At Toronto's ACC, Adele goes river deep but not mountain high

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Adele At the Air Canada Centre in Toronto on Wednesday

She could have had it all. Adele, the down-home superstar with the deeply rolling croon and a warm, wise-cracking demeanour, came within the length of one her fancy eyelashes of bringing down the house at Toronto's Air Canada Centre. But what failed her was the same thing that makes her win - her inviting air and a wish for intimacy. There's no shame in big, however. And so you had to wonder what would have happened if the lovely singer from North London had chosen to blow the roof off rather than to draw the walls in further.

Adele's voice had arrived a verse or two before the rest of her. She sang the beginning of Hometown Glory behind a curtain, with her pianist alone in front of it. The elegant ballad, the first single from her debut album 19 in 2007, showcased a smoky, melancholic alto, the one so often used to emote on themes of suffering and heartbreak. But Hometown Glory is about the wonders found in one's small world, sung poignantly by a young woman whose world is breaking bigger by the minute.

"It's like a wall of people," she giggled, first song completed. The Toronto concert was originally set for a large club, but after Adele's second album ( 21) stormed to the top of charts, the show was moved to the hockey arena to accommodate 6,000 or so fans in a theatre-bowl setting. The singer who needed no introduction shook her hands vigorously - she said she was nervous - and then introduced herself. "I'm Adele," she said. "I'm going to sing you some old songs and some new songs."

One of the new was performed with the now-visible band and backup singers, who shared a stage that was cozier for its numerous tasselled lamps, some hanging and some floor-standing. I'll Be Waiting had a sixties country-soul sass and boldness to it, a quality in too short supply as the evening wore on. More often than not, the singer-songwriter's big, keening ballads were heard. She does blue wonderfully, but the concert wanted for dynamics.

The earthy artist was a hoot with the modern bluegrass of If It Hadn't Been for Love, a song (by Nashville's Steel Drivers) that the 23-year-old singer explained was about killing your wife. "I'm not glamorizing it," she cracked in her Cockney-styled accent.

Other non-torch numbers included the rumbling, jungle-dream-fever of Rumour Has It, a middle-finger - literally, you can see it on YouTube - to the tabloid press.

After a bossa nova interpretation of The Cure's Lovesong, Adele described that particular composition as being perfectly written. I might say the same thing about the song which followed, her sweeping breakthrough hit, Chasing Pavements.

At one point, Adele joked that she might have trouble with the high notes, as she had been "heckling" during a bit of karaoke fun the night prior. Her voice was fine, but the concert's send-off, Rolling in the Deep, an exciting mix of moody blues and shimmering Motown, didn't razzle, dazzle or swirl like it could have. Give us some lights, a disco ball, a confetti cannon, a neon applause sign - something. Something to end on the high note that seemed so in reach.

Adele plays the Orpheum Theatre in Vancouver May 31.

THE GOODS

Hits: Sure, Chasing Pavements and Rumour Has It. But it was Adele's cheeky banter that won the night.

Misses: All in the sold-out crowd missed someone, particularly after hearing the profound Aretha-like reading of Bob Dylan's Make You Feel My Love, which stunningly closed the main set.

The Crowd: Women (many of them youngish) outnumbered men three to one. All wrapped in a tea-cozy by the broken-hearted but cheery host.

Overheard: From Adele, a few charismatic expletives and "I have no idea how to dance, unless I've had a lot of vodka."

In a Word: Eight, as in an eight out of 10 rating.

THE SET LIST

Hometown Glory

I'll Be Waiting

Don't You Remember

Turning Tables

Set Fire to the Rain

If It Hadn't Been for Love (The Steel Drivers cover)

My Same

Take It All

Rumour Has It

Right as Rain

One and Only

Lovesong (The Cure cover)

Chasing Pavements

Make You Feel My Love (Bob Dylan Cover)

ENCORE

Someone Like You

Rolling in the Deep