Last Thursday I went to the Ryan Adams and Butch Walker double bill here in Edmonton at the Winspear Centre. This was my first time seeing both artists. I knew nothing about Butch Walker, but once I found out he was opening, I did some research to learn about him. To my surprise Butch has been very active in the music scene for many years, not only as an artist playing in bands Marvelous 3 and South Gang and solo, he has also produced a many an album by such artists as Pete Yorn, Pink, Weezer, Avril Lavigne just to name a few. Butch Walker has also put out six solo albums with a new one called "Afraid Of Ghosts" that is due in February.
Butch's half hour set was quite good, the first two songs he did were on the piano, so it started a little slow, but he then switched to guitar which seemed to pick up the pace of his show. He did a couple of new songs, one of which was called Chrissie Hynde. He also told a great story about going to his very first concert which was with his Dad and was KISS on the Love Gun tour, a hilarious story. Butch closed out his set with Ryan Adams band backing him up, with Ryan on drums, the song that they performed was "Maybe It's Just Me". An awesome choice for an opener, I would love to see Butch Walker and his band play a headlining show. Hope to see Butch make his way up here again.
Butch Walker at the Winspear Centre.
Next up was headliner Ryan Adams, Ryan is out touring to support is first album in four years his self titled release. This show started out interesting, before the show had even started a guy about six rows in front of me came to his seat double fisted with a beer in each hand and holding them over his head, yelling at the top of his lungs, lets fucking party. This guy was obviously drunk, and his voice sure did carry, especially in a venue like the Winspear Centre. Just before Ryan hit the stage, this guy goes right to the front of the stage and is screaming like mad, telling everyone to stand up and blah blah blah. Didn't take long before security was on this guy, trying to escort him out, that is when Ryan Adams hit the stage and saw what was going on. Ryan went on to tell security to leave him alone, as he was only having a good time and this is a rock n' roll show, yes we are here to party. So thanks to Ryan Adams, this guy was able to stay for the show, had to go back to his seat, but was still allowed to stay. Kudos to you Ryan.
Ryan Adams and his new band The Shining opened the show with the song "Gimme Something Good" from his newest album. Through out his two hour show he played almost the whole new album, but sprinkled the rest of the show with some older material, one song "Why Do They Leave" from his debut album that came out in 2000. Also doing one song from his 2001 album Gold, that song being "New York, New York". I would like to have heard a few more songs from that album, but that is a minor complaint considering the vast catalog of music he has to choose from.
Something else I noticed about this show was how vocal the audience was, there was lots of banter between the audience and Ryan Adams through out the entire concert. Ryan was really good about it, dealing with it with his dry sense of humour, he was actually quite funny. With the banter between the audience and Ryan, he did two improvised songs that brought a few laughs. All and all this was a great show, even better then I was expecting. Good times!!!
Ryan Adams at the Winspear. Terrible picture, but the only one I took.
Ryan Adams setlist for the Edmonton show.
Gimme Something Good
Let It Ride
Stay With Me
Dirty Rain
New York, New York
A Kiss Before I Go
Easy Plateau
Am I Safe
Fix It
Shadows
Why Do They Leave?
I Just Might
Peaceful Valley
Trouble
Kim
I Love You But I Don't Know What To Say
Rats in the Wall
When The Summer Ends
Encore:
This House Is Not For Sale
T-shirt front.
T-shirt back.
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