I’ve never been one to lose my shit over another human being. People have their idols who they cry and freak out over and there’s nothing wrong with that, it’s just not me. As a matter of fact I’ve even said, “I can’t imagine getting that excited over a famous person.” So when I was feeling nervous standing in the corridors of Wells Fargo Arena in Philly and couldn’t quite figure out why, you could say I didn’t know I had someone I felt that passionately about. The moment, “Hello…” echoed throughout the arena and Adele Adkins herself came up through the floor, I lost it. Shaking, crying, still couldn’t believe I was at a concert I had miraculously managed to score tickets to nine months prior. (At one point, I thought to myself, “Is this how One Direction fans feel?”) Adele’s music has been a part of my life for quite some time. I’m not quite sure when it started, but she probably snuck her way onto my iPod sometime after 21 was released, much like the rest of her American fans. (It was 9/29/2011, I checked my iTunes history.) I had some expectations of what her concert would be like from watching her Live at Royal Albert Hall recording, which I received for Christmas in 2011. I had no idea just how incredible her performance was going to be live.
I’ve been to a few concerts, but none of them have felt as personal as Adele’s. Even in an arena of approximately 20,000 people, she managed to make it feel intimate by chatting with the crowd and even inviting a couple of fans up on stage. She had the whole arena sing happy birthday along with her to a nine year old fan. She asked who had come alone, who had come for an anniversary, who was there as a surprise, and who had gotten tickets for last Christmas. She even joked, “Jingle all the way, I’m here! Sorry I’m late!” She even went so far as to ask if anyone was there who didn’t want to be and one woman outed her boyfriend. Adele commended him on coming along with her. She gave background on her songs, some of which I’ll go into more detail on below, and they have new meaning for me. Knowing she has a couple of songs about her son on her album makes them even sweeter to listen to now. Knowing that she’s also a woman in her late 20’s struggling with adulthood and what it means to be growing up and hence growing farther apart from your friends made me feel not so alone in the world. That’s the thing about Adele, she’s relatable and she’s willing to share that with her fans through her music and her conversation. There are songs of hers that I’ve always related to certain people in my life and I always will. I won’t mention names, but Someone Like You is one of the songs. I feel like everyone probably has someone they relate that song to, but I digress because there are other songs of hers that I love just as much if not more.
Hometown Glory – This has always been in my top five favorite Adele songs. There’s just something about thinking about your hometown and the people who have been ever present in your life. Even the lyrics, “I like it in the city when two worlds collide,” makes me think of my second home, Dublin. Granted I only lived there for four months, but it became like home to me so I think of it fondly in addition to Franklin when I hear this song. The background is unique to each city she plays in, so photos of Philly lit up the screen which was really cool.
Skyfall – I’m not a James Bond fan, not that I have anything against the guy, I’ve just never seen any of his films. If I do ever get around to watching them, I’ll probably like him. When Adele was initially contacted about writing a song for the latest film, she declined at first. “Why do everything, when you can just do nothing?” She doesn’t condone laziness, but quite the opposite, she believes in hard work. The problem for her is that she’s approached all the time to do projects and she’s learned to say no. She said she regretted saying no to this project, but luckily they came back an told her they had worked it out, it was the 23rd Bond film and she was 23, so of course she had to do it. They sent her a top secret script and she got to work. It was a fun background note on the song.
Million Years Ago – Adele prefaced this song by saying she had written it over a weekend she had to herself. Her family had gone out of town and she had tried to make plans with friends but no one was available because they were all busy. She said that when she’s alone, she overthinks her life and all the negative aspects of it and tends to go to a dark place. She was thinking about how she missed being a teenager. She hated being a teenager when she was going through it, but she missed her friends and all the time they had for each other. I’ve been feeling that way a lot lately, especially over the last year. I’ve only seen some of my friends once or twice in the last twelve months, if at all. We used to see each other on a daily basis and knew what was happening in each other’s lives. I really truly miss that, I’ve felt so far away from them as of late. I miss seeing my family on a daily basis too, especially my mom who is my best friend. I live on my own, so I have more than enough time to overthink my life and current situation. I’ve related to the lyrics of this song since I first heard it, but having her confirm it’s meaning made it bittersweet. She sings about regretting things she’s done and not being able to stand the reflection that she sees, about missing her mother and her friends, about life when there was always some exciting milestone to look forward to, but no longer feeling that way. All things most of us who have reached adulthood and realized it have probably felt, but to have someone else put it into words makes me feel less alone in the world. It really struck a cord with me in a way I wasn’t expecting. That’s the thing about live concerts, you tend to learn the background behind songs. It’s not a bad thing, I just wasn’t prepared. I cried throughout it and even afterward in the car as I failed to talk about it. Needless to say, my eye makeup got smeared. I’ve tried to talk about this song twice since that night and ended up in a puddle of my own tears both times.
Don’t You Remember – Adele admits to being a big Alison Krauss fan and she wrote this song with her in mind. The song isn’t about Krauss, nor is it country, but she inspired the song. Adele sat on stage with her band around her, similar to how Krauss performs and she asked the audience to sit as well. She said she could talk about Krauss and her love for her for hours (gee sound like the person behind this blog post?).
Make You Feel My Love – As I’m editing and adding to this blog post, I’m rewatching Adele Live at Royal Albert Hall. I remember receiving the DVD for Christmas in 2011, it was my favorite gift that year. I poured myself a glass of wine and watched it on my laptop while the rest of my family took naps. At one point she asks the audience to put the lights on their phones while she sang a Bob Dylan cover. I remember thinking it was the closest I’d ever get to seeing her in concert, little did I know that less than five years later I’d be sitting in Wells Fargo Arena while she asked the audience to put the lights on their phones while she sang Make You Feel My Love. I get emotional just thinking about it.
Sweetest Devotion – Fun fact that I didn’t know but this song and I believe Remedy are about her son. The whole album originally was, but she scrapped it for what it is. She still wrote these songs about him and I’m so glad she did. I think it’s lovely and heartwarming to hear her sing about her child. She spoke about how amazing it is to be a mother and it was great to get to see that side of her peak through.
Chasing Pavements – Before singing this song, she spoke about her first SNL appearance and how this song and Cold Shoulder helped her to break America and become a literal overnight success in the States. She had been playing at radio stations and small gigs, but while feeling like it didn’t matter because no one seemed to care. Thank god for SNL, because as it turns out, people care a whole lot.
Set Fire to the Rain – This performance was cool because it actually rained on the stage around her and it was awesome to watch. I didn’t get any photos of it because I was so captivated by it, but my friend managed to get a short video. Seriously one of the coolest performances I’ve ever seen.
When We Were Young – As she sang this song, photos from her childhood danced across the screen. It feels like a ballad from one’s grown self to their childhood self. I sometimes think about what current me would tell past me. Would I give myself advice to get me to the point I’m at or would I try to steer myself in a totally different direction? I particularly like the lyric, “We were sad of getting old, It made us restless, Oh, I’m so mad I’m getting old, It makes me reckless,” just because I feel like that a lot. When you’re younger you want time to speed up, but as you get older, you just want it to slow down. I feel like life is passing me by and I don’t have much to show for it, at least not as much as I thought I would by now. This is also another one of those songs that not only makes me think about my childhood, but some of the friends I had and have lost to busy lives and distance. I often think about what they’re up to and what it would be like to see them again after so many years apart. Some of them were decade long friendships lost due to adulthood. What if I never see some of them again? This song definitely makes me think about them.
Rolling in the Deep – She closed the show with this foot stomper of a song and I loved every minute of it. It reminded me of when she closed out Royal Albert Hall. Confetti was shot into the air and I managed to catch some of it. Each piece has song lyrics in her own handwriting on them. I managed to make a cool memento out of them, my ticket holder, and a photo I took.
I’ll try and shut up now, I just wanted to try to preserve the memory in words. I haven’t written a blog post for quite some time, so this is a momentous occasion. I guess I’m still in shock I even got to see her live at all, especially considering there were only 750,000 tickets available in the US and 10 million people tried to buy them. I’m beyond grateful to be one of the lucky ones and I can only hope to be one of the lucky ones in the future if she decides to tour again. Thanks, Adele. With Love, Joslyn. x
(Side note: I found some videos others have posted from the show I attended. Here’s your chance to see how accurate my blog post is. Spoiler I paraphrased quite a bit. It’s a comfort to me to be able to relive some of the concert. Enjoy!)
Adele I've never been one to lose my shit over another human being. People have their idols who they cry and freak out over and there's nothing wrong with that, it's just not me.
