The Province

Face it, Adele had us at Hello

POP SUPERSTAR: All thought of ticket prices vanished when she unleashed that voice

- FRANCOIS MARCHAND fmarchand@postmedia.com twitter.com/FMarchandV­S

Ahead of Adele’s two sold-out concerts in Vancouver there was relentless chatter regarding the difficulty fans faced obtaining tickets.

Plenty of blame was assigned to resellers who somehow had tickets on the market the moment they went on sale in late 2015.

It didn’t help that people from all over B.C. and Western Canada were jostling for the handful of tickets available for the British superstar’s only concerts west of Toronto. Supply, meet demand. Ouch.

But give Adele some credit. She made a good portion of the seats in the room (on the floor and the lower bowl) only available by physically picking up the tickets at the arena on the day of the show and showing the credit card used to purchase them.

The resellers were there on Wednesday night, but they hardly seemed to matter.

What mattered was the excitement fans exuded as they lined up to get in.

“I came because I heard she puts on an amazing concert,” said 29-year-old Natalie Mckamey, who travelled from Victoria for the occasion. “One of those once in a lifetime experience­s.”

Mckamey said she purchased her tickets through Ticketmast­er, as did sisters Contessa Sookerukof­f, 26, and Destinye Garbet, 30, from Abbotsford. Lucky them, they ended up with floor tickets.

“We had three computers and two phones, ready and waiting,” Sookerukof­f said. That’s one way to beat the bots. Cloverdale’s Amanda Heemskerk, 34, brought her five-year-old daughter Zoe to see Adele for her first concert.

“I think she’s gonna love it. She sings all the songs in the car,” Heemskerk said.

She had just purchased her tickets via Facebook’s marketplac­e and was on her way to pick them up from the seller when we spoke. She flinched when asked if she knew if the tickets were real. “I hope so!” she exclaimed I hoped so, too, for Zoe’s sake. Others were still empty-handed and had a more cynical view of the whole thing.

“I think there’s nothing wrong with (ticket resale) except for Stub-Hub who sucks up all the tickets,” said Jerome Dickey before the show. “They’re in cahoots with the venues to begin with. It’s all a big scam.” Once inside, it didn’t really matter. The image of Adele’s big eyelashes was splashed on a giant screen covering the main stage. You half expected they would suddenly pop open, revealing her mischievou­s gaze.

Adele’s grand entrance, shortly after 8 p.m., was a cheeky one. Rather than showing up on the main stage where everyone was staring, she almost magically appeared on the smaller stage in the middle of the rink, sneakily stashed inside a gear case wheeled in by two roadies. Barely anyone noticed. “Hello ..." The word echoed through the room as the lights went down and the cellphones went up. The eyes opened.

Adele’s massive voice took over everything, matched only by the screams and applause. By the end of the song she let the crowd take over to sing. Huge spine tingling moment.

That voice. It explains the millions of albums sold, the truckload of awards (including an Oscar for Skyfall), and the connection fans feel with the girl from Tottenham. And she served the fans well, peppering Hometown Glory with aerial footage of Vancouver, later inviting fans on stage for selfies, and talking about going to the Catfe and meeting Larry the cat after seeing Steven Spielberg’s The BFG (shot in Vancouver) at Internatio­nal Village.

Garbed in a beautiful sequin dress, she made fun of her hair blowing thanks to a powerful wind fan.

“It’s just a little bit too industrial,” she quipped. She swore a couple times and caught herself after spotting babies in the front rows. From then on its was “shizzles” and such.

In case you didn’t know, Adele could host her own comedy show. She is freaking hilarious.

Of course the songs tower above the funny bits, most of them being not so joyful, ranging in themes from heartbreak to, well, heartbreak.

She has a few fun, snappy ones though — Rumour Has It and Water Under The Bridge — and they came back to back.

“We can then be miserable for two hours,” Adele said with a chuckle.

Hardly. Thanks to pristine sound and a small band augmented by a big ensemble of strings and backing singers, every song shone and felt intimate despite the size of the room.

Minimalist material (the Suicide Is Painless-esque Million Years Ago) was balanced with grand arrangemen­ts of classics like Chasing Pavements and Someone Like You.

Bonus: An encore featuring the breathtaki­ng When We Were Young, penned by North Vancouver’s Tobias Jesso Jr., sealed a night to remember.

 ?? — GETTY IMAGES FILES ?? Adele was funny, engaging and of course her voice blew fans away during Wednesday’s performanc­e at Rogers Arena in Vancouver. She performs again there Thursday.
— GETTY IMAGES FILES Adele was funny, engaging and of course her voice blew fans away during Wednesday’s performanc­e at Rogers Arena in Vancouver. She performs again there Thursday.

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