To Be Young (Is to Be Sad)

Hello Friends.
As confusing as I found the recent Ryan Adams concert to be - I still can't help being massively in love with the new album... Here is the title track for your listening pleasure. WARNING - there is an alarm clock sound at the beginning. PLEASE forgive the annoying host and the alarm clock. It's totally worth it.


Ryan Adams - Ashes and Fire

I wish MY eyes were indigo! And I want my man to tell me that my skin smells like black cherries! But, alas, my man "does NOT write happy love songs." He has to remind me of this rule often.

Sidenote: I was talking to (a Canadian) person that I had just met about music and mentioned that I was going to a Ryan Adams concert the next week and he got really excited. Then I realized he thought I said BRYAN ADAMS. Whoa.

ps - you might not want to click that link...

Anyway, I picked this version because he opened the Eugene show with it. And I love his America (or is it Rasta?) guitar and black binder of tunes. He referred often to it during the performance.
The man played solo for THREE FULL HOURS. Just one pee break.
If you listen to our radio show, you have heard enough about the show. But just in case you missed the show last week - for shame - The music and the voice were IMO incredible. Incredible.

But - friends - the audience.

So this was my first time to the Shedd, which I like to think of as the "grown up" venue in Eugene. Not only is there no beer served and the shows start at 7pm, rather than sometime after 10pm whenever the third opener feels like jumping up on stage and starting, and it is "sit down." Meaning - there were assigned seats. And the tickets cost $39 rather than $8 advance, $9 at the door. Also, KWVA doesn't score free tickets. Anyway, this show was announced and promptly sold out when I was in FL visiting the parents this summer.

But I just couldn't pass it up. Have any of you EVER got a ticket on Stub Hub for 50% of face value?! Not double - but half! Friends, it's never happened to me before either - but I didn't ask questions! 

So I'm thinking - Awesome.

Because, as rarely as I imagine myself to be a "grown up," I also often don't enjoy the moshing and the spilled beer and the earaches that come after the "kid" shows. I don't like when people are talking during the shows or singing at full volume along with the songs (I am looking at you, 16 year old girl who RUINED Head and the Heart's encore of Rivers and Roads for me last month. Or you - middle age fat man who ruined AN ENTIRE John Prine show in Missoula a couple years back by singing every word quietly but audibly. Yes, I am still mad about that). What I am saying is that I am cranky and old - without being grown up enough to know better and not actually attend these shows. Never!

So - I'm thinking that people at the Shedd are going to be quiet and respectful. People who paid the big bucks to have a "real" seat. Before the show there were ads running for all kinds of adulty events upcoming like jazz trios and theatrical performances called things like "The Laugh Heard 'Round the World" and "Yule Be Swinging" (I am not kidding).

So - I'm thinking this will be a nice adult evening.

Friends - apparently grown up audiences have their own issues. Especially Ryan Adams fans.
At first it began with about 3~4 minutes of full blown applause when he came out. Then the yelling out "I love you Ryan!" over and over, in between every song. This was seemed to be several different folks each time - and all men - not that there's anything wrong with that - but what possesses you to yell something like that?
This devolved into more creative (?) yells such as "Hi!," "Move to Eugene!," "Can I pick the next song?" and my personal favorite "I want you inside me" (this was a man also), followed by "SHUT THE FUCK UP."

And this behavior really wasn't discouraged by Ryan. He kept saying "what?" And he really did leave to pee at one point. He claimed since "we" were treating him like we were all hanging out at his house, he would treat us that way too. He also talked about death metal and nosepicking. A lot.
He said it was one of the weirdest concert experiences of his life. "No fourth wall!"
Anyway, we went to some other concerts this month and we have a couple coming up - Blitzen Trapper, Dawes, We Were Promised Jetpacks, Bear Hands...

We are also contemplating a Langhorne Slim New Years Eve show in Portland. I think we should do it. Who knows, it could be the last time we get to do something like that...

we have to start being grown ups sometime. soon?