Photo: Richard Gray
"That's right, it's the weekend - time to get sad," growls Ryan Adams to sold-out, tipsy but tender Hammersmith Apollo. "Let's all get sad together!"
While his sound always leans on the melancholy of a hangover fuelled by whiskey and heartache, tonight a sober Adams takes us by the hand and leads us down a track that takes in the full breadth and class of his solo career - and the result is a pure celebration.
Opening with the rattling brimstone of 'Gimme Something Good', Adams humbly flaunts the bold and brazen fire of his latest material. It stands to reason that his most recent LP should be self-titled, as it packs in the balance of heart, power, poetry and personality that have seen him do so right over the last 20 years. Tonight is no different.
Breezing into the sweet and rolling 'Let It Ride', before the classic rock charm of 'Stay With Me', the aching 'Dear Chicago' and the searing anguish of underrated classic 'This House Is Not For Sale' before Easy Tiger's open hearted 'Everybody Knows', Adams uses everything in his arsenal to take misery and give it that Friday feeling.
- See more photos from the gig here
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Adams' famous PAX-AM studio is said to be more like a social club than a place of work - a hub for like-minded buddies to hang out and jam. It's that same spirit that he and The Shining bring to Hammersmith Apollo tonight. Just last year, Kate Bush turned this very stage into a mind-melting spectacle of drama and theatrics. It's hard to imagine that now, as the stage is an explosion of Adams' shameless inner geek, complete with comedy-sized giant amps and arcade machines.
This only warms the crowd more - there's something so inclusive about a R'Adams show that you don't find anywhere else. At one point, he mishears a heckle and turns into an improv song about eating food off the street, while all other between-song banter is saved for ribbing his band and tickling the crowd. Hammersmith becomes his own clubhouse, and we're all invited.
"Dude, it's so good to be back in this venue and not on mushrooms, man," he laughs. His sharpened focus and musicality is clear this evening, especially during the sprawling space jam of 'Magnolia Mountain', a minimalist folk reimagining of 'New York, New York', or modern day power ballad of 'Kim'.
It's a night of peaks and no troughs, but the true highlights come when tears are shed among hushed crowd (this writer included) for 'I Love You But I Don't Know What To Say', 'When The Stars Go Blue' and 'La Cienega Just Smiled', as well as covering the brilliant support act Natalie Prass' 'Your Fool' before inviting her to the stage for 'Oh My Sweet Carolina' and the love-affirming closer of 'Come Pick Me Up'.
He couldn't have given us any more. Not only was this the best of Ryan Adams, but Ryan Adams at his best. We'll gladly get sad with him on any weekend of the year.
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- Check out Ryan Adams' Gigwise takeover here
- Read out interview with Natalie Prass here
Ryan Adams played:
Gimme Something Good
Let It Ride
Stay With Me
Dear Chicago
This House Is Not For Sale
Everybody Knows
My Winding Wheel (acoustic solo)
Dirty Rain
Magnolia Mountain
New York, New York
I Ate Something Off The Street (improv)
Kim
Two
My Wrecking Ball
I Just Might
I Love You But I Don't Know What To Say
Your Fool (Natalie Prass cover)
Oh My Sweet Carolina (with Natalie Prass)
La Cienega Just Smiled
Trouble
When the Stars Go Blue
I See Monsters
Come Pick Me Up (with Natalie Prass)
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