Ryan Adams in MN: The good, bad and ugly

Everyone hopes the going line on Ryan Adams these days is true. Word is he has kicked a few bad habits and put more than a few years of bad behavior behind him.

His Twin Cities fans, however, might need to see it to believe it.

No marquee-name musician has had a more erratic performance history in Minnesota over the past decade and a half than the North Carolina-bred alt-country tunesmith turned sophisticated rocker, who turns 40 next month. He has been brilliant and exhilarating at some gigs, and bratty and exhausting at others.

As he rolls into the similarly refurbished Northrop in support of his well-received self-titled album, here's a look at the highlights and low points that precede Adams' latest local gig.

After the breakup of his former band Whiskeytown, Adams came out of the gate running with his solo debut "Heartbreaker" and a pair of ecstatically received solo acoustic gigs. The shows coincided with mentor/friend Lucinda Williams' Minneapolis sessions for her "Essence" album. She made both gigs. In between, he reportedly wrote "Firecracker" about her — a song that appeared on his 2001 Grammy-nominated followup "Gold" — and debuted it at the Turf, where he followed a regular set with an hourlong performance after closing time in the basement Clown Lounge.

"All I'm saying is, get a beer before [last call]," Adams warned at the start of what turned out to be a half-great three-hour set with his "Gold"-era band. He filled out the set list with Gram Parsons and Elton John covers and even played one song twice, "When Stars Go Blue" — just because he liked it. He also rambled aimlessly between songs and goofed off a lot. "The performer was having more fun than the audience," read our review of the show.

Uff da. Railing against the stage monitors, City Pages and Paul Westerberg — the latter had said in an interview that Adams "needed to get his teeth kicked in" — our fledgling young rock star unmistakably unraveled in front of a sold-out crowd. He switched from full-volume rock to an all-acoustic set on a whim, broke a cocktail glass on stage, bragged about dating actresses and weepily confessed toward the end, "I just want to go home for Christmas." Half the crowd had left in disgust by the time he snidely blurted, "This is one of my worst shows ever, but I like it."

What easily could've been another disaster turned into Adams' most triumphant local showing. An underplay venue-wise, it was the tour kickoff for his "Easy Tiger" album with a new backing band, the Cardinals. As if that weren't enough to set off jitters, he showed up with a broken wrist (purportedly a skateboarding accident) and started the show by demanding the stage lights be turned off. Playing in the dark without a guitar, he showed unusual focus and shined as never before as a singer. Per our review, "He never picked up an instrument. He never stood up. And he has never sounded as professional and polished."

His redemption in the eyes of Twin Cities fans lasted all of three months. This one found him complaining again about the stage monitors. He then spent minutes moving the monitors himself and adjusting his gear. After 70 mostly awkward minutes, he announced in a huff, "This is the last song." He wasn't kidding — and neither was the audience when it booed him afterward.

Opening for fellow behaviorally challenged rockers Oasis, Adams didn't say a peep to the crowd and hid behind dark shades and a slew of murky, midtempo rock tunes. The weirdest thing was how blah it was.

It's not often a rock crowd appreciates a ban on liquor sales at a show, but in the case of his last local gig it was rightfully interpreted as a good sign. Adams played what seemed like a defiantly mellow, even-keel acoustic set that had flashes of greatness and intervals of boredom, but throughout he was congenial and coherent talking between songs. A convincing if not full-force reboot.

Chris Riemenschneider • 612-673-4658