Raquel and I went to see Ryan Adams on Wednesday here in Charlotte. He didn't even bother playing any of his big hits from the 80s.... He also lectured the audience relentlessly, offered to fight a few people, made up songs on the spot about Top Gun because he misheard something said from the audience, told funny anecdotes, mumbled endlessly, instructed everybody how to listen to his music and why, invented punchlines that apparently only he thought were clever, and then was also brilliant for the rest of the night when he wasn't talking.
The couple sitting next to us bought tickets believing that they were going to see Brian Adams. They left about an hour into the show. I suppose they could not take all of the extended and uncomfortable confrontation between the audience and the artist. In many ways he is a complete bore. But there are the songs, performed by him alone. Raquel didn't want to leave. When he would shut up long enough to play a song he was like nobody else I'd ever seen before. Yes, I've seen many artists with talent, but none quite like him. He is a truly broken and shattered man, vulnerable and apparently dangerous.
He played the Heartbreaker album almost in its entirety, acoustically. If you don't know this one... - well, I recommend it. It was written and recorded when he was 25 years old. It is one of those albums that might just save your life some nights. When the moon is just right, and so on. Other nights it might certainly destroy you. I've destroyed parts of myself to it.
Is God playing evil tricks on me?
Is he?
.
