The voice that overwhelmed Bangalore

The voice that overwhelmed Bangalore

The Hindu

BANGALORE: Two hours, 10 minutes and 25 songs later, Bryan Adams summed up his Third Time Lucky India concert at the Palace Grounds on Sunday: "This is by far the best response I have received in my concerts in Bangalore. It is an absolutely fantastic reception. I just don't know what to say. This is not the last time I'm coming back here."

Adams is growing older at 47 and is singing numbers that are not entirely new but that's doing nothing to his immense popularity among college students who still listen to him and among the little-more-than younger who love to not only listen, but to see him, for sentimental reasons.

Adams does straightforward and uncluttered — even if clichéd — pop-rock and yet connects well. He may not be a Tull, Floyd or Straits, yet Adams is an intense and energetic performer and a great entertainer, doing what he knows best - simple music from the heart.

Fans at the Bangalore concert swayed and sang along with Adams, a trademark of every Bryan Adams show. They asked for more and more when he finished. "You guys are just great. This is absolutely fantastic. I just don't know what to say," he said. Fans sought repeats of his classic — Summer of '69. Like Adams himself says: "Summer of 69 was never number one on the charts anywhere, but it is a song popular all over the world." And it was hugely popular here with the guitar work on the song exceptional. The crowd sang the lyrics with fervour.

Fans also loved and sang with Adams some of his other classics such as "Run To You", "Heaven" and "Everything I do I do it For You".

Interestingly, he played some close-to-hard numbers going back 20 years to the Reckless album - "Kids Wanna Rock," "All For Love," and "Hearts on Fire" from the album Into The Fire. Apart from these, he also sang his two new numbers, "Room Service" and "Open Road" from his 2004 album, Room Service. Adams also performed the other popular numbers "Back To You", "Cuts Like a Knife", "Night to Remember", "I'm Ready", "Please Forgive me", "Can't Stop This Thing" and many more.

Every Bryan Adams concert has a singer from the audience and his 2006 concert saw Shwetha, a software engineer. Bryan and Shwetha sang the number "When You're Gone" to loud cheer from the audience. "This is just fantastic. She sang the whole way. You guys are good. Ladies and gentlemen, this is Shwetha, a software engineer. Give her a big hand," Adams said just after the song. And to loud cheer, he gave her a hug and T-shirts to her and seven of her friends.

The guitar work by Kieth Scott stood out. It was electric even if sometimes gimmicky.

Keith has been and is a performer on stage — beginners would love his tricks and the audience loved it here. His guitar work came through very well in "Kids Wanna Rock", "Summer of 69", "Can't stop This Thing" and "Hearts on Fire". Micky Curry was superb on the drums, maintaining perfect rhythm with the guitar, very tight and energetic.

In all fairness though, Adams' voice overwhelmed the concert completely. His voice made all the difference. Deep and coarse, Adams' voice gripped the audience. You could see it in the way he sang "Cloud number nine" and "I'm Ready". He signed off with an acoustic version of Room Service. And then: "Thank you so much Bangalore till I see you next time."