Who loves Ryan Adams? I do! I do!

As you may have already figured out from my tweets, just as I was lucky a few months ago when Coldplay was in town, I was again blessed enough to sit in on Ry Ry’s intimate performance at the Ed Sullivan Theater for Live on Letterman.

According to Ryan, for this tour he is doing all solo sets (yup, no Cardinals) because… he is. But he still has the classic crazy Ryan Adams between song banter — this time hypothesizing what would happen if you came to a Live on Letterman taping and KISS was performing, the “real” pyrotechnic show that is usually on display during “Lucky Now”, and an in-depth rant on the failings of the fourth season of “Moonlighting.”

Vocally, Ry Ry has never sounded better. Clear, crisp, and in control, I thought his voice was beautiful during the whole performance. He did an understated version of “New York, New York” on the piano — after which the guy a row in front of me shouted, “We still love you too, Ryan!” Another song of note was a cover of Bob Mould’s “Black Sheets of Rain.”

It’s been quite a while since I’ve seen Ryan perform (was at the last time the 2008 Cafe Select show????), so I was delighted when he played some older hits — especially “English Girls Approximately” — as soon as he hit the chorus of the song I was reminded how MUCH I love that song. (The playing of “Love Is Hell” will be occurring all day today.)

More classic Adams details included Ry dressed in a black tee with red design, jeans, brown workbooks — but most importantly, one impossibly expensive looking black leather jacket with an homage to Iron Maiden painted along the entire back. (Of course!!)

Can’t wait to see him tonight at the big Carnegie Hall show!

Setlist via the Ryan Adams Archive:

Oh My Sweet Carolina
Ashes & Fire
If I Am A Stranger
Dirty Rain
New York, New York (piano)
Do I Wait
Lucky Now
Jacksonville Skyline
Black Sheets of Rain (Bob Mould cover)
English Girls Approximately
16 Days

You can re-watch the stream of the performance right here:

Longtime readers of this site will already be accustomed to my undying, uncool devotion to the British “rock” band Coldplay.
But it is due to this broadcasting of affection that people end up being so generous whenever the band rolls into town.

Waiting to head into the Ed Sullivan Theater

Thanks to the unbelievable kindness of Product Shop NYC, last night I was lucky enough to attend Coldplay’s Live on Letterman webcast taping at the Ed Sullivan Theater right here in NYC.

It was basically 50 minutes of pure joy for me. The band played a handful of new songs off their upcoming album Mylo Xyloto — “Major Minus,” “Hurts Like Heaven,” “Charlie Brown,” and my personal favorite, “Paradise” — as well as all the greatest hits (“Yellow,” “The Scientist,” “Viva la Vida,” “Fix You,” etc.).

As always, Chris, Jonny, Will, and Guy were the consummate professionals, pounding out song after song with an unfaltering level of energy and passion.

Performing “Us Against The World”

There were two encores, both new songs. For the very last song, “Us Against The World,” the mic setup was not working for Chris’s guitar so with some urging from a dude in the crowd, he went acoustic, singing the first quarter of the song sitting on a stool, by himself in the center of the stage, with the rest of the guys quietly creeping behind to then join him in the song.

Fan video of “Us Against the World”:

After I got out of the show I read a text from my mom saying that she saw me on the webcast. MY MOM STILL LOVES COLDPLAY!

OH HAI, CHRIS MARTIN!

You can read an excellent summary of the night over at the CP Roadie Blog.

Songs played, according to my mom’s email:

Yellow
In My Place
Major Minus
Paradise
Viva La Vida
Charlie Brown
The Scientist
Clocks
Fix Me
Every Tear Is A Waterfall
Us Against The World

Printed setlist

Hey y’all. Sorry I have basically fallen off the face of the planet in terms of updates. August was a great month — saw lots of good music. Here are some of the shows I witnessed:

The biggest blowout I attended last month was on August 11th for Celebrate Brooklyn‘s last concert of the summer, featuring Aussie dance party gods, Cut Copy, and California wunderkids, Foster the People. So much crazy dancing, so much fun! (And a damn near Lindsay Lohan sighting!)

Lead singer Mark Foster told a story about how when he was a teenager he approached Rivers Cuomo at a party and tried to get him to listen to his demo. Fast foward to 2011, and now Weezer has been known to cover “Pumped Up Kicks” in concert. As an homage, FTP did a cover version of “Say It Ain’t So”:

The only bummer was during the show I decided to head into the crowd to get my groove on and instead some dude burnt me with his cigarette. BAD CONCERT DUDE, BAD!

Oh and every time I went to Celebrate Brooklyn this summer I had a foodgasm because The Farm on Adderley was the fancy food purveyor. Delicious fried green beans, life has never been the same since you’ve touched my lips!

The next night (Aug 12), after Sir Jeisenhair brain explosion, I headed to Rockwood Music Hall to catch Platinum Hit reality TV cutie Johnny Marnell do his thang.

Of course the venue was packed with chock full o’ lady admirers, dreamily looking up at Mr. Marnell. Adorable! Oh and apparently the New York Times was there — explains why that less than thrilled camera dude was at the show.

The next week I had the absolute JOY of hanging out with my friend from Iceland and his friend Karl, who is the brains behind the Icelandic band, Kalli. Managed to catch his act twice — once during a stripped down solo gig at Pianos, and then another with an accompanying percussionist at Fontana’s. It was like Iceland Airwaves 2006, all over again!

Kalli at Pianos

Capping of a three-day guest run on the Colbert Report (see below), Jack White and Stephen Colbert teamed up once again on Friday to promote Stephen’s new single on Third Man Records, “Charlene II (I’m Over You)” with a special live appearance at the Lot at the Highline (30th Street and 10th Avenue).

Hitting the stage around 12:15pm — the set was extremely short, with Stephen and Jack singing the National Anthem together:

And then Stephen later hitting the stage with the Black Belles to do his soon to be number 1 hit single:

After they did their two songs, Stephen announced that he and Jack would be signing any albums folks bought from the Third Man Rolling Record Store “until as long as it takes — or until we decide to leave.” Hilarious. Was so lucky to be there. They definitely let the good times roll!

2011: A Rock Odyssey (featuring Jack White): Part 1:

2011: A Rock Odyssey (featuring Jack White): Part 2:

2011: A Rock Odyssey (featuring Jack White): Part 3:

Stephen Colbert performing “Charlene II (I’m Over You)” with the Black Belles:

Jack White and Stephen Colbert have a Catholic Throwdown:

So now that Little J is officially not coming back to the next season of Gossip Girl, resident wild child Taylor Momsen will have plenty of time to make horribly cliched music videos with her band, Pretty Reckless.

However, it seems as though another GG teen queen is also maintaining her musical edge — but with much better results. Leighton Meester, who plays queen bee of mean Blair Waldorf, has been slowly working on her musical career over the years — teaming up with Cobra Starship in 2009 for “Good Girls Go Bad” and showing off her singing chops in last year’s Country Strong.

Meester recently performed in LA at the Hotel Cafe with Mike Frieman of Check in the Dark, and I have to say, up until now I was pretty down on the whole Leighton Meester wants to do music thing, but I am totally impressed with her singing skills in these videos. Beautiful vocals. Love that she’s doing less of that dance queen/pop star thing she’d been focusing on thus far and going for a more folky singer/songwriter feel.

Flawless face, hair, and singing voice? Sometimes life is just not fair. Well played, Meester.:

Ok, so the Jesse Eisenberg episode of SNL wasn’t stellar, but there were a few good laughs, but waaaaay too many masturbation jokes. Seriously, is SNL only funny to high school kids now?

If you didn’t catch it from last night, the video of White Stripes/Raconteurs/Dead Weather front man Jack White and ex-Tonight Show host/new basic cable network star Conan O’Brien performing on Coco’s new eponymous show on TBS is now up.

The two performed a cover of “Twenty Flight Rock,” which was featured on the LP of “Live at Third Man,” which is issued by Jack’s record label, Third Man Records.

Both were sporting facial hair, which Jack accessorizing his all black ensemble with a little newsboy cap, and Conan had a personalized guitar strap on for their duet:

Still mourning the loss of LOST? Here are some more photos from the series finale screening at The Bell House.

LOST 4EVA, Y’ALL!

Dharma beer

Folks waiting for the show to begin, watching the series recap. Notice the hula-ed out stage.

Previously on Lost kicked out the jams inspired by our favorite castaways.

For their rendition of “The Ballad of Sayid” they brought out a fake Sayid (a “Fayid”, if you will) to sit onstage and look fierce.

Confetti fell from the ceiling!!

Some fan videos that have helped me cope with the end of LOST:

A summary of all the questions that were left unanswered:

The meaning of LOST under 3 minutes:

Last night I gathered with a few hundred other folks at the Bell House in Brooklyn to watch the series finale of LOST. While dressed in leis and sipping on Dharma Initiative beers, with a recreation of an exploded Oceanic 815 hanging over head, the crowd laughed, cheered, and wept together, but I think each person was still in their own world. After an entire night of tossing and turning in my sleep, I still haven’t truly been able to work out “what it all means.” But as far as epic ending tv series episodes go, I thought the finale was pretty satisfying.

That said, I still can’t believe it has all come to an end.

For anyone who does NOT watch LOST, I apologize in advance. For pretty much the whole of the next week or two I’m going to be sprouting out random thoughts about LOST, continuing to work out what the ending means to me.

I didn’t think it would be this way, but I’m in shock…LOST has ended, the secrets have/have not been revealed, and that freaking creepy Crystal Castles The Ring-like ad (which pretty much turned me off of buying that album altogether) that played twice during Jimmy Kimmel Live will haunt my dreams for a long time.

What did it all mean for you? Are you sad now that it’s over?

More photos from last night:

The band Previously on Lost played before hand. Here is the crowd swaying to “I Believe I Can Fly” (the unofficial theme song of LOST):