Hi All! I’ve been lurking here since April when I went in search of more Adam information (he had me at “Mama”!). I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the people and comments here and thank everyone for the (way too many) hours of entertainment with my new hobby.
My background ‘ I am a 40 something, married, professional who has watched all the seasons of Idol but never attended a concert. I talked a friend into going to the show at the last minute (I’m also going to Grand Rapids so this was a bonus show). We bought tickets at 2:00 on the day of the show and got second row tickets in the “pod” to the right of the stage. If you’re still looking for tickets, I highly recommend that side of the stadium as the performers do seem to favor that side (the right of the stage from the audience perspective). My friend is not as into Idol as I am so I’ll include some of her fresh perspective too.
General observations:
– The videos at the beginning and intermission were not as annoying as I thought they would be.
– I didn’t notice Bandzilla issues at all; in fact I barely noticed the back-up singers and they were right in front of me.
– An older crowd than I expected, probably 30’s and up. Not nearly as many screaming teens as I thought ‘ we didn’t even use the ear plugs we brought.
– Not many people dressed in contestant colors. I only saw one woman covered in glitter.
– Our section was standing and dancing from the minute Sarver started.
– Considering how close we were, I expected more eye contact from the performers. We got a little of that from Adam and Matt but everyone else wanted to look over our heads.
– No helium effect for either of us
Since I’m a finance person, I’m going to rate each person on dollar signs. This is not how well they will do in the future or how much money I think they will make, just how much of my money I’d personally be willing to spend on them (a $ to $$$$$ scale).
Michael ‘ He did a great job opening the show. He was a better singer and better-looking in person than I expected. My friend agreed. My rating – $ (just not my style)
Megan ‘ Megan’s son was at the show and she was completely focused on him during her performances. I thought she struggled to hit some of her notes. My friend said that she seemed like she didn’t even want to be there. I loved her shoes though ‘ they have rhinestones down the heel which I haven’t seen mentioned yet. She had the afro hair and the fro-hawk during the group song. My rating – $$ (only if she does something closer to her auditions when I liked her a lot)
Scott ‘ Great performance but he didn’t hold my attention during his set. His jokes weren’t as bad as I thought considering I had heard about them already. I did like his jacket! My rating – $$ (I do like Billy Joel, so he could eventually win me over)
Anoop ‘ Good performer but his first two songs were too slow and, again, I lost interest. Purple shoes tonight and he looked very thin in person. My rating – $$
Lil ‘ Her singing and dancing were definitely entertaining. I loved her bling, especially the shoes which I saw someone tweeted about last night too. My rating – $ (why not just buy Mary J or Beyonce)
Matt ‘ I wasn’t as impressed with Matt as others have been, but that could be that my expectations were set too high. He’s extremely talented and I really enjoyed watching him play the piano (I couldn’t see Scott from where I sat so can’t compare that aspect). He did have some great energy and the crowd was into him. The girls in front of me held up a sign asking him to marry them. He saw it and smiled at them! My rating – $$$
Allison ‘ She rocked tonight! She looked great and sounded awesome, even if I couldn’t always understand her. I saw a comment about her hair but there is still pink and purple in her there. My friend thought she was great too. My rating – $$$$ (may not see her in concert again but will buy some songs)
Danny ‘ He was much better than I thought he’d be. His speaking voice sounded scratchy, so I was concerned he may be sick, but I think that is his normal voice. He looked great too, also thinner in person. As a non-churchgoer, I was dreading the preaching but that wasn’t bad either. It was short and heart-felt. Someone threw a stuffed, red heart on stage and he picked it up and thanked them. My rating – $$$ (but lower if he stays country)
Adam ‘ WOW!! Whatever vocal issues Adam may have had, they are gone! He sounded great and went for all the high notes and crazy runs (check out how he sings “flower” during Let’s Dance; don’t know if that’s new). He had emo hair (didn’t see the blue or green anymore) and sang “woman” (both my favorites)! I loved the jacket even more in person. My friend had a raised eyebrow or two at his dancing ‘ but not in a bad way! He came in front of us at least three times. I really wanted to see his eyes. The first time his hair was in his eyes but the second time I got a better look and they are gorgeous. There was a beach ball during SL which some commented was silly but when Allison hit it (it came to her first and she hit it with her hand), Adam thought that was really funny (see Mindchnger’s video around 1:18). He kicked it when it came back again. I saw the boa which Adam just picked up and threw back, no playing with it. My friend really liked him too and promised she would go with me to his solo concert! One more convert’ ¦ My rating ‘ $$$$$ (I’ll probably spend way too much on the Adam Lambert Pretty House Fund mentioned recently here)
P.S. I just want to thank Mindchnger for the AMAZING videos of Adam!
Kris ‘ He is adorable and very talented. I really like his version of Heartless, especially since I don’t like Kanye and like that Kris did that song better than he did IMO. I didn’t mind the curtain while it was up, but it was only for two songs and then it just dropped. Since it was right in front of us, it was very distracting watching them pull it off the stage. My rating – $$$ (I like Kris, he’s just not my style of music)
Overall, my friend and I really enjoyed everyone and agree it was worth the splurge to go. Unfortunately, even with a decent camera and a great vantage point, I don’t have pictures worth sharing (although the constant fog/haze in the arena didn’t help, yeah, it’s the fog’s fault, not mine). I was trying to be in the moment and not live through a camera lens, so didn’t take many photos to start and it’s disappointing they didn’t turn out well. If I learn how to use a camera by Sunday, I’ll post some photos after that concert.
