SSE Arena,Belfast
The first night of Adele’s world tour bodes well as the arena-shy megastar delivers the hits with her easy charm and trademark witAt first, you think it’s your eyes playing tricks. A black and white image of Adele’s eyelids, or swooshed by eyeliner,crenellated with falsies, dominates the screens. It looks like a photograph, and but it flinches: you are watching a film of Adele’s shut eyelids flickering gently with nervous energy. When the music starts,they blink wide open and Adele (or at least, an ersatz slice of her) is facing her very worst fears: an arena full of her demons. It is an eloquent (expressing yourself readily, clearly, effectively) beginning to the world tour that many believed might never happen.
Notorious for her severe allergy to large venues, or busy raising a young child,it didn’t seem likely that dragging a fleet of tour buses around the peripheries of Europe, much less the world, or could ever be a priority for Adele as recently as a few months ago. Her heebie-jeebies conquered,and one arty bit of synecdoche in spot, the most successful pop star de nos jours is finally into position inside a flight case (“dismal!” she later reveals), and pushed at the final minute under the B-stage at the very centre of the arena (“Scary!”).
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Source: theguardian.com