Concert review: Adele's Jeune Lune set will be stuff of legend

Singer-songwriter Adele moaned about a migraine, whined about her wisdom teeth and harrumphed about the heat Monday night at the standing-room-only Theatre de la Jeune Lune in Minneapolis. She took "a tablet" (her word) onstage for the head pains and kept patting her sweaty face with a towel. And, between the polite kvetching, the highly touted British newcomer delivered a knockout performance of acoustic R&B-tinged pop, one of those tiny shows that will become legendary years from now when she's a star.

In December, Adele won the Critic's Choice award at the Brits, U.K.'s Grammys. Her album, "19," shot to No. 1 after its release in January, and, following much Internet buzz, it will be issued next week in the States on Columbia Records.

When major labels have high expectations for rookie artists, they occasionally send them on tour to generate buzz for a forthcoming album. Minneapolis is often one of the showcase cities, partly because influential buyers for Target and Best Buy are based here. These dog-and-pony shows usually are as forgettable as last season's "American Idol" contestants, but Adele's was the most impressive pre-album debut since Erykah Badu swanned into the Fine Line on a cold, cold January night in 1997.

Adele Laurie Blue Adkins, who turned 20 last month, has been hyped as the next Amy Winehouse. That's underselling her. Adele could be the next Annie Lennox. Her voice is that big, that luxurious, that emotional, that versatile. Although she shares both an arts high school and a jazz-soul vibe with Winehouse, Adele has more range, depth and perhaps stability. Indeed, the rookie may have babbled on in a thick accent like a mindless teenager between songs -- at one point referring to "a guy named Bob Dylan," having no clue she was in his home state -- but when she sang, she sounded like an old soul.

Seeming like a hybrid of Etta James, Alison Moyet and Lulu, Adele offered a stripped-down performance, accompanied only by her acoustic guitar or Ben Thomas' guitar or Steve Holness' piano. Hence the music was more immediate and intimate than on "19" (which takes its title from her age when she wrote and recorded it). She sang all but two tunes from the album, whose jazzy pop-soul tunes are more conventional than Winehouse's.

Among the highlights were the dramatic, Bacharach-like Brit hit "Chasing Pavements" and the non-album covers: a bluesy treatment of Sam Cooke's "That's It, I Quit, I'm Movin' On" and an achy, breaky reading of James' "Fool That I Am" that ended with a high country wail.

This introductory concert may have been the musical equivalent of speed-dating -- a mere 35 minutes followed by a three-song encore. But no one at the too-hot theater was complaining, because it was the best first date in a decade.

Jon Bream • 612-673-1719