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11/01/00 - MASSEY HALL, TORONTO, ONTARIO Review by Alan Niester (Globe &
Mail): It is a little known fact that Bryan Adams, that quintessential Canadian rock 'n' roller, doesn't even live in Canada anymore. Hasn't for a good decade or so, in fact. If you want to drop by his place to visit, you'll have to go to London, England. But that doesn't mean he doesn't have fond memories of his home and native land. Indeed, to celebrate the new millennium, Adams is currently in the middle of a cross-country tour -- Halifax to Vancouver -- that finds him playing in a collection of smaller and more intimate venues, supposedly the first time in about 15 years that he's gone back to playing such cozy rooms. Which explains Adams's presence at Toronto's Massey Hall last night, the first of a pair of sold-out appearances at a hall that's the epitome of cozy, intimate and sonically friendly. Backed by long-time associates Mickey Curry (drums) and Keith Scott (guitars), Adams presented here what amounted to a greatest-hits concert. Basically, if it had hit the Top 10 at any point in the past 20 years, Adams performed it last night. It was a remarkably straightforward and unpretentious performance. Each of the Adams trio were adorned in white slacks and T-shirts (giving them the look of a bunch of interns out for a night on the town) and the performance was played out in front of two banks of speakers which framed drummer Curry on either side. A few flashing lights bubbled on the backdrop, but nothing likely to revive memories of the Fillmore West. For most of the evening, Adams had little to say to the audience, preferring instead to let the music do the talking. If there was anything notable in this performance, it was that the set list seemed to be somewhat front-loaded, with the biggest hits of the evening performed (gotten out of the way?) early, and somewhat lesser-known songs generally clumped at the end. Thus the evening began with Back To You, a mid-tempo rocker that pranced along on Scott's underrated guitar work, then immediately bounded into 18 'til I Die, which was fuelled as much by Curry's simple, cymbal-laden backbeat as by Scott's power riffing. The anthemic Can't Stop This Thing We Started (grungier than you might be given to expect) followed, before Adams got into his first ballad of the evening, Straight From The Heart. Adams's career has largely been propelled by a series of anguish-laden ballads over the last decade, and because they are some of his most popular songs, he did make a point of dropping them into the mix. Numbers like the inevitable Everything I Do (I Do It For You) and Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman all show off Adams's slightly raspy, Rod-Stewart-lite vocal style to best advantage. But it was his version of Heaven that undoubtedly created the most atmospheric moments of the evening. You coulda heard a pin drop. But really, the ballads were simply intermittent changes of pace that were meant to separate the rockers, and there is little doubt that Adams and company had the most fun when simply rocking out. Perhaps the biggest surprise of the evening, (apart from the credible performance given by a teacher named "Sandra from Mississauga," who was selected to come on stage and sing backing vocals to When You're Gone) was just how fine a power trio Adams, Curry and Scott can be. While largely limited by the confines of the hit songs, occasionally the trio did extend themselves a bit, and the results were gratifying. Adams is no Geddy Lee on bass, but he certainly does seem to know his way around the instrument, nonetheless. All told, this was a relatively predictable performance from an artist who has traditionally positioned himself in the dead-centre of the mainstream. Happily, that was exactly what his audience had come for. ********** Review
by Dan Brown (National Post): It took only two songs on Tuesday evening for Bryan Adams to bring his fans to their feet. The place was Toronto's Massey Hall, and the tune that made the capacity crowd of 2,500 stand and dance was 18 Til I Die, the Canadian rocker's anthem of eternal youth. Judging by the faces in the crowd, however, no 18-year-old who considers himself hip would be caught dead at an Adams concert these days. It's thirtysomethings -- specifically thirtysomething women -- who buy the majority of the tickets. And probably the albums, too. That Adams now appeals primarily to an older demographic shouldn't be a surprise. His career has two distinct turning points -- the first being Reckless, his breakthrough album. To a certain generation of Canadians, Reckless provided the soundtrack to the summer of 1985 and had enough staying power that it was still being played on car stereos even years later. Besides accounting for a major chunk of the 55 million albums Adams has sold, Reckless cemented his reputation as a straight-ahead rocker with an ear for a catchy riff. It also separated him from the pack, represented by outfits such as April Wine, Loverboy and Trooper. It made Adams what he is today -- a global star. Adams' current North American tour of smaller, more intimate venues is in support of last year's The Best of Me. The album is the second greatest-hits package he's released in six years, which suggests his career might be in one of its occasional valleys. In keeping with the greatest-hits theme, the show drew heavily from his early material. There was Heaven, It's Only Love and Summer of '69, from Reckless, as well as Cuts Like a Knife and Straight from the Heart. The second stage of the former Vancouverite's career was ushered in by the 1991 single (Everything I Do) I Do It for You. The ballad, recorded for the movie Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, went on to become one of the best-selling singles ever and still holds the record for most consecutive weeks at No. 1 on the British pop charts (16). With Everything Adams became known as a crafter of surefire ballads, and on Tuesday he and his two sidemen made the transition from playing power pop to quieter numbers effortlessly. What was interesting was the way Adams stripped the ballads down to their essentials. For Everything and Heaven Adams traded his bass for an acoustic guitar and somehow managed to scrape the excess syrup off each number in the process. Heaven, in particular, was transformed into something heartfelt, poignant even. But it wasn't just the ballads that were an exercise in minimalism. Everything on stage was coloured in such a way as to present very little visual distraction, with the drum kit, speakers and backdrop being a uniform white. Adams, lead guitarist Keith Scott and drummer Mickey Curry were all dressed in white T-shirts and jeans, outfits that gave them the appearance of three house painters. The no-frills colour scheme also underlined the fact that Adams has become a worldwide phenomenon while adopting only a minimum of rock-star affectations -- living in England, publishing books of photography and refusing to do press interviews in person being among his few quirks. It also focused attention on Adams' facial expressions throughout the evening. Time and again Adams flashed a wide smile at the audience -- the smile of a man in his prime doing exactly what he loves to do. ********** Review
by Kieran Grant (Canadian Press): If Bryan Adams proves anything with his cross-Canada tour of mid-size venues, it may be this: A good time to see the singer in concert is when he has a best-of album to promote. Adams' Best Of Me collection provided a solid basis Tuesday night for the first of two sold-out shows at Massey Hall. It also gave him the perfect excuse to yank out as many hits as history has allowed him without having to wade through some latter-day fodder just to boost album sales. Likewise, his 3,000-strong audience - whether members of the Adams faithful, who made a strong showing, or fairweather fans out for a bit of reminiscing - didn't have to feel guilty about screaming out for faves. The concert also proved that, despite the much-hyped "intimacy" of the tour, a relatively small hall like Massey isn't the best place to see Adams. Not yet, anyway. Of course, the mid-sized venue tour may not have been intentional: Adams' camp claim the jaunt was cooked up at the last minute to accompany a publicity tour in support of his new book of photography, Made In Canada. But falling album sales over the last five years suggest the singer could have a hard time putting 15,000 or 20,000 behinds in arena seats. Backed only by longtime guitarist Keith Scott and drummer Mickey Curry, who've been playing with him since the early '80s, Adams has made the weird choice of taking up bass duties for the tour. Dwarfed by the instrument, Adams looked like a teenager in his first new wave band, especially given the 2001: A Space Odyssey stage decor, complete with matching, cream-coloured Marshall stacks and glaring all-white outfits. It didn't take long for the novelty to wear off and the limits of his four-string skills to take over. The trio seemed to let the songs decide whether they would work in the setting or not: Opening tune Back To You, from Adams' 1997 Unplugged release, became a deft blast of power-pop; bland pop number Can't Stop This Thing We Started somehow sounded trim and fresh; and Adams scored perhaps his best goal of the night with a dark re-think of his earliest trademark love ballad, Heaven. Surprisingly, shoe-ins like Summer Of '69 and Cuts Like Knife were full of gaps when they should have been reeled-in tight in power-trio style. Besides, turning the mike on the crowd just proved how quiet a chorus of 3,000 can sound. Still, Adams' long set was consistently decent enough to prove that his instincts as a people-pleaser are intact. The Canadian leg of Adams' tour ends in Vancouver on Jan. 25 after dates in Montreal (Jan. 13-14), Winnipeg (Jan. 17), Regina (Jan. 18), Edmonton (Jan. 19), Calgary (Jan. 20) and Kelowna. B.C. (Jan. 22). He then flies to Australia for eight concerts. ********** Review
by Ben Rayner (Toronto Star): Much as those of us in the rock ``intelligentsia'' get paid to professionally deride it, there's an almost heartening integrity to Bryan Adams' career. Inspired to pick up a guitar by the sounds of top-40 radio long after the summer of '69, but well before grunge and indie-rock taught us mass success equals evil, Adams has never pretended to be anything but a hitmaker and a crowd pleaser. And, as both the staggering number of hits he trotted out for the first of two sold-out shows at Massey Hall last night and the very pleased crowd looking on attest, he conducts himself very well in those regards. Consistent with his chosen callings, every Bryan Adams tour is a greatest-hits tour, so the present set list is generously laden with the predictable on-your-feet rockers and soft, soundtrack-ready Bic moments with which the onetime Vancouverite has lined his coffers. What makes the present road trip different, though, is the sudden downshift from arenas to comparatively cozy concert halls - either an attempt to get up close and intimate with the fans or the reaction of nervous promoters to the dismal sales of Adams' last studio album, 1998's On A Day Like Today (which a hastily called conference of music critics in attendance could barely remember existed, let alone name). Your call. Adams has also pared his touring band down to the able twosome of drummer Mickey Curry and guitarist Keith Scott, tackling the bass-playing duties himself - an arrangement that yielded mixed results. Adams is no Les Claypool, so there was a definite air of high-school studiousness to the way he hunched into each simple bass part and, occasionally, slipped off the beat or flubbed a note. At the same time, the boyish singer looked like he was having the time of his life ripping through pleasantly dumb rowdymakers like ``18 'Til I Die,'' ``Summer Of '69'' and ``I Don't Wanna Live Forever'' with two friends who've been his sidemen for 20 years, leading them through endearingly sloppy Who freakouts and looking on with enormous grins as Scott wailed through his solos. Knock-kneed wedding ballads like ``Heaven,'' ``Everything I Do (I Do It For You)'' and the painful ``Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman'' fared best with the big-haired legions of middle-aged suburbanites hollering ``I love you, Bryan!'' throughout the show. But it was the revealing moments when Adams simply cut loose with his buds that suggested perhaps, at heart, the kid really does just wanna rock. ********** Pre-gig
article & interview by Kieran Grant (Toronto Sun): Twenty years of music making have got the best of Bryan Adams, and now he's looking back. Again. Canada's biggest rock export recently released Best Of Me, his second greatest-hits CD in six years. In 15 tracks, it attempts to take stock of a career marked by the ever-fluctuating waves of commercial highs and lows. Adams, 40, now lives in London, England. He's branching out artistically, as he has released a book of his own photography, Made In Canada, which features portraits of famous Canadian women. All proceeds go to the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation. But what seems to have caused the biggest stir in the past two months -- among both fans and critics -- is Adams' current cross-Canada tour of mid-sized theatres, which brings him to Massey Hall on Tuesday and Wednesday. The tour, a low-key deal compared to Adams' arena voyages of the past 15 years, features the singer at the centre of a trio that includes longtime guitarist Keith Scott and drummer Mickey Curry. Adams has put down his trademark Fender Stratocaster and instead picks up bass-guitar duties for the first time in his career. All this leads to one question: What gives for this singer-songwriter, who has sold some 50 million albums? "Doing a tour of smaller venues was proposed when we did the Unplugged tour a few years ago, so the idea has been lingering for a while," says Adams, sounding off this week in a rare interview, albeit via e-mail. "The reason this time is entirely to help promote the book Made In Canada. It's also great fun to be playing here again, even if it means breaking out the tire chains." That said, it wouldn't take a complete cynic to point out that Adams does have Best Of Me to promote. Adams responds with his unique combination of press-shyness, ease and coyness. "Well, it used to be that we wouldn't even consider touring until we had a (new studio) album to talk about," he says. "Although these days I'm not sure it matters anymore." It has been almost four years since Adams released a new full-length studio album in the form of 18 Til I Die, a soft-seller in North America despite reaching No. 1 in Britain. His Unplugged live disc earned him some rare critical praise two years ago without burning up the charts. Though it's sold nearly 200,000 copies in Canada, Best Of Me, his latest disc scraped its way into Billboard's Top 200 only briefly after its November release. The new disc does offer a deeper career perspective than Adams' 14 million-selling 1993 compilation So Far So Good -- a disc he reportedly didn't even want to put out. "That is true," the singer writes. "I didn't feel ready for it, but I'm really glad I did, 'cuz it was my biggest album! Stupid artists, what do we know?" From its cover art -- which included Adams' self-portrait photos -- to its more sentimental lineup of songs, Best Of Me seems like a more-involved effort. Did the singer feel like he was setting things right this time with a best-of album that he wanted to make? "I just wanted to turn a page," Adams says. "It was the end of a great decade, and I just wanted to close it with some of the music I loved and had made in the last 10 years. "I put the same heart into (So Far So Good), maybe I know more now and was more intimidated on the last one." If Adams' career is in a holding pattern, it's not the first time. Considering how his album sales have gradually cooled since the massive success of 1991's Waking Up The Neighbours and the aforementioned So Far So Good, he's in a position much like the one he was in a decade ago -- except he's richer. The early 1980s had established him as a star. After regional successes with his 1981 debut album Bryan Adams and 1982's You Want It, You Got It, 1983's anthem-loaded Cuts Like A Knife cracked the U.S. Top Ten. A huge follow-up, 1984's Reckless, hit No. 1 in North America and introduced Adams to the U.K. mainstream the next year. A slew of top-selling singles followed. A surprise hit ballad, Heaven, pulled from a bomb of a movie, predicted Adams' future role as a hit soundtrack balladeer. A decidedly more "mature" record, 1987's Into The Fire, received a chilly reception but still squeaked into the U.K. and U.S. Top 10. A self-described taskmaster when it comes to recording, Adams ducked into the studio -- for four years -- and parted company with longtime co-writer Jim Vallance along the way. Meanwhile, Adams made headlines and raised eyebrows at home when he came out swinging against Canadian content regulations. He didn't meet the requirements because he shared songwriting credits with non-Canadians, and he pointed out, justifiably if contentiously, that this country's exclusive airplay lists would spawn inferior music. The growing pains paid off with unprecedented success with his album Waking Up The Neighbours, and smash single (Everything I Do) I Do It For You. That tune, from the movie Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves, landed in the Guinness Book Of World Records as the longest-standing No. 1 single in Britain after topping the charts for 16 consecutive weeks. That success saw Adams' image change from jean-clad arena rocker to syrupy songsmith, and cleared the way for hits such as All For Love (with Rod Stewart and Sting), Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman, and the Barbra Streisand duet I Finally Found Someone. At a press conference in 1996, the singer wondered aloud how the success of his ballads had altered his rock reputation. "(Waking Up The Neighbours) had many, many rock tracks on it ..." he was quoted as saying on the CANOE Web site. "On the one hand we had a huge hit with Everything I Do. But it eclipsed anything else I put out on that album to such a degree that people have this perception that that was the only thing I put out in 1991." Adams points out now that he has always been comfortable recording both styles, regardless of perception. "It's no different now than it was on my first album in 1980," he says. Likewise, if Adams is anxious about scoring another hit ballad, he doesn't show it. "Since Reckless, I have not been thinking about repeating myself, merely making music," he says. "If you were to look at my records and the patterns that happen with each success, you'd see that it's all hills and valleys. It's the same for all artists. You just have to go with the flow. Tina Turner once said to me, 'When you stop competing, that's when you've really made it.'" As for future plans, Adams remains pleasantly mum. "I have been monkeying around with a few songs lately and some are quite good," he says. "I just have to find the time to finish them. I'll have to get off tour to do that, and I'm having too much fun at the moment." Setlist: | |||
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® 2005 18 Til I Die.co.uk. All
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Thanks to Carol for the setlist
BA having fun onstage
BA standing infront of those huge white marshalls
BA rockin' out at Massey Hall This was the first time BA played Massey Hall since the shows in '85... where he filmed the live video for 'Somebody' |
