A Ryan Adams show in 2025 was always going to be a gamble. Known as much for his mercurial nature as he is for his indelible songwriting, the North Carolina musician has undergone a very public fall from grace since a 2019 New York Times article detailed allegations of sexual harassment against him at the height of the #MeToo movement. In spite of this, I texted Boca’s illustrious arts & entertainment editor John Thomason last week, posing the question of whether it was ethical to attend a Ryan Adams show, much less cover it. In the end, the promise of a full playthrough of the 2000 masterwork Heartbreaker convinced me it was worth taking a chance.
For better or worse, the brief performance that did take place on Saturday night at the Parker in Fort Lauderdale convinced me that I’d made the right choice. The sound was absolutely stellar—whether it was the venue, the touring party or both, great care was taken to set up each of the different stations on the lamp-lit stage for maximum dynamic range. Adams’ vocals, drenched in reverb, echoed through the venue in waves that elevated the sonics past a typical solo-acoustic performance, or at least any that I’d seen. And though it was apparent that something was off—the artist’s signature chatty wit was absent from the start, and a few songs were shifted to lower-energy versions that didn’t quite feel like artistic choices—the performance was compelling nonetheless.
Three songs into the set, the typically overly-loquacious Adams apologized to the sparse crowd, explaining that he was dealing with a flareup of Meniere’s disease that left him feeling dizzy and nauseous. The roughly third-full audience responded with empathy and support, with an attendee yelling that Adams “still sound[ed] great.” His response of “I know I sound great” elicited a roar of laughter, but just four songs later, the show was aborted in full.
I empathize with any health issues that Adams was dealing with, but it was hard not to imagine that the abrupt ending of the show didn’t have anything to do with meager attendance. “For half a house, with my triple vision this looks like Madison Square Garden,” he told the crowd shortly before leaving the stage for good roughly 30 minutes after the show began. I can only hope that those in attendance who paid for their tickets receive a full refund. Adams didn’t make it to his signature song, the Heartbreaker standout “Come Pick Me Up,” but on Saturday night there were certainly plenty of Uber drivers in Fort Lauderdale who got that message a few hours earlier than expected.
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