A Contrarian’s Guide To Ryan Adams

Even a perfunctory scan of the cyberwebs will lead you to hundreds of blog posts and professional reviews raving about the genius of Ryan Adams. His three-night run at NYC’s Town Hall received much of the same glowing praise. Not so, says our resident contrarian Chilly Jackwater, this guy’s not really, uh, very good.

Before you get your plaid shirt all twisted up in your beard, I’ll beat all you anti-haters to the limp-wristed punch: I don’t get it. You’re right. I don’t get the Ryan Adams “thing.” At least not live. I know, I know, Bob Dylan said he’s one of the world’s best songwriters, and there ain’t no arguing with Bobby Zimmerman.

But you know what? I respect the opinion of Rolling Stone’s David Fricke, too, but that guy routinely recommends Viking-tinged garage rock from 1962 featuring a frontman who shot himself in the studio after recording one song. Does that mean I have to love Viking-tinged garage rock from 1962 featuring frontmen who shot themselves in the studio? I think we all can answer that one.

Ryan Adams

That being said, let’s get back to Mr. Whiskeytown. After five consecutive years of people telling me I “HAVE to see Ryan Adams,” I decided to go see him last night. “His songs are great!” they said. “If you like Wilco, you’ll definitely like Ryan” they exclaimed. “Sometimes he even jams out,” they told me. “Giddy up” I responded.

Well, here’s my two-word review of the show: It sucked. I mean, I can tell that he has good repertoire of songs. What makes this all so strange for me is that I am somehow even intrigued enough by some of the better songs I heard last night to want to go buy “Gold.” Go figure. (I feel like the guy who wants to marry the ugly chick from high school because I once heard that she could shove an entire Charleston Chew down her throat.) But the quality of these “good songs” were greatly overshadowed by his inability to perform them live on stage last night.

And, let’s be totally honest here, I know it’s part of the Ryan Adams Experience, but if I wanted to see a tempestuous hipster doofus berate his audience and flip out on stage, I’ll go see Michael Richards do stand-up. Oh, and his set was all of 65 minutes long. So much for him “jamming out.” 

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6 Responses

  1. i got into ryan this past year and now own pretty much everything he’s put out (no mean feat). i do think his songwriting & playing are stellar, however after attending the wed town hall show some of the bloom is off the (cold) rose. it started SO strong – beautiful playing by & amongst the band members (tho the sound on the floor was muddy). however his unwillingness/inability to put up with the typical concertgoing assholes was disappointing. i know his reputation etc etc, but, speaking as a performing musician myself, you just need to suck it up, stick to the setlist and put on a good show for the 95% of the crowd that arent assholes.

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