speed of dark

We haven't had a contribution from our Dallas connection, Uncle T, for a while. Recently he saw Ryan Adams at McFarlin Auditorium in Dallas. Although there are many concert recordings of Adams, I did not find one for this particular date. I did, however, find nice live recordings from other performances in Adams' tour schedule and a photo from another concert this year.

Here is Uncle T's review:

Ryan Adams and the Cardinals


Photo by Stephanie Cabral, 08-05-07

Any band or performer can play a predictably slick show consisting of well-known songs with an organized set-list and air-tight execution. That certainly wasn’t the case with Ryan Adams' performance at SMU campus’ McFarlin Auditorium. On the other hand, he and his band absolutely delivered the musical goods whenever they did play; and that’s what counts. The show was divided into two sets: the first being the longer and the second set being much shorter, followed by a three-song encore.

Throughout both sets the stage lights were pretty stark, and they kept the place “movie theater” dark. So unless you were situated fairly close to the stage and had a good camera, you were not going to get a salvageable picture. Above the stage was a spinning mirror ball, and when the band’s colored lights shined on it against the curtain in back it often looked like the band was playing against a backdrop of stars (which looked pretty cool). I guess the plan of the sparse lighting, was to allow the audience to focus on the music itself. And it worked.

But after about the fourth or fifth song Ryan began taking his time between songs either to make odd comments to the audience or fiddle around with his instruments. Often there’d be a 2-4 minute gap of silence between songs, and naturally that opened him up for audience requests, comments, or cat-calls. Ryan has a well-deserved reputation for being temperamental in concerts, and even stormed off the stage for awhile the last time he played Dallas at the Gypsy Tea Room due to an insistent fan’s call for him to play a song request. However tonight he was in an odd but playful mood, and seemed to test the audience to see how much they would tolerate. To its credit the large audience, of mostly young college kids, pretty much forgave his every odd stage indulgence. Whatever he did throughout the night was forgiven every time they played, because the music was always exceptional.

How Ryan handled the hecklers:
Female fan: “Take your shirt off!” Ryan: “That’s in the second set.”
Male fan: “Freebird!” Ryan: “How about no bird?”
Male fan: (song request) Ryan: “Who asked ya?”

First Set List (in this general order):

1. Peaceful Valley [Jacksonville City Nights]
I didn’t even recognize this song when they quickly launched into this song to begin the concert. It sounded nothing like the original on the CD, and Ryan’s microphone was turned so low when the concert started you couldn’t hear a lot of the words. At points I recognized some of the lyrics, but couldn’t place it until I read a concert review the following day. Ryan played some nice lead guitar licks, and with his band they sounded similar to the Grateful Dead as they musically stretched out this song. As the song settled down, the music morphed into the next song.

2. I See Monsters [Love is Hell]
I didn’t recognize this obscure song either, which was completely different in concert from the stark original. Again Ryan and the band kicked up lots of beautiful noise on it. After the song ended, Ryan announced to the audience: “All right, folks; that was a good set. Goodnight.” Of course, this was just a joking reference to an incident that occurred at a Wisconsin show several weeks prior when he actually left the stage early due to some upset about the sound (and got booed by the crowd there).

3. Beautiful Sorta [Cold Roses]
This was another song wonderfully transformed in concert. Though it’s a rocker on the CD, in concert it rocked much harder. Particularly at the end when the band pounded it into the ground at its climatic end. This was great. By the end of this song, it was clear to the audience that this band was really quite good.
4. Goodnight Rose [Easy Tiger]
This was the first song I recognized in the set so far. They played it close to the original, with Ryan and Neal locking their lead guitar lines together in perfect unison. Very nice.

5. The Rescue Blues [Gold]
This was another old tune that I knew I’d heard but couldn’t place until after the concert. I’d generally been listening to the Cardinals CDs before this concert, not anticipating they’d be playing songs from his other CDs. However, he included songs throughout his solo career tonight and only played four songs from his latest CD.

6. Off Broadway [Easy Tiger]
This was a song off his latest CD that was marvelously transformed in concert by the band. This was really nice in concert.

7. Shakedown on 9th Street [Heartbreaker]
The band started this one off with a heavy “Bo Diddley” beat. I was surprised they played this one from his first solo CD. But it was a nice rocker and very good in concert.
8. The Sun Also Sets [Easy Tiger]
Nice ballad from the latest CD.

9. “Combat Chicken”
Ryan put his guitar down and sat at the piano for his ode to “Cowboy Chicken”, a local restaurant which he noticed around town and wrote a song for. However, he liked “Combat Chicken” for the song’s title instead of “Cowboy Chicken”. When he sang it softly and slowly it sounded like he was singing “come back, chicken”. At any rate, this was a complete joke which the audience took in stride (some not believing what they were witnessing onstage). What was funnier was his remark afterwards that “there ain’t no @#$% chicken that can ride a horse.” Afterwards, Ryan and the band played an actual song.
10. When the Stars Go Blue [Gold]
Another old song, done very nicely.
11. Wildflowers [Gold]
Another old song from his “Gold” CD.

12. Games [Jacksonville City Nights]
Very nice concert version.
13. Cold Roses [Cold Roses]
They did a great version of this, with nice vocal harmonies by the band. I think this song ended the first set, with Ryan announcing they’d be back in awhile for the second set.

Second Set List (in this general order):

14. A Kiss Before I Go [Jacksonville City Nights]
After about 30 minutes, the lights dimmed and band came back onstage to play a fairly faithful rendition of this alt-country song. Ryan was now wearing a pair of knee-high biker boots, leather armbands, a leather dog-collar, and a chain-mail sleeveless shirt. Not sure if this was an early Halloween costume or his homage to Rob Halford of Judas Priest. It was a little disconcerting seeing him play this country song in that heavy metal get-up.

15. Nightbirds [29]
Next Ryan played piano on this great song, which is one of my favorites of his. I was very pleased he played this. Very cool in concert.

16. Goodnight Hollywood Blvd. [Gold]
Before launching into his vocal tour-de-force of the night, Ryan did some rocker-like poses at the microphone to the amusement of himself and the audience. But once the band kicked into the song, Ryan sang the hell out of it. This was another show highpoint. After the song ended and the crowd finished its wild applause, Ryan decided his heavy-metal costume was too uncomfortable. So he left the stage to change. Okay; another delay.

17. Jon Graboff (“Stand-up comic”): At this point the band’s pedal steel guitarist quickly took to the center-stage microphone and told a quick Henny Youngman-like joke to fill in the time. Afterwards the band did a little ad-libbed filler music until Ryan came back. Ryan then strapped on a guitar, but realized it wasn’t the one he wanted and a guitar tech handed him another one. Someone in the audience yelled “Play some music!”, to which Ryan replied “Alright, alright! I’m just trying to get the right guitar. Jeez.” He continued: “The professionalism on this stage is so phenomenal you just can’t imagine” (or something like that). Anyhow, the audience found that statement VERY funny.
18. Two [Easy Tiger]
When they finally got around to playing this new song, they did a great job.

19. Bartering Lines [Heartbreaker]
This was a old song, nicely done with the band.

20. Wonderwall [Love is Hell]
They did a really nice version of this Oasis cover. After it ended, Ryan abruptly stated that he “guessed it's time for the encore” (it was 11:15 pm by then). And he and the band left the stage. This seemed a little odd, but the crowd rose from their seats and clapped for the encore anyway.

Encore:

21. Let It Ride [Cold Roses]
After a couple of minutes, Ryan and the band came back and guitarist Neal Casal announced that they “raise a chalice to Dallas” as the band members hoisted their drinks toward the audience before taking collective swigs. Ryan took center-stage playing acoustic guitar and harmonica, and they did a very nice version of this great alt-country anthem.

22. Come Pick Me Up [Heartbreaker]
They quickly went into this old song, and did a great job on this “not ready for prime time” number.

23. Oh My Sweet Carolina [Heartbreaker]
They ended the show with another old one, doing a great job. The audience gave them a loud round of applause as the band left the stage.

Despite Ryan’s eccentricities, he and the audience left on pretty good terms. I was pretty satisfied with the songs played, the band, and Adams good mood (i.e., he didn’t get pissed off and leave early). All in all, a very satisfying and interesting concert experience.

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