02/10/08 - TEATRO SMERALDO, MILAN

Review by Stefano:
Where shall we begin with? This is more of a stream of consciousness than a proper review and it's probably going to be long. So forgive my rant and let me start.

Well, Bryan plays Milan for the second time in 7 months and both times it's acoustic and solo. I guess it's a record, isn't it? After he said that the March gig at the Metropol was probably the worst in the whole 11-gigs-in-11-days thing cuz the venue was unappropriate, maybe he wanted to make up for it and play in a proper concert hall.

I reached the Smeraldo about 1hr before showtime and I was astonished at how many frigging people were already waiting at the backstage entrance for bryan to show up. It's never been that crowded at arenas gigs!!
I immediately saw Keith walking around so it was definitely a good sign, 'cause if he was there, that surely meant he'd be joining bryan on stage.
Then I saw John Richmond arrive, but he didn't get backstage and walked away nearby in the same direction Keith had gone (I suspected they were joining bryan for dinner somewhere near the venue).

I met with some friends and we finally got in without waiting for Bryan, cuz he might show up just seconds before going onstage.
Our seats were sort of "back row center" (not much was left when I got my tickets) in the second half of the hall, but it was a pretty decent spot actually not that far from the stage.
The stage setting was the same as the March gig, i.e. almost nothing at all LOL
Apparently the gig was nearly sold out and most tickets were sold at the box office right before the beginning of the show.

Milan was once again warmly welcoming Mr. Adams.

At 9.10pm Bryan ran onstage and he kicked off with Tonight We Have The Stars.
How brilliant that song is, even acoustically.
Once again he was in very relaxed and laid back mood, he apologized for not speaking Italian and launched into Back to You.

It is evident that Bryan is now much more comfortable and confident in these solo gigs than he probably was in March and some songs are now performed much better than in those days, even if he still fucked the lyrics up more than once in quite a few songs...:)

I loved Here I Am. He once again sang the "Here I Am / In Milan / Without My Band" bits and got the whole crowd laughing.

I don't for the life of me remember the exact setlist by heart, but it was quite similar to the Toronto one, with a few additions and a few (regrettable) omissions and hence a bit shorter.

At some point Bryan funnily remarked that back in the 80's he played full band gigs in Milan with much less people in the audience than he'd now got at the Smeraldo playing without the band. That's food for thoughts.

I was surprised that the crowd (about 1,000) was very "well behaved". I feared that after the first few songs we'd all stand up just like in arenas but luckily it didn't happen. everybody was pretty enthusiastic and at the same time respectful of the kind of venue we were in.

Heat of the night was one big surprise as I'd never had the chance of hearing it live. It works well in this acoustic version but it's probably one of the songs that would require Keith's contribution and not just bryan on his own, methinks.

Sure enough, Keith was announced on stage shortly afterwards and they launched into one of the greatest highlights of the night: a dirty, bluesy, rousing and rough rendition of She's got a way with some terrific work by Keith on the slide guitar.

After Cuts Like A Knife, Bryan announced a special song that was requested to him by two fans at his hotel in the afternoon so he asked where they were seating, made them stand up and dedicated the song to them after saying it would be the very first time he'd play it acoustically in a duet with Keith: This Side Of Paradise!!
That came as quite a surprise and it was played sweetly and beautifully.

He asked for a few requests every now and then, but he didn't pay much attention to them eventually. I obviously went for Lonely Nights again. He heard me and said he might play that one later on. When a girl requested it once again from the first row his response to her was: "Why d'ya all wanna hear that song? Nobody knows that song! You do? Ah that's good". But he didn't play it....that's more food for thoughts about the way he decides setlists....but hey who the hell in the audience knew This Side Of Paradise except the 4-5 people who bought Room Service in Italy???

Of course Bryan was in a very talkative mood and joked a lot with the audience...a girl shouted it was her birthday, Bryan asked if the guy sitting next to her was her boyfriend and she said he wasn't. "Why not?" he asked before adding "There's nothing wrong with him, it's your birthday, you can do anything you want tonight...just give him a kiss, it'll be easy after that" and that sort of stuff.

His Tina impersonation during IOL got everybody laughing out loud and it really was some scene.

Heaven was charming because the whole audience sang along, but we all sang so quietly that it almost sounded like we were doing backing vocals and didn't want to disturb him. Believe me, you had to be there.

He dedicated Run To You to former chelsea (now Inter F.C.) coach Jose Mourinho who was in the audience, and as a Juventus suppoter I was quite pleased to hear him boooed off by half of the audience

Keith came back for the first round of encores: This Time, Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman (which I loved in this guitar-only version) and Somebody.

Than Bryan said goodbye with Straight From The Heart and All for Love and rushed off stage after 1h 40 mins.

At the backstage exit it was Bryan-mania again like in the good old days as virtually everybody was waiting for him to get out. I was surprised that he hadn't done a runner as he often does.
There was no way they could now get out without the crowd eating them up so, sure enough, Bryan, Keith and John Richmond escaped from a secondary service door on the opposite side of the venue taking everybody by surprise.

It was definitely a charming experience and all in all I'm glad he didn't come with the band, judging from the present setlists I've read. The show was great (although not too long) and I enjoyed every minute of it.

One last note: during the quieter songs of the show, I was just noticing how perfecly clear Bryan's voice was...it must be harder for him to sing without a full-band safety net cuz any mistake or out-of-tune note is going to be very evident.
He might have fucked up with the lyrics more than once, but from a vocal point of view, boys he perfecly nailed it down without the slightest uncertainty or imperfection. So we can argue about anything, but these gigs nonetheless prove the serious and talented singer Bryan is.

Setlist:
Tonight We Have The Stars
Back To You
Here I Am
Can't Stop This Thing We Started
Let's Make A Night To Remember
I Thought I'd Seen Everything
When You Love Someone
Heat Of The Night
She's Got A Way (blues version with Keith Scott)
Cuts Like A Knife (with Keith Scott)
This Side Of Paradise (with Keith Scott)
Summer Of '69
Walk On By
It's Only Love
Please Forgive Me
Heaven
The Only Thing That Looks Good On Me Is You
Run To You
Straight From The Heart
This Time (with Keith Scott)
Somebody (with Keith Scott)
Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman? (with Keith Scott)
All For Love

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Thanks to Carla Moizo & Stefano for the setlist.

In attendance at the show were Bryan fan and former Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho (currently manages Inter Milan) and designer John Richmond