Caught Live: Bryan Adams, ECHO Arena Liverpool, 28 October 2008

It's not like yours truly ever had any credibility to flush away in the first place but the truth is, this gig was far from the first time I've seen the Groover from Vancouver. I first saw Bryan Adams live back in the 1980s, at the NEC in Birmingham and in all honesty, he has not changed much from those days. Still in shirt and jeans, still with the short cropped hair, and still playing no-frills rock music to large arena crowds. The things that HAVE changed though, are his audience, and his public perception. Back in the 1980s, he was considered 'rock' enough to merit coverage in Kerrang! magazine; the few outlets for rock on the radio also gave his music airplay then.
It all changed in 1991 (as it did for many 80s rock acts), but in Adams's case it had nothing to do with checked-shirt clad scruffbags from Seattle. 1991 was also the year of '(Everything I Do) I Do It For You', his biggest hit single by a country mile. The song reached Number One in the British Charts in July of that year, and stayed there for what seemed like forever (in fact 16 weeks). From that point on, he was regarded as a soft rock balladeer in the eyes of the public, and nowadays he is probably second only to Nickelback in the uncool rock stakes!

His audience nowadays has a very strong female presence, there were a lot of couples in the crowd at the Echo Arena. The seated part was virtually full when I arrived, but significantly, the standing still had plenty of room. It did fill up later, but this was probably the most civilised standing crowd I've been in since I saw the Eagles back in 1996! Moshpits then, are certainly not the order of the day at an Adams show!

I found two of my friends in the arena while the opening act were on, they had located what appeared to be a small stage on the arena floor. On the main stage, support Black Daniel were on stage. They were not my thing at all, a bit 'alternative, a bit NME for my tastes. They were all clad in black hoodies, one guitarist (no bassist) playing over-distorted riffs, and two keyboard players, one of whom was also vocalist. I'm afraid I didn't enjoy them at all!

The lights dimmed at 8:30 for the main act, the screens showed Adams walking from the dressing room on his way to the stage. Those of us who know the arena well (teehee) looked across to the door halfway up the left-hand side, the small platform was almost directly in line with that door and I knew then that Bryan was to start the show on that small stage. Sure enough he climbed up, and a surge from the crowd further forward ensued as they realised that he was behind them. With just an acoustic guitar and a microphone, he kicked things off with 'Can't Stop This Thing We Started', to tumultuous cheers from the audience. 'Please Forgive Me' followed, then he left the small stage (still holding a microphone) to head over to the main stage, where his bandmates were waiting for him. They had a long wait, they played on while Adams was virtually mobbed on his way to the stage. He took a path down the side of the arena floor, we could see him giving high-fives' to the crowd as he passed, occasionally pausing to sing up close to (female!) audience members.

Once on the stage, the crowd cheered even louder, and it hardly let up all night. He kept the stage banter to an absolute minimum, pausing only to swap guitars over in betwen numbers. This time around he has restored a full band behind him; I saw BA at the MEN Arena in Manchester some years ago, that night he was playing bass and was accompanied only by his long-time sidemen Keith Scott (guitar) and drummer Mickey Curry. Both were present at the Echo Arena, but Adams has given the four-string over to Norm Fisher, and keyboard player Gary Breit is now an integral part of the band. Keith Scott is an effective foil to Adams, the two of them were all over the stage, trading guitar licks and swapping stage ramp positions. Adams does like to give his guitarist opportunity to cut loose, Scott's immediately recognisable tone is a big part of the Adams sound.

Although this tour is billed as a promotional jaunt for his latest album '11', there were plenty of oldies played. No less than SIX songs from his classic 'Reckless' album made the set (though we did notice you cut out the second verse of 'Somebody', Bryan!). The radio favourite 'Summer of 69' was played mid-set instead of in the encores, a sign that he was completely confident in his material. Needless to say, the cheer that resulted almost tore the roof off the Echo Arena! He didn't hang about either, following that up with '(Everything I Do) I Do It For You', accompanied by what I estimated at 5000 female backing singers! ;-)

No Adams show is complete without his take on audience participation; he selects a woman from the crowd to accompany him on 'When You're Gone', in the Mel C role. I did half-expect the one-time Sporty Spice to show up here, as it was in Liverpool, but instead Bryan chose a very excited woman called Phillipa from the crowd. She lapped up the monent on the stage, though her vocal performance was, well, interesting!
After she told all present that she loved drummers, Bryan sent her to go and give Mickey Curry a kiss before she made her exit back to the crowd. That part of the show is always hit and miss, but is also a lot of fun.

The last stretch of the show saw yet more hits, including 'Cloud No. 9' and the older song 'Cuts Like A knife', before BA encored with just himself and his acoustic, ending as he started it.

A textbook arena show, even shorn of pyro and elaborate stage sets, Adams may be the king of soft rock and about as cool as a vindaloo, but there's a reason he has lasted this long, his consistently good live show. He even found time to mention how much he liked our new arena (bonus brownie points for that!) - then again, he did mention that last time he was here, he played in a tent (!)

Hopefully he'll be back to play this new venue again, damn the credibility, I'll be there!