First of all, a big thank you to all my friends that have endured the many hours of me obsessing over and talking about American Idol this year. I have never cared this much about Idol in the past. I’m 28 and a HUGE Allison fan. I still believe she should have been in the Top 2, but I love Kris and Adam (KRADISON!) and I also like Matt.
The day started for me when I headed over to the Verizon Center around 2:00p.m. to try and meet some Idols. I found myself to be one of the few people in work clothes, everyone else was either 12 or the 12 year-old’s Mom. I got excited and decided to wait and even though it was hot, my waiting paid off because I got to meet Matt G. and Sarver. I had them sign my ‘Allison is My Idol’ tee-shirt which I was planning to wear to the show. They were both really nice about signing everything and taking pictures with everyone. I was surprised at how short Sarver was ‘ sorry man ‘ but he was very polite! And Matt was really good looking in person. He had his shirt unbuttoned so that you could see some manly chest action. I’m happy I got to meet them, but the crowd was disappointed that more people didn’t come out. This was especially disappointing because we would find out later that the Idols were not coming out after the show to meet the fans. The best thing I saw, however, was an adorable 10 year-old boy with blonde hair dyed blue, black nail polish on his fingers and toes, and eyeliner, mascara and glittery eye shadow. He looked fab and kept screaming for Adam. I loved it. PS ‘ Shout out to LR for taking pics!
I went to the concert with my friend Katrina who is a huge Matt fan. We waited in line to buy overpriced AI gear and I have to recommend the $5 glowstick. Seriously people, it has six different settings and it provided hours of entertainment both during and after the show! We also got the pink tee-shirts because there was no way I could wear a tee-shirt with Gokey’s face on it. I’m afraid it would give me a rash or make me spontaneously vomit when I look in the mirror! We had great seats and were surrounded by middle-aged women who were all there to see Adam. As we waited for the show to begin, everyone screamed at any image of Adam during the Ford videos. If there was a spike of black hair ‘ AHHHHH! Or some leather ‘ AHHHHH! Or eyeliner ‘ AHHHHH! Oops that was Megan ‘ oh well.
Sarver kicked off the show and I was impressed. He sounded much better than on TV and he picked songs that both the audience liked and that were better-suited for his voice. I love Gavin DeGraw, so Sarver’s ‘I’m In Love With A Girl’ was a great tune to start and ‘Closer’ was fun as well. Megan was next. She was wearing some great pink shoes and sang ‘Put Your Records On, ‘ which besides her cawing and awesome tats, is the only thing we should really remember about Megan. It was her best song. Katrina and I left during the second song to get a refill on drinks.
Scott started off with ‘Bend & Break’ and it was boring. My drink was more exciting. He said some jokes between his two songs regarding Seacrest and the infamous high-five, which warmed up the crowd. I was much more impressed with ‘A Thousand Miles.’ In fact, Scott should stick to girly songs ‘ he is good at them. Next up was Lil with ‘Be Without You/Just Fine.’ Finally, everyone around me started to get into it. Katrina got chills ‘ ha! Lil was a shock for me as I never really understood why the Judges were so into her. She really belted out her first tune and she did even better on ‘No One.’ She even got Claudia, the 66 year-old Adam fan next to me, to sing along a lil! Go Lil! Then Lil spoke and I had this horrible flashback of her talking back to the Judges and defending her song choices and by the time I snapped back into it she had started ‘Single Ladies.’ Dancing good, song choice bad. I mean the crowd was singing along, but it was very karaoke.
Everyone knew who was coming next ‘ ANOOOOP! I was excited to hear him sing. His ‘Always on My Mind’ was beautiful. Anoop’s voice is very rich and smooth and it sailed across the arena. Great ballad. But enough with the ballads, everyone wants the sexy-nerd Anoop right? He then sang ‘Mad’ and I think he stopped wearing those glasses everyone has been knocking. I loved the song choice because it made me think of a certain SYTYCD number. But again, ballad. Finally, ‘My Prerogative, ‘ yay no ballad! Anoop had really cool purple shoes and his dancing was fun, totally reminded me of the a capella boys at my college (Go Hoos!). He even got on the ground and grinded with the stage ‘ dirty! He closed his set with a bang. Good work.
At this point in the show I temporarily lost hearing in my right ear as Katrina screamed in anticipation of Matt. Matt comes storming in with ‘Hard to Handle’ and he was amazing. Matt chose a song that he can really saaang and for the first half he showed that he can dance well too. No wonder a certain judge totally crushed on him. Then he started grooving on the piano and his playing got the crowd going! Of course, Matt revealed the faux-hawk and honestly, he can pull it off. (I am not going to diss Matt for fear of my life). Second song was ‘Georgia.’ The energy died a little, but again, great singing and piano playing. Matt, will you play at Katrina’s wedding? He closed things up with ‘You Found Me.’ I thought he really rocked it out. It was sad to see Matt go.
But luckily next was the group number! The Megan/Lil part was fine, Matt/Scott was much better with ‘Tell Her About It.’ Sarver was good, but ‘Beggin” is the best part of the number. Before we knew it, the first half was over and I was 20 minutes away from hearing Allison. OMG.
All of the sudden, on comes My Girl! ‘So What’ got the energy up. Honestly, I was freaking out. I warned everyone next to me, but I was screaming and dancing along with Allison the whole time. ‘Cry Baby’ is her best number. She has an amazing presence on stage and knows how to work the crowd. She channeled Joplin as she ran all over the stage singing in her raspy mature voice. Allison’s look was great. And guess what ‘ she showed TONS of personality. At one point Allison asked if people were there to see Kris, Adam or the other guy. She paused, and the crowd was silently listening to her, so I belted out ‘ALLLLLLLISOOOON!!’ To which I swear she responded ‘Ok.’ Yes, I got an ‘Ok.’ BTW, everyone was there to see Adam. ‘Barracuda’ was fine, but bandzilla took over. I wish we could have heard ‘Alone’ instead. I look forward to Allison’s first solo tour when she will be able to sing all sorts of songs and we will be able to hear more of the voice we all loved and less of bandzilla.
I had to take a seat after Allison because I was exhausted and it was fine because of who was next. Katrina danced along to ‘PYT’ because it’s a great MJ song. Gokey had some really ugly boots on. His look was very confusing to me. ‘Maria, Maria’ was fine and then came his back to back Rascal Flatts songs. I love Rascal Flatts, but if I had four songs to sing on my first tour, I wouldn’t pick two RF slow songs. His sermon was not as bad as I was expecting. He basically said to not let tragedy define your life and of course I agree. Everyone near me was so pumped after Allison and so excited for Adam that Gokey’s set flew by.
And let the freak out begin! The moment Gokey turned to leave the stage, everyone started screaming and got on their feet. And I mean everyone! As much as I love Allison, this whole tour is all about Adam. He came out for ‘Whole Lotta Love’ and absolutely killed it. The boy can sing like no other and he can dance. He exudes sex. It is amazing. Claudia wanted me to tell everyone that she is a 66 year-old woman that absolutely loves Adam Lambert! At one point, she clutched my hand because his dancing was so hot. I loved it. I love seeing our society grow. Yay people! I was blown away by ‘Starlight.’ Adam can sing in high octaves with such ease; it is beautiful. ‘Mad World’ was mesmerizing. Of course, I start to lose it again as I know who is coming to join him on the next song. Oh yes, it is Ms. Allison Iraheta!!!!! She is back and they are performing arguably one of the best numbers of the night. They have great energy between the two of them, they compliment each other’s styles, and they ad lib well together. I absolutely loved ‘Slow Ride.’ After my heart breaks a little when Allison leaves the stage, Adam goes into his Bowie medley. Again, all I can is ‘WOW.’ When he whips off that jacket ‘ hot! When he dances and struts ‘ super hot! As he ends his set, the crowd which was been screaming the whole time, manages to kick it up some more. Goodbye Rock God, see you on your own tour.
The screaming continues for Kris as he rises up on the stage. ‘Heartless’ ‘ the song that won Idol for Kris ‘ is everything I wanted it to be. I loved it. Kris sang The Killer’s song next and honestly it was a little bit of a let down. I saw people sit down and I know it is better than having to endure ‘No Boundaries, ‘ but like what happened with Allison and ‘Barracuda, ‘ the song is more about the band and less about the singing. Thankfully, ‘Ain’t No Sunshine’ is next and Kris absolutely tore it up on the piano. It was great. BTW, Kris is hot. He then sang ‘Bright Lights’ which everyone also likes, but compared to Adam, the crowd is much more subdued. Maybe it’s the types of songs that Kris sings. Finally comes ‘Hey Jude.’ I was already sad because I knew there would be only one more song. Kris did a great job with his set, but in the end, this was Adam’s (and for me, Allison’s) show.
‘Don’t Stop Believing’ is the best song for the finale. It showcases the Idols well and of course, it’s a song that the crowd can sing along with. They all seemed to have a great time performing. Goodbye Kradison, I’ll get your albums in the Fall. Matt’s too. Rocker Saved.
