Bublé, elevated
B. C. crooner takes his live show to the next level as tour opens Thursday in Vancouver.
Michael Bublé
With Naturally 7
June 19 and 20, 8 p. m. | Rogers Arena
Tickets: $ 49 - $ 119 plus charges at Ticketmaster ( June 20 only, June 19 is sold out)
You don't expect to go see Michael Bublé perform live and have it turn into a Kiss concert.
Yet that's what the pop crooner's Australian fans were almost treated to last month when Bublé almost accidentally transformed into a crooning, bloody- mouthed Gene Simmons.
Partway through singing Van Morrison's Moondance on May 16 in Melbourne, Australia, Bublé took an unfortunate step on the foot of his microphone stand and smashed his right front tooth to pieces.
“I keep time stomping my foot,” Bublé said in a recent phone interview with The Vancouver Sun. “And in a very fluke way, just as the lights go out for a crescendo, I stepped down on the base of my microphone stand. And it was just uneven enough to act like a rake. It hit me so hard that it shattered my tooth.
“It's probably the worst thing that's ever happened to me on stage — the sheer panic. If you've ever been punched, when you get hit in the chin, right away the shock goes up to your temples. I just saw lights. I thought I was going to go down.”
For a moment, Bublé thought he was going to have to cancel the show just four songs in.
“I knew my tooth was gone because it was in pieces in my mouth,” Bublé said. “I could feel with my tongue right away that there was nothing there. And I was really worried about the blood because there were little kids in the audience and I could see them. And I thought, ‘ Oh great, you're going to traumatize these children for the rest of their lives. They'll never see another concert the same way.' I reached out and while I could taste blood in my mouth, I couldn't feel it on my face, and I couldn't see it on my hands. The song came to an end and I made a split- second decision — ‘ Do I tell people or do I go on?' ”
Bublé worked through the pain — and the blood — and sang the best he could with little to no hint of a lisp. The show would indeed go on.
“I held the microphone really, really close — I probably looked like a rapper the way I held it. And honestly, man, nobody knew. The only person that knew in the whole arena was my father. He knows me so well that I guess he could see my face and he knew something had gone wrong.”
Bublé went into dental surgery to get his tooth fixed 10 minutes after ending the concert that night ( he will have to get more work done in the coming weeks), and he posted a picture of himself strapped with an oxygen mask on his Instagram feed.
The photo travelled around the globe in a matter of seconds, but Bublé had more than just a selfdeprecating, funny guy kind of reason for posting the photo: Somebody had called the paparazzi.
“I wasn't really thrilled about it,” Bublé said. “I thought that I would basically try to take away their power. They were literally shooting me from outside where I was sitting while I was in the chair.”
When asked if becoming a father had changed his perspective on fame and celebrity, the Burnabybred singer gave a bit of a resigned sigh.
“I understand, but of course I'm very protective,” he said, referring to his 10- month- old son Noah and his wife, Argentine model and
If you’re asking me what means more: Madison Square Garden or Rogers? Well, Rogers of course.
MICHAEL BUBLÉ
SINGER
actress Luisana Lopilato. “For me, it's important to have a copacetic relationship with the paparazzi. You show them respect, and most of the time they'll show you that same respect.
“Listen, they can get pictures of you any time you go out. But there are ways you can give and take. If you tell them, ‘ Once you get the shot is it OK if I go on with my day?' Usually they're cool with that.”
Bublé, 38, has come a long way since his first singing engagements as a teenager, his Arts Club stage appearances in Swing and Red Rock Diner in the late ' 90s, and his regular spots on Vicki Gabereau's television show.
Now a multiple Grammy and Juno winner, the pop crooner's latest album, To Be Loved ( his sixth studio effort), released in spring of 2013, has seen him embark on the most ambitious tour of his career.
Kicking off with 10 consecutive nights at the O2 Arena in London — a series of concerts that grossed over $ 16 million US — and taking him around the globe, the To Be Loved tour finally comes to Canada a year after it started.
It's only fitting that Bublé's Canadian dates should kick off with a double bang at Rogers Arena on June 19 and 20.
“Obviously it's my hometown, so it's important to me,” Bublé said. “I'm surrounded by my peers and that'll never change. It'll always be like that. If you're asking me what means more: Madison Square Garden or Rogers? Well, Rogers of course. I'm going to look out of that stage and I'm going to see a lot of the people that were part of my story. I'm excited. I wouldn't say I'm nervous at all. I have a lot of confidence in this show, and I'm more excited to show it off.”
The production on this show is much more elaborate than on his previous tour in support of Crazy Love.
From a million- and- a- half- dollar stage design, Bublé's stage presentation now bears a $ 6- million price tag, according to the singer.
The tour has also meant some personnel changes within his band, all in order to take things to the next level.
“When I put this tour together, ( manager Bruce Allen) put up the word ‘ ELEVATE' all over his office,” Bublé said. “This was a word we were going to live by — in every way. I made some tough decisions. I wanted it to be even better musically. The cost of the set alone — I wanted to elevate.
“Listen, I should be able to go on stage and entertain with just a chair and a balloon,” he added. “If you're a good entertainer you don't need a bunch of stuff. But I also feel that if you're going to ask people to come to an arena to see you, that it's kind of the artist to give them great production and great production value. A lot of people are far away, so you want to give them some beautiful eye candy that doesn't take away from what you do but really enhances it.”
Bublé admitted that he didn't feel as “secure” in his last tour appearance as he does now.
A charming performer with a knack for a quick joke and thinking on the fly, Bublé said he felt he had to fill in the blanks more by talking or being funnier than usual.
This time he feels he can really let the music do the talking, and he said it makes for a concert that flows much faster, with more songs and less stage banter.
“This time it's a much better balance, it moves very quickly. If you come, you should feel like you spent half an hour with me, not two hours.”
Of course, since Bublé is spending two full days at Rogers Arena, we couldn't help but ask him about his beloved Canucks, who have now fully entered reconstruction mode three years after their brush with the Stanley Cup Final in 2011.
“Well, I couldn't be more excited about ( new team president) Trevor Linden,” Bublé said. “You know, I think I'm probably more excited this year than I have been for a few years. Listen, you come from that high where you were a game away from winning the Stanley Cup and you have a couple of years like that — it's tough. It's easy to become apathetic.
“Now we're all interested to see what's going to happen with ( forward Ryan) Kesler. What are they going to do with the goaltenders? And ( new general manager Jim) Benning? Who are they gonna pick sixth — are they gonna pick sixth or are they going to try to move up or package that pick? How is Bo Horvat gonna be? Is Nicklas Jensen the real deal? It makes it much more exciting for me as a fan that we're doing a rebuild on- the- fly, I guess. I'm very optimistic.”