While serving an apprenticeship fronting alt. country outfit Whiskeytown, Ryan Adams released his acclaimed solo debut album 'Heartbreaker' at the turn of the century.
Hitting the ground running, Ryan has released myriad recordings including with bands (and whole cover versions of albums) during a productive solo career peppered with regular, occasional public bickering with other musical artists, before a significant career setback following misconduct accusations in the wake of the #MeToo movement.
While the past few years has seen this controversy impact Ryan personally (and continues to do so after his apologised for his actions after the allegations surfaced), he has maintained a busy recording schedule with nearly half of his solo albums released in just the last five years in the wake of this setback.
Coming out of this, a quarter century since his debut album he has chosen to commemorate his solo beginnings with the Heartbreaker '25 world tour commencing in Perth followed by this second show in Adelaide last night (7 October).
When Ryan arrives onstage, he is disappointed with the round of applause he is given. "If you're not going to give me a standing ovation, I'll just tell jokes all night," he quips before the audience willingly comply.
He sits down amongst a homely stage set up of an arrangement of shaded lounge lamps (the only lighting used tonight) and upright piano, and informs us of the programme early on – a first set of 'Heartbreaker' save for 'Come Pick Me Up' held back to close a second set.
He praises Adelaide and its perceived "weirdness" before someone shouts out: "Nobody knows we're here." Ryan responds: "That's a great name for a song," and makes up one on the spot, the first indication that the announced programme and, at times, the songs themselves might be looser than first expected.
Amongst the at-times beautiful performances of songs from his debut, Ryan appears afflicted by a form of attention deficit disorder with regular, not always humorous asides and spoken tangents within the song introductions.
While it's something I would have preferred not to address in the context of this review, with regard to his (near) 'cancellation' amidst the #MeToo movement, in spite of continuing attempts to clear himself, tonight he hasn't done himself any favours by bringing it up on more than one occasion throughout the evening.
Mostly playing acoustic guitar and harmonica, he moves between sitting and standing set ups before positioning himself at the piano, and with his back to the audience he comments: "They don't equip me with a rear-view mirror. What if I musically back into somebody," but his face is mirrored in the backboard of the piano as he sings, an affecting sustained reverb accentuated in the quieter moments.
Occasionally he points out individual audience members, referring to a man with an intense stare that he jokes: "It's like you are going to stab a dagger in me at any moment. . . I'm waiting for it, I'm ready to go. I was ready to go 25 years ago."
Every once in a while, when a joke falls flat, he comments: "Sometimes I go to work and it feels like whole bunch of strangers are judging me."
Midway through the performance of the album is 'Amy', an almost Latin-infused ballad, unlike what has come before so far in the set, a song sounding like it has come from a bygone era, an example of Ryan's prime musical versatility.
As the set goes on and gets looser, 'Sweet LiL Gal (23rd/1st)' is played on piano, amusingly sped up and like a bar-room vaudeville waltz before Keith Urban becomes the subject of a diatribe while Ryan professes an attraction for Nicole Kidman, but in not so polite terms.
There's a break in the proceedings during which Ryan actually spends time at the merch counter doing signings. The second set commences with a version of 'Somewhere Over The Rainbow' marred by the wholly unnecessary addition of profanity.
In addition to a selection of his own songs played including Whiskeytown's 'Avenues', other cover versions include The Smiths' 'That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore' and two by Bob Dylan, 'If You See Her, Say Hello' and the later fitting finale of the adopted autobiography (given his waning popularity in recent years) of 'Not Dark Yet'.
The announced closing song was not to be – 'Come Pick Me Up' is (disappointingly for some) rendered joke-style, a brief heavy metal or punk whispered vocal performance that he subsequently reprises at the piano.
Before that, as the set does wind to a close, it's not over yet as Ryan praises a called out profane colloquialism from the audience, then a call of "kiss!" (the action, not the band) sets him off on a discussion, analysis and breakdown of the opening lyrics to the Kiss song 'Deuce' for several minutes before he reigns himself in and comments: "Welcome to my TED Talk."
He gives rise to random heckles from the audience when he offers a choice of songs to play into the finale before aborting 'When The Stars Go Blue', but plays an unreleased newer song before reprising 'Come Pick Me Up' at the piano and then finishes with 'Not Dark Yet'.
Somewhere in the set Ryan commented that he doesn't have a support because he has too many songs, and with 26 songs performed (including excerpts and truncated versions) and given an over 3-hour playing time (discounting the generous intermission) we were not short changed.
There is no doubt that Ryan is an individual talent and creative performer, but he does himself a disservice by losing focus in the moment and allowing himself to be distracted easily, and unfortunately this can take away from the exceptional performances as a whole.
