Nobody knows how to do combat with an audience – good-naturedly and otherwise – better than Ryan Adams.
So putting him in front of an industry-heavy crowd on Wednesday night at South By Southwest was like tying Leonardo DiCaprio to a tree so the bear from The Revenant could have another go at him.
Fortunately it all worked out just fine during the Universal Music Group’s Music Is Universal showcase in the Grande Ballroom at Austin’s JW Marriott hotel. Adams’ wit was sharp; the music — 14 songs over the course of nearly 90 minutes — was even sharper as Adams and his band the Shining, in their only SXSW performance this year, delivered a set fortified with fan favorites, despite his admonition that “You wanted the audience-pleaser show? That’s at a different hotel, the F—head Hotel.”
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Playing on a stage dressed up with a Dr. Pepper vending machine, a pair of vintage arcade video games and giant amps ala Neil Young’s Rust Never Sleeps, the quintet worked its way through the riffy rock of “Gimme Something Good,” “Say With Me” and “This House is Not For Sale,” the easygoing Americana of “Let It Ride” and “Dear Chicago,” the pretty melodicism of “When The Stars Go Blue” and the dramatic dynamics of “Dirty Rain.”
Sporting a Sonic Youth T-shirt and abandoning his glasses early in the set as they kept fogging up, Adams also let his Grateful Dead side loose, too, with extended renditions of “Cold Roses” and the set-closing “Peaceful Valley,” both highlighted by his searing guitar solos.
And then there was the regular and occasionally random repartee, which started early in the night when fans were asked to disable the flashes on their cameras and cell phones due to “a medical condition of one of the performers.” Before “Dirty Rain” he quieted the crowd by chiding “I’m just waiting for you…to exchange email addresses. Make sure you say whether you’re in the marketing department or A&R. I work for f—head records…” And prior to a pristine solo version of “Winding Wheel” he told the VIP area to “shut the f— up. At least 40 percent of the people want to hear the song. You can talk the rest of the set — do we have a f—ing deal?” Afterwards, however, he congratulated them for obeying; “You did a good job; I’m so proud of you guys from Megaforce USA; 80 Jager shots in and you’re still standing!”
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He threw out plenty of other barbs during the night, but Adams was clearly on the good-natured side Wednesday. Before “Kim” he admired a fan’s jacket — who promptly gave it to a surprised Adam, who wore it during the song but then gave it back.” He took shots at 311 and Puddle of Mudd, too, but at the end of the show he offered a heartfelt “You guys are great. Thank you so much,” and the feeling was clearly — and deservedly — mutual.
The Avett Brothers opened the night with an exuberant 75-minute set, clearly energized by fresh material from its forthcoming album True Sadness (out June 24). The seven-piece group — which, like Adams, hails from North Carolina — previewed four of the new tracks, including the funky single “Ain’t No Man,” the rootsy “Smithsonian,” the gentle, introspective and stripped-down “I Wish I Was” and the richly melodic title track, surrounding them with proven favorites such as “Live and Die,” “Die Die Die,” “Morning Song” and Scott Avett’s solo rendering of “Murder in the City.”
