Shawn Mendes spreads his wings in latest world tour

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This article was published 07/07/2022 (1533 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Much has changed in the three pandemic-addled years since Canadian pop sensation Shawn Mendes was last through Winnipeg. Even the arena has a new name.

Mendes, too, continues to go through a metamorphosis. At 23, Mendes has already had a career on steroids, making the leap from Internet-famous teen to serious artist four albums deep in under a decade. While he’s no doubt a master bop architect, he’s also pushing himself in interesting new directions.

His latest album, 2020’s Wonder — which brought him to Canada Life Centre on Thursday night — finds Mendes experimenting with a wider pop palette. It’s a lush, warm, densely textured album.

But Wonder isn’t just a retreating headphone album for pandemic-isolated times. It’s also a big album, with booming drums and stirring choruses — elements that readily translate to an arena setting. Finally.

A riot of lights and a sternum-shattering wall of sound announced his arrival onstage at precisely 8:30 p.m. Clad in black jeans and a white tank top — Mendes has never missed an arm day, evidently — he strolled to the centre of the circular stage and was met by the loudest screams this reviewer has ever heard. Mendes even commented on how loud his Winnipeg fans are.

Opening with Intro and the positively titanic title track from the new album, Mendes and band segued into a rapid-fire succession of sing-along hits: the charging When You’re Gone was immediately followed up by There’s Nothing Holdin’ Me Back, with the enthusiastic crowd often taking over for vocal duty (this would become a recurring bit on the older songs). Even the 300-level was going bananas.

But Mendes shouldn’t relinquish the microphone so much: he is an outstanding live vocalist, especially on showpieces such as Call My Friends, a massive fuzzed-out rocker that had him at the piano by song’s end.

Bathed in red light and smoke, he then launched into a slowed-down rendition of the steamy Señorita, which was recorded with former girlfriend, Cuban-American pop singer/songwriter Camila Cabello. Mendes and Cabello broke up late last year, announcing the split via a joint statement posted on their respective Instagram stories (such is the professionalism of a pop power couple). As a result, this version — a duet sung solo — sounded like one of those haunting covers you hear in gritty movie trailers.

After the crowd-pleasing Mercy — which, again, had a big assist from the crowd — Mendes got confessional, talking about how his fear of letting people down was paralyzing for him when he began writing the new album. It was a sweet moment of vulnerability amid all the bombast, teeing up what is among Wonder’s standouts: the strutting Look Up At the Stars, which is full of total ‘70s rock-opera moments.

Overall, there was a welcome and pleasant lack of ‘new album-itis’ — in which fans don’t connect as well with the new stuff because it’s not as familiar — at this show; it’s clear his fears about disappointing people were unfounded.

Mendes worked the length of the catwalk for the stomping Teach Me How to Love, which got him on the B-stage for mid-show suite of older favourites, including the pop confection Lost in Japan and the R&B-inflected Why, both from 2018’s self-titled, and a pair of songs from his 2015 debut, Handwritten: Stitches and Never Be Alone, the latter eliciting the prettiest singalong of the night, with the crowd really taking care of those whoa-ohs.

Mendes took back control over the mic for another pair of songs from the new album: Song for No One and the towering, falsetto-and-synth-dappled Dream, which was even more staggering live, backed by a changing rainbow of lights.

The night’s only moment of underwhelm came, incidentally, during the set’s only cover, of The Police’s Message in a Bottle. Some vocal gymnastics at the end helped it along, but it just felt unnecessary.

Happily, the show ended on a peak and not in a valley. Mendes closed things out with two massive tracks: It’ll Be Okay and In My Blood, as a blizzard of confetti engulfed the fans on the floor.

Irish singer/songwriter Dermot Kennedy and his charming sandpaper rasp kicked the night off right. “Thanks for being here at this time — I really appreciate it,” he said to roars, proof he had plenty of fans of his own in the stands.

Kennedy, 30, is all about the ballads, and not just the career-making 2019 hit Outnumbered, either. The stirring Rome, immediately followed by the soaring Better Days from this year’s sophomore album Sonder, delivered an emotional one-two punch. But the MVP of this set was drummer Micheál Quinn, whose propulsive thunder only added to the heart swells.

jen.zoratti@winnipegfreepress.com

Twitter: @JenZoratti