OMFG I met Ryan fckn Adams! (Insert jumping jacks, cartwheels and other fun things you can do with your body that show extreme enthusiasm).
Ryan came into 299 Queen Street last Thursday to speak with us about his new record, Easy, Tiger (hitting record stores tomorrow!). But he was running late. He really needed a cold coffee and probably a smoke. OK, fair enough but because of this minor setback, our 30 minute interview turned into a 10 minute interview comprised of three questions. Have you ever heard Ryan speak? He doesn’t just answer a question, and why the hell should he, right? He’s Ryan fckn Adams, and he’s thoughtful, well-spoken and really fckn hilarious. Oh, and he swears a lot. He also runs around an idea in an attempt to clarify the wacky thoughts floating through his head. This could take minutes.
Anyway, it wasn’t truly his fault that we were rushed from the get-go. I mean he’s supposed to have “people” keep him in line and on time, right? It was short and sweet and unfortunately we never got the scoop on his box set (a rumoured 90+ CDs!), his collabo with Sheryl Crow or even his wrist injury. We did, however, get him to talk about his addiction, where he straight up states he was a "fckn junkie through and through”. I thought that it was admirable that he was so open about his battle with drugs. Dude was doing speedballs like every day at one point. He said to Matt Wells, our trusty VJ at MuchMoreMusic, that all those drugs from 2006 went to him, because he ate them. All. He said this with a smirk but I didn’t doubt it for a second. Afterall, I witnessed his tragic performance in mid-05 that had extreme boozing and drug-use written all over it. He was a disaster on stage, so much so it made me second guess my true love for his music. How could I respect a musician who has such little respect for his own craft? I was pretty much over it by the time he released Jacksonville City Nights a couple of months later.
Once Friday rolled around I could barely contain myself. Sure, I met him the day before but would it really compare to catching a sober performance with The Cardinals in a small threatre?
Anyway, I knew that his sobriety would mean an epic, seamless show this time. The Enwave Theatre was the perfect venue for Ryan & The Cardinals to prove their chemistry and showcase the new material. The sound was a tad shaky off the top, but a few hand motions from Ryan set the audio guy straight. When he started off with "Please Do Not Let Me Go" off Love Is Hell I knew it would be an evening of more recent material, and I was completely ok with that. Ryan’s known for playing two hour + sets because, well, he has so much damn material to choose from, but by the end of hour one he was losing his voice. I should make note that he only struggled with certain high notes, and otherwise sounded strong and clear.
They finished at around the one hour mark with the predictable "Goodnight, Hollywood Blvd". Apparently he only cut the set short by a half hour but we figured that because of the half-hour delay off the top, he cheated us out of a full hour. I still walked away completely satisfied with what I witnessed. Hey, he wasn’t a drunken mess, so what else could I have asked for? Perhaps to not be seated beside the hecklers, I guess?
Oh yeah and don’t listen to all those b.s. reviews of Easy, Tiger. Yes, it’s like a collection of all of his work, but no, he’s not recreating anything he’s already written and he’s clearly not running out of material. He’s Ryan Adams, the same man who released three amazing albums in 05, one of which was a double album. Get over it Pitchfork, he’s not going away, he’s not losing his touch, and he’s certainly not going to lose any fans over this record. In fact he may gain a few in some 30-something-year-old moms but so what? Have you been to any of his shows? Buy the album if you like anything he’s ever done. It won’t disappoint. Track five is my jam and last week really fckn ruled. I wouldn’t have traded it for anything.
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