I have come to this show plenty excited after reading reviews of the concert and being an avid watcher of American Idol. Originally it wasn’t planned for me to come, but thankfully my mum had won tickets on a local radio station a few days beforehand. She planned on them being good seats so she went ahead and bought me a ticket fourth row from center stage. Unfortunately we’d be miles apart sitting in the stadium together. Anyways, it was still a wonderful experience. Onto the review.
First off just sitting there you could smell the excitement amongst my fellow fans. Surprisingly the biggest part of the crowd was middle aged women. I expected plenty of young teenage girls avidly holding signs supporting their favorite contestant, but I was already wrong. The rest of the show would turn out to be unpredictable as well.
First up was Sarver, who actually quite pleased me compared to what I heard from him on the show. I’m sure everyone whom might read this knows the song list like the back of their hand, so I won’t go into too many specifics there. He was for the most part in tune and seemed less nasally then I had seen on the show. He was a stage above kareoke for me. He was decent, not great though. Considering his “competition” however, I certainly believe he held his own. He seemed a bit nervous at first, which came out in his singing until the middle of his first song. I believe around there he found his groove.
Megan was both an upper and a downer for me. Her voice was beautiful and her song choices were much better than of that on the show. I’m not sure whether it was her or the echoe-y acoustics from where I was sitting but her “smokey vibrato” didn’t seem to come out much. What I heard was in my opinion a much more beautiful and pure voice that I think would have done miles for her on the show. She was entirely too barbied up for the occasion though, especially in the pink dress. She looked uncomfortable in the heels as well. I think the fact that she was practically walking on her toes limited her movement, which meant her stage presence as well. Her classic shimmy didn’t bother me as much as it seems to others, though.
Scott was much improved from the show as well. Rising dramatically from the floor playing piano like a pro. He sounds like they trained him on really singing from deep within rather than from the throat. His falsetto had also DRAMATICALLY improved as well. These improvements could be what he needs to actually do decent in the recording industry. I do firmly wish him the best on that note. Despite his blindness he did keep his eyes engaged with the crowd quite well. It’s almost a nice to be entranced listening to his beautiful music rather than the glow from Lambert’s eyes, so it’s a different way to enjoy it. Refreshing.
Lil’ would be up next. Another vast improvement over her American Idol show counterpart. Remembering from the show I could see they worked with her on improving her upper range, which came out in full force. The only bad thing I would have to say is that in one of her songs, she is completely outclassed by the person who originally sang it. It’s not so much Lil’s singing ability as it is her phrasing. On some of the faster passages she sounded a bit like she was slurring, which made it sound sloppy. Other than this she did quite well. She has a world full of potential, though it would have been nice to hear her explore slower songs.
Anoop, our hometown hero, would be up next. Trying to speak from an unbiased opinion, I’d say he did brilliantly. Barely off pitch in any parts, if at all. Singing was well supported along with good stage presence. He wasn’t the best of the show by any means, but certainly not the worst. He did have family and friends there supporting him, so perhaps that’s what pushed him over the edge compared to some of the other shows. He certainly warmed up the crowd with plenty of hip thrusts and plenty of money notes. He seemed to have become much more confident as well. Also, Anoop is a lot taller than I expected him to be.
Matt would then take the stage. Matt, whilst running into a few rough spots, has TREMENDOUS potential as a performer. His piano skills are tremendous, even whilst he’s standing up dancing and singing at the same time! Unfortunately for Matt, like in the show, he was either pretty much perfect or kind of sloppy. Thankfully more so the former. His falsetto, more often the not, kind of failed for him and he fell flat in a few spots. These were not enough to deter the crowd from going crazy for him, however. He seemed nervous like Michael at first, but found his groove nicely. Thankfully to offset his previous off falsetto notes, his last big riff was amazingly high (He hit at least an F5, if not a G5 perfectly, which is impressive for a guy of his vocal range) and extremely well executed.. almost on Lambert’s level of control. Good Job, Matt.
The group performances were a LOT better than I expected. Even Megan and Lil’ was pulled off to not be too awkward a combination. You can tell that this group has much more chemistry amongst each other than previous years had.
The intermission though kind of made me mad to be honest though. I got rather tired of having the Ford Fusion plugged down my throat for twenty minutes. Also the contest seems to be garbage, as I don’t believe anyone in the entire stadium actually won. Oh well. Time for Allison.
Truth be told I actually despised her first song. Not because of how she sang it, but because of the song itself. She did brilliantly on the rest of her set, though. Like they said on the show, such a big voice from a little girl seems almost impossible. She definitely gets an A for effort in trying to control the stage, but came off a bit as a novice during the process. It all seemed too random and careless to really get across to me. Another complaint was her wardrobe. If she wasn’t my age I would honestly feel like a dirty old man for how low cut her top was. Don’t get me wrong, she’s cute, but let’s just say I could now give unnecessary details about her chest. Purely judging on singing though, complete and utter champion compared to some of the others. The producers, though, get a bad card from me because they made her performance FAR FAR too loud with the music. I have been to many concerts and clubs but none of them actually made it sound like afterward I was listening to everything underwater. It got so bad that I think it actually affected my hearing to the point some things sounded pitchy later on.
Danny was actually the only disappointment to me, possibly due to Allison’s murdering of my ears. To be fair, his talking voice was very hoarse and practically broken, which might have affected his singing. His singing though, hoarseness or not, was annoyingly nasally at some points. Whenever he wasn’t belting and in the middle of he range this was apparently obvious. He also looks like he’s lost some weight, which earns him a few kudos points. He did command the stage well, no matter how.. different his dancing was. To those who think him to be insincere, I would care to argue. His singing and speech came off as very pure. He also interacted with the crowd the most. He would come to be forgotten, however, by his following act.
Adam would come to be completely different compared to the rest of the show. Truth be told, I don’t remember much of him because I felt entranced the entire time through his eyes and body language. His version of Starlight would come to be my favorite song through the performance. Whilst singing Mad World there was a point in which we locked eyes for a few seconds. He has perhaps the most piercing eyes of anyone I’ve ever seen. His vocals were, as you can imagine, spot on the entire time. His stage presence was superb as well. One thing I noticed was that he practically teased the crowd. Not through his overly sexual imagery, but how he was actually the one to least directly interact with the crowd. By the time he would make his way over to one part of the stage to hear the crowd roar, by the time they did he was already making his way over to tease the other half. The only thing that was annoying is how with both him and Kris, the two most loved performers of the night by the crowd, was that they barely got to speak at all compared to time given by Danny or Scott. Truly a masterclass performer. The middle aged women were absolutely melting over him. He made any tickets truly worth their money. His duet with Allison was good as well.
Kris would come to be decent, but not winner material. He was one of the most out of tune performers. Truth be told, his face looked like something was bothering him the entire time, which did not translate well to stage presence. He did pick up a bit towards the end, but overall disappointing. Also, I don’t believe Hey Jude suited him very well. Overall alright. I feel like he should have been in between Anoop and Matt, if this is how he really sounded in the American Idol arena.
The group songs at the end were good. The reunited dueling pianos were warmly welcomed by me and everyone else. This concert was a great experience, as you’ll almost never get such a variety going to any other concert. I enjoyed it a lot and I hope you enjoyed my review.
