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10/01/00 - HAMILTON PLACE,
HAMILTON, ONTARIO Review by Glen Nott (Hamilton Spectator): Cuts like a knife,
but sounds like butter, a butter both gravelly and smooth. Bryan Adams brought
his Best of Me tour through Hamilton last night, and left little doubt that he
still has plenty of showbiz juice left in his trim 40-year-old casing. He came
in a stark, all-white setup that punctuated the presence of just Adams and his
fellow musicians, guitarist Keith Scott and drummer Mickey Curry. And Adams was up for some good mugging, too, although no one was going to steal his show. The veteran rocker warmed his raspy vocal chords with Back To You, delighting a crowd that filled Hamilton Place. While Adams' vocals seemed a wee bit tired (hey, how can you tell?), his trademark sandpaper sound came through to perfection when needed most -- on the acoustic numbers. Adams is nothing if not a prolific pop-song writer, and he's penned some of this country's most sing-a-longable tunes this side of Sharon, Lois and Bram. The trio ripped through 18 Till I Die and Can't Stop This Thing We Started early on, and Adams didn't actually stop to address the crowd until a few songs in, and then only to introduce the band. It's been 15 years since Adams has played a small venue here, and last time "it was in some (hole)" later identified by a voice in the crowd as Bannisters. My, how things have changed. Adams has sold over 50 million albums worldwide since then. Last night, when he touched into the acoustic strains of Straight From The Heart, locals were hearing something special. Adams finished in a near whisper, and the place was dead silent in awe. But those sing-alongs were the real order of the night. The crowd that gathered for this event, predominantly older fans, with a smattering of Mom-Dad-Buddy-Sis combos thrown in, seemed up for a few chorus lines, despite it being a Monday night and all. So Adams and his two talented sidekicks chugged the sing-song along on all the predictable multi-platinum fronts -- first Summer of '69, then later I Need Somebody, and Run To You, to name a few. But Adams has also enjoyed considerable commercial success in the ballads department, and his co-scores for films have netted three Oscar nominations in the 1990s, a considerable feat if you're not Celine Dion. So when the house lights dimmed and the crowd hushed for some quieter numbers, you knew what was coming, this being a greatest-hits-style gig, after all. And the crowd ate up both Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?, from Don Juan De Marco and (Everything I Do) I Do It For You from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, both co-penned by Mutt Lange, Shania Twain's husband (the hits just keep on comin'). "This song was No. 79," said Adams, referring to the latter number and where it appeared on someone's 100 top songs of the century list recently. "I wrote it in an hour." Stripped bare of its studio magic, with Adams' expressive vocals carrying the tune almost exclusively, it was a thing of beauty. At times, Adams would, in midsong, simply stop singing, and the audience, as if rehearsed, would jump in with a chorus or verse without missing a note. Scary. What you'll never get with Bryan Adams is complexity, artful or otherwise. The man can rattle off a good, anthem-rock number with the very best of them and, along with the ballad work, has forged a considerable career doing just that. The understated approach worked well. While Scott dallied at times on some screaming lead guitar parts, a trippy video image raced by in the background, but that was as multimedia as it was going to get. The band this time around was light, tight, and hot. It's amazing to consider that this minimalist stage setup has served the arena stops on this tour as well. But Hamilton Place, with its cosy, cushy seating and whizbang acoustics, served the sonics up to near perfection, although audience members were paying a stiffer price at the window for such special treatment. But if they paid to get blown away -- not by sheer power chords and volume, but by an artist 20 years deep in hits -- they got good value, those $30 souvenir T-shirts in the lobby notwithstanding. For by the end of this evening, some two hours later, there were far more heartbreaks than earaches heading home. ********** Pre-concert article and interview by Glen Nott: 'Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain." The great and powerful Wizard of Oz bellowed that famous line when Dorothy, Toto and crew discovered a nervous little man operating the wizard's fiery, false persona. There are elements of Bryan Adams in that great scene, although the 40-year-old Canadian pop star is neither nervous or little, not fiery or false. But he is a wizard, for sure. No one can dispute the phenomenal success the Kingston-born Adams has built for himself on the international stage -- 55 million albums sold, No. 1 songs in 30 countries, 15 Junos, a Grammy. Given all that, one could assume the world would have Bryan Adams pretty much figured out by now, what his passions and fears are, what inspires him, what gets him mad or sad. But Adams is not the soul-bearing type, on record or off, on stage or off. He is slick. He is professional. His songs are catchy and good, if somewhat formulaic. He has been prolific. Some artists won't allow their depths to be probed, fearful their emotional innards may be splayed across the pop pages, robbing them of their mystery and magic with each media go-around. Others, like Adams, still play coy with the media, depths to probe or not. Over 20 years in the business that's a right he's surely earned. Adams has always liked to draw as direct a line as possible between himself and his fans, anything else is somewhat of a distraction. But any promises of "up close and personal" are always made with arm's length in mind, and tonight's Hamilton Place show -- Adams' first soft-seat show here in more than a decade -- will be like that. It also should be, by all accounts, a terrific Bryan Adams show. He's gone minimalist for this tour, presenting himself and just two other players -- guitarist Keith Scott and drummer Mickey Curry. And he's gone all-white -- instruments, outfits, amps -- for that mock Vegas look, after years in jeans and T-shirts. It's called The Best of Me tour, and for an artist the likes of Bryan Adams, that's a pretty tall order to fill. This greatest hits package was his second of the '90s, after all. This tour has already churned through big houses in Britain and Europe to rave reviews. Expect Adams and crew to play at least two hours, with some delightful acoustic takes and at least one encore. We caught up with the man behind the curtain -- at least we think it was him -- for an e-mail interview that came with the following condition: No editing of answers allowed. We didn't. Here it is: * Is this really Bryan Adams answering these questions? Can you prove it? Adams: Just check the spelling. It's a dead giveaway. * If this is The Best of Me tour, can it be assumed you're retiring soon? Adams: No way. I'm just getting started. * Why are you playing bass guitar this time around? Adams: I played bass on the last album, and it was exciting to work with just the three musicians, Mickey Curry on drums and Keith Scott on guitar and me on bass. We gel together. * Do you regret leaving Streetheart? Adams: I never played with Streetheart. * You have dabbled in movie soundtracks before, would you eventually like to get into acting or directing? Adams: I don't know if dabbled is the correct word. I've been nominated three times for an Oscar for writing music for films. I have been asked to act in films, but the director would have to be clinically insane to hire me. * What's with the all-white motif, and where'd you get those cool white Marshall stacks? Adams: I wanted to create a simple stage and an identifiable look, something simple that we could transpose from a small gig to arena without too many complications. The white look was also a reaction to the sort of anti-look I've always had. We have never had a conceptual stage set-up until now. The Marshall stacks came from Marshall in England. * When you write a love song, who do you write it for, other than yourself and your fans? Adams: I only write music for myself, I don't try and appeal to anyone else. Well, maybe my goldfish. * What music are you listening to right now, and who picks your pre-concert music? Adams: Pre-concert music is picked by Jody, my sound man, and I'm listening to Moby. * What's your favourite Teenage Head song? Adams: I don't have one. * You've been called a Canadian Bruce Springsteen. How do you react to that? Adams: It sounds like I've just woken up in 1985 again, but I'm flattered. * What are the best three chords for writing a pop song? Adams: D, G, A. * Do you believe you could score another No.1 hit, given today's music scene? Adams: I don't think about "scoring" a hit. All I do is write 'em, the rest is in the hands of the people. * Brian, have you ever really, really, really ever loved a woman? Adams: It's Bryan, and no, only really really. * Sixteen tons, what do you get? Adams: Another day older and deeper in debt. * What is your take on artists such as Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys? Adams: Pop stars of today, and probably freaking because it all happened so quickly. * What does being Canadian mean to you? Adams: We have a lot here in Canada that we take for granted, and you only realise what we have once you travel and see what everyone else has, especially in the East. It means being thankful. By the way, the name of our tour is "white toque, eh? Canadian tour 2000". (Y2K -- get it?). Setlist: | |||
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Thanks to Anita for the setlist |