Despite overmatched ushers futilely policing inane "no photo" signage with lights that proved far more annoying than those shone by the many attendees who DID take photos, the intimate setting allowed for great access to a talented, veteran performer.

During an aside shared after "Back to You," Adams revealed that the first ideas for this tour developed shortly after his positive 1997 "MTV Unplugged" experience from which "You" was culled. Adams said that he enjoyed performing his songs in a manner that closely reflected their original conception: not as the bombastic stadium anthems that we eighties children hold dear, but as "bare bones" - acoustic guitars, harmonica, piano - pieces.

By restoring the hit-heavy setlist to demo punch (minus the Mutt Lange-era gloss), Adams showed that his voice is still in as fine form as the songs remain. Trimmed choruses and reworked arrangements added luster to classics like "Run To You" and especially "Heat of the Night." A speedy stagehand saved the lone gaffe, Adams' toppling of the mic while thumping on it for bass, without missing a lyric.

I will cement my "Thank You, Bryan!" by purchasing the Bare Bones album when it drops in November.

[Author's note: This is my review of his 9/21/10 tour stop at Spreckels in San Diego. Sad to see that "Heat of the Night," "Back To You" and "Do I Have To Say the Words?" did not make the final track listing, but hopefully the future will yield a longer version of Bare Bones that includes those songs.]

Marx delivers a series of solid vocals by crafting the arrangements himself and shying away from the demanding style of his well-known power ballads. His lower registers perfectly fit the album's R&B groove. The bluesy feel is evident on tracks like "Fool's Game," "Touch of Heaven," and "Can't Lie To My Heart" - the first of which is alone worth the price of admission. Marx fans will hear the continuation of previous song-stories like those of 1991's "Hazard" and 1993's "Silent Scream" in the lyrics of "Eternity" and "What's Wrong With That." This is the CD that those who recall Marx's work with Lionel Richie in the early 1980s, and Marx's own "Keep Coming Back" and "Soul Motion," knew he was long capable of delivering. His most mature effort, both lyrically and stylistically, to date. Marx performed the album's only U.S. single, "Until I Find You Again," on NBC's "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" on 15 April 1997. Unfortunately, the CD did not sell well due to its narrow marketing at radio - Capitol made too safe a move in selecting a typical Marx power ballad as the first single, which only adult contemporary formats supported. (Originally penned by me upon the album's release in 1997 -- long live Tower Records La Jolla! -- and posted to amazon.com 3/5/99)

The musical score which later approaches perfection in its subtle support of action, dialogue and scenery is at first an equally glaring, overstated distraction that mars the opening credits of "Ladyhawke" and for bad measure rears up again during the end credits. Setting this point aside for the moment, to watch Goliath's strut and hear Gaston's humorous asides to God are both well worth the research time involved in and price of finding this beautiful but now-disappearing movie. While cementing Rutger Hauer's royal stature in science fiction circles, the film includes additional performances of conviction from Matthew Broderick, Leo McKern, Alfred Molina (yes, he of much later "Spider Man 2" infamy), Michelle Pfeiffer and John Wood. It is Wood - and to an extent lessened only by his minor role, Molina - that reminds us how to best play a villain: strike fear in the best intentioned heart not by brute posturing or aimless rants, but with steady movements, even steadier gazes and a powerful voice delivering crisp words adrip with sinister intent. (Other great examples: Darth Vader and The Emperor throughout the "Star Wars" saga, & Jacob Kell in "Highlander: Endgame.") Consider how differently the male characters each utter just the name "Isabeau" at various points in this story to see, hear and best of all feel what they mean by so doing. The problems keeping "Ladyhawke" from five-star territory (a grainy DVD transfer, lack of audio commentaries and interviews, and the aforementioned score) beg to be resolved by a deluxe treatment similar to that given its equally excellent and similarly soundtrack-challenged 1985 sibling-in-fantasy, Ridley Scott's "Legend." Become "lost in it, with the rest of us."

Though best remembered by American-based listeners for their timeless October 1985 Billboard #1 "Take On Me," and its equally memorable companion video, this Norwegian trio OWNED the U.K. Top 75 from 1985-88 by placing their first six singles (and eight of their first nine!) in the top ten.

1988's Stay On These Roads, their third effort, sports thoughtful synthesizer arrangements that would make Jan Hammer, Paul Hardcastle or Vangelis proud. You can tell that, at some point, this album must have passed by the ears of later synth-popsters Londonbeat (whose late 1990 "I've Been Thinking About You" is a more polished "Touchy!") and Cause & Effect (especially their fabulous 1994 Trip).

The album works best on the sparsely arranged title track, "There's Never A Forever Thing," and the six-minute plus "Out of Blue Comes Green." Each of these tracks compares well to their previous stunners to this point, "The Blue Sky," "Living a Boy's Adventure Tale," and "Soft Rains of April."

The Morton Harket-Roy Orbison comparisons made by other reviewers are right on target; a true shame that they never collaborated. As was true of Orbison, Harket's piercing tenor is at once among the clearest, widest-ranging, haunting and flat-out beautiful voices in all of rock & roll. That he sings over equally beautiful arrangements, just as on most of Hunting High and Low and Scoundrel Days, is a bonus for anyone who loves 1980's Europop as much as I still do. BUY THIS CD!

(My only caveat is the annoyingly pointless "Touchy!" which feels under-developed and out of place here. However, I think the same of "Train of Thought," and both cuts still made the U.K. Top 15, so what do I know?! A-ha's third act still gets five stars in my book.)