Bryan Adams

Review by Ivor Whitten for MPM. On a beautiful sunny evening, the long queue outside the SSE Belfast notified everyone that the arena was playing host to ...

Bryan Adams is someone everyone knows about and whether or not he is at the top of your music list, he is a performer you cannot miss live. They blasted out ‘So Happy It Hurts’ before hitting home ‘Somebody’ and the beautiful ‘These Are the Moments That Make Up My Life’. With that the band left the stage to allow Bryan to do a complete solo performance with just his guitar and a harmonica. Then the main set finished with ‘Cuts like a Knife’ to a rapturous applause and deafening cheering as Bryan and his band took a bow and left the stage. And as chants of ‘we want more’ lifted the foof Bryan and his band did indeed come back on to a euphoric explosion of joy. Bryan seemed to do nothing else but feed of this energy as he just lapped it up to produce a superb performance with ‘Back to You’, and ‘Not Guilty’. It is no exaggeration to say the set was filled with songs that have been etched in people’s minds through simple osmosis over the decades. ‘It’s Only Love’, ‘On the Road’ and ‘You Belong to Me’ continues the rocking out as the whole of the SSE Arena moved, stomped cheered and sang along. The gig may be a solid two and a half hours but time was going to fly by very fast. Bryan is in masterful form in Belfast delivering an incredible performance and he is only a few songs in already. And in turn the energy he fills the stage with just increases the responses from everyone there. ‘Shine a Light’ ‘Heaven’ and ‘Go Down Rockin’’ keeps the enthusiastic energy flowing without any sign of stopping. What a massive vote of confidence for such an amazing rocker and proved he continues to have a huge unifying power.