Ryan Adams lightens up and aces this test

By Robert Hilburn , Times Staff Writer
Going into Ryan Adams' concert Wednesday at the Wiltern, you didn't know whether to give him a review or a report card.

Or didn't you hear about the wonder boy's recent Nashville performance where he reportedly got so upset when a heckler requested a Bryan Adams song, "Summer of '69," that he refused to play another note until the offender had left the auditorium.

You can appreciate how irritating it must be to continually run into jokes about the name similarity, but still it sounded as if Ryan needs to chill.

There were also signs of eccentric, if not downright bratty behavior in May when Adams, in his rock mode, opened for Alanis Morissette at the Universal Amphitheatre and played the entire set in darkness.

The danger in all this is that an artist can start taking himself and his celebrityhood more seriously than his music. It wasn't reassuring when Adams joined Courtney Love's recent 24-hour egothon on MTV2.

So it felt like a real test Wednesday -- not just of Adams' music, but of his attitude and work habits.

The music: Things started well as Adams, in a suit rather than his usual wrinkled shirt and jeans, sat in a chair and sang "Oh My Sweet Carolina." The enchanting song speaks about wanderlust and longing with the soulful conviction of Gram Parsons' most moving works.

For all his acclaim as a writer, Adams, whose melodic tunes range freely among rich rock, pop and country influences, is also a singer with an uncommonly vulnerable edge. He expresses dreams, both shattered and realized, with such personal, unfiltered emotion that the music carries a nervous undercurrent of voyeurism.

Backed on various songs by a cellist, pianist and guitarist, Adams moved between guitar and piano during the 90-minute set. The only constant seemed to be the trail of cigarette smoke that followed him around the way dust trails Pigpen in "Peanuts."

Totally focused, he put the same depth of feeling into other songs, whether it was the wounded, sarcastic "Come Pick Me Up," the more comforting "La Cienega Just Smiled" or the gently alluring "You Will Always Be the Same." It was the most satisfying overview of Adams' music that he's given us live.

The attitude: Adams demonstrated warmth by filling in on guitar or piano on several songs by the opening act, the promising sister duo Tegan and Sara. He also showed good humor by pretending he was going to read a story from a book. The audience roared when he instead recited the opening lyric of the Bryan Adams song: "I bought my first six-string ... in the summer of '69." It felt like a lighthearted way of apologizing for his Nashville behavior.

The work habits: To offset the serious, sometimes solemn mood of his music, Adams, whose boyish good looks add to the wonder and innocence of his music, also threw in some light, engaging features late in the set.

He played guitar and sang along with a recording of Madonna's "Like a Virgin" and then sat down at the piano for a dirge-like rendition of the Rolling Stones' "Brown Sugar" that accented the lustful vision of the song. Both were inviting, good-natured treats from an artist who earned the right to have some fun on a night when he showed the value of putting his faith totally in his music.

Review or report card? Either way, it was straight A's.