Buble
plays it safe but still dazzles
Michael Bublé
by Marc Hirsh
originally published in The Boston Globe, July 13, 2005
Michael Bublé is as much a marketing
phenomenon as a
musician, having successfully branded himself to the point where his
merchandise booth features not only shirts (from a $30 tee to an $80
button-down) and programs but also teddy bears, ties, money clips and
coaster
sets. The man himself is his own ultimate product – handsome, cool and
clean,
with a low-key swellegance – and if the rapturous response awaiting him
at the
Less a jazz singer than a classic pop vocalist, Bublé didn’t take many risks with either his arrangements or his material, choosing unassailable standards such as “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” and “Come Fly With Me” as well as safe rock-era songs like “Moondance” and “Crazy Little Thing Called Love,” with “Try A Little Tenderness” and “For Once In My Life” bridging the gap between the two. He offered no real surprises, simply performing great songs well.
But if Bublé was content to leave innovation to others, he proved himself to be a natural showman aware enough of his own heartthrob appeal to announce, “I especially want to thank all the gentlemen who didn’t want to be here tonight.” Introduced as a backlit silhouette behind a screen for the opening “Feeling Good,” Bublé kept things moving as briskly as a Vegas revue, playfully challenging Josh Groban and Il Divo to fights, toying with faithful (if slick) Maroon 5 and Michael Jackson covers and leaping into the audience to dance with a woman in the third row.
More importantly, Bublé was smart enough to know that he can’t survive on charm alone, and he was talented enough not to need to. His mellifluous voice was equally at home on ballads like Stevie Wonder’s “You And I” and his own “Home,” latin-tinged songs like “Sway” and “Save The Last Dance For Me” (complete with dancing audience members flooding the aisles), and upbeat numbers like “Can’t Buy Me Love” and Charlie Chaplin’s “Smile,” both of which were played at a pace breathless enough that Bublé and his band sounded like they were racing to catch up with the drummer. He ended his performance by singing the final verse of Leon Russell’s “Song For You” without amplification, delivering the line “But we’re alone now, and I’m singing this song for you” directly to his fans with nothing between them but air.