American Idol Tour 07/19/08
I hope that Abarero had a great birthday yesterday!
Behind the following cut is my overdue review of the American Idol tour date I went to this year. I've got a few other reports to write up and post, though I'm trying to get them posted in chronological order, so coming up next will be my report from Lollapalooza, which I was at at the start of last month.
American Idol Tour
At the Allstate Arena
07/19/08
I got to the Allstate Arena a bit before the doors opened. There were some kids in front of me that were excited as they had gotten to meet some of the top 10 a little while before. In particular, this little boy was very excited about having met Brooke. I thought that was cute. As a Brooke fan myself, I came wearing her tour color - yellow (but with a bit of red in my purse for David Cook, as well as some other colors that mostly worked out okay with supporting other contestants I liked). I made a stop at the merchandise stand and got a David Cook t-shirt, a general tour shirt with a picture of the top 10 on the front (tour dates on back), program, pins (for my brother), and photos of David Cook, Brooke White, and Jason Castro. My seat was quite similar to where it was last year, which was on the floor and about 28 rows back. There was crazy stuff going on in the lobby to keep people busy - like guitar hero - and also inside, like an announcer telling people to dance in certain ways, and of course the big talking/walking Pop-Tart.
When the lights went out a montage of clips played on the large screens above the stage. They showed bits from the auditions, clips from Hollywood week, the top 50 (when they showed Josiah, there was a big “aww” from the crowd), top 24, top 12, and then a silhouette of Chikezie showed up next to a number ten. When Chikezie’s picture filled in the silhouette, he came out on stage and joined the band (they played the theme - the band that is, not Chikezie, but I don’t remember if that happened before or after the montage). He played that song he did during the 70s week in which he changed the lyric to say something about knowing or remembering his name is Chikeze (“I Believe to My Soul”). Then he sang two other songs that I don’t think he sang on the show and I didn’t recognize. Thanks to the Wikipedia article on the tour I found out that they were “Caught Up” by Usher and “So High” by John Legend.
Next came Ramiele. She sang a Jackson 5 cover - “I Want You Back” - with the two backup singers - they did a little dance together. I thought it was interesting that she did mostly up-tempo numbers for the tour since she was known for singing a lot of ballads on the show and I believe she said that she didn’t want to be thought of as “lullaby Malubay”. She did a good job with the up-tempo songs and moving around on stage. She also did two more songs, “Love Will Lead You Back”, and “If I Never See Your Face Again”. I don’t think that she did any of those songs on the show, but I’m not totally sure.
After Ramiele, Michael Johns came on stage. Actually, I think that he rose up on stage but I’m not sure. The crowd reacted with a lot of cheering for him. He opened with “We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions”, and though I still don’t really like him, I found him to be entertaining. During the line in that song, “sometimes we lose” he added as a spoken aside “it happens people”. Between songs he “found” a Cubs pennant and was all “what’s this?” jokingly. In true Chicago fashion, there was a very noticeable split between cheers and boos from the Cubs and Sox fans. Michael Johns said that he hoped that the Cubs won. Then he sang “It’s All Wrong, but It’s All Right” which when he performed it on the show I thought it was really strange, but live it was pretty good.
Kristy was the next one to perform and she did a really nice job. She seemed very comfortable on stage and her voice sounded good. The first song she sang was a country song that I’m not familiar with (apparently it’s called “Squeezin the Love Outta You”), then she sang “God Bless the USA” before that song she talked about how she dedicated it to anyone who served our country, and anyone who knows someone who is serving our country. Kristy told us that her father was in the military, and about how much she loves this song. The third song, she said, was another one of her favorites, and I think it was called “Cowgirls”.
Then came Carly. She started with “Bring Me To Life”, which was pretty cool. She talked to us about how she likes Chicago and said that she heard that we’ve got quite a bit of Irish here (lots of cheers), and how she’s heard we dye our river green for St. Patrick’s Day (which we do). She dedicated “I Drove All Night” to all the girls in the audience. It was interesting hearing that one again in close proximity (well, a little over a month) to having heard Cyndi Lauper perform it live, since it’s originally her song. Carly told us that she was so happy to have been able to sing a one of her favorite songs, by one of her favorite bands on the show, and I figured that “Crazy on You” would be the next song she sang - it was, but she started it out really slow and so a lot of the audience sat down (which is what they generally do during ballads) which I thought was a little strange, but then when the song picked up everyone got back up again. Before she left, Carly said some nice things about Brooke, who was the next person to perform.
Brooke rose up onto the stage with a piano and she played “Let it Be”. The second song she did was “1234” and she played her acoustic guitar for it. Before that started she warned us that it would be a perky song and it would involve snapping. She talked about how thankful or grateful she was to be there and so forth. Her third song was one that she said is a particular favorite of her’s, and one that she wishes she would have written. It was Coldplay’s “Yellow”, and during that she played the piano again. I like her version of “Yellow” better than the Coldplay one. The lighting during that song was very pretty as they had yellow star-like lights going on - or maybe they were just projected onto the screen in the back? Not sure. After Brooke finished playing she stood up and talked to us about the efforts made with Idol Gives Back, introducing a film that showed some of the people who were helped by the money donated to Idol Gives Back. After a bit of watching the film, the contestants who had performed so far came on stage and sang “(Pride) In the Name of Love”. Carly and Michael sang lead on this, for the most part.
Then there was intermission, during which there was an on stage Guitar Hero battle between two guys - both of whom I think worked there. That was followed up by a battle of air guitar between two little boys. I kind of felt weird about that one as the boys were apparently friends, and we were supposed to applaud as to who we liked better. They had some more random stuff, and then they aired a commercial for the game Rock Band featuring the Top 10 contestants in costumes as if they were from the 70s acting as a band. It was fun.
The second half of the concert started with Jason Castro. He was a bit hard to understand when he was talking - he seemed shy. He played “ Somewhere Over the Rainbow” with the ukulele, he played a song that I wasn’t familiar with (thanks to Wikipedia I now know that it was called “Crazy” and I think that Jason talked about being crazy before it started, so that makes sense), and then I’m pretty sure he played “Daydream”. He did a nice job, and played some instrument for each of his songs (acoustic guitar for the other two).
Syesha’s set started off rough as there was no sound coming from her microphone. It was really sad to watch because we could see her singing and performing, the band was audible, as were the backup singers, but we couldn’t hear anything from her. There was a quick bit where a little of her vocal came through, but then it went away again. The song she started out with was “Umbrella”, BTW, and they had this pretty background on the screen that looked like lots of purple drops of rain. Finally, someone came out and gave her a new mic around the time of the bridge - so then she checked with us to see if we could hear her and continued signing. She apologized about not being able to do an extra song for us and told us how she was pretty scared by that wondering why she couldn’t hear herself. She said something like, that was the last time she picks up Chikeze’s mic, or something like that. I think she was joking? Her second song was “If I Ain’t Got You” and she did a really nice job with it. The last song that she sang was one that she said was a song that meant a lot to her and that she hoped we could learn something from it (I think that’s what she said, or it was something along those lines). It was a song I hadn’t heard before, but she said it was a cover of a Beyonce song, “Listen”. This may have been my favorite performance of the night. It was very powerful and she seemed to put a lot into it. Even though it was a slower song, a lot of people stood up during it. I think that she said something about David Archuleta coming on stage next, but I’m not too sure.
When David Archuleta was announced (via his silhouette and number showing up on the big screens) the high pitched screaming got really loud. He started out at the piano playing “Angels”, he played “Stand By Me/Beautiful Girls”, there was an upbeat more contemporary number he did - which I thought suited him, and there was something about telling the people who are important to you that you love them. He said something before that one about how he guesses he sings many “message songs”, but that this one has a message that’s very important t him. The songs I didn’t recognize by David Archuleta were “Apologize” by OneRepublic and “When You Say You Love Me” by Josh Groban. He introduced David Cook before he left.
I don’t remember what order David Cook performed his songs, but I do remember that he played guitar on most of them. He played an awesome rendition of “Billie Jean”. He played “Time of My Life”, “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing”, both without using a guitar. There were two other songs that he played, which are totally escaping my memory right now, but I am pretty sure that they were both using his guitar. He put on a really good show. I just looked at the Wikipedia entry on the tour and it refreshed my memory that he started with “Hello”, and that he played “My Hero” which he dedicated to his older brother. I think that he walked off stage and then came back with “Billie Jean” as an encore.
The Wikipedia article also has the listing of what each of the other contestants played - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Idols_LIVE!_Tour_2008
After David Cook finished his set he went off stage, and not too long afterwards the whole group came back on stage and sang “Please Don’t Stop the Music”. They walked on at different times, and for a while it was the top eight, but then the Davids rose up onto the stage on a platform and somebody said, “your top two!” or something like that, and then they walked to the front of the stage and continued. They did a nice job with it, and it was a fun way to end the concert. I noticed that it seems that Brooke has gotten a lot more comfortable with moving around and dancing on stage, so that’s nice. All the contestants waved to us before they walked off stage.
After the show finished, the lines to get out were very long. I decided to stop by the merchandise stand again to buy a photo of Kristy, and I also decided to get a mug (which my brother later discovered - and thankfully before we used it - was made with LEAD PAINT! WTF? Why would they put lead paint on the outside of a product that has a very high likelihood of being used by young people, not to mention why would they use lead paint at all??). There was a little girl who left her camera on the counter, and thanks to the woman next to me asking if it was mine, I noticed it and asked the woman who was just starting to leave with her daughter. It belonged to the little girl.
Then I left.
*EDIT: I forgot to mention that before one of David Cook's songs, he told us how that time last year he was in Chicago for a different reason - seeing Our Lady Peace (his favorite band) at The Vic. Some people, myself included, cheered at his mentioning of The Vic cause it’s a cool venue, but for some reason he thought that we were booing and was like, “why are people booing The Vic?”
Behind the following cut is my overdue review of the American Idol tour date I went to this year. I've got a few other reports to write up and post, though I'm trying to get them posted in chronological order, so coming up next will be my report from Lollapalooza, which I was at at the start of last month.
American Idol Tour
At the Allstate Arena
07/19/08
I got to the Allstate Arena a bit before the doors opened. There were some kids in front of me that were excited as they had gotten to meet some of the top 10 a little while before. In particular, this little boy was very excited about having met Brooke. I thought that was cute. As a Brooke fan myself, I came wearing her tour color - yellow (but with a bit of red in my purse for David Cook, as well as some other colors that mostly worked out okay with supporting other contestants I liked). I made a stop at the merchandise stand and got a David Cook t-shirt, a general tour shirt with a picture of the top 10 on the front (tour dates on back), program, pins (for my brother), and photos of David Cook, Brooke White, and Jason Castro. My seat was quite similar to where it was last year, which was on the floor and about 28 rows back. There was crazy stuff going on in the lobby to keep people busy - like guitar hero - and also inside, like an announcer telling people to dance in certain ways, and of course the big talking/walking Pop-Tart.
When the lights went out a montage of clips played on the large screens above the stage. They showed bits from the auditions, clips from Hollywood week, the top 50 (when they showed Josiah, there was a big “aww” from the crowd), top 24, top 12, and then a silhouette of Chikezie showed up next to a number ten. When Chikezie’s picture filled in the silhouette, he came out on stage and joined the band (they played the theme - the band that is, not Chikezie, but I don’t remember if that happened before or after the montage). He played that song he did during the 70s week in which he changed the lyric to say something about knowing or remembering his name is Chikeze (“I Believe to My Soul”). Then he sang two other songs that I don’t think he sang on the show and I didn’t recognize. Thanks to the Wikipedia article on the tour I found out that they were “Caught Up” by Usher and “So High” by John Legend.
Next came Ramiele. She sang a Jackson 5 cover - “I Want You Back” - with the two backup singers - they did a little dance together. I thought it was interesting that she did mostly up-tempo numbers for the tour since she was known for singing a lot of ballads on the show and I believe she said that she didn’t want to be thought of as “lullaby Malubay”. She did a good job with the up-tempo songs and moving around on stage. She also did two more songs, “Love Will Lead You Back”, and “If I Never See Your Face Again”. I don’t think that she did any of those songs on the show, but I’m not totally sure.
After Ramiele, Michael Johns came on stage. Actually, I think that he rose up on stage but I’m not sure. The crowd reacted with a lot of cheering for him. He opened with “We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions”, and though I still don’t really like him, I found him to be entertaining. During the line in that song, “sometimes we lose” he added as a spoken aside “it happens people”. Between songs he “found” a Cubs pennant and was all “what’s this?” jokingly. In true Chicago fashion, there was a very noticeable split between cheers and boos from the Cubs and Sox fans. Michael Johns said that he hoped that the Cubs won. Then he sang “It’s All Wrong, but It’s All Right” which when he performed it on the show I thought it was really strange, but live it was pretty good.
Kristy was the next one to perform and she did a really nice job. She seemed very comfortable on stage and her voice sounded good. The first song she sang was a country song that I’m not familiar with (apparently it’s called “Squeezin the Love Outta You”), then she sang “God Bless the USA” before that song she talked about how she dedicated it to anyone who served our country, and anyone who knows someone who is serving our country. Kristy told us that her father was in the military, and about how much she loves this song. The third song, she said, was another one of her favorites, and I think it was called “Cowgirls”.
Then came Carly. She started with “Bring Me To Life”, which was pretty cool. She talked to us about how she likes Chicago and said that she heard that we’ve got quite a bit of Irish here (lots of cheers), and how she’s heard we dye our river green for St. Patrick’s Day (which we do). She dedicated “I Drove All Night” to all the girls in the audience. It was interesting hearing that one again in close proximity (well, a little over a month) to having heard Cyndi Lauper perform it live, since it’s originally her song. Carly told us that she was so happy to have been able to sing a one of her favorite songs, by one of her favorite bands on the show, and I figured that “Crazy on You” would be the next song she sang - it was, but she started it out really slow and so a lot of the audience sat down (which is what they generally do during ballads) which I thought was a little strange, but then when the song picked up everyone got back up again. Before she left, Carly said some nice things about Brooke, who was the next person to perform.
Brooke rose up onto the stage with a piano and she played “Let it Be”. The second song she did was “1234” and she played her acoustic guitar for it. Before that started she warned us that it would be a perky song and it would involve snapping. She talked about how thankful or grateful she was to be there and so forth. Her third song was one that she said is a particular favorite of her’s, and one that she wishes she would have written. It was Coldplay’s “Yellow”, and during that she played the piano again. I like her version of “Yellow” better than the Coldplay one. The lighting during that song was very pretty as they had yellow star-like lights going on - or maybe they were just projected onto the screen in the back? Not sure. After Brooke finished playing she stood up and talked to us about the efforts made with Idol Gives Back, introducing a film that showed some of the people who were helped by the money donated to Idol Gives Back. After a bit of watching the film, the contestants who had performed so far came on stage and sang “(Pride) In the Name of Love”. Carly and Michael sang lead on this, for the most part.
Then there was intermission, during which there was an on stage Guitar Hero battle between two guys - both of whom I think worked there. That was followed up by a battle of air guitar between two little boys. I kind of felt weird about that one as the boys were apparently friends, and we were supposed to applaud as to who we liked better. They had some more random stuff, and then they aired a commercial for the game Rock Band featuring the Top 10 contestants in costumes as if they were from the 70s acting as a band. It was fun.
The second half of the concert started with Jason Castro. He was a bit hard to understand when he was talking - he seemed shy. He played “ Somewhere Over the Rainbow” with the ukulele, he played a song that I wasn’t familiar with (thanks to Wikipedia I now know that it was called “Crazy” and I think that Jason talked about being crazy before it started, so that makes sense), and then I’m pretty sure he played “Daydream”. He did a nice job, and played some instrument for each of his songs (acoustic guitar for the other two).
Syesha’s set started off rough as there was no sound coming from her microphone. It was really sad to watch because we could see her singing and performing, the band was audible, as were the backup singers, but we couldn’t hear anything from her. There was a quick bit where a little of her vocal came through, but then it went away again. The song she started out with was “Umbrella”, BTW, and they had this pretty background on the screen that looked like lots of purple drops of rain. Finally, someone came out and gave her a new mic around the time of the bridge - so then she checked with us to see if we could hear her and continued signing. She apologized about not being able to do an extra song for us and told us how she was pretty scared by that wondering why she couldn’t hear herself. She said something like, that was the last time she picks up Chikeze’s mic, or something like that. I think she was joking? Her second song was “If I Ain’t Got You” and she did a really nice job with it. The last song that she sang was one that she said was a song that meant a lot to her and that she hoped we could learn something from it (I think that’s what she said, or it was something along those lines). It was a song I hadn’t heard before, but she said it was a cover of a Beyonce song, “Listen”. This may have been my favorite performance of the night. It was very powerful and she seemed to put a lot into it. Even though it was a slower song, a lot of people stood up during it. I think that she said something about David Archuleta coming on stage next, but I’m not too sure.
When David Archuleta was announced (via his silhouette and number showing up on the big screens) the high pitched screaming got really loud. He started out at the piano playing “Angels”, he played “Stand By Me/Beautiful Girls”, there was an upbeat more contemporary number he did - which I thought suited him, and there was something about telling the people who are important to you that you love them. He said something before that one about how he guesses he sings many “message songs”, but that this one has a message that’s very important t him. The songs I didn’t recognize by David Archuleta were “Apologize” by OneRepublic and “When You Say You Love Me” by Josh Groban. He introduced David Cook before he left.
I don’t remember what order David Cook performed his songs, but I do remember that he played guitar on most of them. He played an awesome rendition of “Billie Jean”. He played “Time of My Life”, “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing”, both without using a guitar. There were two other songs that he played, which are totally escaping my memory right now, but I am pretty sure that they were both using his guitar. He put on a really good show. I just looked at the Wikipedia entry on the tour and it refreshed my memory that he started with “Hello”, and that he played “My Hero” which he dedicated to his older brother. I think that he walked off stage and then came back with “Billie Jean” as an encore.
The Wikipedia article also has the listing of what each of the other contestants played - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Idols_LIVE!_Tour_2008
After David Cook finished his set he went off stage, and not too long afterwards the whole group came back on stage and sang “Please Don’t Stop the Music”. They walked on at different times, and for a while it was the top eight, but then the Davids rose up onto the stage on a platform and somebody said, “your top two!” or something like that, and then they walked to the front of the stage and continued. They did a nice job with it, and it was a fun way to end the concert. I noticed that it seems that Brooke has gotten a lot more comfortable with moving around and dancing on stage, so that’s nice. All the contestants waved to us before they walked off stage.
After the show finished, the lines to get out were very long. I decided to stop by the merchandise stand again to buy a photo of Kristy, and I also decided to get a mug (which my brother later discovered - and thankfully before we used it - was made with LEAD PAINT! WTF? Why would they put lead paint on the outside of a product that has a very high likelihood of being used by young people, not to mention why would they use lead paint at all??). There was a little girl who left her camera on the counter, and thanks to the woman next to me asking if it was mine, I noticed it and asked the woman who was just starting to leave with her daughter. It belonged to the little girl.
Then I left.
*EDIT: I forgot to mention that before one of David Cook's songs, he told us how that time last year he was in Chicago for a different reason - seeing Our Lady Peace (his favorite band) at The Vic. Some people, myself included, cheered at his mentioning of The Vic cause it’s a cool venue, but for some reason he thought that we were booing and was like, “why are people booing The Vic?”