Ryan Adams Does Not Like the House of Blues

You know, after three days of non stop music you'd think I'd be ready for a few days of no shows, but you'd be wrong.  Today, my first day back I had tickets to go see Ryan Adams at the House of Blues.

 

We were waiting in line to see Ryan, to make sure we got close to the stage, I hate standing in the middle of the crowd, and were talking to these two guys behind us.  Now what would the odds be that there is someone else as crazy as me that would drive back from Bonnaroo and go to a concert right away?  Well, pretty good I guess, cause one of these guys had just come back from Bonnaroo.  He still had on his arm bracelet.  They had seen Ryan like three or four times, drivng all the way to Tennessee to see him.

 

Now normally I would not have went to a concert right after coming back from Bonnaroo, but it was Ryan Adams.  After Wilco he was one of my top performers that I had not seen that I wanted to.  (And don't ask about tommorrow night when I go see John Fogerty.  I know, but it's John Fogerty at the House of Blues, how can anyone pass that up?)

 

I've read that Ryan can be tempemental at shows.  And also that he has stage fright pretty bad.  Well it was pretty obvious about the second from the moment he came  out.  He wears his hair long and keeps it in his face.  And he hardly ever looks at the audience.  Even when he steps to the end of the stage for a guitar solo he keeps his head down or turned away from the audience.  As far the second, well read on....

 

He put on a great show.  Doing a lot of stuff from the new cd, but going back and doing older stuff too.  No Whiskeytown, but from what I've heard he refuses to do anything from the group.  He did So Sad(To Be Young), the first cut from his first solo cd, so he went back a ways in the song selection.  He did New York.  He did Magnolia Mountain from his new cd, my favorite song from Cold Roses.

 

The band took a break and Ryan did a song on guitar by himself. Strawberry Wine, he messed up once and muttered an apology than went back, but ended up making up a lot of lyrics as he sang, even smiling as he did it.

 

Than he went over to the piano and did a song.  After the song he started talking about when he was down here in New Orleans to record the Love Is Hell cd.  He mentioned a few times that people talking while he was singing was a pain and he didnt' like it. He finished the song and said he was taking a ten minute break and would be back to do another two hours.  He had already did about two hours.  He said that he was going to go find a concert where he could talk while the group played and walked off stage.

 

He came back and did his first song.  Than he stopped, you could tell he was pissed off.  He started talking about how he hated singing while people where talking on their cell phones, or to other people, etc.  Especailly he said people that got comp tickets.  He said this was always a problem when he played the House of Blues.  He was really getting himself worked up.  Finally he said that he would give the people that really didn't want to be at the concert five minutes to get out, than he'd be back.  And with that he walked off stage.

 

True to his word, he was back in five minutes.  He started trying to explain himself.  He said he just wanted to make his music and not have to put up with all this other stuff.  He said after he finished this tour he would never play a House of Blues again.  Than he did a song, something new I think, I didn't recongnize it.  Than he did a Phil Lesh song, no idea, cause I'm not familar with Phil Lesh's songs.  But it was a long one.  After he finished he went towards the back of the stage, putting his guitar down and it looked like he was going to get another one, but he turned and walked offstage.  His band was not expecting it, they were all standing around waiting to start the next song.  They looked after him and realized that he wasn't coming back so they left after him.

 

I would probably have been upset if he had did this at the start of the concert, but he had already played for over three hours, which is longer than most acts perform.  And I really don't blame him.  It is very annoying to be at a concert and have to listen to someone yell in the cell phone while talking to someone else.  I'm there to listen to the music, not your coversation.  At a R.E.M. concert my brother and I listened to these two guys behind us complain that all the songs R.E.M. were playing was just sell outs to the crowd and they wanted to hear Radio Free Europe, everything after that was basically just a sell out.  Why did they even come I wondered?  And I imagine it has to be hard when you're performing and trying to do a softer song and hear someone yell for some other song, or hear someone talking about something not even related to the music.  I think he would be happier just making cds and not having to go out and promote them or anything.  I'm glad I got a chance to see him now, who knows what he'll do in the future.