Ryan Adams - Stubbs

Ryan Adams can be a fickle friend. I was sad when a buddy called me last Wednesday night to report a sulking Adams that played a mere hour and fifteen minutes before saying, “Thank you, goodnight” (his only three words of the set) and stumbling off stage. This could not be more different than the Adams that played Stubbs on Thursday.

Knowing that Ryan’s mood dictates his set can be a little nerve-racking. The first five or six songs he played with his hair in his face, leaning into a low set mic and interacting little with the audience or his band. Finally halfway through “Cold roses” he motioned for his band to stop, apologized to the audience, and claimed that he couldn’t hear a thing in his monitors... “Sorry... it’d be great if I were Prince or something, but I don’t even know my own songs.” Ryan then left the stage. His bandmates didn’t seem overly concerned, lighting cigarettes and telling jokes while rodies bustled about unstacking amps and shifting monitors. When he finally came out five minutes later he apologized explaining, “It’s all better now... I thought since we were playing outside it might be fun/cute to stack my amps... as it turns out it just made my guitar feed back into my amp making me sound like Darth Vader.” At this, the band picked right up were they left out and Ryan belted out with a renewed vigor that he maintained throughout the show. Much of the first set was a mix between Cold Roses and stuff from the new albums that no one had ever hear before. Here’s the set list:

Set1
A Kiss Before I Go
Easy Plateau
The End
Let It Ride
What Sin
Cold roses
Peaceful Valley
Beautiful Sorta
September
The Rescue Blues
Trains

Set 2
Call Me On Your Way Back Home
Oh My Sweet Carolina
Come Pick Me Up into brief cover of “Run For The Hills” (Iron Maiden)
Shakedown On 9th Street
To Be Young (Is To Be Sad, Is To Be High)
Improv About Austin
Wharf Rat
Bird Song

Other highlights of the night included an improv song about Austin with a fitting refrain of:
Texas, Texas, Texas, Texas, Texas
Everything is in the shape of Texas
Doritos are in the shape of Texas
Dirt clods here are in the shape of Texas
Stubbs is in the shape of Texas

The song had a great chorus of “hot girls are 5 to 1 to ugly guys in Austin.”

The show wrapped up with Adams inviting special guest Phil Lesh (former bass player of the Grateful Dead) to play two Dead covers before thanking the audience and heading off stage. The only real disappointment was when Adams didn’t return for an encore (though this may have been due to a noise ordinance.)

I’m tire... I’m going to bed. I hope to have something from the Dallas show up soon.