ADELE - CONCERT REVIEW, THE RED ROOM, VANCOUVER, B.C. - MAY 25TH, 2008:





















Photo Copyright KulPop

Adele has just started her mini tour of North America to promote her album '19' that has already been a success in the U.K. (it has been available in Canada since early February, will be released in the U.S. on CD June 10th). The roughly 400 capacity Red Room appeared sold-out and Adele came on around 9:30 with no opening band. First two songs were just her and her guitar and right away you know she is the real deal, amazing vocalist with a great sense of humour. Adele recently turned 20 and commented that she was happy she could drink legally in Canada and that she planned to get drunk after the gig!

On the third song she was joined by her guitarist Ben Thomas and her keyboard player Steve Holness joined them for the fourth song 'Melt My Heart To Stone (entire setlist below, show was just under an hour in length). The set was also sprinkled with some cover tunes, including her favourite song of all time, 'Fool That I Am' by Etta James. Highlights for me were 'Cold Shoulder', 'Chasing Pavements' and 'Hometown Glory' that was dedicated to Vancouver as she was staying overnight in the city. She joked around quite a bit, showing the audience one of her $8 pair of shoes, and went on about the sexuality of a lead singer of famous British band she fancied, the audience corrected her telling her he was actually married to a woman. She mentioned she will be back in September with her full band, hopefully by then radio over here will have picked up on her great talent and she will have no problem selling out bigger venues (only merchandise for sale was the cd ($10) and vinyl copies of the album, and they sold out of their stock).

Setlist:

Daydreamer - solo guitar
Best For Last - solo guitar
Right As Rain - guitarist Ben joins her
Melt My Heart To Stone - keyboardist Steve also joins them
First Love
Make You Feel My Love (Bob Dylan cover)
That's it, I Quit, I'm Movin' On (Sam Cooke cover)
Cold Shoulder
Hometown Glory

Encores:
Crazy For You - solo guitar
Fool That I Am (Etta James cover)- guitarist back on stage
Chasing Pavements - keyboardist back on stage also

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A FINE FRENZY - THE MEDIA CLUB, VANCOUVER - CONCERT REVIEW:





















Photo Copyright KulPop

Alison Sudol returned to Vancouver to play the intimate Media Club venue for an early show with Ferras and Ben's Brother as opening acts. Ferras played a short four song set finishing with his current single 'Hollywood's Not America'. He performed well and is definitely a talented singer/songwriter and is a bit of a joker too. From listening to samples of his forthcoming album 'Aliens And Rainbows' I think he should be quite successful. This was only his third show on the tour and only his third actual gig outside of L.A. where he moved to from Illinois to pursue his music career. I video taped the last song but the lighting wasn't very good (see comment below) so it isn't that great (although the audio is okay).

Ben's Brother from the U.K. (two members of the band) were also playing their first Canadian gig and it was the last date of this tour for them before heading down to Texas for the SXSW music conference. They were enjoyable and performed their hit 'Stuttering' which is used in a Dentyne Ice gum commercial.

Alison Sudol and her two band members played for just under and hour with all the songs coming from her debut cd 'One Cell In The Sea' except the encore. Alison played guitar on the encore (she has just recently learned to play it) the new song 'What I Wouldn't Do' which will be on her next cd. She is a great vocalist and charming performer and was impressed when the audience sang a verse of 'Almost Lover' for her as well as how quiet the audience was waiting for her to perform the encore. The only thing that took away from the concert (besides the obligatory strange female fan that insists on yelling to Alison several times during the show and making a fool of herself) was the poor stage lighting provided by the club. Maybe Alison requested to be dimly lit but it was so dark I'm sure the people further back in the club would have had trouble seeing her face during most of the show while she was playing seated at the piano. I highly recommend you go see A Fine Frenzy live if you like the cd, hopefully you'll get to see Ferras as well before he becomes huge.

Set List:

Ferras:

Marshmallow Spaceship
Aliens And Rainbows
Rush
Hollywood's Not America

Ben's Brother:
Time ???
Holding Out For More
Beauty Queen
Carry On
Stutttering
Live

A Fine Frenzy:

Come On Come Out
You Picked Me
Last Of Days
Think Of You
Ashes And Wine
Borrowed Time
an unnamed classical instrumental
The Minnow And The Trout
Hope For The Hopeless
Almost Lover
Rangers

Encore:

What I Wouldn't Do (new song)

SOMETHING A LITTLE DIFFERENT - THE LONG WALK HOME:

Some pictures from my walk around the Stanley Park Seawall this afternoon.