One thing was undeniably certain Tuesday night at the DCU Center: Michael Buble is a consummate showman. Backed by full string and brass sections, along with piano, guitar, bass and percussion, the Canadian crooner was always the center of the packed house’s attention on an otherwise busy stage. With his easy patter and his warm, full baritone voice, Buble has a charismatic presence, one that was instantly recognizable as he walked on stage for his opening number, his rendition of “Feeling Good.”

Buble’s take on the 1964 song popularized by Nina Simone is probably his most well-known recording, only rivaled by his 2009 original, “Haven’t Met You Yet,” which was greeted by enormous audience enthusiasm, singing gleefully along on every word. It was a show-stopping one-two punch, which immediately begged the question: Where do you go when you’ve burned your two most recognizable songs. The answer: Anywhere you want to.

“It burns me deep inside how much I’ve missed you,” said Buble, as the applause wound down, acknowledging that he hasn’t played the city since 2010. But there was an underlying subtext to his audience engagement. It was well-reported that Buble took time off the road when his son was diagnosed with cancer in 2016, from which he is currently in remission. If he seems deeply sincere in the joy with which he approached the show, if each song seemed deeply intimate and immediate, it’s completely understandable. He wound up his patter declaring his love for Worcester, which he first pronounced correctly, then mispronounced comically, and then pronounced correctly again, to prove it was no accident. The crowd ate it up.

Buble then launched into a soulful and haunting rendition of the Chet Baker-popularized “My Funny Valentine,” accompanied by a heavy orchestration that lent an almost ominous counterpoint to Buble’s crisp vocals. The tone eased for a smooth version of Harry Warren’s “I Only Have Eyes For You,” as well as renditions of songs such as Dean Martin’s “Sway,” Hoagy Carmichael’s “(Up A) Lazy River” and the Billie Holiday-popularized, “When You're Smiling.”

It’s clear that Buble absolutely revels in these standards, and judging from the crowd, he’s hardly alone. As he sang, it was easy to notice the music’s visceral effects — an older man putting his arm on his wife’s shoulder and pulling her tenderly toward him, two young women dancing in the aisles, a mother and daughter both singing with unrestrained glee. The music is familiar, yes, and beautiful, and a lot of it can be a little sentimental, but it obviously touches something real and personal in its listeners. Maybe it’s just the romance of it all, maybe it’s a yearning for a simpler time (which was never as simple as people think it was.) Whatever it was, it was real, and deeply intimate.

Buble is aware of this, and conducts it well, breaking the swell of music for an interlude in which he brought an audience member up to sing a snippet of a Jackson 5 number, and then yielding the stage to a band member to sing a lively rendition of the Dean Martin classic, “You're Nobody Till Somebody Loves You,” before returning to more intimate takes on songs such as Jeri Southern’s “When I Fall in Love,” and the tender original songs “Love You Anymore,” “Forever Now” and the country-flavored “Home,” which he dedicated to “the beautiful servicemen and servicewomen.”

One of the things that became clear over the course of the evening was that Buble and his team put a lot of work into making songs seem simple. Even the humblest of songs performed, the ones so familiar as to be etched into the collective consciousness, it was hard not to be struck by the sheer elegance of the musical tapestry behind him, a ballet of horns and strings which created a sound that was rich and layered, but also somehow unobtrusive to the vocals, which were the evening’s clear star.

Moving the action from the main part of the stage to the thrust, Buble attempted — and largely succeeded — in creating an even more intimate nightclub setting, replicating the venues where his career began. Joined by one back-up singer and a jazz quartet, he performed a lovely version of Louis Prima’s “Buona Sera Signorina,” and then a raucous rendition of Prima’s medley of “Just a Gigolo” and “Ain't Got Nobody,” which most people probably know from the David Lee Roth version in the ‘80s. The fun continued with a demonstration of The Twist to Chuck Berry’s “You Never Can Tell.” Buble closed the main set with a heartfelt and achingly beautiful version of “Cry Me a River,” which garnered him his first standing ovation of the evening.

The encore began with a protracted instrumental interlude that allowed each section and soloist to shine for a moment, before Buble returned to the stage for a string-driven take on Rodgers & Hart’s “Where or When,” followed by his original song, “Everything,” which had most of the audience on its feet. He closed with an astoundingly beautiful version of the Willie Nelson-popularized, “You Were Always On My Mind,” which closed the night on his second, well-deserved standing ovation.

Email Victor D. Infante at Victor.Infante@Telegram.com and follow him on Twitter @ocvictor.











