Weekend Diversion: Night Of The Ponies
Pedway, First Store Open At Block 37
Around Town
Around Town
Red-Light Cameras Not So Special?
Ryan Adams just announced that Chicago is included in a brief string of dates next month to promote his latest, Easy Tiger. This is not so surprising in itself, although we doubt Jim DeRogatis will be in attendance, but we admit we're a bit taken aback by his choosing to play at The Black Orchid. The Black Orchid is easily the smallest room he's played in Chicago in years, and it's lush environs should prove the perfect counterpart for the introspective songs that seem to be Adams' recent fare.
After seeing his listless performance at Lollapalooza last year, we're hoping Adams is in a more inspirational form when he comes through town next month. We're hopeful, since Easy Tiger shows him moving away from The Grateful Dead vibe that has permeated most of Adams' recent work and it's obvious some of that time he's spent with Willie Nelson has rubbed off on him. At the same time, we're still waiting for Adams to really come through on the promise of his earlier discs, and are beginning to worry that he's prematurely mellowing. This'll be a chance to see which way the man is leaning, at least live.
Ryan Adams plays The Black Orchid on June 19. Tickets go on sale this week.
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I saw Ryan Adams a couple of years ago and it was easily the most disappointing show I've ever seen. All he did was talk, and talk, and talk. He probably played less than 10 songs total over his set (and he was the headliner).
That answering machine message is PHEEEEEEEEEEEE-nomenal. Rock critics are typically the worst people in existence, but when a really overrated musician gets all bent out of shape by one, it makes for the funniest thing ever.
Could go either way. He sucked immensely at Lollapalooza, but I saw him at House of Blues in January and he was pretty good. He played for three hours with no break, but didn't talk to the audience at all. I'm hoping he's moved past his boring "29" phase and returns to the glory of "Gold" and "Demolition."
His house of blues show was absolutely amazing. Few performers play three hour sets of non-stop music. Few performers also have the passion behind it for the full set that Ryan had at that show. With the Cardinals behind him, his songs are taken to the next level.
The petulant ranting at D-Rog is hilarious enough, but "Jeff Tweedy could burn holes in his shoes just by staring at them" is the funniest line in the diatribe.
They should have some kind of AltIndieEmoRoots snap contest, where artists diss each other's music and persona. Do it like a tournament (Group One: Adams vs Tweedy, Oberst vs Broch, Farrar vs Mercer) with snarky reviewers as the moderators/commentators and the audience would then vote to decide who wins. It could be the reality TV sensation of the Summer!
What a spank. His music will age about as well as Leif Garrets.
I saw Mark Kozelek there and think that the Black Orchid is such a cool place to see a band, if only because it's unlike any other rock venue. We had a waiter and very proper seats and all the hip folk were ordering like food during the show. Quite the hit I must say.
Lolla was indeed dissapointing, but I'll say H.O.B. was fantastic. They rocked that place, mixed up the songs and played for a long time... and I wasn't bored for a second. If I hadn't seen that show, I wouldn't be excited about seeing him again, but after that, I'm gonna take my chances... it was great.
Did anyone take the time to listen to Cold Roses? It's easily one of his best albums to date. Unfortunately this show is going to sell out in seconds, because this would be an amazing place to see him.