10.24.22 Adam News and Info

San Diego 10.23.2022 videos by MelisendePF

www.youtube.com/user/MelisendePF/videos

Mad About The Boy

www.youtube.com/watch?v=snxYUj7Qpiw


Wicked Game

www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwfrcELJZxE&t=5s


Overglow

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zT1lxs100A


Closer

www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeCDPjOvpj0

Just got back seeing the Rancho Mirage and San Diego shows (I'm in the back row of the pic) and am finding it difficult to focus on real life, LOL. It’s been a long time (Dec. 16, 2019) since I saw Adam live and in the intervening years I’ve had a lot of other things to deal with, so he definitely slipped off my radar. As a symphony musician it’s VERY rare for me to get a weekend off, so when that happened, I knew I had to go to the Witch Hunt shows. It became a road trip with three other fans and we had an amazing time. Seeing and hearing Adam in person is as exciting as the first time I saw him, and it doesn’t matter what show you see - you’re always convinced it’s the best one he’s ever done.

What became very clear to me this time however, is that your experience depends very much on where you’re sitting in the hall. At Rancho Mirage, one of our group had bought tickets for all of us in the Mezzanine – way on the left side. Though they were further back than I’d normally sit, I figured it might be an interesting experience to see the show from a distance. However, even at 10 minutes before the start of the show the general admission area in front of the stage was practically empty. There was one row of people standing next to the stage, and that was about it. So in a mad rush, my friend Jen and I decided we would buy last-minute tickets for the floor (no refund on our others, of course) and managed to get right behind that first row, standing by the stage - even though it was five minutes to show time. I heard the place filled up at the last minute, but there were still lots of tickets for sale that night right before 8 pm.
When you’re up against the stage, you catch every nuance of Adams expressions - and because he’s so theatrical, and acts out so many of the songs - it adds a lot to the experience to see that. If you can’t see his eyes you miss a lot!
A good example of that, is the video I posted of Closer. Adam takes a very different approach to the song than Trent Reznor, and turns it into a virtual sex act on stage – his eyes rolling orgasmically while he fellates the mic and sticks his tongue out a lot. One doesn’t catch all those nuances from further back, but all I can say is that Jen and I had racing hearts and butterflies after that performance. As a matter of fact, at the end of the show we were both speechless - thew whole thing was so overwhelming.
However, my friends in the mezzanine didn’t feel that way at all. They felt the first part of the show was too slow, and apparently no one in the section around them was standing up or dancing or having much of any reaction - completely different than what was happening in the front. Apparently the crowd in the back only got going with the last two disco numbers, though everyone agreed that his singing was wonderful. In contrast, I had some people next to me who had only seen Adam once at a Queen concert and they were blown away. The guy kept turning to me and saying “I’ve never seen a show this good” “I’ve never heard a singer this good“ - and at the end he said his mind was blown completely! I love it when Adam wins new fans.
Same in San Diego. I thought the sound system did him no favours and the voice had a metallic edge to it - yet my friends in a different section thought he sounded much better than the night before and didn’t use their concert ear plugs. They also sat much closer and said the show had more energy – whereas I didn’t think that at all (I was in Row 5 in San Diego).

I thought Adam’s makeup was going to be way too much (as he often seems to trowel it on these days), but he actually looked gorgeous. As good as I’ve ever seen him. I don’t know why he has to cover up in multiple layers of baggy clothes because when he was sleeveless with the open shirt - he looked amazing.
Overall vocally, his pitch was on, he still has his three octave plus range, and every genre he sings - he just nails it. Was it perfect? No. He had a lot of lyric mishaps. As a matter of fact, in San Diego when he did IIHY, instead of singing “And I'm workin' my strut but I know it don't matter” he went with “Girls, in stripper heels”. When he sang the line in its proper place, he added under his breath “for the second time”, so he knew he had flubbed it. It happened fairly often. Sometimes he took a breath in a wrong place (like in Fever in San Diego) and couldn’t do the high note that I knew he was planning, and there were occasions where he was a little flat - but nothing that a casual concertgoer would have probably noticed. He’s not putting in as many high notes and crazy melisma’s as he used to, and he doesn’t hold the high notes quite as long as he used to (I’m not sure he’d be able to do performances like he did in the Zodiac show anymore), but he is still heads above just about every pop/rock singer out there. I know the others can sell out stadiums (ie. Harry Styles), but Adam’s vocal prowess is in a different league from those male singers. Adam also looked very comfortable on stage, especially when talking to the audience. He said different things on different nights, was adorable, dorky, funny and still has that infectious giggle. You can tell that he’s still bothered that Velvet didn’t really go anywhere – and I want to hug him when he talks about it. You can’t help but love him, LOL.

Closer: www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeCDPjOvpj0

Melisende Thank you so much for the recap and videos. Very interesting the different experience you and your friends had. Adam is definitely theatrical, especially compared to a lot of other pop stars. I actually like it a lot as I think his movements and facial expressions embellish a song.