Hi from the UK, I’ve been guesting here for years but I think this is my first post.
For perspective, I first saw Adam during his AI audition, never seen his own show (hope he tours more often) but have been to several QAL shows here in the UK. I watched the show on the periscope last night (started just after 2:30am here).
I find it amusing that in a 30 min set in front of a pre-teen audience, Adam managed to;
- Drop an F-bomb
- Make references to drugs
- Sing about a hooker
- Suggestively pose with a balloon penis.
Hope that Singapore petition got squashed already!
I did a quick Google search for reviews of the concert last night and came across this (apologies if it has been posted previously, I have not seen it). I think it provides an interesting non fan perspective of the concert. Note that this is from an acoustic guitar forum, hence the guitar love and potentially biased view point.
Source:
www.acousticguitarforum.com/forums/showthread.php?p=4749491I have included the full post but highlighted the parts which mention Adam.
Quote
Our local radio station, Kiss 98.5 held their annual Kissmas Bash tonight. We took our daughter. This was my wife's fifth annual attendance, my second, this daughter's third time.
It's a great family friendly clean-cut event featuring a variety of artists who are just starting to break-through or quickly getting popular. It's a variety of rap and pop or pop-rock.
They alternated between two stages at either end of the arena so there wasn't a lot of downtime between acts. Each act only averaged about 4 songs so even if you didn't like an act you weren't subjected to sitting through it too long.
Only three acts had acoustic guitars.
On the small stage was a performer named Nathan Sykes. It was just him and his acoustic guitarist. We were very close to the main stage so I couldn't see him well, but his acoustic sounded so good. Whoever set it up did an awesome job.
Shawn Mendes was the favorite act for the audience. It was just him with an acoustic guitar (ala Ed Sheeran type performance). He was remarkably good and very talented and only 17 years old. He played complex things and sang very well. He played two different taylor DN4's, from what I could tell. We were pretty close so I'm pretty sure that's what they were. One might have been a 410. He was playing in different tunings so it was just him and a guy ran out and handed him a guitar to swap. They did this flawlessly without even a hiccup of silence or sound form the switch. He also played a strat at the end, ala Mark Knopfler finger playing style.
His Taylors sounded very good - he had a soundhole plug in and played wirelessly with their stock ES2 (I think) system. It sounded pretty good with only a tiny bit of piezo quackiness. Very little in fact.
Adam Lambert finished the show. His guitar player had a slope shoulder with, what looked like, a Gibson headstock and logo. The pickguard didn't look right though - it was sort of a square teardrop and doesn't match the J-series ones on Gibson's website. It was a light spruce topped guitar with no sunburst. He stayed way back on the stage so I just couldn't get a better look.
His guitar sounded absolutely unbelievably perfectly fantastic. He had no sound hole plug and was playing with a hard-wire plugged into his tailpin. I don't know what pickups he was using but it sounded like he was playing in front of a microphone. It was so incredibly perfect. Absolutely perfect. The guitar was mesmerizing. I didn't even like that act, performance or Adam Lambert's songs really (except that one) but oh my gosh that guitar was gorgeous to the ears. It was lush and clear and boomy. When he strummed a little too hard, you could tell some perfection was lost but when he played melodically it was simply everything a guitar should sound like. If anyone can shed more light on the setup I would love to know more.
Mini Concert Review for those who care
Becky G. - good vocalist, very charismatic.
Jocelyn Alice - good vocalist. Not rousing by any means but OK.
Alessia Cara - meh, good vocalist but really lame songs, lame lyrics, lame music.
Nathan Sykes - really great sound
Omi - tons of fun and sounded great
Silento - crowd loved the two dance tunes
Robin Thicke - except for Blurred Lines crowd was mostly bored, acted like he thinks he is Elvis. He had a great voice and band was very tight but his songs were dull. Tried to make a political comment - sounded stupid.
Charlie Puth - a simple, wonderful performance, great talent. Super humble and good connection with the crowd.
Shawn Mendes - a simple, wonderful performance, great talent. Super humble and spectacular connection with the crowd.
Adam Lambert - Also acted like a giant Elvis superstar, half the place left during his act.
All-in-all it was good. I liked Shawn Mendes, loved Charlie Puth and liked the acoustic guitar in one Adam Lambert song. We had fun at a good clean-fun family concert night.
End Quote
With regards to people leaving last night; I certainly hope Adam/his team were at least aware of the situation but still wanted to or were forced to perform in that slot. Otherwise, how is this anything other than incompetence or ego on Adam/his teams part?
I really hope it went down like this;
Shawn Mendes – ‘I don’t want my set to end too late’
The organisers – ‘ok, but oh crap whose going to want to play in the graveyard slot’
Adam steps up, determined to finish the show with a bang regardless.
Or perhaps Adam is forced to take these slots in order to get himself on the bill of concerts in front of young pop fans.
