„In the middle of a tour to mark the 25th anniversary of perhaps his finest work, the album Heartbreaker, the North Carolina native took to the stage and performed with a mixture of petulance and self-pity that was unpleasant and uncomfortable to witness. On the other side of the ledger, his audience did the city proud and could walk out with their heads held high, with the majority unwilling to tolerate such precious, nursery school behaviour.
The tone of the gig was set by Adams’ appearing miffed that some of his fans might enjoy a drink on their night out, yet this was far from a lairy crowd. Early on, one punter was singled out for an unspecified crime, with the man on stage keen to belittle and mock, insisting he wouldn’t “play another note” if the audience member didn’t leave his seat and come up to watch the rest of the show alone in the front row.
Perhaps heeding an early heckle to “wind your neck in”, Adams did manage to stumble through a couple of tracks before unwisely trying his hand at some stand-up comedy. He is a man with many gifts; humour is not one of them.
After asking the audience to stop and “think about the fact Madonna and Ice-T had sex”, one fed-up soul simply enquired “why?”.
“Because it’s Madonna’s vagina,” responded Adams with a cackle.
For a man with what might be loosely termed a checkered history when it comes to his treatment of women, it was quite the doubling down. (…) After another bored fan implored him to “sing one of your songs”, Adams screeched “Who said that? What’s your name?”. A defiant voice from the other side of the auditorium then shouted: “I am Spartacus!”, causing a welcome outbreak of laughter to ripple through the crowd.
But the atmosphere was now unsalvageable, not least because he channelled his inner Van Morrison to wilfully indulge in some unlistenable, interminable guitar solos.
Judging by the tone of his comments about the city, it’s doubtful whether Adams will ever pass this way again. What’s certain is that many who witnessed this horror show won’t give a hoot if he does.“
(Konzertbericht in Belfast Live)
Mehr Schmähkritiken:
…und Ryan Adams über…
* The Killers
* R.E.M.
* Father John Misty
