GREAT review from lizardino @ MJ's. Sorry if already posted original.gif
Adam: Overall, the man is a force of nature. He has great stage presence and a lot of skill — he knows how to WORK it baby (and boy, does he!). I was thinking at about the second phrase of WLL that “we have now entered the R rated portion of this evening’s show” because he was stroking parts of his anatomy–whoo! I think he knows he has to keep it toned down for this audience, but I look forward to when he won’t have to do that. I think the audience will need a cold shower after the show. The guy (with his wife and another couple) in front of me starting snickering when Adam started his bump and grind — you could tell he loved it and thought it was fun. That Adam–giving us something for everyone!
Adam’s music — It was all really loud (stadium sound system) and so I didn’t hear some of the dynamic changes I love with Adam’s music until MAd World and Life on Mars (which was beautiful, by the way). He strutted out like he owned that stadium and just killed WLL. He did a few different things than I remembered from seeing videos of the Portland show, but that’s what makes live entertainment so interesting. It’s never the same–and Adam strikes me as the kind of person who just changes things up with his mood.
The best part of WLL was at the point when the music pauses, and he poses and freezes for a moment. Then he gestures like “come here” to the audience so that they will yell louder–then I think he mouthed “more” and waited until people were really screaming before he started singing again. He really is a pro. That was great. He didn’t move to the front of the stage with that song, but he did move around in front of the band and played with his microphone stand again. Hee. He sounded amazing.
I was looking forward to Starlight, as I love that song and especially the way he sings it. It was beautiful, although he started off too high for just a moment. His vocals are just so fluid and the range he has is stunning. I’m a singer and am just blown away by that voice of his. Starlight is a good song to show off his range and style, and he really got into it tonight. It was very emotional and he really played it to the audience, while remaining pretty still.
Mad World was wonderful as usual, but went by too fast (as did the whole set!). You really feel the dark and haunting quality of that song when he sings it. He was sitting down for most of it, and then just stood at the end. It’s longer than the version he sang on the show because he put all the lyrics in it. That is the nice thing about the tour; they do the whole songs. Haunting vocal with some fog in the background. BTW, Adam’s vocals really are just stunning. I’m a musician and can be really critical of other’s voices, but MY GOODNESS that boy can sing. If you can see him live, you really should do it because there is a quality to his voice that really doesn’t come over well on TV. You can hear it in recordings better–but I will just say that he sounds different in person in some ways. Different and better.
A couple things that bugged me during Adam’s set and during a couple of the others were that the lights were pretty low. The backdrop provides a lot of lighting and ambience, but I thought much of Adams set was a little dark. I had a hard time getting pictures of him.
Slow Ride was just a joy–he introduced Allison as his little sister, and then they went to town. He was singing really close to her at one point tonight and seemed to start laughing at one place as well. They grabbed hands and he kind of twirled her around in one place. They sound really great together and they are both really aware of the other person while they are singing. Power vocals x two! I think Adam did a little more wailing tonight as well.
May I say a word about wardrobe here. The famous jacket is quite beautiful, and I really wanted to see it close up. I was 17 rows back right in the center, so I had some frustrations with a tall person right in front of me (the only one in the area of course). I wanted to see Adam’s whole outfit more clearly, but the jacket really looks metallic blue under the lights. He was wearing a vest under it tonight (black) with silver chains. The same pants as last night. I think he will keep fussing with his wardrobe until he feels it’s just right–and maybe have a couple of options he plays with. The way he presents himself really is a part of his performance, and when people say that you can’t take your eyes off him when he is performing, believe them. It’s true.
I think my favorite part of Adam’ s set was the Bowie medley. The first song, Life on Mars (mentioned above) was vocally the loveliest thing he sang. Just pure sweet vocals with great diction. When you can understand a singer is saying in an arena with thousands of screaming fans, you know that person has great diction! It is a quiet opening, but sets up Fame really well. Some people said they thought the transitions between the songs was awkward, but I think it worked. There was a pause after Mars, and then he stood in the middle of the stage and took off the jacket (to the music). He’s been practicing–he had attitude going on there! Fame was great vocally and he let loose a little more with movement tonight. There was one place where he hits his head with his hand right to the music that was really effective (and very cool). And let’s just say that you can tell that the man has spent more than a little time in dance clubs and knows how to move his body very well. VERY well, ahem.
The last part of Bowie, Let’s Dance, was actually really cool. It was more of a rock/techno version than Bowie’s version. It had a heavier beat to it and sounded great. More dancing and a little bit of Adam’s lower register. I almost missed part of the song because I was looking at his arms—hee. People were saying last night that he looked like he needed to lose weight, and I really disagree. His arms, BTW, look more muscular (but not in a really “cut” way) in person. I think the song worked really well, and I would love to see that medley again after about 20 more performances. At the end of his set, Adam gets lowered down into the floor.
Here is my visceral reaction to Adam, which I wasn’t quite expecting. I knew about the presence, vocals, charisma, blah, blah… However, while I enjoyed all the other singers quite a bit (and I will write more about a few of them tomorrow), I didn’t have the same reaction to them as I did to Adam. Now, I have to preface this by saying that I am a straight female and Adam is the kind of guy I would go for (except for the gay part–but I have gay friends who remind me of him). He is very sexy, and knows how to use it. Having said this, I have never had a reaction where I was so frustrated by having people between me and the performer on the stage–I just wanted to whack them out of the way so I could see Adam! If I could have crawled over most of them to the front row, I would have been happy. For some reason, the others being 17 rows away didn’t bother me so much–but I really wanted Adam about 2 feet away from me. Very funny, actually.
The other thing that makes me realize what a great performer Adam is, is that after his set was over I felt like it was only about 2 minutes long. I remember all the others clearly and would have liked a few more songs from Allison especially, but with Adam it was over WAY too soon. All I could think was, “wow–that was amazing and about 20 songs too short.”
Post time 8-7-2009 12:05 PM
Author
:kant:...guys...did u watch the tacoma vids? i mean seriously he was really letting loose and sexy as hell...waaaaaay better than portland's
<3 
