Live Review: Ryan Adams, Emma Swift

People are funny sometimes.

They get weird and awkward when they get emotional in big groups. Say, for example, a guy they love (let's call him Ryan Adams) is on stage playing really, really great country blues really well, and his amplifier fucks out. Despite clearly explaining what's happening and even demonstrating his obvious lack of amplification, people will still demand that he play for them, screaming song titles at him, uncomfortably proclaim their love for him ("IFARKINLOVEYOURYAN") over and over, and then they might even yell at his bass player that he's shit. Weird yelps and shy little barks of appreciation would ring out across the dark, hoping to bullseye the soft, gooey centre of the performer's ego, hoping that they'll turn and personally acknowledge them (they won't). A lot of the time there's nothing really rational at all about big groups of people.

It was a generous set, preceded by the always intoxicating Emma Swift, a local performer that has scuffed her boots on the boards of Nashville many times. Her tender hooks were deployed to wonderful effect, and it was a perfect segue into Adams' slick brand of sadcore Americana.

One thing that always pleases us about Ryan Adams is his penchant for jamming off into the sunset. A fairly rote song like Peaceful Valley became a bulging ten-minute opus that allowed his band to flex their muscles and find each other in the maelstrom. It was one of many instances that the group let fly. They work exceptionally well together, and the results were spectacular passages of slick riffing and tumbling minor scale conversations. You know what else? Ryan Adams is funny as shit. Several times he found himself quipping back at an increasingly frustrating audience, effortlessly sliding into characters, calling out amateur photographers, hecklers and over-affectionate fans and balancing on the razor-thin fence between angry teacher and cheeky confidant. He made sure you felt bad for doing what you did, but also made sure you didn't feel like a bad person. Ryan Adams is an incredible musician, and a stand-up guy to boot!