Adele for me has always been a household name. A name that doesn’t need another. It is simply Adele. With that one name comes a booming voice that is clear and resonant. When VH1 used to do the Top 20 Video Countdown, my nine-year-old self would watch with wonder and awe at the different genres and videos they played. One Saturday morning they played “Chasing Pavements,” and immediately after, I raced to my mom to ask her if I could buy the song on iTunes – at the time I wanted it for my iPod. Her voice was the first thing that grabbed me and truthfully has never let me go.
In August, I saw her live in concert at The Colosseum in Las Vegas. I never thought that I would ever see her live. Adele felt like a far away dream. I vividly remember DVRing her concert at Radio City Music Hall and rewatching it constantly, rewinding certain notes just so that I can hear it on repeat. When it came time to be at the concert, I tried to be as present as I could, so I didn’t record some of my favorite songs of hers. If I close my eyes and bring myself back to that red velvet seat, I can hear her singing again. No phone necessary.
There was no opener, so when it came time, it was all for Adele. Her pianist came out first and sat down at the piano, the only thing visible on stage. The room goes dark with a spotlight illuminating only the pianist, and suddenly, you’re surrounded by the resounding lyric, “Hello, it’s me.” There she is. Adele proceeds to walk out in an elegant black gown with braided crystals all along her straps. Her hair is pinned up in a half-down, half-up-do, donning crystal hoop earrings and walking barefoot towards the piano to take center stage. A surge of anticipation swelled within me and left me in a perpetual state of astonishment. I couldn’t believe that I was here in this room at the same time Adele was singing. It was too surreal to conceptualize, yet here I was.
Adele is a world renowned singer who has changed music as we know it. When she releases a project, the whole world stops to listen. That’s all with her singing and sonwgwriting. The world has yet to fully give her personality credit too. I’m assuming that you’ve seen her Carpool Karaoke with James Corden, and a spoof she did when she pretended to be an Adele impersonator with fellow Adele impersonators. In those edited clips, you get an idea. I don’t think it can compare to her talking to her audience live. After a few songs, Adele sat down next to her pianist and began chatting with us. She spoke about coming back from vacation and her newest obsession (buying little Christmas villages on eBay). She also took up reading, mentioning how she read A Little Life. She described it as “heartbreaking but fantastic,” and afterwards, she “was in silence for a couple of days.” I don’t use chatting lightly, but it truly was as if she was catching up with an old friend. The earnest way of Adele mixed with her quick wit is what I think makes her an incredible performer. She makes it known that she gets performance anxiety, and what’s so baffling to me is that when she sings, you don’t hear a hint of it. She looks so calm and in control. How can someone who sounds the way she does ever be nervous?
After our nice catch up, she went right back to the show. She sang “Turning Tables,” which is something she hasn’t done in a while. I like to think it was just for me since it’s my favorite of hers. When she finished with the piano ballads, she moved on to her more beloved songs like ” Send My Love (to Your New Lover” and “Rumour Has It”. She played songs from all of her albums, but I have to say “Oh My God” was one of my favorites.
Now, I haven’t gotten the chance to talk about the stage. The stage was elaborate, a very wide and long stage that had a “V” shape in the middle. The background was unassuming with a black backdrop. I soon learned that the backdrop wasn’t solely a backdrop, it was actual television screens. After her ballads, she had different graphics that played clips from her music videos, other ones made for the show, and live close-ups of her performing at the show. Each song flowed with the next track that came out, you couldn’t help but sing along and dance.
Did I mention that she bought seats to her own show to then give out to some lucky audience members who were in the last row in the whole venue? Our elegant, extravagant Adele was handed a cannon that shot out a T-shirt. If you caught the t-shirt, you would win a pair of tickets for special seating on the floor. Adele in her black dress did this three times, and the audience as a whole was entertained, rooting for the audience members who won, adoring Adele even more. This is nothing compared to what happened later.
She started to sing her Grammy winning song “Skyfall” from the James Bond’s film Skyfall (2012). Slowly, her background band came forward on this platform towards Adele, who was mainstage. Her band consisted of strings, her pianist, drums, and guitar, all the while the screens surrounding her had this three dimensional red smoke that felt as if it was consuming her. Then, the curtains opened, and you see these silhouettes in rows on the wall behind her. You initially believe it’s a part of the screens, but gradually, the silhouettes draw nearer, revealing that it’s not a screen at all. Instead, you find individual musicians in separate boxes, each playing their own instrument. It was this orchestra that gave the song such fullness that I just kept saying, “wow.” As someone who talks a lot, I was left speechless.
I thought that song would top off the show, but I was very wrong. After a few more songs, she sang “Set Fire To The Rain” and brought out all the elements…literally. A fire started to break out on the piano while she and her pianist were performing. Soon, the the piano was engulfed in flames and burned longer than I expected, so I began to worry. Seconds later, however, rain started to fall from the sky, extinguishing the flames and leaving everyone in the crowd mesmerized. After all the excitement, she decided to wind down and walk through the crowd, chatting with audience members at random, asking questions about themselves and why they decided to attend. While doing so, a slideshow of pictures of Adele of all ages played in the background. We were introduced to a teenager from Mexico who came with his family and another audience member who was from Kentucky. It also happened to be her eighth show! Yes, you read that number right.
After walking through the crowd, she performed a few more songs. As an audience we could feel the show coming to a close. It was a bittersweet goodbye. We sat through over two hours of her performing yet, it didn’t feel like enough. My mom has always said to leave a party right at the height of when you’ve had the most fun. Nothing can reach that high you feel at the peak. Adele knew this, that’s why for her last song she sang “Love Is A Game.” It’s a longer song compared to her other records and a fitting one to end on. When Adele sang, multicolored heart shaped confetti fell from the sky, fluttering to the ground as we took in our final moments with her. It was when she sang the lyric “No amount of love can keep me satisfied” that I bent down to pick up a piece of confetti, and on it in Adele’s handwriting was the words “Thank you for coming. xx.” As I looked up, the curtains started to close, and in that moment I saw my nine-year-old self beam. The show ended but for me, it will always be floating around, in moments of needed comfort.
daybreak 