Ryan Adams - Forum Theatre, 19 July 2015

As promised, here's Ryan Adams first Melbourne show. I'd heard a few bad things about the band, but they're actually pretty solid. Sets don't vary much on this tour, but there are still a couple of seldom played tracks like My Baby Don't Understand Me [note: the fact you're sleeping with someone doesn't make them a great songwriter] and Sweet Illusions.

The other highlight is a fantastic slapdown of a drunk guy who yells out too much:

I'm going to break your fucking nose, and it's gonna hurt. Shut the fuck up. Just try it. Just try to have an experience where you shut the fuck up and let something happen to you. I know my music appeals to a lot of single people, but dude you don't have to put a sign on your forehead, cause clearly nobody tolerates you. So just fucking chill man. You're ok. It's ok. Just let it happen. It'll be amazing. You never know you might learn something.

Ouch.

Gimme Something Good
Let it Ride
Stay with Me
Dirty Rain
This House is Not for Sale
Dear Chicago
Magnolia Mountain
To Be Young
Peaceful Valley
Kim
Oh My Sweet Carolina (w/ Jenny Lewis)
When the Stars Go Blue
Shakedown on 9th St
My Baby Don't Understand Me
New York, New York
Improv
I See Monsters
Sweet Illusions
La Cienga Just Smiled
Trouble
Nobody Girl

Come Pick Me Up

FLAC

MP3

Best in Show

With no more shows scheduled this month I thought it might be a good time for a mid-year performance review.  How have this years shows been?  What have been the highlights/lowlights?  And so on.

My top show:

1. Noel Gallagher - my expectations for this weren't that high, but having never seen Oasis I thought this would be worthwhile.  It turned out to be great.  Gallagher Sr is a great singer, and his new album is as good as most of Oasis' material.  He also did a good job of mixing old and new, and rarities and big hits.  The recording of this also turned out great.

Honourable mentions:

2. My Morning Jacket
3. Jason Isbell
4. Jason Isbell/Ryan Adams
5. Wavves

Worst show:

Soundgarden - the best of this year probably doesn't match the best of last year, and fortunately the worst of this year also doesn't match the worst of last year (Big Boi).  The problem with this gig was the awful (awful!) sound.  It was muddy and bass heavy.  For some songs it was pretty much impossible to know what was being sung, and things never got any better.  I've heard bad things about Sidney Myer, but its hard to believe that any band (or promoter) would put up with a venue this bad.  Hopefully it will prove to be better when I see the Black Keys there.

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