1. Ryan Adams (vocals/guitar/piano/harmonica); Ruth Gottlieb (violin/vocals); Sarah Wilson (cello/piano).
2. * with audience member David J. on guitar and backup vocals.
3. Tegan & Sara opened.

Adams was never one to crassly promote his 'product,' but even still, not a word  in performance about the new album and its recent release has been mentioned by him, nor  probably ever will  fall from the lips of Ryan Adams. Even though Adams is on a major label, touting major clout in the industry, he seems to want to believe that he is on the world's biggest 'Indy.' Can you really have it both ways as an artist? In typical Indy fashion, the tour promoting the album has been laid-out to mostly "College towns" and such like-minded destinations. Even at the major cities that this tour has hit, the venues are centrally centered on major or large universities and colleges. Surprisingly but still in 'Punk' fashion, you are pressed to hear or see evidence of any connection between the album and the tour as of yet. Even the T-shirts for sale in the lobby demonstrate the Punk Spirit with one shirt having just the artwork of the new album's de-spooled cassette tape and no printing of words from the album cover of "Demolition" accompanying it. That would be crass. Sure, there are the performances of two, count them, TWO or recently more, songs from the new album, but overall, it is Ryan, a microphone, a lonely yet huge grand piano (black of course, and NO, I wasn't expecting Liberace white!), a couple sparse wooden chairs and a little turntable area set off to the stage right deep that holds a Madonna album, 1984's "Like A Virgin," a Minor Threat album and a few more LP's, as we call them.

          Adams incorporates a few "extras" into the mix, such as a tall, slender brunette named Ruth and another young but blonde,  female musician, who accompany Adams on string instruments. "You Will Always Be The Same," from "Demolition," is reproduced via the string & guitar arrangements that more than hearken to Lennon & McCartney's "Blackbird" and to a lesser extent, their "Yesterday." The treatment here seems like an homage to the principal Paul McCartney's and producer  George Martin devised arrangement that rendered us the  sparse treated songs. This is so fitting - for the entire 'exercise' here of Adams seems to be Satire. Yes, with a capital 'S'! The concert profusely drips of the stuff - Satire. From the very commencement of the show with the music of "Carmen," in bombastic operatic flair, the audience is notified that this will be not the usual, if I can use that word, fete of Ry, with or without 'teammates.'

Decked out in a pinstriped suit-coat that was snatched and held-hostage from its direct route to Wall Street, Adams smokes, saunters, flits, imbibes wine, lights his cigs, positions his cigs in the far outreached arm of his guitar (electric) ala Keith Richard, hair often trademark tousled, but on the New York City Beacon affair, actually c-o-m-b-e-d! Ry talks to himself - "Fuck-It!" hesitates "What am I doin'? (next song)," gestures to the side-stage and even towards the audience. ALL this looseness follows signs of forthcoming, supposed, 'formality.' Surprisingly, if this 'posturing' is commentary for anyone who might and does take the Sir Ry Adams SERIOUSLY, it WAS actually, for the New York City Beacon show, where you could have heard a pin, much less, a 'pinstriped suit-coat' drop. Hushes for fellow listeners to keep it quiet ruthlessly ripped through the house, opposing the 'normal' environment of the hoot & hollering throngs that usually accompany Ry & Whiskeytown concerts. A LOT of things are seemingly and deliberately being done to differentiate from past efforts in "Ryanland" these days. Such as the notion 'to tape or not to tape?' at the concerts.  Recently, at the first of the two sold-out Washington, D.C. Adams shows, one fan had his equipment confiscated and he was ejected from the venue only after having to suffer the humiliating treatment of "red-X-ing" not one but both hands, to mark him for non-returnable access to the club. No advance word was given regarding the "taping policy" of Ryan Adams' shows, nor, specifically at the 9:30 Club, where this sordid and obviously, over-reaction and over-stepping behavior by the "staff" had stained this Ryan-goer with an ugly incident of poor to say the least, "customer relations." Better and actually, overt communication by Ryan's management, label and venues needs to be performed. It is owed to these fine fans, who have unflinchingly stood by Ryan's side and supported him on every tour, solo or with a band. All that needs to be done is to print it on the "Hyphen" site or post it on the tickets and or Ticketmaster.com itself. Chop-Chop!

'A Tale of Three Cities,' 'Many 'Ditties,' & Two, Count Them! Two (Split?) Personalities!

That 'Independent Haul' Spirit!

SOMETHING is indeed in the water in Philadelphia, regarding Ryan Adams' performances there. They are sublime. Never a dull or inferior moment. Nestled in a less-than-austere neighborhood, where the word "rough" and "poor" doesn't seem to cut it, this Ryan show saw the lad holding audience in the confines of the far-west side of the City of Brotherly Love and it was more than a hop-and-a-skip for the Ryan fan to trek to the venue, the Tower Theater, in Upper Darby. Like the still straggling streets of  Baltimore and Detroit, where Section 8 meets Empowerment Zones, this staging-a-comeback area of Woolworth's adjacent to "safety lighted" streets saw many a desperate young 20-somethings as well as Moms & Dads selling numerous tickets, in fact, a glut of them, to hopefully anyone in need of them. Perhaps it was the location of the gig, where many who bought the tickets or had planned to come to the show, were scared-off by the environment of the venue's surroundings but needless to say, the abundant numbers selling off their spare tickets had not a bit of difference on the show.

Setting the tone in this majestic and cavernous grand theater, was the sound of "Carmen," more to the point as it concerns Ryan Adams and  otherwise known as the music to the "Bad News Bears." Underscoring the importance of the underdog and David against Goliath, Adams, by implication, states that he is a newcomer apparently taking on the big bad commercial music world. Madonna is just one tenet of it that he will "slay." It is downright interesting that this tour's namesake, "Demolition," offering was pulled from so many different sessions in recording and over so many months in a year's time yet these shows, with only a few exceptions, are so rote. The set-list nary changes but for the occasional nod to New York City with "New York, New York" to the Beaconians, a change-up in Northampton, Massachusetts, opening with "Tomorrow," from the new album and the dropping of some intended songs on the set-list in New York City. What is varying on this tour and can be seen abundantly from Ryan's perspective,  are the differing crowds, i.e., the demographic as well as psychographic differences of the different locales and their respective audiences. The tour destinations have been pretty far apart so any compare and contrasting hasn't been fully done until this recent East Coast and Northeast swing of shows.

In this respect, Philly Rocked! Ryan was in his usual excellent form. The audience was up to say-the-least. One audience member heckled Ryan with calls for Bryan Adams' songs. Thankfully, Ryan didn't oblige and thus correctly labeled the heckler an "asshole," to the throng's cheers. All the 'Standard Fare' was performed this night - "Oh My Sweet Carolina," "Be My Winding Wheel" and "Come Pick Me Up." Interesting and hilarious quips were thrown out  by Ry all night long. He was relaxed, at ease and engaged in the audience. The performance of the songs carried intense weight.

"You can ASK for those songs, but I am going to play the ones I want," said Adams to the many shouts of requests for songs from the canon of Adams. The 'Heartbreaker' was that many of these - fan favorites - would sadly, not be heard in the hall. Even Adams gave lip-service to one request and reneged on the promise later. Such is life in this show and in typical Ryan Adams fashion, the show being so 'set' and rote, is itself an artistic statement in and of itself. Satire on Pop music ('remember' Madge's, otherwise known as Madonna's serious but criticized tour show last year with its non-compliance of virtually no hits but two and all else offered from the new album?), 'serious' music audiences and the entire "Clear Channel" Arena Event mentality(?) is being assailed by Ryan Adams in his "little tour." By-the-way, Adams is utilizing a 'Ry-Animal House' John Belushi Pirate Death-Mobile Big Black Ominous Bus with black tinted windows, the WHOLE HUGE THING IS BLACK! Ry, you have QUITE THE sense of humor! Taking on the Pop Touring Curcuit in STYLE, it cries out for naming! Das Bus?! Blackballs? I Wheels Good!? The Death Bar? Hollywood Goth Darkley? Darth? Darth Space Invader?! You get the idea.

Taking the stage at around 10:30 PM and ending around a quarter past Midnight, this evening was long and satisfying ("lovers only play you when they're loving"). Ryan even debuted a new song that was mere days old. "Twice As Bad As Love," is a stirring, strumming gem that rolls off in Lou Reed conversational form but is melodically sweet and casual. THIS simple act cannot be diminished of its IMPORT! Who else, other than Adams', on the Pop music scene,  has the balls to perform a newly constructed song, minutes, hours, days after it is written? Nobody but Ry! This is what the 'real Ryan Adams' is all about. Ryan, WE LOVE YOU!!! No magnitude of 'shtick' can come close to this Greatness!

       Earlier in the set, Adams performs, albeit, stole a young comedian's act, precisely doing it the exact same way that the Tonight Show and Letterman shown other did his original "Woo!" to Madonna's "Hey!" in her rendition of the NON-PENNED (NO PUN INTENDED BUT SHAMELESSLY USED ANYWAY!) "Like A Virgin," fist punches in the air, accentuating the "cheesiness" of it all. "This song is TOO LONG!," exclaimed Adams. Context is EVERYTHING, my dear friend Ry, and to take aim at Madonna in this moment of Mid-Eighties Excess isn't fair unless you take into account the environment from which the work 'evolved' and 'lived in.' You're TOO YOUNG to know this! It's a Pop AND Dance track - not long at all by those standards! And yeah, they ARE standards! The constantly utilizing the phrase "Art-fag" Adams would be amused to learn that two gay gentlemen indeed scribed that particular Madonna hit but it was indeed her in all her "Glory" that incarnated the "Hey!" into that song, making it thus, HER OWN for 'Posterity!' What a world, what a country, what an industry! Ryan appears to be saying.  But what truly does the talking is Adams' songs and his performances of such. They are derivative. They do pay homage to earlier Pop gems in their uncanny resemblance to them, that went before, but this one young artist, who is coming now, young Ryan Adams, is cutting a swathe all his own and in Frank Sinatra style, is doing it His Way, even while at 'Lost Highway.' Or so he wants us to think.


"Go Nuclear! (Family Style)" - Ryan "Atomic" Adams from his "Nuclear"

"Now It's Just Another Show. Leave 'em Laughing When You Go." - Joni Mitchell from her "Both Sides Now"

The town is more than picturesque. Think Norman Rockwell. A nice up-kept New England town that serves five, count them!, five, colleges in the immediate area. A liberal town like Berkley, California, this town's council just passed a new law that protects their citizen's right to privacy against, as they see it and named outright in law,  Attorney General Richard Ashcroft's trading liberty for security measures. So why did the throng that turned out for this Northampton, Massachusetts Ryan Adams show resemble The Cleavers of "Leave It To Beaver"? Who knows? Who cares? And Ryan was very appreciative for their kind 'familiar' ways, "being so nice," he played additional songs for them for being so extra nice. It was like a scene out of Tennessee Williams' "Picnic" with nothing going awry, and absolutely not "suck"ing and of course, it wasn't the summer. No, it was a more than pleasant, cool, crisp October evening in a tranquil college town, with a quaint Dairy Queen down the street, shops closing up and a steady flow of jubilant concert-goers that evoked an innocence and emerging "been-around-the-block" exploration about to be commenced BIGTIME. Who wanted to leave?  And this was hours before the concert had even begun! The down-hominess was transfixing! Even the ticket takers were the nicest pair of jolly Grandmother types, who instead of grunting as the burly bouncers who 'double' as ticket-takers  as well as Metrocard 'takers' as they frisk you in Gotham New York City's ROSELAND,  well, these fine lovely elderly ladies smiled and EVEN ALLOWED RE-ENTRY!!! "We know who you are…," one gingerly and lovingly quipped as I walked in to "use the facilities" and then I proceeded to the beautiful grand hotel across the street from the gig. One jovial usher even said "Hi Ryan!" to me as I walked in. I told him that there must now be three of us, for Ry jokes that he and Billy Mercer, his proclaimed "best friend," looks like him. And amazingly then, there are four, count them!, four of us, due to 'familiar' connections.
Family was the watchword for this show. The family environment. The families seated bundled together for this performance. The amount of little kids in attendance. They didn't seem to mind the "Fuck It!" of that, or the "Shit!" of this from Ry but as I walked out the theater in that mass-huddled bunch, I wondered how my "Grandmother" ticket-taker felt hearing such even still 'familiar' language as Ry's after I admonished her to "get away from your post and take a listen and sight of Ryan Adams, the best singer-songwriter/performer/musician in the business!" I am sure she was quite impressed and astonished, after her ears confirmed that the show, even with the sight of such an 'elementary' crowd, was rated "R," a "Hard R," for Ryan and "Really, don't let the hard language obscure you to the Wonderment!"

Rosie O'Donnell would have been proud, because Adams 'bedazzled' us all by starting the show with "Tomorrow," the song he and Carrie Hamilton co-wrote the day before she would leave for Colorado for cancer treatment and never be fully her healthy presence in Ryan's sight again. It is sung with Gillian Welch on the album but Ruth did the favor here to great affect! Ryan was simply in a Great mood. Jovial was he all night long, and along with the customary numbers on this tour, Ryan performed "The Rescue Blues," "Not in the set, but since you are so nice…," said Ryan to the audience. Adams requested that the house lights be put on and kept on throughout the entire rendition of "Blues." "Cool!" he adamantly expressed to the crowd and then proceeded to play his song, replete with "When The Stars Go Blue" flourishes that hint of that other Ryan song. Fittingly, this denotes that there is indeed "more-than-meets-the-eye" and ear to these shows for Ryan. Ryan is serious about art as he is about love. He is dead-serious about both! You have to respect that!

With this seriousness of art & love for Adams proclaimed, what did happen afterall, to make Adams crack-up almost hysterically, during what would have been his stirring rendition of his "SYLVIA PLATH"?! Perhaps it was something someone had said to Adams and upon recall, even at this moment while playing the piano, it was just too much for him, giving him the case of 'church laughs'. Adams tried to conceal and suppress it but to no avail. He plowed on nonetheless through the serious poetic bars of his composition.

The new album perhaps, isn't in many hands as of yet. When I clapped for the earliest notes of "You Will Always Be The Same," (love this song and I LOVE "She Wants To Play A Game Of Hearts"! from the new album as well) from the new album, Ryan looked me dead-in-the-eye and laughed as he said, "One guy!" But Ry, QUALITY over quantity!
Conversely dressed from his Philly and would-be NYC Beacon show, Ryan was relaxed in a pair of LEVI'S jeans, I SAID LEVI'S! in a 'Take THAT GAP! I Can't Be BOUGHT! Stance.'
A tawny brown canvas farmer's jacket over a brown, western "V" double-pocketed brown button shirt over yet a bronze-angel gold T-shirt. The 'Week-ender' look as opposed to his 'Late '70s New York City Chic Pinstriped Suit-Coat over jeans' look. Think Billy Joel, "52nd Street." Ry wore his usual three-holed leather belt and his usual 'bed-head' hair.
"Bullocks!" said Ryan to his stage-mates, the "Women of Company "R"." Stating that "a good friend from the Strokes" taught me how to correctly say it, he's even taught me another - "wanna hear it?," he quizzically pondered his fellow performers. They nodded but oh-so-reluctantly, this is still early on this tour afterall. Something, something "Kedd!" said Ryan to his perplexed duo of women on stage with him. Even Thomas "The Chief" Frahn, guitar tech and stage hand was dismayed, but it is all in good humor. "The Chief" was even utilized by Ry in a satire of Pop Star and Slave (you know who is who) as Ryan had the big burly guy bedecked in all black as Johnny Cash, hold Ry's cigarette up to his lips as he performed the NEW song that was only days old and then put it back where Ry had first placed it, ala Keith Richard. Very funny! I only wish the contrived would be left off this tour, Ryan really doesn't need it, such as 'The Madonna Shtick,' copped from another young performer. The natural Ryan banter and behavior "is a beautiful" thing but the artifice here attempts to obscure the art! Ryan like Coke, is always better, when it is 'The Real Thing.'
"I lost my cellphone today," quipped Ry to the audience, who serenely sat in their seats and nary uttered a word in sharp contrast to Philly's show. "Why don't you call me? What!?," said Ry in Jewish Mama voice. "Now I have an excuse not to, a real excuse," for not calling. Mounted on the set-up of the turntable was a "Honk If You Don't Exist" red-gothic printed over white, as big-as-a-breadbox  bumper sticker. "I think that's a fair trade for the phone, don't you?," asked Ry to the audiences chuckles. "Where's the girl with 'The Stripees'?! I met a girl out in the parking lot who had 'Stripee Socks'…Even though hers are red…Where are you?!," said Ry to a response of "I'm right here!," and Ry proceeded to take off his tawny brown cowboy boot and show-off his green over black 'Stripee' sock and even made foot odor motions with his hand and arm, as if to fan the smell and motioned a "Whew!" that the crowd found amusing.

"I need more wine," said Ry as he sipped his glass of red, red wine. Keeping the comic effect going, Ryan turned the Madonna album, "Like A Virgin" over on its side, rotating it, effectively examining it, with every turn of  the corner and side. Very funny! 'Laughs and Gasps' is what this tour should be called because you are ASTONISHED at the shear GREATNESS of this kid when he performs. When Ryan Adams' goes into "You Will Always Be The Same," "Be My Winding Wheel" or "Dear Chicago," or "To Be Young (Is To Be Sad, Is To Be High)" you are nothing short of breathless! In awe and your mouth drops, STILL, to the floor. You are witnessing the Greatest Singer-Songwriter/Performer/Musician in Pop music today.
Ryan gives as well as he gets though!  Ryan paid tribute and let the house in Northampton sing a very celebratory "Happy Birthday" to Ruth as he produced a lit birthday cake on the stage and the tour  manager, Steve Emley stood and watched on in pride. Ruth, genuinely moved, placed her cupped clasped hands to her mouth in astonishment and behaved as if she had just won a Miss America contest and in Ryanland, she did just that! It was a touching sweet moment and oh-so appropriate in this quiet, quaint and  civil little New England town of Northampton, a true 'Pleasantville' in living color! "A Splendid Time Was Guaranteed And Had By All!"  Everything about the night was "Sweetcake!" "Let's eat cake!" called-out Ry to the audience as the night ended. Ryan Adams IS SO THOUGHTFUL! To his audience, his crew, his fellow musicians and his art. The additional laughs and comedic sense that this lad has is icing on the cake. The Wonder of Ry Will Never Cease!


"Less-Tour Bangs!, " "New York City's Like A Friendly Old Ghost" -  Bob Seger from his "Katmandu" & "Sometimes This Whole World Feels Like A Long Lost Friend. Ain't 
It Good to Be Back Home Again?" - John Denver from his "Back Home Again"


Due to union rules of pay ( A GOOD THING!!!), the shows at The Beacon start early and always end before Midnight, when overtime payrate sets in. Ryan got on stage, hair c-o-m-b-e-d! and dressed in his pinstripe suit-coat over Levi's around 9:40 PM. Astonishing! The set-list was again the rote one with an adjunct "New York, New York," and some songs dropped from the intended list. The audience was austere to say the least and I think the joke that Ry was playing on this tour, with his satirical jab at serious Pop efforts was lost on this New York City SEATED crowd. The show was sold-out. The Beacon, the morning of the show had apparently done the seemingly impossible, by releasing "standing room only" 'seats' for the performance of Mr. Adams' in his and oh-so many others' 'adopted home town.'
The light, "What light?!," was a hazy minimum low-keyed dim, car-trying-to-start headlighted amber. Is Ryan Adams surrendering to an Inferiority Complex when it comes to playing the Big Apple? In his very own home town? Ryan, Get It Together Dude! You are The Greatest! The City of New York is The Greatest! Your New York City Appreciators are The Greatest (IF they get what you are saying!)! So how about a little more Key Light and fortitude of spirit when you hit the stage in this Wonder of a city?

Ryan's performance here was so subtle and barely resounding that even the songs, when performed made him seem like he was playing from Cleveland. The Beacon is not that large but it was large enough to allow the human decided stage conditions to affect the reception of the show. Ryan seemed without energy. The magic was still there but this plainly was not one of Ryan's better nights. Besides, he even took "another" shot at poor Miss Dion (Celine), saying "Yeah, THAT is a good song!," oh-so sarcastically, referring to either the latest single, "I'm Alive" but more than likely, her huge hit, "A New Day (Has Come)." Dion's song and track pays homage to Paul Mauriat's 1968 Classic Pop instrumental hit, "L' Amour Est Bleu" or "Love Is Blue" which is WAY BEFORE Ry's time but still, Ry digs Hank Williams so vintage has nothing to do with it. No, it's the Pop-ness of it, isn't it Ry? Which is why a lot of people have a hard time with Counting Crows and Hootie & The Blowfish. Technically they may be "good," but Counting Crows steals "You sweet, sweet man" Elton John's "Mad Hatters & Mona Lisa's" for one of their most recent 'tunes' and 'Hootie,' well, 'Hootie' are too much the Frat-boy droll to be what you are - Cool. And Mauriat's version of A. Popp & P. Cour's (I'm not makin' this stuff up folks!) scribed and composed Masterpiece IS A GREAT SONG AND TRACK and to a much lesser extent, and you gotta love the homage involved, Celine's IS a good song and track! This disdain by Adams of Pop music is disconcerting because the boy IS POP! In the Best sense of the word! The BEST of ALL genres, if they are any good at all and especially if they are GREAT, are deemed POP! You can still rock but if you're GREAT, you POP rock Dude!

      And how tragic is it that his get-up-and-go left him as Ryan was performing a solo performance, his first since triumphantly conquering Roseland with a stunner and loose-set show that he vowed to "play all night!" He said there that "Celine killed my buzz man. Not that she's a bad person or anything!," and the night was in fact, a party! Well, "play all night!" is not, sadly what awaited the Ryan faithful and newcomers alike at The Beacon. The good news was that the smell that usually adheres to the venue was mysteriously gone this Ryan evening but in its place was a rote and spirit-wanting  show by this talented and usually spirited young man. Ryan acted like he wanted the show over with and matter-of-factly went through his songs with calculative prominence. The meditative should rule a concert - always! Perhaps, the c-o-m-b-e-d! hair was a tip-off, who knows? Not even Ry knows why this show was a bit lackluster. And lackluster does not fit this guy. Not our Ry! Perhaps something was bothering him this night, of all nights. But it is too bad. There was not another NYC show, like the duo shows in America's capitol before this stop.

This all IS an experiment by this experimenter. Emerson, the Great American writer, explored life in the same way that Ryan Adams and few others do today. Ryan Adams dazzles, engages and always delivers. The magic of the tour continues! News from last night's show in Detroit saw Ryan take two, count them!, two REQUESTS! "Hey There, Mrs. Lovely," and "Mara Lisa." "That's all she rote!" I urge any and all to catch the Ry-Express! If even for a glimpse of that Big Black Bus! Anyone who is into THAT much detail, deserves more than your curiosity!!!  (Produced and Copyright 2002 J.R.R. Token. Duplication and Use Restricted and By Authorized Permission Only.)