Ryan Adams--Benaroya Hall--Seattle, WA

It's been over four years since I last saw Ryan Adams perform live and during that time, it was pretty unclear if he would tour again or, if he did, what kind of tour it would be. So when he began announcing solo acoustic dates earlier this year, my fingers became nearly permanently crossed hoping that I would be able to catch one of those shows. After last night, I can now uncross my fingers. Adams performed at Benaroya Hall in downtown Seattle to a sold-out, mostly well-behaved crowd that was quiet during the most important parts and loud when Adams needed material for in-between-song banter. It's not always good to get so excited for a show like I did for this one because then I'm potentially setting the bar way too high. Well, I can say that my excitement level (which was about 1,000,0000 on a scale of 1-10) was met by the performance. Beginning the show with "Oh My Sweet Carolina" set the tone for how absolutely incredible the rest of the night would be. As everyone continued settling into their seats, Adams soft vocals had everyone leaning a little closer to hear every detail until his harmonica pierced through the final notes of the opening song. Every lyric could be heard crystal clear, making it feel like an intimate room even though the capacity sits at 2,500. As a few final people entered their seats near the front row, Adams playfully jabbed at them after the song "Where WERE you?! I was so worried about you." Right away, it was clear that he is comfortable being on a stage again and that the audience was getting not only a phenomenal music show but also a pretty great comedy show as well.

For the next two and a half hours, Ryan Adams sifted through his catalog of music, both new and old, without any real lapses or lagging moments. Often times, I'll check the time during a show but there wasn't a single time during this one I felt the need to. Other musical highlights from the show included a beautiful stripped-down version of "New York, New York" on piano, an up-tempo "My Winding Wheel", the Heartbreaker classic "Why Do They Leave", and on and on and on. I'm not sure why I'm even bothering to list single songs because hearing each song in the solo acoustic format was beyond words. And back to the banter....the audience was laughing hysterically for the majority of the show since Adams loves to talk with fans who yell out things in between songs. He's a very sarcastic, quirky man as was evident when he spontaneously wrote the song "Psychic Cheetah" in the middle of the set and performed it without a hitch. Most of the time, he told jokes with a straight face but even he couldn't contain himself late in the set and cracked up with laughter. It was amazing to see how he could juggle between the wild and weird banter and then launch right back into a song that had little or nothing to do with psychic cheetahs.

On stereo, the music of Ryan Adams has a way of triggering emotions that I've found few musicians can compare with. When played live and acoustic, the songs take off to a whole other level. Each lyric sounds a little more honest. Adams voice conveys the songs with added emotion. The bare and simple trio of guitar, harmonica, and piano combine to play songs in a way that maybe no full band could compete with. The songs simply hit you in a different way and last night at Benaroya Hall, it was clear why I had been so anxious for this show. The music of Ryan Adams has almost always been gorgeous and so, too, was everything else about Friday night in Seattle.

Setlist