"Two covers in a row, that's unprofessional," quipped British song bird Adele in between covers of Bob Dylan's "To Make You Feel My Love" and the Raconteur's "Many Shades of Black" at a sold-out show at Webster Hall Wednesday night. In truth, the young, rapidly rising singer was anything but unprofessional. In between songs, she was refreshingly chatty, gabbing on in her heavy London accent. But once she started a number, she morphed easily into a sultry songstress, breezing through the tracks on her debut album 19, which she's said is all "about being between 18 and 19; about love." Even with such wide-eyed statements, being that she's British and has a big jazzy voice, Adele is inevitably likened to Amy Winehouse. The comparison is only so accurate.

Yes, both went to the same performing arts school, and yes, they both have diva-licious voices (Christ, that annoying guy on Project Runway is rubbing off on us), but Adele isn't really a diva. She's got the fabulous tone, but she pens songs that have a compelling earnestness and performs them with a laid-back ease. Before starting "Hometown Glory,"one of the tracks that gets a sticker mention on the album, she claimed "this is my last song." Then she burst out laughing and admitted that of course she would come back out! Still after the song, the crowd of late 20- and 30-something post-hipsters dressed in sensible cubicle garb, chanted out for more, as if remembering their glory days of '02.

Adele herself wore a simple black dress and black cardigan. She let her voice do all the work; no backup support from a crazy hairstyle or sexy dance moves required. With her easy style and candid, wandering stage banter—she went on and on about her guy friends wrestling shirtless in her new Knotting Hill flat—seeing Adele perform is akin to grabbing a few drinks with a chill girlfriend who just happens to have a really great voice.

She was at her best last night when she was at her most bare, when the band left the stage and it was just her and a guitar. Singing "Crazy for You," her voice had not only the soulful beauty of Etta James, who's she said is an influence, but also the occasional raw '60s high of Janis Joplin. Her actual last song was "Chasing Pavements," one of her first singles and, like most of her tunes, about an ex-boyfriend. As she came to the chorus, the crowd took over for her; that boyfriend may no longer be with her, but her growing core of fans in the States certainly is.