Bryan Adams in India

Finally! I made up my mind and finished this post after like 2 weeks. Bryan Adams made a world tour and there was a show of his in Bengaluru recently. I had once bought tickets for a Celine Dion show, which got postponed 😦 I wanted to attend a Bon Jovi concert, but did not get company. This was the first rock concert I ever attended and thus ticked one more to-do item from my “things to do before I die” list. It was so freaking awesome and after I screamed sung songs with BA..ahem.. my throat was gone, my hands were paining from clapping non-stop and my heart was pounding so hard because of all the excitement that I wondered if it would tear my skin and drop itself on the ground 😛

The ticket said “Gates open at 5”, so we somehow reached the venue by 5:15-5:20 thinking people would have already entered and we would end up being the last. But even after 6:30-7:00, the gates did not open and they did not let anybody inside. Then we were left inside after scanning (did not notice the time). Since we were well ahead in the queue, I thought I will get a nice place to stand from where I can see the stage properly. But unfortunately, there were 5 rows of people ahead of us and I somehow squeezed in between them and dodging their heads, set my eyes on the stage.

Suddenly some girls entered and started dancing and then “Shiamak Davar” entered wearing a black shirt. I did not know that the intro of the show will be done by Shiamak Davar. I really like him since he is so good at dancing. (If you havent heard of him, Shahid Kapur was his student and so was a friend of mine, who attended his workshop. Isnt it simply great? Wish I could attend his classes). He started off with “We will rock you“. He really rocked and even the audience started singing with him. Then he sang few more songs like “Hear yourself away”, “With or without you”, “I want to be free” and “I’m falling in love”  (I am not so sure about the songs that he sang). I could hardly see anything on the stage because of all the “lambus” (tall people) in the front.

Then Shiamak left and we waited for a long time. Now I tried standing in different positions, angles, trying to make out if I can see the stage. Finally after standing pretty far from the stage, I could see the stage clearly. We waited for about an hour or so. Bryan made an entry, looking dashing in a black shirt and said “How are we feeling today Bengaluru?” People screamed at the top of their lungs. The huge displays at the side and behind made him look more charming. He had a guitarist, keyboard player, bassist and a drummer with him on the stage. He started the show with the song “There will never be another tonight“. These were followed by “Somebody“, “Here I am“, “How do ya feel tonight“, “Cant stop this thing we started“, “I am ready“, “Hey Baby“, “Heat of the night” (not sure if he sung this song. I think he did), “Let’s make a night to remember“, “18 till I die” (at an age of 51, he still looked 18).

Bryan asked how many in the crowd had attended his concert before and you wont believe but almost 75% of them raised their hands. He said this was his 5th time in Bengaluru. The first show he ever had in Bengaluru was in 1994. The crowd sang “18 till I die” with him word by word. This was followed by “Back to you” and then the best song ever came. He just played the guitar and did not sing the first few lines of “Summer of 69” and the crowd sang it instead. Only after we sang the first two lines, did he sing the rest of the song. Again he paused at the stanza “Waiting on your mama’s porch.. you told me you will wait forever” and made us sing with him. It was just amazing. This is my most favourite song of Bryan Adams and hearing him sing it live was like a dream come true for me. I sang the entire song with him, jumped in joy with my hands clapping.One of those moments when I was really very happy 🙂

As soon as the song was over, everyone of us shouted “Once more! once more!”. But instead of heeding to the request, he started off with yet another chart-buster “Everything I do“‘. And the crowd was overjoyed. As soon as he started the song, I saw couples holding each other’s hands 🙂 The atmosphere changed so suddenly. I really like “Everything I do” because it was the first song of Bryan Adams that I ever heard on MTV. I sometimes remember those old MTV days and feel sad. Those days when we had some cool VJs like Shenaz, Nikhil Chinappa, Cyrus Broacha, Nafisa and these days there is hardly any music played on the so-called “Music TV”. 😛 All that I see on that channel are some reality shows, which are worse and more dramatic than the saas-bahu serials 😡

He made audience sing again with him to the song “Do I have to say the words” (not very sure about this too. Blame it on my poor memory). This was followed by “Cuts like a knife“, “It’s only love“, “Please forgive me“. I love “Please forgive me”‘ a lot, especially the starting few lines of the song – “… You’re the only one I’d ever want…“, so romantic. He introduced us to his guitarist Keith, who is with Bryan since BA was 15 yrs old. Bryan claimed that he is the fastest guitarist ever and when we saw Keith play the guitar, everyone understood why BA made that statement. I am sure I have never seen someone play guitar THAT fast.

After this, Bryan played a few lines from a song and asked the audience to guess the song. The person who guesses it right would get a chance to sing with him. “Please dont come if you dont know the song. You will just end up humiliating yourself and your family”. Even though Bryan said this, a girl who did not know the song came on the stage just to stand next to him and got herself humiliated. The next girl that he picked knew the song and sang “When you’re gone” with him. Bryan continued the magic with songs like “Heaven“, “Run to you“, “You’ve been a friend to me“, “Cloud number nine“. And then it was over. Just like it started.

The crowd wanted more. Everyone started asking for more. The band left and only Bryan was on the stage now. He pointed at the guitar and asked if he should pick it up. And then he started singing “The way you make me feel“‘ alone, playing guitar. The last song of the evening was “Straight from the heart“. By that time, there were some fireworks next to the stage and Bryan looked at it and said “Whoever set the fireworks, thanks for it”. I guess it was from a marriage hall next to the stage. And then we left to car parking, which was jammed since there were so many people. The show got over at 10 PM and we were in the parking lot till 11 PM 😛

I really want to visit Bryan Adams show again.

So which is your most favourite song by Bryan?