Photo by Ben Watts
Wednesday evening Michael Bublé made a return appearance here in Columbus. This time instead of performing in a theater, Bublé had to hold an audience's attention in an arena.
If you think that's an easy task, try visualizing, imagining and then comparing a 2,827 seat theater, as he had appeared in earlier at the Palace Theater, to Nationwide Arena which holds up to 20,000 people when configured for a concert. Got that visualization in your head now?
Wow, he pulled it off! Bublé came, he sang and he conquered the audience, the large expanse of the arena and delivered his sophisticated, modern, upbeat, stylish, cool and slick new approach to covering and making jazz standards his own. He made most people feel at home or in an intimate setting as opposed to being in an arena.
The crowd was comprised of the young and the old but make no mistake, it was filled with admiring women who came to see and hear Michael Bublé sing of love, romance and to sing to them. And almost like the atmosphere found at a rock concert (except with a more sedate and sophisticated crowd), with Michael's encouragement, people respectfully danced, sang along and stood up through much of the concert.
He started the concert off by suggesting his appearance be considered a party and then went on to suggest starting things off in a depressing way. It wasn't depressing and you knew it was going to get lively. Is he the heir apparent and new torch bearer of the crooner crowd of old? Again, I'll let you be the judge.
Crooners, singers that sang love songs and romantic ballads such as Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, Dean Martin and many others, lived in a different time and place in our recent past. It was the 1920's through the 1960's. World Wars had been fought and people's values were a little different. Musicals were in vogue, radio was king and television was new. Movie stars were considered glamorous and Rock and Roll hadn't taken the country by storm. Entertainers almost always wore suits and in many cases, tuxedos.
Michael Bublé is not a crooner of old. He's the new generation, the now generation with a different style, character and charisma. During a moment at his concert, he acknowledged his respect and admiration for those that came before him but admitted he admired Michael Jackson more. He is not trying to emulate Sinatra or any of the other singers of that period. Rather, he's creating his own style and thanks to him, he's keeping the big band/crooner style alive and introducing it to the new generation that never got the opportunity to know and appreciate the music and artists from that era.
He showed us his sense of humour (spelled for any Canadian readers) as he often joked with the audience and made fun of himself and his band members. He worked the crowd like the polished professional he is. He let his band show their stuff and he showed an even more humble, compassionate and respectful side to his persona when he thanked everyone for paying good money during these economic times to come see him. He said he practices that thought every day and would return to Columbus as often as the fans would have him. In fact, he acknowledged the thought that he didn't take any of the fame, success and adulation for granted and hoped he could still be doing this ... "when I'm an old fart."
Towards the end of his show, he left the stage and walked to the 'front of house' area (middle of the arena), to sing to fans sitting far from the stage. It was a great gesture and very much appreciated. Michael Bublé is a brilliant and talented performer. He's as talented a performer as you'd ever want to see. Who better to carry the torch into the future?
The show opened with the Vocal Play seven man group, Naturally 7. From the comments heard around the arena, the crowd didn't know what to expect but comments made during and after the show made it quite clear that the group gave a strong and powerful performance. One patron was overheard commenting that the group was a perfect opening act for Michael Bublé. It was obvious most of the folks in the arena felt the same way as they gave the group a boisterous standing ovation at the end of their performance.
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