescue Blues [on piano]
Please Do Not Let Me Go
Do I Wait
Firecracker
Everybody Knows
Dear Chicago
Sylvia Plath
Let it Ride
English Girls Approximately
Chains of Love
16 Days
The Hardest Part
Lucky Now
Mr Cat Improv
New York, New York
Two
Jason Isbell's 'Outfit' Improv
Come Pick Me Up


Holy Diver
Avenues
When Will You Come Back Home

http://www.mediafire.com/?defc4j3bbwa9e