Review | Bryan Adams shows why he’s a superstar at the grand opening of Pickering Casino Resort

Bryan Adams

At The Arena at Pickering Casino Resort April 26

Talk about a safe bet.

For the grand opening of Pickering Casino Resort and its 2,500-seat venue known as The Arena, Great Canadian Entertainment stacked the odds in its favour for its debut headliner: Canadian superstar Bryan Adams.

For his encore-free, 90-minute set, the 63-year-old Kingston, Ont., native did not disappoint, delivering hit after hit after hit after hit. And even the songs that weren’t hits — like the blood-pumping opener “Kick Ass,” with a voice-over monologue by Monty Python co-founder John Cleese, and other locomotive rockers like “You Belong to Me” and “I’ve Been Looking for You” — sounded like hits.

That’s because, since his early woodshedding days in Vancouver perfecting the art of songcraft with partner Jim Vallance, Adams has carved out a remarkable niche of singalong memories that are universally relatable.

Just how well he’s accomplished his task was on full display Wednesday night when Adams and his four-piece band segued from “Kick Ass” into the evening’s first radio smash, “Can’t Stop This Thing We Started.”

When Adams, dressed head-to-toe in black, turned the mic towards the audience to help him sing the chorus, a few shyly responded — perhaps overwhelmed by the fact they were seeing their musical hero in a fairly intimate space. But when he directed the microphone toward them a second time, cajoling his fans to turn up the volume, they complied in full-throated glee.

But when it came to the chart-topping ballad “Heaven,” no convincing was needed: the audience serenaded the singer for the first verse of the song as he just stood back, smiled and drank it all in.

That’s what happens when you’re consistently at the top of your game: your music impacts millions of lives and becomes ingrained in the listener’s DNA, and Adams’ performance at The Arena was a case in point: “The Only Thing That Looks Good on Me Is You,” “Please Forgive Me,” “Run to You,” “Cuts Like a Knife” and his monster smash “(Everything I Do) I Do It for You” read like the Canadian Songbook — amazing tunes with hummable melodies, captivating riffs and can’t-miss lyrics kept the near-capacity audience entranced.

It also helps when you have a killer band: Keith Scott, who has been Adams’ right-hand man seemingly since the dawn of time, might be Canada’s unsung guitar hero. His meaty leads showed lightning fingers but also tasteful agility, the latter put to the test with the acoustic flamenco stylings that served as the backbone of “Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman?” Bass player Sol Walker, Odds drummer Pat Steward and keyboardist Gary Breit also provided disciplined accompaniment to the maestro, whose voice was in fine fettle.

And admittedly, in the decades since this reviewer witnessed his last Bryan Adams concert, there are some new and welcome elements that have emerged in his presentations: a little bit of ham and a tendency to stretch out the songs.

“Hi, my name is Bryan and I’ll be your singer tonight,” he joked early in the show. When he mentioned that he was about to perform “It’s Only Love,” the memorable “Reckless” duet he recorded back in ’84 with Tina Turner, he suddenly directed a trio of spotlights to a corner of the stage where a guest would potentially enter and announced, “And tonight … she’s not here.”

A woman in the audience held up a sign welcoming Adams back to Canada (he had performed his “So Happy It Hurts” tour in Asia and at a residency in Vegas before his Pickering debut) and asked for a hug because she was a cancer survivor, and Adams saw it and obliged.

After the woman received her sidestage embrace, Adams quipped, “Anyone else want to hug me? Just come on up.”

He even took a request, performing “Brand New Day” from his “Get Up” album “for the first time in six tours.”

Musically, many of the familiar hits weren’t note-for-note recitations of the recorded versions — throwing in an unexpected rhythmic break here or an extended solo there — and it was a positive and refreshing change that added just a little more liveliness to the proceedings.

Another surprise: Adams’ rendition of a song he didn’t write: “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You,” popularized in the ’60s by Frankie Valli.

And the night’s highlight for a celebrity-rich crowd that included Toronto Blue Jays Danny Jansen, Daulton Varsho and Brandon Belt; uber-producer Bob Ezrin and TV host Traci Melchor?

“Summer of 69,” for which the crowd exploded, dancing and singing at the top of their lungs as sweet nostalgic memories flowed like a river from Adams’ lips.

But as much as Adams has created so much music to celebrate over the years — the number of hits he didn’t play could have added another three hours to the concert — he’s not solely about looking back and resting on his laurels. He is still amazingly vital, packing recent albums like “Shine a Light,” “Get Up” and “So Happy It Hurts” with gems that, because we’re in a different era, are no longer immediately embraced by radio as they should be.

If you’re wondering about the venue, The Arena provides good sightlines and pretty decent sound, and the chairs offer good back support, but they are interlinked, one would think, to be quickly detached should the venue book an act that requires room to dance, jump around and perhaps engage in the occasional mosh pit.

While there will be more attractions added in the future to the $500-million-plus Pickering Casino Resort grounds — including a Porsche racetrack and a movie studio — the true test for The Arena will be attracting crowds with notable headliners.

At the moment, they’ve only got one on the book: Jann Arden on June 24, with tribute bands and sporting events taking up the rest of the slack.

With Casino Rama and Fallsview Casino serving as geographic bookends and Great Canadian Entertainment introducing a Woodbine facility at some point this summer — let alone the competition from all the other established Toronto venues — one hopes that Pickering Casino will find its footing in terms of importing talent sooner than later.

But one could surmise that the bookers at The Arena will take comfort in another Bryan Adams song in terms of their future prospects: the best is yet to come.

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