Chris’s American Idol Tour 2009 Rosemont IL Recap

Hello! Well, it is so nice of you to read my recap of the Rosemont show (or Chicago for those of us who don’t about the specifics). My name is Chris. I’m an 18 year old male, definitely not Idol’s demographic. Whatevs, I am definitely a bigger fan than most of those people there. Although in a good way, not like, crazy way. Like, no Adam painted black shirts and guyliner. I like the show itself and the singing and music and whatever. All of these little intro things have to have the favs, so I guess mine does too. I liked Adam and Allison from the beginning. I think Adam is the best male vocalist Idol has ever had and may ever have and Allison is such a mature singer and has an amazing voice. I also liked her attitude. It makes her break out of the Idol mold a little. I started liking Kris after his first performance. I remember talking about how contemporary and modern he was, very Jason Mraz like. So I stuck with him from the beginning, not like you who liked him only after Heartless. You know, after Heartless though, I said he was going to win the competition. I didn’t think he had a chance until that song. Alright, so, now that we got the useless points that you could care less about, let’s get onto the recap.

Oh, wait, also have to say this. The Allstate Arena has AWFUL acoustics. Like, really bad. Alright, recap time!

I get there right at 7. I was at the IHOP across the street with my two friends who I went with. I had their mediterranian chicken. I highly recommend it to anybody who goes there.

So, Michael starts the show. I honestly can not remember a thing he sang, though I do remember he works at an oil rig. I am sure he will be back there soon enough. I bought a keychain during this time. I like keychains. I came back and he was finishing. He just bores me, and the rest of the audience too. Within 10 seconds of him saying “How you doing Chicago (see, specifics, nobody cares it’s actually Rosemont)” they were back in their seats. And FYI to Michael, if you have to say stand up a few times everybody couple of measures, you obviously are not doing something right. His singing is not bad, not spectacular though. Nothing unique, millions of people sing just like him.

Megan comes out next. Damn she has nice legs. She looks good. She sounds good for about a minute, then she loses the pitch. Poor thing, she looks so damn good, she just isn’t meant for arena singing. That’s cool though. She would be a great like, jazz singer if she did not have to leave her little range. The audience still could care less really. She starts to yell a lot when singing. She doesn’t really also to move the mic away as she hits higher notes. Higher=louder (usually) so it really bounces off the walls and caused some real cringe-worthy moments. PS: Why does she have an afro? It looks like a matted dog on her head! Yikes!

Possibly, my least favorite Idol EVER comes out. Well, rises up. He can’t walk out, there are stairs. That would not end well. Scott is playing and is singing so damn flat. Can he not hear that? He is so flat he is almost not hitting any of the right notes. For somebody with such an extensive music background and ego about their talent (or in his case, lack of), you would think he definitely would be a million times better. He is quite a good pianist though. His voice just didn’t match the intensity of his or the band’s playing. Whatever, he jokes around which are definitely NOT funny. That was an awful British accent. And the audience could care less. Everybody was like, eh… whatevs. I few laughs. Of course, pity laughs. Unfunny people get pity laughs. He seems like a nice guy though! Nice, unfunny people definitely get pity laughs. I did not spend 70 bucks on a ticket to pity laugh (Well, I didn’t spend it, my friend did. Graduation gift! Shes a nice friend!)

Then out comes Lil! Holy crap! This girl can sing! During the season, she never opened her throat when she sang. That is why she sounded unspectacular when hitting high notes because it had lost power coming out that way. But now, she was comfortable and looking damn good. She was definitely the first person who got the audience on their feet. And when I say audience, I mean a significant part of the audience. I don’t mean a section (although I didn’t see that for anybody before her) or a few people, I mean, the majority of the people. She sang pretty good. I mean, I don’t think she will have much of a career after this, but she definitely could have went to top 4. Well, if it was my top 4. Which would mean Gokey would be gone and Allison moving to 3rd and Lil taking in 4th.

Lil got the audience going and it was kind of like the show started there for me. Then Anoop comes out. Ugh… he is a good singer he really is. But has anybody been so boring! Does he have a personality? He started off with possibly the slowest song in the world and then he ends with a high energy song, My Prerogative. That was not good. Anoop, you are not sexy. Do not move your hips in sexual ways. It is more of a horror-inducing moment. Nobody screamed because they liked it, they were screaming and trying to find their nearest exit.

He goes way and Matt is next. I am very neutral with Matt. I didn’t really like him on the show, but I thought he was somewhat talented. If he could find his genre, he would be good. He needs to learn just because you may like rock music does not mean you can sing rock music. When he sang You Found Me, it was like, confusing. He growled to compensate for high notes he can not hit without going into his falsetto. Bothered me. That is also what bothered me with Gokey during the season. Growling/yelling does not mean you are hitting the note, it means you are unable to sing what you have chosen. And you know, it can be used creatively or for emphasizing a phrase. His was definitely not. My favorite part is when he put on the fedora and it was on too far back on his head. And he said, “Sing if you know the words!” As opposed to those who will just sing whatever the hell they feel like. I wished he would have added “And if you don’t please listen politely!”

Now is the group number. What was that Lil and Megan thing supposed to be exactly? I was thoroughly confused. They actually made Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons unrecognizable. Although, they looked good while doing it. The rest of the group number got better but made me think, they had a choreographer for that? Step left, snap, step right, snap. Crap! I forgot to swing my arms!

Intermission. Those seats are tiny and my big ass was having trouble. I made it through though. Why is it that the same people walking up and down the aisles during the show are also up at intermission. I think they were in other places more than actually watching the show.

Is that Idol Experience video with the husky guy always shown? He wasn’t very good and Adam did not seem to be getting paid enough to compliment him.

Allison sings to me specifically. I like to think so at least. I really like So What. It is a fun song to yell at. I noticed I was trying to sing louder than the band or any of the singers so I could hear myself. I never could. But yeah, Allison rocks it out. She screwed up at the end of So What and it showed on her face. I like though how she didn’t try to cover. It makes her more authentic. As a performer, she is amazing and she definitely has the vocals to compete with Adam (probably why Slow Ride works out so well). I was sad to see her leave. Oh, and she does that whole talking about everybody. I would say Kris definitely got more screams than Adam. Can I just say I have never heard that many tween girls screaming? It is crazy! I would say just as many of those tween girls mom’s were screaming too.

Then Gokey. Can I just say I always hated him? I never liked him and I thought he was way overrated because of his dead wife. He actually wasn’t that bad this time. You know, totally sounded different. He wasn’t as gravely and throaty, but he still needs to work on his technique a little because it sounds strained sometimes. Then he starts preaching. “You may know about what happened to me a month before I auditioned…” Yes, we do. You talk about it all of the time. “… but I don’t want to talk about that.” Although you just did. “Don’t let tragedy define you.” He left out the line “Like I have” which really disappointed me. He is so fake it is unbelievable. And somebody through a heart pillow on stage. It actually looked soft and nice. I would use it. Ok, so, he leaves.

Then Adam. The audience stands up as the lights go black from the end of Gokey’s set. There is about a 2 second cheer for Gokey and the screams start for Adam. It seemed like centuries for him to come out. He is definitely a loud singer. But he sounds great. I love his vibrato. I am kind of jealous of that vibrato. And those notes he hits, Scott tried hitting those notes and just sounded like he was had been kicked in the boys. Adam hits them and it sounds great. Effortless all of the time. During Slow Ride, a beach ball gets thrown on stage. Allison hits it back into the audience and it gets to Adam who kicks it. Neither really played too much besides that. They were really into it though and at the end hugged before the song had even ended. It was nice. And there was a boa during one of Adam’s songs, don’t remember when. He kinda picked it up and couldn’t think of anything, so he threw it back into the audience without really doing anything with it.

Next was Kris. I had told my friend before time about how curious I was to see if he could fill a large venue like we were at.

He could. He was the best of the night for me. Heartless was a different arrangement. I liked it. It was more of a driving rock version. I felt he connected with the band the best and had the most fun with the music as well. Everybody looked like they were trying to hard but he looked like he was just having fun. I like that in music, especially concerts. So, I was most excited for Hey Jude. The entire audience was in on singing this one. I felt like it was really a duet between me and Kris, which I think is how most people felt during the performance. Some of the things I had read about people leaving before Kris starts, I didn’t see that. Everybody stayed.

My plan was to leave after Kris, but I can’t resist Don’t Stop Believing. Scott seemed like he was yelling the beginning part. Everybody was up and dancing and singing along and it was just great. It felt like a giant community there.

So, that is it. I would love to read your comments. Please leave them! Thanks for reading all of this, you are totally awesome!

About mj santilli 34846 Articles
Founder and editor of mjsbigblog.com, home of the awesomest fan community on the net. I love cheesy singing shows of all kinds, whether reality or scripted. I adore American Idol, but also love The Voice, Glee, X Factor and more!