Concert Review - Ryan Adams - Auckland - 18th October 2025
Presented by Live Nation
Image Credit - Ginny Cocks
Review By: Faith Hamblyn
Artist/Band: Ryan Adams
Venue/City: Bruce Mason Centre, Auckland, NZL
Date of Event: Saturday, 18th October 2025
L’enfant terrible Ryan Adams gifted us his debut, Heartbreaker, when he was 25, at a time when emo, post-punk and alternative-country were blooming, dark and heady. He had Gillian Welch on his team, and Emmylou Harris too; he was a pouty, tousled-haired, sneering country-punk, rock’n’roll-leather braceleted. He sounded like high-and-lonesome country, heartbreakingly sweet, but since then he’s bawled, rocker brat-style, flirted with pop. I’ve seen him perform a rich mix of postmodernism before, but that was at The Powerstation, and tonight we’re acting our age - we wear our specs full-time now, and it’s time to experience The Bruce Mason Centre.
The Bruce Mason Centre is theatrical, and was dressed with warm, diffused lamps and rugs, a piano, and acoustic guitars framing a wooden chair centre stage. Old-timey blues played as we entered, and it felt like Americana was waiting in the wings; Woody Guthrie’s earnest ghost or Bob Dylan's everlasting pale troubadour. On last listen of Heartbreaker, I could hear them echoing through, the dust and braggadocio of vast America.
Wearing what looked to be red-striped Adidas and a Slayer ‘Reign In Blood’ shirt, this was the Ry we remember from days of old, but so over it by tonight, the end of his year-long tour. ‘To Be Young’ was received rapturously, as one of the top three of his usual set, but it was followed by interruptions and stage-light directions, with a bit of his very funny, very odd banter. ‘My Winding Wheel’ had a cool new arrangement, but then things started to unravel.
His stories were so abstract, it became worrying. His foot was keeping time to the percussion of his talking, it was so prolonged, which became all I could pay attention to. As with all art forms, it’s all in the edit, and Ryan Adams isn’t interested in filtering at this point - and I know this, and a surprising amount more, because we heard about it at length.
‘Oh My Sweet Carolina’, the natural next highlight, was accompanied by a lot of context about the song and Ryan’s stream of thought. Bagging on Australia always gets a laugh, but we also heard about his suffering from epilepsy in Melbourne, on top of Meniere’s etc. It’s invaluable to hear more about his muse, but it kind of turned into a rambling stand-up set.
‘Shakedown On 9th Street’ was more fun - bluesy, shouty, harmonica-driven boasting.
His cover of ‘Blue Moon’ was gorgeous, and made me curious about his re-recording of Heartbreaker, which he said was like recording as Frank Sinatra. I can’t imagine him rocking a fedora, though, as he ruffled up his hair as the night wore on.
‘Walk In The Dark’ is a song of lost love that rings true - he wishes he could go back, but nobody can; that cathartic mix of nostalgia and a melancholy that surely everybody knows.
After ‘Damn, Sam (I Love a Woman That Rains)’, it was ‘Bartering Lines’, which is excellent, even stripped down. And after ‘I See Monsters’, there was intermission, where it seems people partook in the alcoholism and drugs Ryan Adams mentioned, and with mixed effect.
‘Two’ was great stripped down too, and his cover of Lorde’s ‘Current Affairs’ is awesome - maybe he could cover her ‘Virgin’ album, like he did so brilliantly with Taylor Swift’s ‘1989’. I’ve long loved Ashes & Fire, so that was heartbreaking to hear it was about Mandy Moore; the longest echo to the most presumably not-thought-out marriage that has ended up being. His cover of ‘That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore’ warmed my conflicted, Anglophilic heart.
He closed with two new tracks, ‘Amethyst’ and ‘Outsiders’ which sound like yet another great album is on the way. Heartbreakingly, he says this was his last international gig, which I’m hoping is just another flight of fancy. We gave him a long standing ovation, but there was no encore - he seemed to be struggling with his health and had spent too long spinning yarns.
SETLIST
To Be Young
My Winding Wheel
Don’t Ask For The Water
Why Do They Leave?
In My Time Of Need
Oh My Sweet Carolina
Amy
Call Me On Your Way Back Home
Shakedown On 9th Street
Blue Moon (Richard Rodgers and Lorenzo Hart cover)
Walk In The Dark
Damn, Sam (I Love a Woman That Rains)
Bartering Lines
I See Monsters
Saturday Night Forever
Gimme Something Good
Two
English Girls Approximately
Current Affairs (Lorde cover)
Shiver and Shake
Ashes & Fire
That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore (Smiths cover)
Amethyst
Outsiders
