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Ryan Adams Does Battle for Obama in Colorado

@RyanAdams

Last night at Colorado’s Boulder’s Theater, Ryan Adams performed a free concert in support of President Obama. The concert, held in a key battleground state, was also designed to encourage people to vote.

The stage setup and setlist were reminiscent of Adams’ recent solo tours. (The European one is documented on the recent box set Life After Deaf.) However, on this occasion, he was joined by his wife Mandy Moore for the opener (and classic) “Oh My Sweet Carolina.” After Moore departed, Adams noted that, “Now that she’s gone we can do all the songs with the cussing in them,” and then made his way through 17 more songs culled from throughout his catalog.

Whether it was numbers from his latest record Ashes & Fire (“Ashes & Fire, “Dirty Rain”), his sophomore breakout Gold (“Firecracker,” “New York, New York” or mid-career retro country rocker Cold Roses (“If I am Stranger,” “Let It Ride”), Adams punctuated the time in between songs with his trademark banter. (For many, this can as appealing as some of the songs.) A classic one was” “There’s those two people that are running for president and only one of them has seen Star Wars -or understood Star Wars.”

As was the case with previous solo tours, Adams included at least one choice cover. This evening he nodded to longtime hero Bob Mould and his song “Black Sheets of Rain” for the show’s encore.

Though Adams has no additional dates planned, he remains ever busy as he’s producing the new Lemonheads record and recently collaborated with the popular DJ Deadmau5.

The setlist for the evening was as follows

Oh My Sweet Carolina (with Mandy Moore)
Ashes and Fire
If I Am a Stranger
Dirty Rain
My Winding Wheel
The Rescue Blues
Please Do Not Let Me Go
Do I Wait
Firecracker
Everybody Knows
Sylvia Plath
Let It Ride
English Girls Approximately
Chains of Love
Houses on the Hill
Mr. Cat
New York, New York
Come Pick Me Up

Encore

Black Sheets of Rain (Bob Mould cover)