www.18tilidie.co.uk

11/02/02 - HARTWALL ARENA, HELSINKI

Review by Maria Hallfors:
The first of two shows in Finland (the second was on the 12th in Turku) the Arena was almost, but not quite, sold out.

I got there with some friends just as the doors to the Arena opened. We were on the ice, about 7 rows from the front (great for eye contact) and close to the middle of the stage. The warm-up act was Finnish band Killer, all right I guess, but the reception was lukewarm, to say the least.

When Bryan and the guys got on stage, it was time to PARTY! As usual, he managed to get the crowd to sing along. I lost my voice for two days, singing for two hours straight isn't as easy as it sounds... He did his usual trick of inviting a lucky lady to join him on stage to sing "When You're Gone" with him. Maybe he'll invite me next time.

He made one fan happy by singing "Straight From the Heart", someone had made a poster to request it, and got what she wanted.

The last encore was him alone on stage singing "The Way You Make Me Feel" (I think, no doubt someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but at any rate a song he's never recorded). That was definitely the climax of the show for me, because at one point he looked straight at me and smiled. This was probably due to the 10-year-old Waking Up The World Tour T-shirt I was wearing (surprisingly few were wearing BA shirts). I'd been trying to get him to notice me the whole gig, and was glad I'd succeeded. I went home on Cloud Number Nine, and it was definitely a Night To Remember.

Setlist:
Back To You
House Arrest
18 Til I Die
Can't Stop This We Started
Summer Of '69
It's Only Love
Thought I'd Died And Gone To Heaven
Everything I Do
Straight From The Heart
Cuts Like A Knife
This Time
Please Forgive Me
When You're Gone
Into The Fire
I'm Ready
Heaven
One Night Love Affair
Somebody
Run To You (bad try!)
The Only Thing That Looks Good On Me Is You
Cloud #9
Run To You
The Best Of Me
The Way You Make Me Feel