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In honor of Adele’s sold out performances tonight & Saturday here in Austin, I wanted to share my experience seeing her in concert earlier this October.  Back in June (as my birthday gift!), my husband got us tickets to Adele’s Montreal stop of her world tour in Quebec, Canada.  He’s got a love affair with that city and figured it would make a perfect getaway weekend for the two of us.  Well, about two weeks before our trip, an important work commitment arose and after looking at all the options, we decided he just couldn’t make it work.  But no worries, because last minute he arranged for my good girl friend Marissa to fly up & meet me for the show!  adele-6Us girls had a short, whirlwind trip to Montreal…I landed the afternoon of the event and we packed a lot into those few hours we had to spare.  After meeting up downtown, we beelined to the perfect gourmet bistro for a fancy French-inspired lunch, complete with foie gras and rose’!  Then, she treated us to massages at the most unique spa concept:  a historic river ferry turned into a luxurious floating day spa in the Montreal harbor called Bota Bota.  It was a delightfully different way to unwind from our flights, take in the city skyline, and do something relaxing before the big show.adele-1We arrived to the venue a mere seconds before showtime but it was perfect timing!  Our seats were pretty high up but very close to the main stage.  And of course the sound, lighting, visuals, etc. were all stunning.  One thing I appreciated was that her face was up on the big screen the whole time…you could see up close how she sang each note & the emotion she put into every lyric.  No costume changes, just the right amount of pageantry, nothing superficial, perfectly classic timeless Adele.adele-2She performed for a full two-hours and showed us lots of personality in between sets!  Adele is very very funny, y’all!  We were cracking up — she was talking about how she’s trying to keep up with her work-outs on this tour but then she discovered Shake Shack during her pervious stop in NYC and those cheeseburgers did her in, haha!  Wonder if she’ll make a stop to one of our two Shake Shack locations while she’s in town?adele-3All the big chart-topping hits were sung, there was a short acoustic set, a couple covers, and best of all:  she told us the back stories.  She writes most of her own music and she really exposed herself emotionally by going in deep:  where she was living, at what point she was at in her career, where she stood in her love life, all of the nitty gritty & many times sad feelings that inspired her writing.  –Ah, Queen Adele crying, cold & wet, living and writing her songs in a dank, dark English basement…say it ain’t so!adele-4A few insights:  she told us that no, contrary to the tabloid reports, she is not pregnant.  She apologized for going away for so long but warned that she will go away yet again…that she needs & wants to be connected to her family and to live a real life and have real feelings in order to produce art that speaks to us.adele-5My favorite song of the night was Sweetest Devotion.  During the intro, Adele described how deep & different is the love for her son and talked about how motherhood changed her.  She was quite the prolific songwriter afterward, always writing, writing, writing pieces about her son.  Her producers cut a lot of it, but this one song stood out and it was thankfully included on her album, 25.  Well after hearing all that background, the song took on a new, more intense meaning for me personally and it was quite incredible to hear it performed live…ALL THE FEELS, let me tell ya.  Hearing her words & viewing them from the lens of myself as a new mother, both Marissa and I were moved to tears…it was a special moment for us mamas.