Ryan Adams – Civic Theatre May 20, 2017

 

In addition to taking fans on a trip through 17 years of his solo career, Ryan Adams paid tribute to Chris Cornell with a moving version of Black Hole Sun, making this evening at Auckland’s Civic Theatre very special indeed.

The evening began, with a special guest opening performance by Nadia Reid, who, with guitarist Sam Taylor, performed a 30-minute set focussing on her new album, Preservation. Early-arriving fans were pleasantly surprised and very appreciative.

Then, after a short break, a woman addressed the crowd to remind them that Ryan Adams suffers from Meniere’s disease, an inner ear disorder that can cause him to react badly to flashing lights. The audience was encouraged to take a test photo now to make sure their camera flashes were not operating. The resulting was a much more enjoyable concert experience without lights from the crowd disrupting the mood set on stage.

Then, a couple minutes after 9pm, the house lights dimmed and after another minute, Ryan and his four-piece band took the stage.

“Hello, how are you doin’?” asked Ryan, then, “Let’s have some fun”, he muttered before drummer Aaron Ficca tapped out a beat and keyboard player Ben Alleman launched into a church-like organ run to start out Do You Still Love Me?, one of the highlights from Adams’ latest album, Prisoner.

“I’ve been thinking about you baby”, sang Adams as he dug in to the song’s lyrics…written about the breakup of his marriage to Mandy Moore. Guitarist Todd Wisenbaker made his presence known with a stinging guitar solo.  I should point out that the band was rounded out by bass player Charlie Stavish.

Then, it was back to 2000’s Heartbreaker album for a freewheeling version of To Be Young, with this group of musicians reminding me of The Band and Adams’ voice sounding strong and assured.

Of course that song, like most of Adams’ catalogue, deals with heartache, longing, inner turmoil and self-doubt. What’s impressive is how Adams is able to dwell on those themes and still write so many excellent songs. The first half hour of his almost two hour set showed off the best of his songwriting with beautifully crafted songs like Gimme Something Good, Two and Dirty Rain.

While Wisenbaker got a solo off on the first song of the night, it was Ryan’s guitar that made the most noise throughout the evening and his solo during Dirty Rain was one of his best as the slow-burning tune built up to a blazing storm.

There was little interaction with the crowd and what there was was somewhat confusing.

“This next one is an older song”, he said, introducing Invisible Riverside, which only dates back to 2011.

Then after Fix It, Ryan commented, “Oh yeah, that’s some detective show music there!” This might explain the pre-concert music…classic TV series themes from The Simpsons to Hogan’s Heroes piped through the room.

I will say that this was probably the best band I’ve seen Adams play with. They really went to town during Magnolia Mountain, stretching out like classic Grateful Dead, before trying out some metal riffs and a bit of prog-rock puffery, going on for close to 15 minutes. The band was practically beaming afterwards, looking somewhat surprised and very pleased with themselves.

Then there were the covers. An almost-solo version of Oasis’ Wonderwall is a staple of Adams’ live shows, but after stunning versions of New York, New York and Anything I Say To You Now, Adams and the band were clearly working up something new…and sure enough, after a tentative-sounding intro, we were treated to Soundgarden’s Black Hole Sun.

Adams didn’t say anything about the late Chris Cornell, but his vocal was pitch-perfect…he didn’t attempt to emulate the iconic vocalist, but sang it beautifully in his own voice.

The band didn’t linger after that. In fact they kicked right into an extended version of Cold Roses, again recalling The Dead as they had their way with the song.

The show ended with Shakedown On 9^th Street, a rocker from Heartbreaker driven by a Bo Diddley beat. Ryan finished off the night with one last guitar solo and then they were gone.

With the lights down, the audience clapped, stomped and chanted for more, but, alas, there was to be no encore and after about 10 minutes the lights came up and we filed out of the theatre.

Having seen Ryan Adams five or six times over the years, I know that he can be infuriating or inspiring…tonight was definitely a good night. With an impressive band and a keen rock and roll sense, Ryan Adams is sounding better than ever.

Marty Duda

Click on any image to view a photo gallery by Ivan Karczewski:

Ryan Adams set list:

1. Do You Still Love Me?
2. To Be Young (Is To Be Sad, Is To Be High)
3. Gimme Something Good
4. Two
5. Dirty Rain
6. Outbound Train
7. Prisoner
8. Invisible Riverside
9. Sweet Illusions
10. Wonderwall
11. Doomsday
12. When The Stars Go Blue
13. Magnolia Mountain
14. Fix It
15. My Winding Wheel
16. Let It Ride
17. Juli
18. Kim
19. New York, New York
20. Anything I Say To You Now
21. Black Hole Sun
22. Cold Roses
23. Shakedown On 9^th Street