Ryan Adams live in Boston
Photo: Paul Robicheau

BOSTON — There's more light in most rehearsal spaces than there was onstage at the Avalon Ballroom on Monday. But that was the vibe sought by Ryan Adams, who even chided the lighting guy at one point to keep the illumination dim.

Granted, there were passionate flashes of showmanship from the scruffy singer/songwriter, who is swinging from the alt-country underground into budding rock stardom with recent CD, Gold. But the most animated moment came when Adams abandoned his guitar to kick off an encore with the Rolling Stones' "Brown Sugar," a nod to the biggest influence on the scrappy rock that dominated his 100-minute show. The singer pranced with one hand behind his back and the other pointing high.

Elsewhere, though, Adams acted more like the sold-out crowd of 2,000 happened to be on hand for a well-honed rehearsal that just happened to begin with a modest opening set by girlfriend Leona Naess. He blended into the chunky fabric of his backing band, Sweetheart Revolution, a five-piece group akin to the Black Crowes, robustly singing with lonely conviction as his hair fell across his eyes.

"You can hear the heart in his music," said Josh Steinberg, 19, a Long Island-bred Emerson College student who waited five hours to get in front of the stage but expressed disappointment after the show. "You could see flashes of brilliance, and other times when he was completely self-indulgent. He was completely retreating from the audience."

Indiana native Tamzin Kennebrew, 21, who drove up from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, offered, "I think he's sort of surprised and flattered by all the attention he gets and doesn't know what to do with it."

Eschewing his sensitive, melancholic side, Adams rocked from the outset with "The Rescue Blues" (given a much rougher treatment than on Gold), "To Be Young (Is to Be Sad, Is to Be High)" and "Firecracker," before losing the Van Morrison inflections of "Answering Bell" by dropping that song into the middle of the Grateful Dead's somber "Wharf Rat."

After the more melodic shades of "Somehow, Someday" and "Touch, Feel & Lose," Adams and his band also slipped from the Stonesy honky-tonk of "Tina Toledo's Street Walkin' Blues" into a meandering jam iced by the lap steel strains of ex-Dylan sideman Bucky Baxter. And for the most part, the set list went out the window. "New York, New York" (a hit song about a girl who became a symbol for the city) went unplayed, and Adams stretched into the spacey, Doors-like folds of a new, largely ad-libbed song. "I don't f---ing care anymore," he sang in one refrain, then led the band through rocking set-closer "Nobody Girl," featuring searing guitar leads from his onetime Whiskeytown mate Brad Rice.

Adams ended that number as he did the encore (another new song, the lurching riff-rocker "Vampire," in which he sang, "I'm a fake and I'm a liar") by dangling his guitar into feedback, letting it drop, then sauntering offstage.

"Dark and disturbing," fan Bill Carlezon, 35, of Boston said. "I loved the CD, but the concert was a different story. It's really all about him."

Read about all of the shows we've recently covered in Tour Reports.

• Ryan Adams
• Leona Naess

Ryan Adams
Photo: Mercury

For his new video, Ryan Adams found himself in a field of red poppies with the Emerald City looming in the background. And though there was no Toto and there were no flying monkeys, Elton John was there to drive home the point that Adams certainly wasn't in Kansas anymore.

Actually, it was Long Island City, New York, to be specific, on the set of Adams' video for "Answering Bell," the second single from his second solo album, Gold. The clip, shot Friday by director Luke Scott (Train, Deana Carter), is loosely based on L. Frank Baum's classic novel about a dream-world stumbled upon after a nasty blow to the head. And like Dorothy's imagined adventure, the idea for the "Answering Bell" video came to Adams while he, too, was in a somewhat delirious state.

Adams was scheduled for a round of interviews with the press while in Hamburg, Germany, but fell ill and canceled. With nothing to do but rest and think, Adams put the downtime to good use.

"I'm all hopped up on whatever it is they give you to get rid of the flu, and I call my manager with this really great idea for the video. It's like a really tripped out version of 'The Wizard of Oz.' "

He said his next calls were to Counting Crows singer Adam Duritz, who supplies backing vocals on the track, and Elton John, who's been an outspoken proponent of Adams since Gold was released in September. Both appear in the clip, as does singer/songwriter Leona Naess, the object of Adams' affection as evidenced by the make-out scene in the poppy field. While the two lovebirds are entwined amongst the flowers, Sir Elton, looking exceptionally regal in a purple cape with star-topped scepter in hand, looks on just a few feet away.

The video is expected to surface in February, according to a Lost Highway Records spokesperson.

• Ryan Adams
• Elton John
• Counting Crows
• Leona Naess