BRYAN ADAMS: 18 FOREVER


by Emma - translated from MTV's Italy site at http://www.mtv.it/brianadams.htm

What does it take to do a great concert? Not much: three musicians, yeah, three (guitar, drums, bass), a warm audience, a man who, despite being 40, will really be, as his famous song says, "18 til I die".
The Assago Forum, last November 2nd, wasn't totally full at 8pm, when the concert was to start, people massly arrived at 9pm, when Bryan's gig started.
When the supporter, Canadian young promise Tal Bachman, appeared on stage, the situation wasn't a very happy one for him: after the first song he hadn't gotten much attention. But, probably used to the hard work of the American tours, he didn't give up and kept looking for the feeling with the audience. Finally, people started to get warm and when the hit "She's so high" arrived most of them were dancing and jumping. Tal really looked happy.
After this, low white lights, laser effects, there came Bryan, all dressed in white, jeans and long-sleeved T-shirt, classic and sporty at the same time. The stage was white, with 3 maxi-screens and a wonderful effect which seemed to bring snow on it.
The audience got crazy, and they kept this way for all the concert long (more than 2 hours, a good lesson for those who don't play more than 1h10'). When he started "Summer of 69" everyone jumped and danced, thousands of people sang every word along.
Yes, maybe who saw Bryan playing in Italy last time was a bit disappointed by seeing only three musicians instead of the full band; maybe some could be bad and say that musically something more could be expected, but Bryan has never been a musician for posh tastes.
What was important was the energy, which was the one of the best events. Bryan is as good as few others on the stage: he feels the mood, he knows the right time to make a pause, a joke, to turn serious. After all, his music has never been complicated: it's good American rock, maybe simple American rock, but full of energy, heat, passion. The old hits were all there, and that is what was wanted by most of the audience - which also included a lot of girls in a 'boyband' age!
Translated by Roberta DS