I've never experienced a live concert like Adele's first ever in New Zealand.
Going from a prolonged improv comedy bit about beetles to a sincerely moving tribute to terrorist attack victims to a gut-wrenching song about love, all within minutes, is tough to pull off with grace.
Adele managed it effortlessly.
She was ridiculously charming, telling interesting stories about many of her songs and cracking jokes better than your average comedian.
But make no mistake, the event is driven almost entirely by Adele's voice. And oh my, what a voice it is; to experience it live is very special.
It has such power and works in perfect harmony with her songwriting to evoke feelings of longing, loving and losing incredibly well.
The stage is set up with an impressively large rig complete with confetti machines, loads of smoke, pyrotechnics and decent screens. But compared to most pop stars of a similar stature, it's a fairly stripped-back affair, with no back-up dancers or the like to take emphasis away from that voice.
The way she leaps into soaring ballads immediately from nonchalant chats is just incredible. She'll be blabbing nervously about sweating her "tits off" like your mate at the pub, then a moment later she's belting out an enormous vocal line.
There's a wonderfully self-deprecating, non-pretentious, girl-next-door quality to Adele's banter - especially as she's so crazily successful.
Using a kiss-cam to entertain during the pre-encore break and a T-shirt gun bit are pretty cheesy, for sure, but the crowd was right into it and it was hard not to get caught up in the fun.
By the end of the night, Adele stopped joking for a moment and appeared genuinely moved by the affection she was getting from fans so far away from home. She told us she was stoked her huge tour was ending here, with what she called the best stadium audience of the whole thing.
Here's hoping we don't have to wait another decade for her to return.
Adele's Auckland concert set list:
- Hello
- Hometown Glory
- One and Only
- I'll Be Waiting
- Rumour Has It
- Water Under the Bridge
- I Miss You
- Skyfall
- Don't You Remember
- Make You Feel My Love
- Send My Love (to Your New Lover)
- Sweetest Devotion
- Chasing Pavements
- Take It All
- Set Fire to the Rain
- When We Were Young
- Rolling in the Deep
- Someone Like You
Adele is performing at Auckland's Mt Smart Stadium again on Saturday, March 25 and Sunday, March 26.
Newshub.
