14/01/06 - THE CENTRIUM, RED DEER, AB

Review by Penny Caster (Red Deer Advocate):
Now that was a rock show. A no-bones-about-it heck of a rock show. Thanks, Bryan Adams, for reminding us how it’s done.

Adams brought his show to a sold-out 6,000-plus audience at Red Deer’s Centrium on Saturday night and went way beyond awesome. Anyone who has ever seen Adams perform knows he works his butt off and Saturday night was no exception. But he does a lot more than just work hard, he connects with his audience. Adams does that in a number of ways, though the main one was that he was his regular old unpretentious self. Of course he wore his usual simple outfit of T-shirt and blue jeans. This time the shirt was black and the jeans were turned up at the cuff. He chatted with the audience, he turned the mike to them and let them sing the soundtrack of their lives with the guy who wrote much of it, and he enjoyed himself while doing all of the above. At one point, as the opening bars of Heaven played and Adams stood poised at the mike, the sounds of the audience singing the song floated in to the atmosphere, to his obvious amusement.

Adams always chooses someone to join him on stage to sing with him at his concerts and on Saturday it was Ann’s turn (sorry if I spelled your name wrong). To say she was excited would be a very large understatement. This lady was soooooo excited we all felt part of it. Ann wanted to recognize her friends from the stage before she joined Adams in a rendition of When You’re Gone, and a big group it was. It not only included a husband and daughters, but lots and lots of friends. As Adams prepared for the song with her, she remembered more names and reeled them off.
It was very funny. And Ann more than made up for in enthusiasm and rock-chick style anything she lacked in the pipes department. Bravo!

Adams kicked off his two-and-a-quarter-hour set with the title track from his 2005 album, Room Service. Then he and his talented band rocked their way through a chunk of the considerable catalogue he’s built up over 25 years. The songs included This Time, Open Road, 18 Till I Die, A Night To Remember, Can’t Stop This Thing We Started, Lonely Nights, Cuts Like a Knife, Summer of ‘69, I’m Ready, The Only Thing That Looks Good on Me is You, You Want It, You Got It, Run to You, Cloud Number Nine, and (Everything I Do) I Do It For You. Adams sang an acoustic set at the end of the evening, but took a moment to thank his audience before he began. “I never heard anything like that before in Red Deer, I got to tell you,” he said. Adams has a very distinctive, husky voice and it sounds great on full-bore rock songs, but it’s also nice to really hear the voice, as we did during the acoustic set on such numbers as Please Forgive Me, and Straight From the Heart. “Thank you very much. That’s incredible,” said Adams, sounding humbled by the huge reaction his work brought.

A lot of passion and expression is poured into the songs, whether they are fast or slow. When Adams last played in Red Deer, back in December 2000, I said it was the best of many excellent shows that had made a Red Deer stop during that period. It’s five years later and I think I’ve finally seen a better show than the one Adams gave in 2000. Of course, it took him to do it.

Opening act Daniel Powter and his band made a bunch of new fans. The laid-back rock selection included Bad Day, which rocketed the Canadian group to stardom in Europe on the heels of its use in a Coke ad. Other songs included Jimmy Gets High and Wasted. Powter, a graduate of Edmonton’s Grant MacEwan College, and his band, look set to go far.

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Review by Helen:
I must mention that security was tight. Had RCMP there. An abundance of venue security and staff. The requisite lecture about no cameras, no outside food and drink and this before we went through the coat check, before they scanned our tickets, before the wrist bands. So, no pictures. My old Canon 35 mm wouldn’t have made it.

Didn’t know what to expect from young Canadian, Daniel Powter. Was more than pleasantly surprised at both the stage presence and the powerful vocals. Off I go to buy the CD!!

Then came time for “Bryan Adams”.
The stage setup was impeccable. A whole range of guitars. All those keyboards! And, the lighting!!! A “Room Service” backdrop that came down part way through the show (don’t ask me when, I couldn’t tell ya!)

Any seats that were empty through the opening act were full by the time Bryan hit the stage. Everyone in the house immediately on their feet: anyone who didn’t want to stand, well, they just had to! The lady beside me, she disappeared … hope she made it up front for a closer look … and never came back!

At this point I’m wishing I had a cell phone (which I don’t) so I could take some pictures; however, black tee and jeans, nice short haircut, that guitar in hand, that smile and that voice …… well, you can picture it. Somehow welcomes 5000 people and puts them at ease so they can enjoy the show.

Someone else will have to supply the set list, folks. I can tell you that for two solid hours we heard what most people would consider “the best of him.”

Of course, there was the “When You’re Gone” girl. To recap: Her name is Anne. She’s an accountant. She can’t sing. Can she say “Hi” to some friends in the audience? Apparently Anne knows everybody in the audience. Where does she work? Now everyone can go and visit her tomorrow!! She knows the words to the song. She did a fantastic job!! I hope that her friends and family got pictures!
And then there’s Bryan in the audience up close and personal with his fans making contact with everyone he can, singing into cell phones, taking pictures.

There’s the woman who wants to “dance” with Bryan and him assuring her he doesn’t dance and then assuring her he doesn’t know her well enough to do “that dance”.

There’s the next generation of Bryan Adams fans in their Room Service T-Shirts, with their flowers in hand or their posters.
There’s the woman in the pink shirt vying for his attention.

Then there’s the wrist bands. When the stage lighting is blue all of our wrist bands glow. This prompts Bryan to send someone for his camera so he can take a picture. A couple of songs later, Bryan is, camera in hand, asking for blue lighting …. red is apparently not blue …. and we collectively hold up our wrist bands for Bryan to take a picture which, he tells us, he is going to send to his Mom.

An hour and a half later and we’re calling the band back for another encore. What we are treated to is Bryan Adams alone and acoustic. He graciously stayed on stage for us for, I don’t know, four songs? Half an hour? At one point we’re all calling him back and he comes back, guitar in hand and says “it’s just music” “it’s just music” smiles and sings for us some more.
And I get what he was saying. But, it’s more than that in the end.

And, end it did. Bryan ran out of water. Assured us all that on the bus to Edmonton he would be thinking about us. I think Red Deer did good =) And off the stage he ran.

The lights came up.
The guys up in the lighting came down.
Equipment readied for the trip up the highway.
Seats getting folded up.
People leaving the venue, talking about the concert.
No hearing left. No voice. Happy!

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Photos by Laena & Randy Fiedler

Bryan Adams performs Room Service, the title track from his recent album, to open his show at the Centrium on Saturday night before an enthusiastic audience.

BA lovin' the gig in Red Deer

The K-man!

On acoustic

It's K-man solo time

On Spanish guitar during 'I'm Ready'