Bryan Adams concert review...

A review of a recent (March 14, 2006) Bryan Adams concert, I did for for my newspaper.

Even as Bryan Adams getting into the opening notes of Everything I Do, I Do It For You, Mark Higman was calling up his girlfriend in England to tell her that he was missing her. And to have her listen to the song, being sung by Adams himself. “This has been a special song for us, it’s been ‘our’ song. So I wanted her to listen to this”, said Higman. And Higman certainly was not the only one making calls to their loved ones and holding the phones up for them to listen to Bryan Adams, at his concert at the Dubai Aviation Club, last evening.

The crowd numbering about 6000, was an amalgamation of the young and old, men and women. And considering Adams has been delivering hits for close to 25 years, it was hardly surprising that one saw a lot of fans in their thirties singing along to those very hits.

Adams made sure too, that he gave them all just what they wanted, and then some more. The set list was predictable, spanning all his hits – Cuts Like A Knife, Run To You, Everything I Do…, Summer Of ’69, Heaven et al – with the crowd giving a whole-hearted accompaniment on all of them. Except during the few songs from his latest album, that is.

Admittedly, there was nothing very spectacular about the concert. But then Bryan Adams has never been known for his showmanship. Most of his stage banter seemed contrived and rehearsed. And as a little bit of research shows, his stage routines were in fact not too different from his other concerts – from calling up an audience member to sing with him on Baby, When You’re Gone, to introducing his ‘mean, nasty guitar’, to jumping up on the barricade and clicking photographs. But when you have the advantage of almost every song on your set list being a hit, you can afford to give the showmanship part a miss. What truly matters is that his fans finally filed out of the stadium, happy in having been on this ride that took them back to “the best days of their lives”.