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15/12/05 - AIR CANADA CENTRE,
TORONTO, ON Review
by Paul: Holy friggin christ tonight's show was awesome! Ok ok the details............. The group of us.....Maddy, myself, Karen, Nancy, Wendy are all up on the fence (yeah front row seats baby!). Devine Brown once again proved to me how great a singer she is. She is going to be going places. A little more on her later..... BA comes out, and starts with Room Service. Immediately, I notice the crowd is more into it than in Kitchener, and the sound quality is crisper. No sooner than a minute into the show and Keith looks straight at me and notices that I am wearing a Sabrina Korva t shirt. He points at his shirt so I understand he is referencing my shirt, smiles and gives me the thumbs up. Way cool! The setlist was almost exactly the same as the Kitchener show, with one exception only.... Kids Wanna Rock was taken out. Everything else was the same.........or was it?
Well.....towards the end of the main set, things got interesting. Heaven seemed a little more drawn out towards it end tonight, and all I can say is everyone in our group was stunned listening to its' beauty. Then came Its Only Love, and as the K-Man did his stuff, Norm actually geting into "duelling banjos" mode with Bryan. I have never seen the man so animated during a show. On comes the encore. Run To You is played. Towards the end of the song, as BA walks over to stage left, he spots Devine Brown and her band sitting in the stands stage side. He motions for her to come up, and she comes up and oh my god Run To You was taken to a new level. The two traded lines, before they started harmonizing. BA brought the level of his voice as close as he could to hers, and held it as long as she did (which is a looong time...the woman is talented). All I remember was saying after the song "holy s***!" over and over again. Freakin' unbelievable...... Best of Me was tres cool as I got hand slapped not once, but twice :) Then, the solo portion of the show starts with Please Forgive Me. BA sings it, then suddenly changes his tone to a more passionate voice. Squeals of delight come from all around me. The show ends with Room Service again, and we all leave in utter happiness, for this truly was a special show. As for the WYG girl...she was a massage therapist from Maple. Once BA heard she was a massage therapist, he yells to his band "Man can I pick them!" and starts feigning neck pains. She claimed she couldnt sing (she was actually ok), so BA introduced her saying "she cant sing, but boy she gives a great massage!"
(Above) Paul & Friends including Karen and Wendy Managed to also meet up with Liz tonight (thanks again!) and Freda (great to meet ya!) Until the next show......... ********** Review
by Vit Wagner (Toronto Star): The 46-year-old '80s icon rolled out one hit after another during his first appearance at the Air Canada Centre last night, much of the material culled from the exhaustive retrospective, Anthology, released this year to mark Adams' 25th anniversary in the business. The show opened with "Room Service," the title track from a lukewarmly received album of last year, and revisited the disc briefly four songs later with "Open Road." But the bulk of Adams' set stuck squarely to the most recognizable chunks of his no-nonsense repertoire. Adams' anthems — from the hard-charging "18 Til I Die" to the relatively low-key "Let's Make it a Night to Remember" — are seldom more complicated than their titles suggest. It's the reason — critics be damned — he has maintained a loyal fan base, even if only half of the ACC was used for the concert. It's also the reason why almost every first-pumping audience member in attendance seemed to know every single word to every song. This makes the performer's task that much easier when he comes to the part of the show where someone is plucked from the crowd and invited onstage to sing. On this occasion, the lucky fan was a young massage therapist from Maple named Linda who more than held her own on "When You're Gone." Her performance came about an hour into the show. And by that point Adams and his four accompanists had already dropped "Back to You," "Summer of '69" and "Cuts Like a Knife," all inspiring mass sing-alongs. While Adams was the singular object of the audience's devotion, he generously shared the spotlight with his long-time, virtuoso guitarist Keith Scott, who reminded his boss of the time they spent struggling to find gigs in Toronto clubs 24 years ago. Opener Divine Brown, the Toronto R&B singer, also made the most of her time on stage, belting out tracks from her self-titled full-length album, including "Old Skool Love," "Boss Playa" and "U Shook Me (All Night Long)." Even more adventurously, she successfully brought her formidable pipes to bear on renditions of Joni Mitchell's "Help Me" and Otis Redding's "Respect," which didn't wither by comparison to Aretha Franklin's signature treatment. ********** Review
by Mary Dickie (Toronto Sun): Bryan Adams may live in a completely different sphere than most of his fans -- one where he interacts with royalty, supermodels and Pamela Anderson. But he has never forgotten how to connect with them. At last night's Air Canada Centre show -- Adams' first in the venue, as he announced proudly -- that fact was evident in the extremely warm reaction the crowd gave to every single song he played. Young girls and couples in their 30s and 40s clapped, sang along, lit up their lighters and cellphones and danced in the aisles as Adams told his tales about nostalgia for lost youth -- even if he was too young to have done much in the summer of '69 -- the pleasures and trials of relationships and the power of rock 'n' roll to transport its listeners beyond their ordinary lives. Adams is touring in support of his latest album, Anthology, a two-CD collection of hits, plus three new recordings, that spans his quarter-century-long career. So the show served as a kind of primer on his working guy riff rock, and a scan through 25 years of Canrock at the same time. The hit-laden set list reached as far back as 1981 with Lonely Nights, and included other early hits like This Time, Somebody, Cuts Like A Knife, Summer Of '69 and Heaven as well as later smashes like Can't Stop This Thing We Started, The Only Thing That Looks Good On Me Is You and the dreaded (Everything I Do) I Do It For You. Adams, still boyish at 46 in black T-shirt and jeans, played everything with seemingly boundless energy and infectious enthusiasm. When it came time to tackle the catchy Spice Girl duet When You're Gone, which he re-recorded with Pamela Anderson for Anthology, Adams picked a volunteer from the audience to come up on stage and gamely sing her part. It was a big crowd pleaser, perhaps even bigger than bringing out Anderson herself would have been. That's how devoted his fans are. R&B artist Divine Brown was an unusual choice to open for Adams, but the powerhouse Toronto singer made it clear she's meant for the big stage, winning over the Adams crowd with originals like U Shook Me and the outstanding Old Skool Love from her self-titled gold album as well as covers of Joni Mitchell and Aretha Franklin songs. Nervy, but she pulled it off.
(Above) The boys bow to finish off a great return to Canada... until they return for the 2nd leg in January! Setlist: | |||
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® 2005 18 Til I Die.co.uk. All
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Pictures by Paul
"You could be in Philadelphia you could even be in Rome..."
Lonely Nights on the Rick
"Ya life's an Open Road!!!..."
Keith thrashing his guitar!
Crankin' out '69
"It was the summer of love..."
The WYGG
Keith on guitar
The green Gretsch returns to the stage for 'It's Only Love'
"The Only Thing I Want!!!!...."
BA and Divine Brown during 'Run To You'
"It's comin' Straight From The Heart..."
Bryan ending the show how it started... with 'Room Service' |
