REVIEW: RYAN ADAMS AT YORK GRAND OPERA HOUSE (28/10/11)
It’s been an age since America’s finest neo-country export headed to the Westcountry. In recent years we’ve had to venture east to Southampton,London and Brighton to catch him play and this tour was no different. With two sold out dates in London, one in Edingburgh and one in York, we were left with little choice but to head north to Yorkshire.
Ryan Adams can be massively hit and miss – both on record and live. He’s released over a dozen albums over his decade or so of post Whiskeytown music making, meaning a lot of distinctly average songs and albums punctuated by some true masterpieces. His live shows depend massively on his mood and our last two experiences have left us wondering why he tours at all as he obviously hates it (his typical response to heckles goes along the lines of ‘I thought you’d come to see me, not listen to yourselves?’ Ooooh!).
Adams has come under a lot of stick recently for his diva-ish behaviour, culminating in a very public spat with Crowded House singer Neil Finn, after an ill-fated appearance on BBC’s Songwriter’s Circle where Adams didn’t fully join in with the supposed-group rendition of Weather With You. However, this York show was a real delight and Adams was on top form, even managing to ignore an antagonistic heckler’s call for Weather With You. He went on to actually enjoy some banter with the audience, which rewarded him with a standing ovation at the end.
Sadly, his sets have become a bit predictable (especially if you make the mistake of checking out the set lists from the other dates of the mini tour). Even the inter-song banter is recycled. He opens with a perfectly reserved acoustic rendition of Oh My Sweet Carolina, which showcases his heartbreaking vocals and impeccable songwriting ability; before sliding smoothly into the title track from his new album, Ashes and Fire. For some reason, Adams gurns through all of the songs off his new album, making for uncomfortable watching at times – not that you can see much of his face as his foppy hair covers his eyes. But then he doesn’t have a band to hide with here, nothing but him, his acoustic guitar and his harmonica.
That aside, the new album is up there with his best work (namely his first two solo albums, Heartbreaker and Gold) and each song – from Lucky Now to Dirty Rain and Do I Wait to Invisible Riverside invoke the most forceful of emotions, which is exactly why we fell in love with Adams in the first place. He played much of the set sat with his guitar but it was only when he stood up you felt the full force of some of the songs with the mind-blowingly brilliant Evergreen, Everybody Knows and Two justifying the adulation present for Adams, who could well be one of the greatest songwriters of our time. At his best Adams is nothing short of a genius and it’s a wonder he’s not hailed as such, and this was him at his best.
Whiskeytown fans were in for a treat, with energetic renditions of Avenues, 16 days and Jacksonville Skyline dominating the encore. Predictably he ended with one of his most well known, and deservedly so, songs Come Pick Me Up. Sadly, it had a slight feel of ‘going through the motions’ about it but that wasn’t enough to deter from its inherent brilliance with everyone in the auditorium whispering the poetic line: ‘I wish you would come pick me up, take me out, fuck me up, steal my records, screw all my friends, they’re all full of shit, with a smile on your face, and then do it again.’ Amazing. The gig could’ve done with a bit more from Gold but with his new material harking back to the brilliance of his first couple of solo albums we feel Adams has found his way again after too many years wandering the musical ether trying to find non narcotics based inspiration.
Words: Laura Williams
Photo: 6tee-zeven via Flickr
