March 17, 2024

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Bryan Adams brought his So Happy It Hurts Tour to Pittsburgh's PPG Paints Arena on Friday night for a walk down memory lane.  

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I first saw Bryan Adams in 1983 when he opened up for Journey on their Frontiers tour.  This young Canadian rocker had just released Cuts Like A Knife where "Straight From The Heart" and the title track were in heavy rotation on MTV.  My thirteen year old mind was blown away with his straight ahead, no nonsense, good time rock and roll attitude and sound.

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In 1987 I got to see him headline the Into The Fire tour at the old Richfield Coliseum and he was fantastic.

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Forty-one years later, Bryan Adams still puts on one hell of a show with his no nonsense, straight ahead rock and roll.  By the way, he still sounds fantastic.

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Opening up the show with "Kick Ass" from the 2022 album So Happy It Hurts, Adams and the rest of the band proceeded to do exactly that. 

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Adams focused on the 1985 smash album, Reckless, by playing seven tunes from that record, but he also played many songs from his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame worthy career. 

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Newer songs like "Shine A Light" and "So Happy It Hurts" fit in nicely with older hits like "Kids Wanna Rock," "Somebody," "Run To You" and "This Time."

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Adams also paid tribute to his friend and collaborator, Tina Turner.  He thanked her for brining him on tour as a young artist and then went into "It's Only Love" that included a couple of verses from Turner's "The Best" as a nice touch.

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Towards the end of the set, Adams played two songs that were requested by fans in the front.  The first on was "One Night Love Affair" from Reckless.  The second was from a woman named Rhonda who made a sign saying "I drove from Buffalo to hear 'Star'" so Bryan and the band obliged. 

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"Cuts Like A Knife" closed out the main set but Adams returned to the stage with just an acoustic guitar to play "Straight From The Heart" and "All For Love" to end the show.

 

Adams and his band, which includes long time guitarist Keith Scott and drummer Mickey Curry still put on a great, straight ahead, rock and roll show.

 

Dave Stewart opened the show with a tremendous set of songs from The Eurythmics songbook.  Although Annie Lennox has decided she no longer wants to tour, Stewart has decided that these songs still need to be heard in a live setting.

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He went out and found an all female backing band from around the world to bring his music to life.  And these ladies know how to rock.

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Opening with "I Need A Man" the band was firing on all cylinders from the start.

 

Stewart did address the audience a few times noting that "Here Comes The Rain Again" wasn't a song about the weather but rather it was one of the many breakup songs he and Annie wrote.

 

Things really got going when the band launched into "Would I Lie To You?" followed by "Missionary Man."

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"Sisters Are Doin' It For Themselves" and the smash hit "Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) ended this fabulous set.  Proving Stewart correct that indeed, these songs do need to be played live. 

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Photos and review by Greg Drugan

 

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