What do you get when you mix one part cheese, two parts product placement, and about 10 parts screaming girls? You get the American Idols Tour 2008!
The AllState Arena in Chicago last night had to be nearly sold-out, and I happily saw all kinds of people there: families, Dads, grandparents, teens, and plenty of Cougars :) This was my tweener daughter and I's third tour (went to Seasons 4 and 6), and the first for my nine year old son, and his first 'arena' show, and he was pumped.
I would rate the Applause-O-Meter at the beginning of the show during a montage of contestants the highest for Micheal Johns and Jason, and then the very highest for the 2 Davids...and I've have to call that one as a tie. I'll include the songs each performed here, although those of you following the tour at all will already know this stuff...I'll include for the benefit of those of you who actually have lives and don't obsessively follow the Idols all over the Internet :)
Chikezie opened with "I Believe to My Soul" by Donny Hathaway, and it was a great opener as many have agreed. I prefer Elliot's version of this song, but Chikezie does good. His other two songs are good, too, but I don't know them: "Caught Up" by Usher, and "So High" by John Legend. I'm busy checking out the scene as his warms up the crowd.
I liked Ramiele on the show, and she has used the opportunity to tour as an opportunity to improve as a singer, but mostly as a performer. Leaps and bounds ahead of the show. Her "I Want You Back" by The Jackson Five was very fun, and her other two numbers were good, too ("Love Will Lead You Back" by Taylor Dayne, and "If I Never See Your Face Again" by Maroon 5 featuring Rihanna) even though some of the dancing was a bit pageant-y and stiff. At least she was moving! And by golly, she looked like a star!
Micheal Johns! Big entrance! Light show! His three songs were tunes all done on the show, so nothing new ("We Will Rock You"/"We Are the Champions" by Queen; "It's All Wrong But It's All Right" by Dolly Parton; and "Dream On" by Aerosmith). The guy has charisma out the wazoo and the crowd absolutely loves him. And he's so pretty! I'm mesmerized. My fav part was his emphasis on the Queen lyrics "You brought me fame and fortune and everything that goes with it, I THANK YOU ALL!" and that was cool. I'm not sure about his dance moves (he has none, just this bouncy thing that doesn't make sense) BUT the guy rocks. I love the Dolly cover from the show, and I keep asking myself, WHY didn't this guy get farther??? He wins us all over when he whips out a Cubs towel and dedicates "Dream On" to the Cubs World Series 2008 appearance! He also flubbed the lyrics to one of the songs at one point and laughed, "It happens, people!" but we didn't care :)
Kristy Lee Cook: Sparkly tank top ? Check. Hip huggers? Check. Sparkly belt buckle? Check. Wobbly vocals? Check! I see lots of people get up to head out for refreshments and whatever. As the only top 10 cast member to have secured a recording contract other than the two Davids, it doesn't show, and the crowd is polite. She sings "Squeezin' the Love Outta You" by Carolyn Dawn Johnson, "God Bless the USA" by Lee Greenwood, and "Cowgirls" by Kerry Harvick. Lots of prancing around and hip-shaking. I wish her the very best.
I was not big into Carly Smithson on the show.....and while I appreciate that she's a very good singer, I understand again perhaps why she didn't finish higher. She opens with "Bring Me to Life" by Evanescence, and while she looks fabulous (despite some wacky, funky black glove thingies), she just looks and sounds angry to me....and I hear this from others, too. I think people had trouble connecting with her for that reason and a few others (Irishness and tats, to name a couple, although I have no problem with either, just saying). I loved her softer side on the show and would have loved to have heard Dolly's "Here You Come Again" or "Blackbird" and be treated to her beautiful vocals, instead I got to hear "Crazy on You" by Heart (shouty) and "I Drove All Night" by Cyndi Lauper, which she does very, very well....but I just don't prefer it. The crowd likes her tho, and it looks like life on the road agrees with her! (I actually heard tunes 2 and 3 from the ladies room and the t-shirt kiosk where we bought a David Cook t-shirt for my son :)
As such, I missed Shoeless Brooke's entrance, but she's on the piano as we come back in singing the beautiful "Let It Be" by The Beatles....sounds very very good, and looks very relaxed and happy. Her second and third songs were not familiar to me ("1234" by Feist and "Yellow" by Coldplay) but they suited her perfectly. She also played the piano on tunes 1 and 3 and guitar on the second, most impressive. I hope we get to see and hear more from her after this tour!
Insert Group medley, featuring the bottom 6:"Pride In the Name of Love" by U2...with some Idol Gives Back footage ...it was a little cheesy but okay.
After an Intermission, where we got refreshed (sort of, they are sold out of white wine! E-gads! There are Cougars in the house after all.....) and bought more t-shirts (I'm sorry to say) the darling Jason Castro took the stage to some of the loudest cheering we'd yet heard. He opens with the awesome "Over the Rainbow" (the Israel Kamakawiwo'ole version) with his ukulele and it's gorgeous. He follows with "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley (which apparently he auditioned with, and we never got to see that footage) and "Daydream" by The Lovin' Spoonful. Just JOY JOY JOY with this boy on stage! Love him. Please tell me there will be more of him. SOON.
Insert Group medley, featuring the bottom 6:"Pride In the Name of Love" by U2...with some Idol Gives Back footage ...it was a little cheesy but okay.
After an Intermission, where we got refreshed (sort of, they are sold out of white wine! E-gads! There are Cougars in the house after all.....) and bought more t-shirts (I'm sorry to say) the darling Jason Castro took the stage to some of the loudest cheering we'd yet heard. He opens with the awesome "Over the Rainbow" (the Israel Kamakawiwo'ole version) with his ukulele and it's gorgeous. He follows with "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley (which apparently he auditioned with, and we never got to see that footage) and "Daydream" by The Lovin' Spoonful. Just JOY JOY JOY with this boy on stage! Love him. Please tell me there will be more of him. SOON.
Unfortunately for Syesha, she takes the stage and begins singing into a mic that is not working. It takes almost the entirety of "Umbrella" by Rihanna to find one that works and get it to her. Happily, she is able to shrug it off pretty well and continue with a very pretty "If I Ain't Got You" by Alicia Keys and a rousing version of "Listen" by Beyonce. Now, Syesha looks....um....really glammy and really....um.....well, enhanced. Either that or her wardrobe people are that good. I don't remember that (those?) from the show. Do you think she'd lend me that dress for my high school reunion next week? LOL . Three words: short, sparkly and plunging.
David Archuleta time. I cannot tell you how deafening the crowd is....the shrieking is so loud, it tops the Hilary Duff concert I took a daughter to years back that had heretofore held the crown of Loudest Shrieky Concert Ever. David plays the piano and sings "Angels" by Robbie Williams just beautifully, "Apologize" by OneRepublic, "Stand by Me"/"Beautiful Girls" by Ben E. King/Sean Kingston, and "When You Say You Love Me" by Josh Groban. He's very, very good and seems relaxed and happy. "Stand By Me" is just incredible. I decide I'll buy anything he puts out.
Finally, the moment we've waited for.....David Cook opens with "Hello" by Lionel Richie and it's as incredible as we remembered from the show. Freshly coiffed and sporting guyliner to boot, DC looks and sounds amazing. Crowd is NUTSO. Don't know what's up with the waist scarf, and he snuck onto the girl's bus and borrowed KLC's sparkly belt buckle! Follows with the obligatory "The Time of My Life" but I have to say, the song has actually grown on me! "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" by Aerosmith is a great song when DC does it, but I'm blown away by his version of "My Hero" by Foo Fighters, dedicated to his brother. After a fakeout ending of the concert, he reappears to close with his signature "Billie Jean"...and it's really, really, well done. Wow, me loves this guy! Hurry up with that single and CD, will ya?
Group encore:"Don't Stop the Music" by Rihanna....they start out, marching and dancing and all group number cheese factor galore and I whisper under my breath, "Please don't make Jason do this...." but he does, but without so much marching, just walking :) Why all the love for Rihanna? Is there something I don't know about? There's also lots of love for Aerosmith in this setlist, but I gather that's because of the Activision's new Guitar Hero version featuring Aerosmith...remember I mentioned product placement up top? (the other product is Pop Tarts, in case you didn't know).
For terrific video clips and more thoughts from the Chicago show, check out MJ's American Idol blog HERE...you won't regret it!
Overall, even though this post is WAY long already, it was a good show, but I have to say not great for me. I prefer last year's show format where they mixed up all of the contestants into duets and trios, etc....where they performed out of order. This show was very predicable going from 10 to 1 and I wish they would have done a few smaller group numbers....but that's just me.
Have you caught any shows? What did YOU think?
