From the line around the block at 6:30pm, you’d think that a multi-platinum heavyweight was in town tonight. Not so; the star of tonight’s show has one album, which has been out barely 2 months. Such is the buzz around Brampton’s Alessia Cara, this show is completely sold out, and certainly the hottest ticket of the weekend. With heavy rotation on local pop radio and satellite radio alike, the crowd leans heavily toward the teenage portion of the populace, and this possibly explains the insanely early set times tonight.
Alessia takes to the stage at 8pm sharp, armed with a 3-piece band (no backing tracks here!), to a rapturous reception. Dressed simply in a black shirt, black jeans, and a tuque, she launches into I’m Yours, and the majority of the crowd sings along as if this song has been around for years. Indeed, this theme runs throughout the whole set, with the kind of audience participation typically reserved for more established artists.
Despite the mega star status bestowed upon her by the crowd, Alessia exudes a genuine humility throughout, profusely thanking the crowd for coming along, and making this first night of the tour so special. After some bouncy, urban-flavoured songs to start the set, she dons an acoustic guitar for Overdose, and with the stripped-down instrumentation, the resonating audience participation becomes all the more striking. Seriously, most of this crowd know every single word! Alessia’s impressive vocal range also comes to the fore at this point, and demonstrates the real talent she has; definitely not your average pop star.
The guitar is swapped for piano accompaniment on Stars, and a sea of cigarette lighters (well, about 98% cell phone lights/screens and 2% lighters: this is 2016 remember…) illuminates the theatre from front to back to continue the stripped-down part of the gig, before leading into a cover of Diamonds (the “shine bright like a diamond” chorus fitting the sea of lights quite nicely!). A very diverse range of music on offer tonight, no doubt; certainly more than your average pop show. Other set highlights include Stone, performed as a duet with the guitarist, and River Of Tears, again with just the piano, and of course, the song which Alessia says has taken her further than she’d ever imagined, which closes the main set.
Musically, Here sounds a lot like Woman by Neneh Cherry, though being released in 1996, that reference would undoubtedly pre-date much of this crowd. Lyrically, nothing like Neneh Cherry: an ode to crap parties of years past (we’ve all been there!), Here closes the main set, and naturally receives the warmest reception of all. Judging from the number of video-recording phones that take to the air at this point, Insta-Face-Vine must have been overloaded with shaky footage of Alessia within minutes of the shows conclusion. At the conclusion of the song, a huge chunk of the crowd dashes to the door, evidently unaware of the concept of an encore, as the afore-mentioned chunk of crowd promptly returns when Alessia does, for one final song. After high-fiving the front row, Alessia leaves the stage, and it’s all over by 8:55pm, possibly setting a new record for earliest gig finish in history. Not to worry; nobody went home disappointed tonight. After this evening’s showing, there is no doubt that bigger stages and bigger crowds await, and the few of us packed into Theatre Corona on this cold Friday night were grateful to say that we were “Here.”
Set List
I’m Yours
Wild Things
Four Pink Walls
Overdose
Stars
Diamonds (Rhianna cover)
Outlaws
Seventeen
Stone
River of Tears
Scars to your Beautiful
Here
My Song
Review – Simon Williams
Photos – Kieron Yates
