"You can take away the booze, but you can't take away the crazy": Ryan Adams' Nissan Live Set
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Artist:Ryan Adams, Ryan Adams & the Cardinals
Because of my kick-ass roommate's work connections, I recently got the chance to attend a taping of the Yahoo Nissan Live Sets series featuring Ryan Adams & the Cardinals. It's no secret Ryan is my favorite artist and I was just down from my high of seeing him in concert a few weeks earlier, so I jumped at the opportunity to feed the addiction.I have to say, I was very curious to see how Ryan would handle this situation. My only experience prior had been at a Kelly Clarkson Live Set, and it seemed rather annoying for the artist with the stopping and starting between songs and having to deal with cues from stage directors, not to mention the huge Q&A sections with fans that break up the concert. Ryan's volatile history doesn't seem to jive with these sort of distractions, you know? Let me just say, although everything didn't go quite as smoothly as the Kelly show, it was a lot more fun.When we arrived we found out from the producer that the band was still doing their soundcheck, which should have been done long before. It seems Ryan arrived on time, but loved the room so much he scrapped plans to do an acoustic set and decided to do a fully plugged performance, causing amps to be changed and drum kits to be summoned. I love this, because it shows how much he is driven by wanting to be the best artist he can.Although soundcheck started late, we were let in the studio with plenty of time to spare and the show started pretty much right on schedule. Not to brag, but the best part was our special seats on a comfy couch right behind the sound board. Knowing people is a good thing. Right before the band came on stage, I spied a set list taped to the sound board and nearly had a seizure of glee - the set list was 17 songs long! They were only supposed to do nine, but Ryan decided he wanted to do more, which was peachy keen with me. Here's a pic of the set list:
The band came on stage and Ryan was immediately in a great mood, joking with his band about how his underwear was riding up his ass and greeting the audience. All signs go for a great night! They sounded fantastic, and played the most beautiful version of "Blue Hotel." Here it is for your enjoyment, but don't look at it lest you go blind - it's horribly out of sync - simply just listen to the gorgeousness:Right after "Blue Hotel" they played "The Sun Also Sets," which Ryan asked to play again later in the show because he sounded like Eddie Money. I disagree, but still: ha. (They did play it later on and sounded fantastic, so I guess he knows what he's talking about after all.) Then, it was time for the dreaded Q&A. Now, I don't know what it is about famous people that makes regular folks crazy, but there was a crazy girl in the mix that night who asked Ryan to play her brother's wedding next year. At first the crowd tittered with amusement, thinking she was joking. Yeah, she wasn't. Watch for yourself:Ryan's kind of funny, huh? Who knew. I love how he turns the uncomfortable question around by acting weird himself. After the Q&A session Ryan was still very animated, and rattled off great versions of "Dear John" (which I far prefer without the Norah Jones caterwauling), "Two" and "I Taught Myself How to Grow Old" ("Easy Plateau," not so much). The real fun started when he played "When the Stars Go Blue" during a full-tilt high point of the night. His comments at the end are priceless:Then, it was time for the second Q&A, which is where I think things started to go horribly, strangely wrong. The actual Q&A session went fine, but afterwards the stage manager asked Ryan to do some ridiculous business announcing "Do you guys want to hear one more song?" or something like that. Ryan obviously thought this was beyond dumb, and had fun making a silly spectacle out of it. Then, however, the band skipped to the last song on the set list, "Goodnight Hollywood Blvd.," thinking they were being cut off and that was the cue to wrap it up.Once they were told it was just in case they wanted to use that in editing and they could finish their set, things sort of went wonky. Ryan and the band got lost on the set list. Between songs he would jokingly mock what a stage director does, which you can see a little bit of in the "Two" performance:Things were still going fairly well, though, until in the middle of "Let it Ride" when Ryan waved the band off and started screaming at his lighting director to "turn down the fucking lights" saying he "didn't need to be on fire to be seen on TV." He threatened to walk if the LD didn't turn the lights down, and when they didn't subside he made good on his promise, taking off his guitar and storming off the stage. At this point, the Cardinals were like, "Um...okay...well...I guess that's it, thanks for coming out!" and they walked off the stage, too. The Yahoo folks started leading the masses out of the studio, and I just couldn't stop laughing because it was just so perfect. I had just witnessed my very own Ryan Adams meltdown! I felt like part of some special club or something.Before everyone got out the door, we were frantically called back into the studio - Ryan had decided to finish the show. At this point I took the opportunity to run to the bathroom (damn you, Diet Coke!) and missed his return, but apparently he came into the audience and shook some hands, apologizing and blaming his tantrum on a nicotine fit. Gotta love it. He finished out the show in fine form, playing the highlight of the set (for me at least) this awesome, amazing, best-ever version of "I See Monsters":That has to be a shout-out, right?All in all it was a wonderful time. I laughed constantly, enjoyed some beautiful music, and even got a dose of the famous Ryan Adams drama. You can check out the whole thing, complete with more performances, Q&A sessions, bonus pics and an interesting blog, here:Yahoo Nissan Live Sets(Oh, I forgot to mention that we heard Ryan's lighting director quit later that night because he was sick of being abused. Heh. It's sad, though, because the lighting design on his tour was so great.)
The band came on stage and Ryan was immediately in a great mood, joking with his band about how his underwear was riding up his ass and greeting the audience. All signs go for a great night! They sounded fantastic, and played the most beautiful version of "Blue Hotel." Here it is for your enjoyment, but don't look at it lest you go blind - it's horribly out of sync - simply just listen to the gorgeousness:Right after "Blue Hotel" they played "The Sun Also Sets," which Ryan asked to play again later in the show because he sounded like Eddie Money. I disagree, but still: ha. (They did play it later on and sounded fantastic, so I guess he knows what he's talking about after all.) Then, it was time for the dreaded Q&A. Now, I don't know what it is about famous people that makes regular folks crazy, but there was a crazy girl in the mix that night who asked Ryan to play her brother's wedding next year. At first the crowd tittered with amusement, thinking she was joking. Yeah, she wasn't. Watch for yourself:Ryan's kind of funny, huh? Who knew. I love how he turns the uncomfortable question around by acting weird himself. After the Q&A session Ryan was still very animated, and rattled off great versions of "Dear John" (which I far prefer without the Norah Jones caterwauling), "Two" and "I Taught Myself How to Grow Old" ("Easy Plateau," not so much). The real fun started when he played "When the Stars Go Blue" during a full-tilt high point of the night. His comments at the end are priceless:Then, it was time for the second Q&A, which is where I think things started to go horribly, strangely wrong. The actual Q&A session went fine, but afterwards the stage manager asked Ryan to do some ridiculous business announcing "Do you guys want to hear one more song?" or something like that. Ryan obviously thought this was beyond dumb, and had fun making a silly spectacle out of it. Then, however, the band skipped to the last song on the set list, "Goodnight Hollywood Blvd.," thinking they were being cut off and that was the cue to wrap it up.Once they were told it was just in case they wanted to use that in editing and they could finish their set, things sort of went wonky. Ryan and the band got lost on the set list. Between songs he would jokingly mock what a stage director does, which you can see a little bit of in the "Two" performance:Things were still going fairly well, though, until in the middle of "Let it Ride" when Ryan waved the band off and started screaming at his lighting director to "turn down the fucking lights" saying he "didn't need to be on fire to be seen on TV." He threatened to walk if the LD didn't turn the lights down, and when they didn't subside he made good on his promise, taking off his guitar and storming off the stage. At this point, the Cardinals were like, "Um...okay...well...I guess that's it, thanks for coming out!" and they walked off the stage, too. The Yahoo folks started leading the masses out of the studio, and I just couldn't stop laughing because it was just so perfect. I had just witnessed my very own Ryan Adams meltdown! I felt like part of some special club or something.Before everyone got out the door, we were frantically called back into the studio - Ryan had decided to finish the show. At this point I took the opportunity to run to the bathroom (damn you, Diet Coke!) and missed his return, but apparently he came into the audience and shook some hands, apologizing and blaming his tantrum on a nicotine fit. Gotta love it. He finished out the show in fine form, playing the highlight of the set (for me at least) this awesome, amazing, best-ever version of "I See Monsters":That has to be a shout-out, right?All in all it was a wonderful time. I laughed constantly, enjoyed some beautiful music, and even got a dose of the famous Ryan Adams drama. You can check out the whole thing, complete with more performances, Q&A sessions, bonus pics and an interesting blog, here:Yahoo Nissan Live Sets(Oh, I forgot to mention that we heard Ryan's lighting director quit later that night because he was sick of being abused. Heh. It's sad, though, because the lighting design on his tour was so great.)
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