[Editor’s note: We’re pleased to bring you an I Went to a Show On the Road piece from Special Correspondent Jeremy Essig. Jeremy is a writer, musician, and comedian based in St. Louis. Show him some love, and allow this generous review to function as your official ‘Ryan Adams is Coming to St. Louis In September(!)‘ preview post.]

In an attempt to recreate the 1980s, Ryan Adams may have slipped through a wormhole and found himself somewhere in his own timeline from the mid-2000s.

Playing two sold-out nights at The National in Richmond, VA on March 5th and 6th to start his North American tour, references to the decade of Reagan and Miami Vice were about as subtle as the musical influences Adams gleefully wears on his sleeve. Video game consoles, a retro Dr. Pepper machine, and a stuffed tiger named Jarome adorned the stage while t-shirts boasting ‘80s fonts beckoned from the merch booths; a collection of TV theme songs welcomed those who arrived before opening act Phoebe Bridgers. Following Bridgers’ quietly beautiful — and unfortunately short — solo set, the crowd was treated to 30+ minutes of 80s metal before Adams and his band took the stage.

Yes, Adams’ guitar featured the heavy chorus and reverb that defined many pop songs of the decade. But as the first night developed, it took on a different feeling – one more reminiscent of a Ryan Adams & the Cardinals era circa mid-late 2000s. It felt like Adams had crossed into his own time continuum: a musical episode of Quantum Leap wherein Dr. Sam Beckett ends up in his own past as he attempts to travel elsewhere in time.

And much like Beckett, who would use his what he learned along the journey to put right what once went wrong, it was clear Adams has grown by leaps and bounds as a performer over the last decade. Not that he has anything to “set right,” necessarily; his shows with the Cardinals were great, loud and occasionally jammy rock shows, but they also carried with them an air of danger – that things might go off the rails at any moment. The Ryan Adams who performed in Richmond, however, was in utter control of a crowd that, at least on Night 1, might kindly be described as ‘rowdy’. (“It sounds like a rodeo is going on over there,” Adams lightheartedly quipped to a section whose members deemed it their duty to scream over any brief silence.)

Opening with “Do You Still Love Me?,” the first single from the newest album, Prisoner, Adams and his band ripped through six tracks, pausing only for guitar changes between songs. With a similar stage set-up and feel to the tunes, avid listeners might see this tour as an extension of the last. One noticeable difference is Adams’ band, retaining only bassist Charlie Stavish from the group that backed him in 2014. 

As the band dug into “Peaceful Valley” from 2005’s Jacksonville City Nights, the night took on a near anachronistic feel for those who saw Adams a decade ago. Following the song’s second chorus, Adams’ dropped into an extended solo. It was a display largely missing from his shows since being diagnosed with Meniere’s Disease and the release of 2011’s Ashes and Fire. While Night 1 had its quieter moments, like acoustic, solo renditions of “Wonderwall” and “Come Pick Me Up,” a harder sound and extensive guitar work permeated most songs.

Any thought that the vibe of the first night was an aberration — perhaps in response to the rowdy crowd — was obliterated on Night 2 by the set’s second song. Following a mishap with Adams’ guitar strap during the opening number, the band tore into a breakneck version of “To Be Young (Is to Be Sad, Is to Be High)” off Adams debut, Heartbreaker. That speed and power would continue throughout the second night at The National as moments of extended, crunchy guitar interplay between Adams and guitarist Benny Yurco punctuated song after song. In these moments, Adams’ development as a guitarist was thrust into the red, hazy spotlight; now, he was taking the lead where he once fell into the background.

The goofball-stoner-comedian crowd banter from Adams’ was less pervasive than during the previous tour, unleashing itself as a hidden weapon and only when needed. The band played thirteen songs with little more than a “thank you” on the first night before an out-of-tune guitar lead Adams to improv a country-ish ditty about how out-of-tune said guitar was. During band introductions on Night 2, Adams admonished an audience member who had been using a flash, something that had been prohibited by signs anywhere someone looked and also by a stagehand who came out before the show due to the flash’s effect on the singer’s Meniere’s Disease.

For anyone familiar with Adams’ past, disruptive moments like the rude flasher might indicate an initial suction into chaos. But instead of yelling, Adams once again turned court jester, improving a song called “I’m Sorry, Mister Sith Lord.” It managed, in the space of a couple minutes, to apologize for yelling at the audience member (while still sternly rebuking them), to tell the story of Adams himself attempting to get a picture at a Slayer concert, and also to provide critical commentary of the band Exodus.

It’s likely that Ryan Adams’ Night 2 Richmond show closer, an almost metal version of “I See Monsters”, will not sound or feel the same later this year at The Pageant in St. Louis. Six months of straight touring can mean a band either congeals into an even tighter unit, or they disintegrate a bit, wearily, somewhere along the road. This Ryan Adams, however, a performer who has only sharpened his musical tools throughout various career leaps, suggests the former for STL fans this summer.

Ryan Adams plays The Pageant in St. Louis, MO on Tuesday, August 1st, 2017. The show is sold out.

Night 1 Setlist:

• Do You Still Love Me
• Doomsday
• Dirty Rain
• Prisoner
• Gimme Something Good
• Am I Safe?
• Peaceful Valley
• Fix It
• Magnolia Mountain
• Wonderwall (acoustic)
• Let it Ride
• Breakdown
• Everybody Knows
• Improv Song (This Guitar is Out of Tune)
• Anything I Say to You Now
• Haunted House
• Stars Go Blue
• Trouble
• We Disappear
• Come Pick Me Up (Acoustic)
• Shakedown on 9^th Street
  [Encore]
• Cold Roses

Night 2 Setlist: 

• Do You Still Love Me?
• To Be Young (Is to Be Sad, Is to Be High)
• Prisoner
• Haunted House
• Gimme Something Good
• Shiver and Shake
• Peaceful Valley
• Let it Ride
• Shakedown on 9^th Street
• Doomsday (Acoustic)
• Outbound Train
• Breakdown
• Magnolia Mountain
• Stay With Me
• Improv Song (Sorry, Sith Lord)
• Dirty Rain
• Kim
• Stars Go Blue
• We Disappear
• Trouble
• Come Pick Me Up (Acoustic)
  [Encore]
• Everybody Knows
• I See Monsters