Ryan Adams Loses it

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by aceman400, Dec 15, 2003.

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  1. aceman400

    aceman400 Power to the Metal Thread Starter

    Location:
    mn
    Kind of glad I didn't go.
    From www.starTribune.com


    Chris Riemenschneider, Star Tribune

    Published December 16, 2003 RYAN16

    Lambasting everything from the sound system to music journalists to local rock legend Paul Westerberg, young Americana rocker Ryan Adams gave an unwieldy, erratic performance that turned into a personal meltdown Sunday night at First Avenue.

    The 29-year-old former Whiskeytown singer -- whose reputation as a bratty, gabby rock star added to the charm of other concerts -- was anything but likeable Sunday.

    His two-hour show started as a clumsy deluge of uncharacteristically fast and furious rock noise, and it turned into a disheveled acoustic set when the electricity didn't work in Adams' favor. As the music got worse, so did the singer's diva-like behavior.

    The concert ended with Adams standing on stage by himself, holding a cocktail and whining, "I just want to go home for Christmas."

    Make no mistake, Adams is one of rock's most gifted modern songwriters. His prolificness -- releasing at least one album a year -- impresses as much as his knack for turning old formulas like heartache and hard-living into fresh inspiration.

    However, that musical genius was buried Sunday beneath three or four blaring guitars and overeager rhythms. Even the best songs off his loud new album "lloR 'n kcoR" fell flat, including "This Is It" and "Wish You Were Here" -- both of which he played twice, not satisfied the first time.

    The first clue of Adams' off mood was the fact that he barely spoke for the first hour. After a snide, uninspired version of "To Be Young (Is to Be Sad, Is to Be High)," the floodgates opened, and fans probably would've paid a second cover charge to shut him up.

    Apparently, three things set Adams off: problems with the amplifiers, which likely stemmed from his inexperience with so many guitars; a bad review for opening band the Stills in the local weekly City Pages, and a York, Pa., newspaper article in which former Replacements singer Westerberg said the young rocker "needs to get his teeth kicked in."

    Admitting that the Replacements "dominated my record collection," Adams went on and on about how Westerberg had dealt him a cheap shot.

    "You don't trash the people you inspired," he said, calling the local singer "a bitter, old bitch."

    Westerberg and the Stills' review kept coming up even after the electric guitars were ditched and Adams temporarily huffed off the stage. The ensuing acoustic set was an improvised disaster, with Adams making up lyrics about the Replacements and his own public image, including, "Yeah, so I dated an actress . . you would, too."

    "This is one of my worst shows ever, but I like it," he said defiantly near the end.

    By then, half of the sellout crowd had left. Of the ones who stayed, many were no doubt hoping Westerberg would show up and meet Adams' needs.
     
  2. Dob

    Dob New Member

    Location:
    Detroit
    Good thing no one shouted out for him to play "Summer of '69"!
     
  3. stever

    stever Senior Member

    Location:
    Omaha, Nebr.
    I hope it happens. I simply can't tolerate this boring, arrogant little fart, or his music.
     
  4. Highway Star

    Highway Star New Member

    Location:
    eastern us
    :laugh:

    Yeah, that might of cut like a knife!
     
  5. GuyDon

    GuyDon Senior Member

    Jim DeRogatis of the Sun Times also wrote a scathing review of his weekend show in Chicago.
     
  6. aceman400

    aceman400 Power to the Metal Thread Starter

    Location:
    mn
    Wow, I just read the Sun-Times article. Ryan must be havin some serious issues. Hope he sorts it out. We don't need another rocker on a collision course.

    Aaron
     
  7. bldg blok

    bldg blok Forum Resident

    Location:
    Elmira, NY
    I remember when Courtney Love did a 24 hr. Video DJ gig on MTV2 Summer before last and Ryan was one of her guests. If anyone saw the recent clip of Courtney in her latest court date, you'd have to worry that Courtney & Ryan have "habits" in common.

    I bought the SACD of the "Gold" and I have TRIED for the life of me to like it, but I just don't think it's anything special. I LOVED the "NY, NY" video, but to my ear, there's nothing really distinctive on this album. I can hear influences, but nothing that tells me he's original.
     
  8. Paul K

    Paul K Senior Member

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    Let him collision course...he has been a brat since Whiskeytown and his albums have sucked (don't even try to argue this) since "Heartbreaker".

    "Gold" was the sound of a guy taking too many drugs and believing his own press. The album was a monochromatic bore after the height the previous one crapped from before...

    The next disaster has to be the "Demolition" (don't have it, 'cause it was so forgetable so I hope the title is correct) in which Mr. Adams figures that every song he writes, needs an audience.

    "Rock N Roll" is whiney. And it sounds like bloody China Crisis at times. 'nuff said.

    Maybe if he concentrated on writing songs instead of dating actresses and famous female songstresses and bassists, we might get a good album out of him. Oh and an edit button...
     
  9. Dave D

    Dave D Done!

    Location:
    Milton, Canada
    Geez, I was just about to buy something of his! Now yer scaring me!
     
  10. poweragemk

    poweragemk Old Member

    Location:
    CH
    You forgot to say, in your opinion :)
     
  11. Brian Cruz

    Brian Cruz Forum Resident

    Location:
    Franklin, TN
    Just buy Whiskeytown's Stranger's Almanac.
     
  12. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    Can you all recommend a good album by Ryan Adams? I'm curious now.

    As far as his image is concerned, it's all rock & roll...
     
  13. Mike

    Mike New Member

    Location:
    New Jersey
    I've always thought this guy was highly overrated.

    http://www.suntimes.com/output/entertainment/cst-ftr-adams15.html

    Ryan Adams at the Riviera Theatre

    December 15, 2003

    BY JIM DEROGATIS Pop Music Critic

    Ryan Adams would like us to think that it's incredibly difficult being Ryan Adams -- young, talented, clever and outrageously prolific.

    In fact, what's difficult is watching the spectacle of the 29-year-old North Carolina-bred singer and songwriter acting out the whole tired "troubled artist" routine and trying desperately hard to convince us of his genius.

    Adams came to a packed Riviera Theatre Saturday night with a six-piece band to promote his official new album, "Llor n Kcor" (that's "Rock 'n' Roll" backwards), as well as the two EPs that followed a few weeks after that release, "Love is Hell, Vols. I and II."

    Midway through the show, the spiky-haired alternative-country poseur cursed his label for failing to see that the two EPs are as worthy of hype as the album, though the record company is absolutely correct in trying to reign him in and force him to focus: The concert was proof once more that Adams is his own worst enemy, detracting from his modest talent by thinking that every idea he has is a good one, and thereby giving us as much garbage as greatness.

    Though Adams is now as notorious for his bad-boy behavior as he is for his music, the show started promisingly enough, as he and his accomplished band tore through hard-hitting versions of new rockers such as "1974" and "Note to Self: Don't Die." For the first five songs, it seemed as if he might finally be playing to his strengths -- delivering catchy and motivating roots-rock that is derivative of everyone from Paul Westerberg to Morrissey, but undeniable nonetheless.

    Then things started to go to hell. Adams played "Wish You Were Here" (his song from the new album, not the Pink Floyd classic) four times in a row, giving it to us straight, then as hard-core punk, then as a spoofy country ditty and finally rendering it as sung by Cookie Monster, simultaneously dissing the barked vocals of the nu-metal genre and paying homage to "Sesame Street."

    These 20 minutes of shtick derailed the momentum the group had built up, and so it went through the rest of the 100-minute set. The band would pick up speed over the course of a few solid songs, and then Adams would act out, inviting all of his musicians and the members of the opening band, the unimpressive Adams clones the Stills, to gather around two mikes for a hokey mock-hootenanny version of the sexist new ditty, "Miss America."

    Later, he improvised an acoustic song about the snow in Chicago, using it as an excuse to further his pointless feud with local alternative-country heroes Wilco. "Buy me a video camera so I can make a movie called 'I Am Trying to Bore You to Death,' " he crooned, sneering at the Wilco film, "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart."

    Adams can release three CDs in a three-week span, but the fact remains that he still can't write one song as original or as heartfelt as anything by Jeff Tweedy.

    The set ended abruptly and jarringly after 15 songs as Adams threw down his white Stratocaster and stormed offstage -- he'd been whining about suffering from the flu, and for a while it seemed as if he might not return. But the delay was as calculated as the ridiculously long wait before the start of his set, the better to fuel anticipation.

    Eventually, sure enough, the performer returned to offer five songs solo acoustic, playing the young Dylan role that made a fan out of Elton John, but offering nothing nearly as impressive lyrically or musically.

    The show ended back in full band mode as Adams eschewed the guitar and ran around with the microphone, imitating Courtney Love by jumping into the crowd several times during the anthemic singalongs "Burning Photographs" and "So Alive."

    The fans (who skewed younger than Adams) ate it all up, but you had to suspect that it was because they'd never seen the real Courtney, much less the Replacements or even Wilco.

    Absent an historical musical context or a functioning b.s. detector, it is possible to mistake Adams for being as talented and clever as he thinks he is. But then there are plenty of people who can't tell the difference between plastic flowers and real ones, until they bend over to take a whiff.

    Note to Ryan Adams: Wish you were anywhere but here.
     
  14. Driver 8

    Driver 8 Senior Member

    Ryan Adams may well be an ******* (I've never seen him in concert) but there is no denying that he is a very talented songwrier. I disagree with the argument that he is too prolific or that his record company is right to try to force him to record at a slower pace. I find it very refreshing to see a contemporary artist record at the same pace as Dylan in the 60s, instead of releasing one album every four years, like U2 or so many other contemporary rock acts. With regard to the comments that Ryan Adams is no Paul Westerberg, I saw Paul Westerberg and the rest of the Replacements make drunken fools of themselves on the Let It Be tour. A lot of rock critics at the time seemed to find the Replacements' drunken antics charming, although I'm sure some fans and critics were just as outraged as the reviewers quoted above. Whether Adams made a fool of himself in public or not, Rock and Roll and Love is Hell are two of the stronger albums of the year.
     
  15. lbangs

    lbangs Senior Member

    Is it just me, or do such sweeping generalizations as this one tend to discredit so many rock critics?

    I'll take Strangers Almanac's Avenues over several Tweedy songs any day of the week...

    Shalom, y'all!

    L. Bangs
     
  16. wynnwikman

    wynnwikman Senior Member

    Location:
    West Michigan
    For anyone insterested in listening to Ryan Adams in the safety of their own home i highly recommend Love is Hell Pt. 1. It is one of the best things i have heard all year (and better than his other stuff - i have everything except R&R, still waiting for the SACD) "The Shadowlands" is an amazing song, and a fun listen on a good audio system. His cover of wonderwall is great too.

    I have been thinking of sequencing the two Love is Hell eps back into a lp on a cd-r, but haven't given the sequencing much thought yet.

    Wynn
     
  17. bartels76

    bartels76 Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    CT
    :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

    I agree. He obviously isn't playing by industry rules which I think is great. No excuse for his crappy behavior and doing bad live shows. I think I'll stick to listening to Ryan Adams in my home.

    Get Whiskeytown Strangers Almanac, R. Adams- Love Is Hell and Gold if you want to get into him.
     
  18. czeskleba

    czeskleba Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    The key difference between Westerberg and Adams is that Westerberg is self-effacing and relatively humble, and Adams appears to have quite a large ego. When the Replacements were drunk onstage they were funny and self-deprecating and laughed at themselves. When Adams is drunk (or high or whatever) onstage he gets prickly, whiney, defensive, and critical of others. I think it's his attitude, more than drunkenness or sloppiness, that people find annoying about Adams.
     
  19. Brian Cruz

    Brian Cruz Forum Resident

    Location:
    Franklin, TN
    quote:
    Originally posted by Mike
    Adams can release three CDs in a three-week span, but the fact remains that he still can't write one song as original or as heartfelt as anything by Jeff Tweedy.

    Definitely two different animals.
     
  20. Paul K

    Paul K Senior Member

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    Good albums - Strangers Almanac
    Heartbreaker

    Mediocre albums - mostly everything else.

    IMO.
     
  21. Gary

    Gary Nauga Gort! Staff

    Location:
    Toronto
    Geez. To me it just sounds like he lost an argument with his handlers and can only take a short break for Christmas. I'd be upset, too. I'm sure he has family... Mom, Dad, etc. :(
     
  22. stever

    stever Senior Member

    Location:
    Omaha, Nebr.
    IMO, Whiskeytown's, "Pneumonia," is the best album he's been a part of.
     
  23. levi

    levi Can't Stand Up For Falling Down In Memoriam

    Location:
    North Carolina
    there's no question he's a jerk and and a baby and an egomaniac.

    but there's also no question about his talent. Love Is Hell is very good, bordering on great. Heartbreaker, Stranger's Almanac and Pneumonia would make my Top 100. Gold is erratic, but songs like Rescue Blues and Where Stars Turn Blue are still worth the cover charge.

    the only reason I can think of for going to see him is he's living like someone who's going to be checking out soon. even as annoying as he is, it'll still be a damn pity.
     
  24. Beagle

    Beagle Senior Member

    Location:
    Ottawa
    Are you insane? Gold was brillliant... mostly.
     
  25. aceman400

    aceman400 Power to the Metal Thread Starter

    Location:
    mn
    I went to Google News and read a few more articles and it seemed that in every city his performance was erratic, bordering on annoying. More than one writer called him an imitator or mimic. Hope he gets it together.
    Aaron
     
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