Ryan Adams at the Balboa Theater in San Diego Last Night

i love everything about this review.  and i flew for 2 hours to see him and he totally melted my face and bled my ears with radness in santa cruz.

i understand the need to hear the show but it seems as if everyone is whining about what they don't like in their lives("like so many young people""douchebags who call out songs") c'mon people, lighten up. if you want to listen to music w/complete quiet, go to a church or stay @ home and listen to yr downloaded live bootleg.  Stop whining if people call out songs, it's not a cemetary. Granted, it started to get outta hand towards the end but people were excited and showed it w/clapping along(in the middle of the set)  and shouting out songs to hear(from the beginning on). He took a long time between songs and it was starting to drag( @ least in the middle of the set). I'm a huge fan, and while this particular set was really good, i miss him w/a band...But i was really surprised & enjoyed the wealth of material he culled his set list from...Whiskeytown? About time...

We were there and agree with the comment below...What a bunch of disrespectful rude idiots....why do you have to get up every few minutes....talk loudly when you leave and when you come in again, why do you have to leave in groups of ten....why do you have to talk trough the entire pre show....nobody asked you to come in...stay outside. The show was one of the best we saw lately, Ryan Adams was great and so was Jason Isbell!

I feel like mentioning the "Your wife is hot!" holla came from a chick. Not sure why I feel like mentioning it, other than it made it kinda funnier. 

Very awesome review. Enjoyed the drawings :P I'd love to see him live. He has definitely the willpower to handle things gracefully. More gracefully then some idiots at concerts deserve (Don't get me started...)

awesome review :)

We drove from Tempe, AZ that day and back..."Worth it" doesn't begin to describe.

Well said and written...I def share the interpretation of the evening. It was perfect.

I've only seen DRA once, opening for Oasis in Winnepeg a six+ hour drive, I'd kill to see a show like this. Great review, I've enjoyed the Storytellers/whatever other TV shows I've seen of him which I recalled while reading this. I can't believe people shout out during shows like that, I couldn't even think of what I'd want to hear from such an astounding songwriter in that setting. Great article, I could very well envision this great show. Thanks!

Thanks for writing. Wish I was there!

oh, and Everybody Knows was right before Invisible Riverside by the way.

Great review of the show. Sometimes I just want to tell people to shut the hell up and let the msuician run the show. Sometimes with an artist like DRA you get a crowd that loves him SO much and hangs on every word and laughs hysterically at everything they say that it gets ridiculous. But he was genuinely funny all night and handled the outbursts really well. When he slowed the tempo on the clap-along it made my day. I thought he did a great job with the set list and interspersed just the right amount of new album with crowd faves. And to reiterate, that was a vintage Buck Owens model guitar. I have one and they notoriously go out of tune and suck in general. But they look cool. And kudos to Jason Isbell opening the show. Great night of music.

Thanks for the re-cap and set list. With so many amazing songs in his arsenal its hard not to call out a favorite. After he played Houses on Hill I was dying to cal out "Factory Girl" but had to keep it in and enjoy the rest of the ride. His witty banter let us see another side of him, which we really only know through songs and reviews. And I absolutely loved when he stopped the crowd from clapping along. Its like nails on a chalk board to me. 

In fairness to DRA and the audience, it started to unravel a bit at the end because he couldn't find a page he wanted from his songbook, and while he looked the pause gave the audience some "participation space."  But to the reviewer's point, Ryan handled it all so well (as compared to, say, Lucinda Williams, who once threw a big binder clip at her roadie when she couldn't find a page, or to earlier vintage DRA, who wasn't quite so patient/endearing with his crowds).  The metal version of Two was spectacular - metal improv Ryan is always a show highlight for me - and when he nailed I See Monsters (which he confessed to having butchered the night before), the little fist pump he gave himself after the song was incredibly endearing.  This is a show I'd see again and again, and I think the review captured the sound and the spirit of it perfectly.

The guitar was actually red, white and blue, not Jamaican colors . He has been playing that Buck Owens American for years. Great review, though. Can't wait to see him soon.

This was an amazing show in a beautiful venue...and cudos to Jason Isbell as well for a nice opener. Many in the audience should have been asked to leave as far as I am concerned...but Adams handled it eloquently. I sat in row K...the 2 guys beside me talked throughout the show and the young girl beside them is like so many young people I witness these days that don't feel loved I guess unless they are checking their phone for text messages every 5 minutes to remind them they are alive and important to the Universe. What a bunch of disrespectful rude idiots...and believe me there were many more. Grow up will ya. Outside of that...great setlist covering tons of ground, voice sounded fantastic...just a great great show from a very talented musician. Thanks.