Ryan Adams and the Cardinals
Monday, May 9, Thomas Wolfe Auditorium

It must be every rock writer’s dream to write a profile of Ryan Adams. After weeks of trudging through the latest mystifying indie-rock noisescape or parsing the too-easily-parsed sentiments of the latest uber-sincere singer-songwriter, finally one comes to a gen-u-ine too-big-for-his-britches character, a cocky piss-n-vinegar enfant terrible filled to his shaggy mane with sarcasm, self-promotion, and, most insidiously of all, obvious talent. It’s a chance for the coolly detached music scribe to get his or her pulse up a bit, dropping critical distance and taking up armaments, either in defense of this misunderstood genius or to pile on top of a long (and largely amusing) list of unflattering profiles and reviews. Pass a morning reading Adams’ press — as I recently did — and you’ll get a fair dose of volatility and bombast to go with your cup of coffee.

Volatility and bombast: always an entertaining pair, and that may be just what you get with your four-dollar-beer at the Thomas Wolfe Center come Monday night. I don’t know. Nobody does. Ryan Adams’ concerts are famously hard to predict, and half the anticipation of the show must be wondering which Ryan Adams will show up. Will it be the confessional alt-country crooner of Whiskeytown and 2000’s Heartbreaker, whose best songs were spare, stunning, and downright gorgeous? Will it be the 70s glam-rocker of 2001’s Gold, who stumbled upon an accidental hit in “New York, New York”? (Written about a failed romance and recorded in the summer of ‘01, the song — complete with a video shot in front of the Twin Towers four days before they fell — became a post-9/11 anthem that moved Adams into the mainstream.) Will it be the mood-drenched depressive of Love is Hell, the twin EPs that Lost Highway deemed “too dark” for proper release, telling Adams that he could do better? The hard-chargin’ everyman of Rock N Roll, a noisy little album that Adams himself likened to a drunken Rush rehearsal? Or will it be the Ryan Adams of one of the several rock, punk, and novelty side acts that he keeps a finger in?

And what sort of Ryan Adams will be playing those songs? Will it be the vulnerable boy-wonder who bleeds heartbreak and despair or the impetuous drunk who argues with bandmates and babbles at the audience? Will it be the self-obsessed too-cool-for-school six-degrees-of-irony Ryan Adams, or the sorta-funny hells-bells turn-up-the-amp Ryan Adams who doesn‘t understand what all the fuss is about? Will it be the stubborn and arrogant Adams who berates the audience for requesting Bryan Adams songs? The most infamous instance came in Madison, Wis., where Adams had the following exchange with a smartass requesting “Summer of ‘69” (as quoted in GQ):

Ryan Adams: Eat me. I wasn’t even fucking born in ‘69.

Fan: Why are you such a big poseur, then?

Adams: I make more money in two days than you make all year. Fuck you.

Lovely, that. — The answer, most likely, is that you’ll get all of those Ryan Adamses, like it or not. You’ll get the brash young genius and the cocky young bastard, the charming observer and the petulant drunk, the beautiful crooner, the pulseless killjoy, and the rock-n-roll alchemist with his heroes on his sleeve.

You’ll also get something new. Cold Roses — the first of a projected three releases from Adams this year — hit the streets on May 3, and he’s sure to pull from the album when he plays live. Advance copies weren’t available, so I can’t give you a review, but the early returns should be rolling in by the time you read this. If the pre-release single “Let It Ride” is any indication, Adams is turning back to his Whiskeytown roots: it’s with a simple country ballad that is neither volatile nor bombastic. But it is good. May the show be the same.

Tickets are $26 plus service charges, and the show is at 8 p.m. Rachel Yamagata opens. Call 828.251.5505 for tickets.

Also Playing in Asheville

• Larry Burnett and Jimmy Landry, Grey Eagle, 5/5

• Air Guitar USA Regional Contest, Westville Pub, 5/6

• Widespread Panic, Asheville Civic Center, 5/7

• Bryan Marshall and the Gone Wrongs, Westville Pub, 5/7

• Hank Sinatra, Jack of the Wood, 5/7

• Clutch, Stella Blue, 5/7

• The Decemberists, Orange Peel, 5/8

• Darrell Scott and Tim O’Brien, Grey Eagle, 5/8

Three Good Air Guitar Moves

1. The Windmill

2. The Split

3. The Machine Gun

They Said It

“Be careful what you pretend to be because you are what you pretend to be.”

— Kurt Vonnegut