karmic calamity

...where was I?

When last I'd posted, I was preparing to go see Ryan Adams. Let's pick up there.

I'd just been to the venue the week before to see Face To Face with my friend Greg, so I knew what to expect from the venue. They'd added seating towards the rear of the hall for this show, I guess they figured there'd be a lot more old people like us there, who'd need to sit down during the show.

I was feeling a little under the weather, and it was a Sunday night, so I decided not to drink that night. Rhonda didn't either. I think we were the only two sober people in the place.

Anyway, I'd read reviews of Ryan Adams shows here and there, and spoken to a few people who'd seen him, and I never could get a good read on what his shows are like. I know this guy who went to see him in Chicago when he was opening for the Rolling Stones. The first show was apparently quite good, so he decided to get tickets for the next night, whereupon Ryan spent the evening repeatedly insulting the headlining act, and the town in which he was playing. I spent the entire week previous hoping that Ryan was in a good mood to play on Sunday night.

Rhonda and I are both fans of the guy, so no matter what, we weren't gonna pass on the chance to see him play live. I'm glad we went, too, because he came out and played his ass off all night long. And he only threw one guitar.

The backstory is that Ryan had recently broken his wrist. Sounds like it was a pretty bad injury too, that resulted in pins and bars and all kinds of crap being shot through his wrist so it'd heal properly. This is not good for a guitar player, I would imagine. It was his right hand, so it affected him strumming and picking, but luckily it wasn't his fret hand or he'd probably be screwed for even longer.

Then again, what do I know? I can barely play on a good day.

Anyway, he was out playing some shows, I guess, to work out the kinks and to get back into the swing of things. Plus, presumably he was making up some dates, as his wrist injury had come in the middle of a tour, and Phoenix was one of the dates that had gotten cancelled after the little goon fell off the stage and broke his wrist. We had tickets for his original show, and were really bummed that we weren't gonna be able to see him. Imagine our collective surprise when a replacement date turned up on his website, some six months later. It has been a great summer for shows in Phoenix this year.

He played a lot of stuff from his first two solo albums, Heartbreaker and Gold. A lot of the twangier stuff, which is just fine by me.His last two albums were represented as well, with just one song each from those collections. Needless to say, it was a twangier evening than I'd initially expected. Not that I was complaining, though. Heartbreaker is my favorite of his solo albums, he could've just sat and played that in its entirety and I'd have been happy.

That guy has some very nice guitars. Also, his bass player was a total hottie. The audience seemed to agree, as I heard several guys in the audience between songs yelling "Ryan yer bass player's HOT!"

He got frustrated, I think with himself, a few times and it showed. Mostly with his inability to play some of the trickier songs in his catalog. I think that was what sparked the flinging of the guitar about midway through the show. The song he was playing wasn't working out for him for whatever reason, and he clearly got frustrated. Next thing I know, he yells 'dammit!' and the guitar goes flying off to stage right and the guy who was sitting just offstage tuning them. Undaunted, he brought another one out, and the show went on. Later on, when he was playing alone, he was twittering around with some song, and he said something like "If I seem like I'm mad, it's not at you guys. It's probably a little too soon for me to be doing this, but I wanted to try." I'm glad he did.

It was a long show, I definitely feel as though we got our money's worth. He came out and played first with his band, the Cardinals, then they shuffled offstage and he did a long, solo acoustic set that actually took up the majority of the evening. All in all, a good show.

posted by Dale Ingram @ 3:06 PM