Kevin Bronson on June 4th, 2017

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Ryan Adams headlined the Greek Theatre on Saturday night in support of his new album “Prisoner,” performing four songs from that album, five from his Ryan Adams & the Cardinals catalog and touching on material from five other solo releases as well.

In front of a stage stacked with amps and TV screens — the latter showing images of things like outer space, dancing women and static — and dotted with stuffed animals, Adams was in fine form, with opener Karen Elson joining the band for the closer “Come Pick Me Up.” He was loquacious on this night too, riffing with some crowd members who had been holding up their phones the whole set (“Hey, I’m right here! Your wrist is gotta be killing you; you’re gonna get ‘carpe diemÆ Syndrome. I feel like you’re majorly bumming out the people behind you; they’re all making this terrible face the whole show.”) and bantering with guitarist Tod Wisenbaker (whose wife Katy Goodman of La Sera is pregnant).

Adams: “On guitar, from Guitar Center over on Sunset, Tod Wisenbaker! What’s going on Tod?”

Wisenbaker: “Not much man.”

“What are you doing tonight?”

“Uh, possibly having a baby.” (Crowd cheers)

“He didn’t say making a baby, he said having a baby …”

Adams also touted the magic powers of bassist Charlie Stavish and poked fun at his new drummer’s button-up short, improvising a little ditty “what the f*ck is that shirt” ditty and, as he frequently does, eschwing the ritual of leaving stage prior to the encore. “Places like this have a hard curfew, that means we only have two songs left, so I don’t have time to pretend… (fans cheer) No, stop! I don’t have time to pretend that there’s an encore …,” said. “So I just wanted to say it’s great to be home

Setlist: Let It Ride, To Be Young (Is to Be Sad, Is to Be High), Magnolia Mountain, Two, Gimme Something Good, Dirty Rain, Fix It, Prisoner, Outbound Train, Shakedown on 9th Street, Do You Still Love Me?, Stay With Me, When the Stars Go Blue, Ashes & Fire, Peaceful Valley, Dear John, Doomsday, (Fuck That Shirt), Everybody Knows, Invisible Riverside, Wonderwall, New York, New York, Come Pick Me Up

Photos by Samantha Saturday