Everything about Tuesday night’s Mountain Stage show at the Keswick was lush. The thick orange venue curtains, the tasteful production lights and ornate wall sconces, Larry Grace’s announcer voice spilling over us like some dark, rich chocolate. Margo Timmins of the Cowboy Junkies lulling us with "Follower 2." Martin Sexton’s soulful yodeling. Ben Arnold’s playful ode to marriage.

It was all soothing, comfortable music for suburbia. Even Glenside looked like some cozy hamlet from a mythical '50s postcard.

Ryan Adams was a jaggedly raised middle finger in that placid space.

His brattiness is somewhat legendary. We'd only seen it once firsthand, when he cut short a Whiskeytown show in Little Rock because the audience wouldn’t shut up.

This felt different.

First, he sent out his band. (His guitarist looked so much like him that confused people cheered and clapped during his walk-on).

Then the house lights went down and back up a little, and he was there, sitting off to the side.

He had no guitar. He was wearing a hoodie and huge white sunglasses, his face almost totally obscured. There was a white bandage covering one hand. Was this a Michael Jackson parody? Was he having us on, or were we in on the joke? Hard to tell.

The creepy opener “Halloween Head” (from his new CD, Easy, Tiger), just added to the weirdness. He didn't address us, other than to make a few between-song comments, and to crack a flat joke or two that made the audience titter nervously. He flapped his hands in the air. He seemed to pick a fight with his pianist over some tuning, but they sorted that out pretty quickly.

But then his other songs wrapped us in some powerful emotion. His voice feels weary, mindful, like he’s been ground down by some pretty hard living. During “Goodnight Hollywood,” he rocked back and forth slightly in his chair, put some weight into it. He didn't play any of his up-tempo rockers. It was the slow, sad numbers, six in all.

Then, too quickly, he was bolting up and off the stage with a muttered “good night,” and the show was over.

It’s probably none of our business what demons he’s wrestling. It’s all about the music, right?

We still can't help but wonder.


Image via flickr user scaryspice