Sir Elton has also invited Bob Dylan.

Ryan Adams is not name-dropping. He is relaxing.

He is telling the story because he notices a young lady at the Tivoli who didn't seem to be enjoying herself despite a wonderful, varied set that had already included Adams' radio hits; New York, New York, Too Be Young, a breathtaking, chilling, almost-solo version of Oasis' Wonderwall and When the Stars Go Blue.

The young lady says she prefers Bob Dylan.

Adams shrugs and says he's met Bob Dylan twice. Once at Sir Elton's dinner where Dylan turned up dressed as a western hero and accidentally scratched him on the hand as they shook hands.

Dylan had a long nail on his pinkie (probably for finger-picking) - painted electric blue - on his right hand.

He was strange and awkward, Adams said.

"It's lonely way up in that tower," Adams explains quietly, before telling the Tivoli crowd he was shocked Dylan knew who he was and asked about one of his songs, a song that is - like most songwriters working in alternative country - influenced by Dylan.

"So what is a winding wheel?" Dylan asked him at dinner about the song that was one of the hits from Adams' 2000 Heartbreaker album.

"I don't know. It just sounded good," he had to tell Dylan.

"I just made it up."

Adams shrugged, the crowd roared and he picked up an acoustic guitar and played the song Dylan had questioned, My Winding Wheel.

"Buy a pretty dress and wear it out tonight, for anyone you think could outdo me," he sang solo to a now-hushed crowd.

This 15-minute passage was one of the highlights of the show - which began around 9.15pm - just as the slow claps began - and finished on the tick of midnight with Shakedown on 9th Street, also from his Heartbreaker album.

This version more raunch than the studio version, with Adams' guitar sounding like it came from within a garbage can and played by the Cramps imitating the Stones.

Adams came on to a stage that had huge amps and speaker boxes - almost staged like an old Neil Young set - with a dozen or so old television screens that flickered old western movies as the band played.

And stuffed cats and tigers and little lions. On Monday night Adams had played a $5 gig for three hours at Brisbane venue the Woolly Mammoth to raise money for cats.

The set opener was track one from his new Prisoner album, Do You Still Love Me, and it just crunched. Anyone remember Matthew Sweet and his song Girlfriend?

Similar feel. Adams' voice was sensational.

Then to a honky-tonking version of To Be Young, before a chunking swaggering version of Gimmee Something Good and a pretty version of Two from his Easy Tiger album.

"It takes two, when it used to take only one," he sang.

The stage is now covered in little blue lights. It's an early highlight, followed by the reflective sad Dirty Rain, with gorgeous work on the keyboards.

Adams then takes us through his career; Outbound Train, Prisoner (title track from his latest album) with a lovely melodic guitar solo, Stay With Me, Invisible Riverside (great version) and Sweet Illusions before another slow one, Dear John from his 2005 Jacksonville City Nights album.

This was another standout. Just soft country. Bittersweet and warm.

Then, When the Stars Go Blue, with its chorus: "Where do you go when you're lonely and the stars go, blue."

The set varied widely. We went back to the sound of Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead with the tracks, Peaceful Valley and Cold Roses, from the album of the same name.

But then came forward to the Smiths-sounding Anything I Say to You Now from his latest Prisoner album.

Perhaps that is why the crowd didn't erupt; there was just so much music to take in, right through the set closer, the Stones-influenced Shakedown on 9th Street.

It was cracking finish to a heartfelt set that ebbed and swelled and flowed with the night.

A little surprisingly, there was no cover of Soundgarden's Black Hole Sun - which the band had included in their Auckland set - to mark last week's death of Chris Cornell.

But time moves on.

Adams' band - who he introduced with goofy names - are all consummate musicians and they didn't falter, switching from alt country to Tom Petty-Springsteen-sounding "rawk", to his own rhythmic rock and roll and back to '70s, southern American twin guitar soloing with ease.

Support act, The Middle Kids - a four-piece from Sydney - got a good reception from the crowd who came in early.

They sound like a cross between the Cranberries singing early Talking Heads songs and the Tivoli crowd loved their first single, Edge of Town, which they gave a good thrash-out. Well worth seeing.

Ryan Adams plays Byron Bay's Northern Hotel Wednesday night, Melbourne's Margaret Court Arena on Friday and Sydney's Horden Pavilion on Saturday.

Tickets through Ticketmaster.

Tivoli setlist.

1.Do You Still Love Me

2. To Be Young (Is to Be Sad, Is to Be High)

3. Gimme Something Good

4. Two

5. Dirty Rain

6. Outbound Train

7. Prisoner

8. Stay With Me

9. Invisible Riverside

10. Sweet Illusions

11. Dear John

12. When the Stars Go Blue

13. Magnolia Mountain

14. New York, New York

15. Everybody Knows

16. Wonderwall

17.Cold Roses

18. Fix It

19. Improvisation - "Brisbane I want You to Have Fun Tonight"

20. My Winding Wheel

21. Peaceful Valley

22. Kim

23. Anything I Say to You Know

24. To Be Without You

25. Mockingbird

26. Do I Wait

27. Shakedown on 9th Street