Live Review: Bryan Adams, Amy MacDonald

Playing her first shows in Australia, Scottish folk-pop singer-songwriter Amy MacDonald won a lot of new fans if the giant Twitter video wall displaying live tweets after her performance was anything to go by. Despite her genial softly spoken manner she delivered her songs with a powerful passion which resonated through the acoustic ripple of Spark and the jagged sound of Mr Rock & Roll. Her vocal was mellower for set highlight, though, as her cover of Dancing In The Dark brought a whole new level of subtlety to the song.

If you imagine what a Bryan Adams gig would be like, this was exactly like that. From the moment he launched the big guitar sounds of House Arrest it was a tour de force of classic AOR and power ballads. For those people in the crowd for whom rock music stopped with Adam's Waking Up The Neighbours over 20 years ago – and there were many – this was heaven. That album featured heavily and the early inclusion of Can't Stop This Thing We Started ensured everyone on the seated dancefloor was on their feet, while his vocal rasped through (Everything I Do) I Do It For You to a huge response. There was little surprise at the biggest ovation of all, though. As Adams adopted position with his legs akimbo and guitar slung just right, a single chord of Summer Of '69 resulted in the crowd taking the vocals for the first verse with pure unabashed joy hearing such a classic. Adams spoke little and preferred to just plough through as many hits as possible. He and his band worked the stage and crowd well though, as they often ran to the side risers for close up posturing and pulled up an audience member to take Mel C's part in When You're Gone. Overall Adams delivered exactly what everyone wanted - and after so many years he's well used to that.