Doug Van Pelt

Bryan Adams Concert Review

Bryan Adams
Paramount Theater, Austin, TX
June 2


After releasing his 11th album, 80s pop rock icon Bryan Adams set out on a long acoustic tour, which began in Florida and worked its way through Austin, Texas on Tuesday night. Word was that it would be a two-hour performance and, when I took my place next to the stage to photograph his first two songs, one of the Paramount Theater employees told me, "Stick around afterwards, because he's doing five encores. That's a heckuva lot of time to kill with just an acoustic guitar in hand. Fortunately, Bryan added a pianist to help him out for at least a third of the numbers.

He came out solo and jumped right into "Run To You," which showed that his trademark tenor voice was as strong as ever. He brought out the pianist and started playing his harmonica in his third song, and then he started telling stories and engaging the appreciative audience. His fourth song was introduced as having been written for a horse movie (Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron), but he returned to the original words, that did not climax in a horse being born.

It was very apparent to anyone in attendance that Bryan Adams was both a heartfelt and funny performer. Reminding me of a lot of other talented singers (like Shaun Groves, Steven Curtis Chapman, or Larry Norman), he exhibited a keen sense of comedic timing -- best displayed when playing off things happening in the audience, like a couple of girls leaving their seats up front for a potty break. When one woman shouted out, "I love you, Bryan!" He replied back with, "Inter Continental Hotel" as a response, then holding up both hands in an animated shrug. "I'm trying to keep it real," he smiled coyly.

He introduced "When You Love Someone" by telling the story about the movie soundtrack assignment he was given, infering that he accepted it because the motion picture starred Sandra Bullock. He shared that, while the romantic relationship with Bullock he'd hoped would happen did not come to fruition, fortunately, the song in the movie Hope Floats did pretty well.





"Where are your fellas, girls?" he asked a couple of ladies during a break between songs. They replied that they were "out of town," so the performer asked the audience if anyone wanted to sit in the front row. While initially shocked, several hands started going up around the two-tiered theater. "Let's have you in the black t-shirt," he said, "and bring your fella." A minute or so later the couple comes strolling down the aisle and sat in the front row -- a cool and kind gesture that was most likely admired by all.

In addition to Adams just being on with his performance, between-song banter and vocal quality, one unknown variable that made this concert memorable was the audience knowing how to sing on key. During the hit song, "Cuts Like A Knife," he motioned to the crowd to take a chorus and they cohesively nailed the notes.

He told a funny story about the beginning of this tour, where he recieved an un-announced visitor backstage, who had a letter and a guitar with him. The letter was addressed to Willie Nelson, so Adams replied, "You've got the wrong guy," but then he was told that the guitar was for this guy's brother that was being sent off to Iraq. This was how he introduced his cover of Willie's song, "Seven Spanish Angels," which sounded both respectful to the original Texas songwriter as well as sounding fresh and stamped by Adams the Canadian singer.

Having a little fun, he countrified some of the verses to "This Time," changing and stretching his drawl to tip his hat to several seemingly recognizable country voices (though I couldn't identify a single one but Willie). "Please Forgive Me" was a nice, tender song with its gentle words and pleas for a universal theme.

He went right back to his humor when introducing "Summer of '69," which he said was a very misunderstood song. He did his best to persuade the audience that it wasn't locked into any one time period, but the repeating rest that the season of summer brings. After the joyful song was over more people started shouting requests. It's always funny to see a performer handle the caucophony that dozens of voices at once brings to a single set of ears. "You did NOT just say 'Free Bird?'" he asked someone. Then he proceeded to play the tune -- all the way up to the first chorus. Again, he stretched his voice to ever accomodate the Florida band's original (albeit exaggerated) Southern drawl.

In another Storytellers-type moment, he explained that he was told to write a song for a movie and he was told that it was to be about this guy ... who held a job as a male stripper. "What?" he replied, as did his songwriting partner, Jim Vallance, when trying to convey the vision. They scrapped the idea of trying to match the words with the character's vocation, which was a good thing, but then he apologized to anyone in the audience who got married to the song ("Heaven"), hoping he didn't just ruin it for them. It was these kind of light-hearted moments that can make a solo performer with guitar in hand endearing to an audience, creating a memorable moment. Bryan Adams consistently conjured this kind of magic all night.

After two hours and a very brief exit from the stage, the audience flooded the front of the theater's aisles for the first of five (!) encores. For his second encore, he admitted that he finally felt like he'd made it in the music business when he was sitting in a Mexican restuarant and a Mariachi band came to his table and serenaded him with his own song, "Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman." He dedicated one of his last songs to the US Coast Guard, to which he'd written the new song ("Never Let Go") for (as well as firefighters and people in the Army -- people who laid their lives down for others).

The packed house gave him a standing ovation. One he surely earned.

Posted by Doug Van Pelt at June 3, 2009 11:57 PM