Blog Party guest contributor Sonya Knauss talks about Ryan Adam’s show at Riverside Theater on Tuesday, Sept. 25

I should’ve guessed how moody Ryan Adams can be just by listening to his lyrics. I only own one of his CD’s, “Heartbreaker,” and it’s full of, well, heartbreak. Painful.

He’s the guy who wrote the song “Come Pick Me Up,” which Tim Cigelske described to me as “the most depressing love song of all time.”

A lyric sample:
I wish you would
Come pick me up
Take me out
Fuck me up
Steal my records
Screw all my friends behind my back
With a smile on your face
And then do it again

You can watch a version of it here:

Unfortunately, he didn’t play that one last night, even though the crowd asked for it on several occasions, which visibly pissed him off. I’ll get to that part in a minute.

But let’s backtrack to the beginning…

I walked into the Riverside just before Ryan Adams and the Cardinals started playing around 8:30. Perfect timing. The set-up included a starry-night backdrop, with a big disco ball hung high above the band.

They launched the show with an energetic “Wild Flowers” and went right into the next few songs pretty seamlessly. After “Games,” which was charming with its spare lighting and haunting harmonies over lyrics like “You ain’t but a fire on my sad estate / Burning my house to the ground,” the band picked up the tempo and amped up the sound for a crowd-pleasing rendition of “Cold Roses.”

At that point I was thinking to myself, “this band is really having fun!”

Someone yelled out, “Thanks for coming to Milwaukee!” The audience was really responsive, and I settled in to enjoy the concert.

But at some point, Ryan Adams got pissed off. I think it was after the sixth song, “Rescue Blues,” when some loud chick yelled out “take your shirt off!” in the midst of some other song requests being called out by the audience.

Ryan Adams, who mumble-yelled into the microphone just about every time he addressed the audience (except when he was inexplicably whispering) said something like, “Don’t feed the animals unless you want to get bit!”

People laughed a little, and they got on with the concert. After a few more songs I noticed just how little he was engaging the audience. There was no banter or friendliness, and I sensed an increasing hostility towards the audience, who was good-naturedly yelling out requests for his older songs from his solo albums or “I love you”- type comments between almost every song.

At one point during a set change he encouraged the audience (whispering the whole time) to “observe the cardinals in their natural habitat,” and led a ridiculously elaborate sound-along with the audience pretending to make jungle noises.

But two songs later, he’d had it with audience participation.

“I’m starting to think that maybe people of my generation don’t have any patience,” he grumbled after a third request for Pick Me Up was yelled out. “I’m not even relatively that good, and you don’t have any patience,” he said, clearly exasperated.

Then he got on with it, but the message was clear. Shut up and listen! I don’t want to hear from you.

I think at this point I leaned over to Lille and whispered, “I don’t really like being in a concert where you’re afraid you’re going to make the singer mad!” and she told me about a show her friend went to where he got pissed off at the audience and just left after only a couple songs. (Lille’s note: We also couldn’t take photos close to the stage — clear instructions were given to take them from back of the theater, and nothing else.)

He reminded me of one of those aloof, mysterious guys you get a crush on in high school because they’re just so unavailable and show no interest in you. The audience kept trying to shower their love on him even after he made it clear he was just not that into them.

Regardless of his bad attitude, the concert was worth going to. The music was great, especially the songs from his new CD, “Easy Tiger.” His jeans were way too tight, but I guess that’s rockstar fashion for ya…

I’m a sucker for a good steel guitar, and there was plenty of it in this concert. The Cardinals are a good fit for Ryan Adams, and he spent most of his time playing guitar along with the band rather than sitting at the piano.

I hope for his sake he starts enjoying what he’s doing a little more, because he certainly didn’t seem happy to interact with a friendly and welcoming Milwaukee audience who clearly adored him.

Even though I don’t feel like the concert was a rip off, it seems fitting to end with these lyrics from the song of that name on “Easy Tiger:”

I make these promises but all my promises hurt
It’s like they never get a lift off
So if i’m being honest with you and i seems like i’m being cruel
At least you didn’t get a rip off, a rip off, a rip off
And you’ll know how i feel
Like a rip off, a rip off, a rip off