(Las Vegas, Nevada) The Press attended one of Adele’s residency shows at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace. These evenings Weekends With Adele are in the image of the artist: both accessible and masterful, authentic and refined.
Adele has always been rare. She doesn’t spend years on the road traveling the world. In fact, when his Weekends With Adele, it had been five years since we had seen her on a big stage. Taking jealous care to preserve her private life, she is also not one of those who fill in the gaps between albums by always keeping herself in the public eye.
Attending one of the performances of his residency in Las Vegas is therefore a privilege.
A privilege, first, because it takes several hundred, even thousands of dollars, for a coveted place at the Colosseum on Friday or Saturday evening. All his concerts have been sold out for months. It is now necessary to fall back on resale platforms to obtain a ticket at exorbitant prices. What The Press got resolved.
A privilege, too, because a talent like Adele’s has the power to stir up strong emotions. And the effort put into this show gives his talent the best space to shine. As we said, the artist is situated at the confluence between the accessible and the grandiose. During the evening, she spends long moments chatting, telling jokes, making the public feel welcome. The other half of the time, she fills his eyes and ears with it, becoming once again the singer with a voice of a thousand reliefs and facial expressions worthy of a true diva.
Everything to make a world
We are therefore attending the Friday performance of the ninth weekend of the residency. From the highest balcony of the Colosseum, our view of the stage remains quite correct. That of the crowd, it is impregnable and allows us to observe the fauna which piles up in the theater of the famous Caesars Palace.
Never have we seen so many sequined dresses per square meter. Ruffled evening dresses and tucked-in shirts are also in order that evening. For most viewers, this evening with Adele is clearly a long-awaited release.
At the other end of the spectrum, some opted for jeans and a t-shirt, others for leggings and sneakers.
The Colosseum is an intimate and warm place, its space of 4300 seats is embellished with false columns imitated from ancient Rome, beige bricks contrasting with its red armchairs and a theatrical arch overlooking the stage.
Adele has used this intimate character to invite the public to a foray into her career, leading us from Hometown Glory To Easy On Me and stopping by Don’t You Remember, Set Fire to the Rain, When We Were Young And Love in the Dark. According to his most popular songs (especially taken from the album 21her best known), she evolves her number towards an increasingly imposing, dramatic, always elegant staging.
When the show begins, there is only Eric Wortham II and his white piano on stage. A good indication of what will follow, a concert where the piano will often be the main accompanist of the voice. Adele seeks to reproduce the intimacy of a living room show. The acoustic interpretation of several pieces makes it possible to approach this atmosphere. The singer’s longtime pianist plays the introduction to To be Lovedfrom Adele’s latest album, 30then the chords diverge and the piece begins Hello which fills the Colosseum to kick off the evening.
Adele appears on stage. From that moment until the end of the performance, her voice is flawless, never trying to replace the many high notes with others that are easier to sing.
Her presence and her grace are projected in a giant version on the colossal screens, which will play a major role throughout the evening in the visual impact of the show. There will be simultaneous broadcasts of the show. Other times, the cameras will leave the relay to preconceived videos (a music video for Oh my Goda 14-string virtual orchestra for Sky Falla mosaic of photos of youth during When We Were Younga giant colorful forest watercolor for Love Is a Gamelast song of the concert).
Free t-shirts and tears
Very quickly, we understand that Adele is not only there to give a performance, but to share a moment. She had seats drawn on the floor among the spectators on the balcony. She’s having fun with a t-shirt cannon (the crowd loves it!). She tells all sorts of amusing anecdotes. She goes down to talk to her audience, questions them, as if she were suddenly hosting her own talk show.
As she walks around the hall again when it’s time to sing When We Were Young, a man shows her a picture on his phone. At the end of the song, she explains at the microphone that she understood too late that it was a snapshot of her missing wife. In tears, she offers her condolences to the viewer. Beside us, two friends are wiping their tears.
These kinds of moments (and many more) best justify the Weekends With Adele. The singer would have had no trouble filling the arenas and stadiums of her choice. It is surely more economical (in money and energy) to turn to a residency, with the certainty that an audience will be ready to come to Las Vegas for her. But, above all, this model serves her beautifully and she takes full advantage of it.
We come out of his show with the feeling of having witnessed an intimate, majestic and refined moment. Beautiful.