Check out Ashley’s photos of the concert HERE.
Background: All right, so here I go. This is long, so read what you want, but I figured there wouldn’t be too many Rochester reviews so I wanted to write everything I remember.
I have watched AI since the first season’ ¦but casually. I never voted, never cared. I thought, I am 26 years old, I’m too old for that stuff. Adam changed that because I now act as if I’m ten when it comes to him (see later in the post when I share my Adam excitement with two ten year old girls at the concert). In fact, Adam has changed quite a bit about me since Idol started, most specifically, I used to have a life. Alas, this is why I am writing this. I fear I am not alone.
This year I insisted on going to the tour, even if I had to go alone. I purchased presale tickets on Ticketmaster and initially was given good seats (I think sixth row), however OF COURSE my computer wasn’t processing the order, so when the order finally went through, the only tickets I could get were at the back of the floor.
As time progressed, the concert videos increased, my fangirliness escalated, and I knew I had to be closer. I went on eBay and bought two front row seats for a hefty sum. The only problem was I now had three extra tickets and no one who really wanted to go. I decided to drag along my best friend because she is a go with the flow person who is always up for having a good time. I gave the other two tickets to my mom and cousin who were almost as into this season as I was.
So finally, it’s time for concert talk. I was so excited to get to our seats. I was waiting for there to be some sort of issue with them. Let’s just say I’m a ‘if I don’t have bad luck, I would have no luck at all’ kinda girl. I was ecstatic when my luck finally changed. The seats were in the very front row, on the front left corner of the stage (which I must say is IMO the best place to sit because all of the Idols tended to favor this side’ ¦in fact many of them *ADAM* tended to sing and dance a good portion of their sets right in front of me).
I knew what to expect from the concert from reading all of the reviews umpteenth times, but I have to say the show was A LOT better than expected. I am as snarky as they come, but I honestly thought all of the idols did a great job. In addition, I cheered loudly for every single one of them, which for me is a huge accomplishment because during the show there was one and only one contestant that I cared about.
I’ll give you the usual format’ ¦
Michael: I never thought much about him, but he had great energy and good interaction with the crowd. His voice sounded strong. My only issue with Michael was his set’ ¦how could two songs be any different? In reality though, I surprisingly thought he did a better job with Ne-Yo than with Gavin. Who knew?
Megan: Yeah, we all know Megan is gorgeous, but what about her singing? Honestly, I think she sounded great on her first song. She had a good crowd reaction, which I think she was taken a little aback by. She kept saying ‘wow’ and ‘you guys are really great’ (not verbatim). I was happy for her. Her second song was ‘meh, ‘ but it didn’t really matter. I think she walked off in good spirits.
Scott: I give him props for his piano playing skills, and honestly, his voice did sound a lot better than during the show. That being said, to me, Scott was the weakest of the group; he just did nothing for me. His blind shtick wasn’t really funny either’ ¦didn’t really get many laughs and sounded totally disingenuous. Eh, as Kara would say, I’ll give him an A for effort.
*Note: At this point in the night, some girl who Vote for the Worst would explain as young frauen (you get the mental picture) decided it would be a good idea to stand directly in front of me at the barrier in front of the stage. She didn’t even have front row seats. She decided to dance the moves to all of Lil’s set and onwards to the end of the first half. It was not a pretty picture. The nice middle-aged man sitting next to me, who was obviously dragged along by his wife said to me, ‘I paid all of this money for these seats to look at this.’ I agreed, but if anything, watching her attempting to reenact the dance moves to ‘All the Single Ladies’ was a major self-esteem booster.
Lil: What to say about Lil’ ¦she has new hair. Lil’s voice did sound strong and on pitch, but to me, she was just copying the original artists. She was the epitome of decent karaoke, but in a way, aren’t they all.
Anoop: Really, really pure voice. IMO he pulls ballads off better than anyone else on the tour, plus, ‘My Prerogative’ is an old favorite of mind, and it was the first time during the concert that everyone was up and dancing. Also, the cloud thing was a little out of place, but not nearly as bad as others claim it to be.
Matt: Ok, I will drink the kool-aid and agree that Matt was definitely the most surprising. He was great (my mom told me afterwards that he was her second favorite though she didn’t like him on the show’ ¦keep in mind Georgia is her favorite song of all time). His piano playing skills were amazing and he really was as good as everyone before has said.
Group number: We needed another beer, so we left at the start of the number so we could do the intermission things and get back to our seats so I could get my spot to stand for the second half before ‘little frauen’ came back.
Allison: Allison may have been the biggest disappointment for me even though she was my second favorite on the show. Her set was sooo loud, and she seemed really out of breath and didn’t sing some of the words to her songs. Yes, her vocal talent exceeded many of the others, but it just wasn’t a particularly pleasant set to listen to.
*Note: During Allison’s set, some woman came up who did not have front row seats and started reaching over and pushing my friend in an attempt to take pictures of Allison right in front of her face. My friend politely asked the woman if she could move over and the woman said, ‘No you f*cking bitch, ‘ and proceeded to push my friend (sorry about the language, but this really what she said). My friend could not believe she was getting into a fight at an AI concert. Much to her dismay, we proceeded to have the woman escorted out of the concert.
Danny: I’m not a Danny hater, but I’m not really a Danny liker either. His set was good though, PYT was my favorite. Best part of his set was when he threw his jacket too far, someone from the audience caught it, and security had to wrestle it back from them. Speech was not bad, but it did continue into ‘My Wish, ‘ which IMO was a bit excessive. He gained back a few likeability points from me.
Adam: This is the point in the review where all of the Adam fans get excited and all of the non-Adam fans begin to think I am completely biased (which I am because he is my obvious favorite). The screams after Danny’s set were deafening, and because it’s the longest set change of the night, they seemed to last forever. My heart was literally racing at this point and I really thought I was going to pass out. WLL was amazing, so much energy, vocals that were immaculate. Standing where I was I literally felt like he was performing just for me. There were two little ten year old girls standing next to me who were totally enamored with Adam’ ¦I agreed with the ten year olds and we had a whole Adam convo. So yes, helium-gate was back for Starlight and Mad World. It’s hard to explain unless you have been to one of the shows. Both numbers were beautiful and perfectly in pitch, but it literally sounded like he had just sucked in the air from a balloon prior to singing them (especially during the first half of Starlight). I loved them both though. Slow Ride was the song from his set that I was looking forward to the least’ ¦I was wrong. It was just so much fun; you couldn’t help but dance and get into it with the rest of the standing crowd. Allison totally redeemed herself, as she seemed like a different person. Finally, the Bowie Medley, my favorite of the night. Oh my God it was just so’ ¦no words. My eyes were drawn to his rhinestone covered belt buckle like a magnet. At one point during Fame, he stood right at the corner of the stage, did this come hither things with his hands, and did some sexy slinky dance move while totally making eye contact with me. The ten year old girls next to me said, ‘Oh my god that was totally at you.’ I agreed’ ¦in my head, we now have a connection that will last lifetimes. I’m sure he was thinking the same thing. He finished dancing and the janitors came by to mop up the drool from the crowd.
Kris: So I love Kris as a person, and truly believe he has a great voice (which sounded even better in person though he experienced helium problems as well), but his set was just really one dimensional to me. As my mother put it, ‘All of his songs just sounded the same.’ My favorite of his was ATTTID. The crowd’s screams for him were just about as loud as for Adam, but the crowd energy was just different. I stood the whole time for him though, and cheered as much as I could. I am sure Kris will have a great career, because I think he translates well into radio. I would never compare him to Adam because they are so different’ ¦it’s nearly impossible. I appreciate Kris though, and really enjoyed what he did at the concert.
DSB: Really fun, just wish the final five had their own group number as they did for the first half.
Things you really want to know:
· Adam had emo hair, but not old emo hair. I would refer to it as new emo hair.
· Usual Kradam dance during DSB’ ¦really cute, but nothing epic.
· Nothing at all thrown during the entire concert, which may be a first since the beginning of the tour.
· No ‘gates’ tonight, except for maybe helium-gate, which definitely existed for Adam and Kris.
· Applause-o-meter: I think Adam got the sustained loudest crowd response, followed in intensity by Kris, Danny, and then Matt/Anoop.
· Apparently, the Rochester venue had the smallest audience of the tour, even though I would say it was 90% full. You couldn’t tell though’ ¦what we lacked in numbers we made up for in spirit (read Sarver’s tweets). I think the crowd genuinely gave an awesome response to every one of them.
· No booing to my knowledge.
· I didn’t see anyone leave during Kris’ set, but I was also in the front row looking up at the stage so who am I to say.
· I didn’t bother with the signings, but I don’t think Adam came out anyways.
· I hoped that after the concert my Adam hunger would be satisfied. It didn’t, its size increased exponentially.
· My favorite quote of the night was when my friend said, ‘Adam should open a dance academy because I would totally quit my job (she’s a lawyer) to join it. After a few lessons from him I think I would make more money as a dancer.’ In order, her favorites were Adam, Matt, Danny, and Anoop.
· I took a bunch of AWESOME videos with my new Blackberry, and realized when I got home that none of them took. Maybe I should have read the directions first’ ¦very disappointing. BTW ‘ no real security. They didn’t even check my bag when I walked in. I was taking videos the whole time and no one said anything to me. FML.
· Camera guy was creepy and kept putting me on the jumbotron. At one point in the show my mom texted me and said, ‘I think you have been on the screen more than some of the idols.’
· If I died tomorrow, my death would be a happy one.
· After rereading this review, I have concluded that my life is getting sadder and sadder by the minute.
