Hello … It’s Adele Live 2016

Like many others I was impatiently waiting in the online Ticketmaster queue late last year for Adele tickets.  Like many others I didn’t get any.  Look, I’m typically a Ticketmaster fan (I’m a top 100 reviewer – all anonymous, of course), but they bungled that sale in the worst way.

Since that debacle, I had my eyes on StubHub (who I also love), and finally not too long before the show I found the seats of my dreams at a price that meant I didn’t have to sell too much of my soul to Mom 😉

I had high expectations about this show, and my expectations were exceeded.  Adele is one of the best concerts I’ve ever seen along with Katy Perry.  The show wasn’t about dancers and pyrotechnics and costume changes.  It was about Adele.  And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Not too long after eight with the crowd growing a bit restless, Adele finally made her appearance, being wheeled to the B stage, right by our seats, in a truck.  It was showtime!

Adele opened with Hello.  I mean what else would she open with???  From there she walked to the A stage, gathering gifts from the crowd, and went right into Hometown Glory with first her hometown displayed on the screen behind her and then Detroit.

From there, she interspersed her biggest hits with lots of talking.  Though this is quite unconventional, it was welcome.  I loved the personal feel it lent to the show and how her personality came through.  Adele is real.  She is authentic.  To see that first hand was delightful.  She even brought a couple of fans on stage with her.

As she sang, Adele waved to the crowd and pointed out signs.  We even sang Happy Birthday to one woman.  Can you imagine Adele singing Happy Birthday to you??? OMG!

We sang, we danced, we had fun, and stayed on our feet save for the acoustic set during which she sang Don’t You Remember and Make You Feel My Love, telling us to sit since she was.  I wasn’t sure what to expect from an Adele concert since most of her songs are rather depressing, something she joked about, but it was much more alive than I thought it would be.  A welcome surprise.

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A video posted by Laura Dembowski (@piesandplots) on Sep 7, 2016 at 7:26pm PDT

It was back to the B stage for Chasing Pavements, Someone Like You, and Set Fire to the Rain.  Once she was on the stage she waved the crowd close.  I stayed away from most of the fray but did move up and had an awesome view.  She noted she couldn’t step off the stage to take selfies, but she posed, bending over, moving around the stage so people could get selfies with her.

Then she asked people where they were from.  New York.  Farmington Hills.  And Ohio.  When the lady said she was from Ohio, the entire stadium erupted into boos.  Michigan and Ohio have a mostly friendly rivalry, particularly in college sports.  Adele legitimately freaked out and had no idea what happened.  Then she realized “This is a sports thing, isn’t it?”

Her personality shone through when her dress got stuck on something on the stage.  She pulled a string off of it, announced her dress was trying to kill her, and shouted “Thanks, Burberry!”  It was hilarious, as I imagine Adele is much of the time, despite that her songs may lead us to believe otherwise.

She noticed another fan’s sign talking about their brother, a fan, who had died two months before.  Adele dedicated the show to him and later a song.  It was very moving.

As Adele sang Someone Like You, I had the best view of the night, and at one point I felt like she saw me as I saw her, like we made eye contact.  I’m probably wrong, but don’t try to convince me of such.  In that moment, I felt understood in a world that doesn’t understand me, in a world that doesn’t even want to.

Adele gets it.  She’s been wronged.  She has regrets.  I feel like she wrote Million Years Ago for me.  She swore and noted Send My Love (To Your New Lover) was for all of us who have ever had crummy people in our lives.  Adele gets me, even if she’ll never know that.

Set Fire to the Rain presented the best special effects of the night with rain falling all around the stage.  I don’t know how they did that, but the effect was insane.

#latergram from last night’s Adele concert I still can’t stop thinking about. Set Fire to the Rain with water falling all around the stage. #adele #adeleconcert #detroit #music #concert #nightout #auburnhills #palace #palaceofauburnhills #sing #dance #bestnightever #takemeback #setfiretotherain #rain #awesome #cool #adelelive2016

A video posted by Laura Dembowski (@piesandplots) on Sep 8, 2016 at 6:26pm PDT

After a short wait, she returned to the A stage for the encores.  First When We Were Young, which was shockingly the only time throughout the night I cried.  It’s such a moving song and has so much meaning behind it that we can all relate to.

The night finished with Rolling in the Deep, an upbeat, fun song that had everyone up and dancing.  A shower of confetti blasted the audience as we all reached for some.  I gathered quite a few pieces to add to my collection, all of which have a song lyric or greeting from Adele printed on them.

While my love of concerts in general has been reignited over the past couple of years, seeing Adele has left me fulfilled and sustained in a way I can’t explain.  I am thrilled to have seen her and been a part of such a magical moment.  Perhaps my joy has been magnified by the fact that throughout every single moment Adele was on the stage she seemed to be having just as good of a time as we were.