Ryan Adams road trip….day 1
chad, jacob, and i went to the show in Mobile, AL tonight. it was pretty great. first off, we left later than we wanted thanks to an understaffed and pretty incompetant burger king staff. we arrived and parked the car at 8:20 for a show that was supposed to start at 8. thanks to the genius that is ryan adams, the shows haven’t been starting on time. i really thought we’d miss the first half of the first song if not the first song entirely. we’re walking up the street where the tour bus is, and i say “you know, i hope he is walking off the tour bus as we’re walking up, that way we’ll make it in time”. not 5 seconds after i say that then the lead guitarist and bassist get off the bus. anyway, we hurry down the side street to the front of the theatre and go inside. i got a poster for the show, and we took our seats at 8:28. the show started at 8:30 with the band plunging into Peaceful Valley. people, it’s one thing to hear Ryan’s new voice on concert bootlegs, it’s another to experience it live. it sounded SO GOOD. the highlights for me were Peaceful Valley, Magnolia Mountain, Cold Roses, and I Taught Myself How to Grow Old. there really weren’t any lowlights from the show. Ryan seemed to be in good spirits, and told how he was almost born in Mobile. apparently he’s got two siblings who were born in Mobile, and his mom moved up to North Carolina 5 days before he was born. i thought that would bode well for a longer than normal show, and i was right for the most part. they played 2 hours straight, then after a short break, played three more songs. by the time the house lights came up, it was 10:55.
now for the lowlights….the crowd. i have never seen so many people getting up during a show and walking around. it wasn’t during the slow songs, or the non popular songs, it was EVERY SONG. i think there must have been 100 people that were not allowed to stay seated. then we had the “i think i can sing” guy behind us who was a terrible singer. if i wanted to hear him sing, i’d go to his house. plus, i overheard him trying to impress the girl he was with by naming all of the songs. and of course, we had the people yelling song requests. i cringed everytime someone yelled after hearing from Carla the abrupt ending in Birmingham. Ryan seemed to take tonight’s interruptions in stride a bit better, and even made some comments about it. a couple of rants, but no tirades and no walkoffs.
i managed to take a couple of pictures, but only one came out good (it is below). chad had his badass camera and he said he got some pretty good ones, so i’m hoping to see them when i get back later this week.
tomorrow is houston from the third row!
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