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11/01/06 - MTS CENTRE,
WINNIPEG, MAN Review
by Simone Gilles: A crowd of 9500 amassed at the MTS Centre last night to see Canadian rock icon Bryan Adams perform at the first stop on his tour across western Canada. With the stage bare, apart from stage lights and three big screen TV’s, the show lacked the good gaudiness of the recent Aerosmith concert. Clearly the focus was to be on the music that has entertained Canadian fans for the past 25 years. The singer/songwriter was greeted by enthusiastic applause and the crowd took to their feet as Adams opened the show with “Room Service” the title song from his 2004 release. Dressed in a tee-shirt and jeans,
and with his signature raspy voice, it was evident that Adams has no problem connecting
with his audience, who sang along with every tune. And these were not just children
of the ’80 harking back to their adolescent years. The crowd was ranged in
age from teen to senior, all of them clapping, singing and dancing. He invited the crowd to contribute to of “18 Till I Die”, which they did with gusto. The sing-a-long continued with “I’m Coming Back to You”, and “Can’t Stop This Thing We Started.” As the crowd responded appreciatively
to each song, Adams began to build energy in the Phone Booth saving some of his
biggest hits for halfway through show. He banged off back-to-back favorites including
“Can’t Stop This Thing We Started”, Adam’s selected a member of the audience to join him on stage to sing “Baby When Your Gone” (most recently re-recorded with fellow Canadian Pam Anderson). “Rosa”, a Royal Bank employee (a tiny woman, standing a full foot shorter than 5’8” Adams) took the stage and the two dueted, bumped and ground. Both the crowd and Adam’s must have done some endurance training, as no less than 28 songs were played over two straight hours (unless you consider two frenzied two-minute-long standing ovations a break). In the final moments of the evening, Adams sang a solo rendition of “All For Love”, then finished where he began with “Room Service”’ The Canadian rock superstar may have been in the game for more than two decades, but last night performance showed that his enduring power and energy can still bring a crowd a crowd to its feet again and again. A high falsetto greeted the audience, as Daniel Powter launched the evening as the opening act for Bryan Adam’s. Powter is a fellow Canadian who has recently hit it big in the U.K. with success that seems to be sweeping westward. Though raised in Okanagan Valley in British Columbia, the singer-songwriter has become a sensation performing and touring in Europe for the last few years. Last nights performance at the MTS Centre was his debut North American appearance. “This is the very first show I’ve played in Canada,” said Powter sitting at a keyboard at centre stage under a simple spotlight. Combining his ability to hit notes, with pop tunes and melancholy lyrics, his sound is slightly reminiscent of Maroon 5. The set featured seven numbers including his most well known song “Bad Day” which stayed on UK top 10 charts for 13 weeks. Accompanied by a bassist, drummer and another keyboardist, Powter sat at his own keyboard, centre stage dressed simply in a Grey hoodie, jeans and green army cap Powter seemed to be truly excited to be playing for the appreciative Winnipeg crowd and repeatedly thanked Adams for having him on the tour. **********
Review by Melissa Martin (Winnipeg Free Press): Bryan Adams WHILE they
are no longer kids and thus the song does not technically apply to them, Bryan
Adams' fans still wanna rock. In fact, while most icons tend to lose audiences as time goes by, the 10,000 fans -- mostly female, mostly over 35 -- who packed into the arena became Adams' largest Winnipeg audience ever, as the singer himself noted from the stage. At exactly 8:30 p.m., Adams and his five-piece band strode on stage and kicked off the set with 2004's Room Service before segueing into older hits like 1984's Somebody and This Time (from 1982's Reckless). For the next half hour, Adams whipped the crowd into their very polite version of a frenzy, dishing out tunes like 18 Til I Die and Let's Make A Night To Remember. For the first half-hour, big guitars and big vocals ruled. After wrapping up Can't Stop This Thing We Started, Adams paused to speak to the crowd for the first time. That was when the depth of his effortless, soft-spoken charisma shone the brightest. After thanking the audience, Adams even took a minute to memorialize "when the typhoon came in"; in other words, his famously disastrous 1992 concert at Birds Hill Park that was cut short by torrential rains. For better or for worse, little about Adams has changed since 1980 (or for that matter, since he last stopped through Winnipeg in January of 2000). Nowadays his face is a even craggier and his attitude seems pleasantly safe, not sexy. But his rakish rasp and boyish charm remain pristine. That's the reason that the 46-year-old Adams has tenaciously hung onto his pop icon status (especially in Europe and Canada) despite a successively more saccharin series of albums since 1991.
Luckily, Adams is currently touring in support of Anthology, his new hits collection, and so he left few popular stones unturned. Halfway through the set, Adams put his two most celebrated hits -- karaoke staple Summer Of 69 and ubiquitous 1991 ballad (Everything I Do) I Do It For You -- back to back, eliciting huge cheers and enthusiastic singing from the audience. For When You're Gone, Adams pulled a fan from the audience to fill in for his 1998 duet partner, Sporty Spice Melanie Chisolm. As the set drew to a close, Adams and his band ripped through classic teenage rebellion song Kids Wanna Rock, and followed it up with It's Only Love, the 1984 rocker he originally sang with Tina Turner, smiling briefly as a thrown brassiere landed smack dab on the end of his guitar. Following the regular set, Adams was brought back to the stage for two encores a wave of cheering so loud that even seasoned concert reviewers were knocked backwards. The first encore featured Cloud No. 9 and Run To You, while the second was a solo acoustic set that included Straight From The Heart and All For Love, his heartwarming collaboration with Sting and Rod Stewart. Former Vancouverite Daniel Powter opened up the show with 40 minutes of soaring Remy Shand-meets-Elton John piano pop stylings from his eponymous debut album. 4 out of 5 stars **********
Review
by Rob Williams (Winnipeg Sun): One of the smartest moves Bryan Adams ever made was to write the song 18 Til I Die. The "I'll never grow up" anthem gives the 46-year-old Vancouver superstar carte blanche to continue cranking out the hits he wrote in his younger days without coming off as some desperate aging rocker trying to reclaim his glory years. And Adams looked anything but desperate last night at the MTS Centre. His biggest hits may be more than a decade behind him, but he still managed to draw 9,500 people to the arena, making the concert his largest local show ever, not counting his rainy 1992 gig at Birds Hill Park. "That got cut short because the typhoon came in that night, so we're making up for lost time with lots of music tonight," he said. Adams didn't lie. He's touring in support of his new greatest hits album Anthology, so it was like listening to a jukebox with no filler as he and his four-piece backing band cranked out more than 20-odd years of hits. After opening with the title track off his 2004 album Room Service, he got the crowd out of their seats with Somebody off the 1984's multi -platinum Reckless and This Time from 1983's Cuts Like a Knife. From there it was a trip down CanRock lane with 18 Til I Die and Can't Stop This Thing We Started building up to a slightly reworked version of Summer of '69, which he didn't even need to sing since the crowd belted out every word. After the anthemic rocker he grabbed an acoustic guitar for the overplayed cringe-inducing ballad (Everything I Do) I Do It For You, stopping the momentum firmly in its tracks. For Adams, the song was an uber-smash around the world, but also singled the end of his gritty rock phase. Thankfully after the tear-jerker he cranked it up again for the classic Cuts Like a Knife. Adams has only released three albums in the past 10 years, with few hits to speak of, so most of the strongest material last night was from his '80s collaborations with Jim Vallance when he was still considered a rock 'n' roll guy. He still looks like one though. Adams may hobnob with British royalty and Hollywood stars like Pamela Anderson, but he still comes across as one of the most unpretentious musicians around. His wardrobe consisted of a simple black T-shirt, blue jeans and sneakers. At press time almost 90 minutes into his planned two-hour set, Adams had just finished the duet When You're Gone with a female member of the audience and blazed through an electrifying version of Kids Wanna Rock. According to past set-lists, he was saving Run to You, Straight From the Heart and All for Love for the encore. Up-and-coming Vernon B.C. native Daniel Powter opened the show with a half-hour set of soulful Elton John-esque keyboard-based pop, given extra weight by his rhythm section who helped give the material a funky touch. | |||
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® 2006 18 Til I Die.co.uk. All
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Photos by Kent Hart
BA opening the show with 'Room Service'
The K-man
Bryan enjoying the gig
BA rockin' out ...and more photos from the night...
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