With special guest Dave Stewart Eurythmics Songbook at Prudential Center in Newark, NJ on March 16th, 2024
So Happy It Hurts! Actually, have you’ve been that happy? Hmm, but what is happiness? Oh, this is not philosophy homework, my bad. We are talking about damn rock music here! Oh yes, you can be so happy that it hurts if you are at a rock concert. And this particular one fits the bill. Bryan Adams currently is the midst of his extended So Happy It Hurts Tour in North America with special guest Dave Stewart Eurythmics Songbook performance. On a beautiful spring like evening in New Jersey it was our turn to crank up our happy thoughts and rock on to one the wonderful songs of Eurhythmics and Bryan Adams.
Written by Andris Jansons
As Dave Stewarts Eurythmics co-star Annie Lennox has said that she will not tour anymore it is up to Dave to carry on Eurythmics legacy and music via live shows. Just recently he has assembled a group of musicians and is touring with them to play Eurythmics classic hits on a tour that he calls Dave Stewart Eurythmics Songbook: Sweet Dreams 40th Anniversary Tour. The band’s sophomore studio album and the hit Sweet Dreams was released back in 1983 and brought the band worldwide fame.
Dressed in sparkling silver outfit and guitar strap engraved with two words “Sweet Dreams” Dave stepped on the stage with all female band members to the Eurythmics song I Need A Man taken from their sixth studio album Savage and followed with I Love You Like a Ball and Chain.
Of course the biggest ovations came for the most beloved songs like The Miracle Of Love, Here Comes The Rain Again and the one and only Sweet Dreams that properly closed their set.
I do remember Eurythmics as I was about ten years old when their music was all over the radio and TV. This performance was different from what I remember as emphasis in original music was on electronic sounds and here we had all the live instruments we would expect at rock music show. To me it felt more bluesy than original electronic versions. And I am not complaining about that, it was still an amazing show and there was an excellent performance by all in the band.
Dave’s Band on tour: Hannah Koppenburg — keys/MD, Indiara Sfair — harmonica, Yasmin Ogilvie — saxophone, Ellie East — drums, Julia Lamb — bass, Judith Hill — vocals, Vanessa Amorosi — vocals, Stevvi Alexander — vocals and Kaya Stewart — vocals.
Gallery of Dave Stewart Eurythmics Songbook performance below. Photography by Andris Jansons exclusive for S.L.R. Magazine. No reproductions allowed.
From here on this was Bryan Adams night. A car-like blimp floated over fans heads filling up everyone’s live social media feeds. A large screen on the stage showed random scenes happening around parked car (Bryan’s new album visual theme).
And while the tour bears the name of Bryan’s latest album, his set was a sheer celebration of his entire music career. Opening song Kick Ass and intro was from his latest work. Though it was quickly followed with Can’t Stop This Thing We Started and Somebody taken from Reckless and Waking Up The Neighbors respectively. Reckless, Bryan’s fourth studio album released in 1984, was the most played this night with Heaven, It’s Only Love, Run To You, Summer of’69 and my personal favorite Kids Wanna Rock.
Ok, personally I’m close bot net yet in my fifties, though as it sometimes seems like my memory is starting to wander around, I am completely flabbergasted that Bryan is able to remember random songs from his 16 album collection and play them on demand without any rehearsal. Pardon if my memory fails me but Bryan played altogether four songs requested / asked by the audience, and not the biggest hits, some were deep cuts that I could not even remember hearing before.
A nice touch was inclusion of Tina Turner The Best into his rendition of It’s Only Love, the song he and Tina sang together and was nominated for the best duet back in time. Bryan closed out the evening with two solo performances of Straight From The Heart and All For Love.
Sometimes it’s hard to find the right words some time after the show, as you are still filled with all the excitement, though I’m not sure if this one will ever cool off. What an amazing evening of the great music and great performances.
Bryan as always had his longtime friend Keith Scott on lead guitar, backing vocals by his side as well as Mickey Curry on drums, backing vocals who is with him for the length of his musical career and Solomon Walker – bass, backing vocals and Gary Breit – keyboards, backing vocals.
Gallery of Bryan Adams performance below. Photography by Andris Jansons exclusive for S.L.R. Magazine. No reproductions allowed.
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