Was so happy it hurt at Bryan Adams’ Bengaluru gig

Bryan Adams was recently in Bengaluru as part of his So Happy It Hurts Tour. A first-person account...

“18 till I die, gonna be 18 till I die....”

We were in queue to collect our wristbands at the Bryan Adams So Happy It Hurts Tour in Bengaluru and like us, others thronging the lines were singing along. Despite a four-hour headstart for a two-hour drive, we still arrived late for a show that did not begin on time; not just us — it seemed half of the city had just got there too.

We sallied through the usual checks for eatables, water and whatnot, courtesy the unforgettable music and lyrics from once upon a time wafting past the barricades. And then we were there, out in the open, milling about with a pretty mixed crowd. I honestly was expecting more of a salt-and-pepper headcount and was pleasantly surprised to see teens, tweens and even little children, dancing and swaying to the music.

Bryan Adams’ Bengaluru stop was bang in the middle of his India tour and he had been performing back-to-back: he was in Mumbai the night before, after an appearance in Kolkata, Shillong and Gurugram, and was heading out to Hyderbad the next day. Yet, you would have never have believed it to see that 65-year-old belting out vocal runs and prancing around the stage. His energy was contagious and he had the crowd roaring in unison to his songs, right from the start.

As to be expected at a concert, there were placards with requests popping up all over the place — and not all of them were for his songs, including one for his guitar pick (one of the more reasonable asks). And he did oblige whenever he could, from an audience choice of song to presenting an encore, twice.

In between songs, the artiste shared nuggets about his life and journey. Like how he wrote ‘Straight From the Heart’, perhaps one of his most popular numbers when he was 18, and how he was able to make music a career choice, thanks to his mother. He shared how his mother makes a cameo in the music video ‘So Happy It Hurts’ as does an “Indian girl in a sari”.

He went on to say how every time he comes back to India (this was his sixth tour) he was seeing change, “and all of it good,” though I wondered how many of us agreed with him on that.