(Alt. Hed: I’m Old, Because I Kinda Liked McFarlin Auditorium as a Concert Venue.) I joined the roughly 2,300 people at McFarlin Auditorium on Friday night to see Ryan Adams & The Cardinal play an alternately wonderful, rockin’, sweet, tense, awkward concert. For more, check out the jump.
That it was wonderful, rockin’, and sweet should be no surprise to those familiar with Adams’ music. That it was tense and awkward shocks no one familiar with his reputation as a quick-tempered artist who doesn’t think twice about ending a set three songs into it if the crowd doesn’t please him. Knowing said reputation, about 98 percent of the audience were more than happy to sit quietly between songs and await the next tune. About one percent felt no shame in screaming out things like “Ryan, take your shirt off,” “Ryan keep your shirt on,” “Ryan, come back to my house so I can bone you,” and (much more drunkenly) “Welcome to Dallas, the Lone Star State [sic] … No, I’m not going to shut up … People should dance.” The other one percent tried to shush the previous one percent. At times, awkward. Overall, awesome. And, yeah, turns out I’m old enough that I don’t at all mind seeing a rock concert in a sit-down, no-booze, nice-acoustics auditorium. For a lady’s perspective on the night, check out Andrea Grimes’ review. Or, download a bit torrent of the concert for yourself. Comments on.
1 comment
I must be old too, because that was the best concert I’ve seen in a long time. The ballad-heavy set was my favorite. “Come Pick Me Up”! And he followed that with freakin’ “Oh My Sweet Carolina”! Long live McFarlin. And long live freaky dancing girl. During the intermission, I overheard a guy telling his friends, “I could do without the long solos at the end of every song. I mean, they’re good guitar players. I get that.” I didn’t agree with him, but it was funny.