Tour review - Boston
HAI I SOMETIMES GO HERE! But this is my first time posting like, a post, and not a comment or a Saturday Secret, so HAI! (Most of my Saturday Secrets are about David Cook, because he is my sekrit AI boyfriend or about stabbing people's faces. But this is a post about ADAM. And a bit about KRIS. And also there were some other people.)
I went with astolat, bayleaf and giddygeek. We were late, because we had to wait for someone to get off work and get to my house, and I am not saying her name because she lives too close to me and would come kick my ass. So we missed Matt, Megan, Lil, Scott, and all but the last .5 seconds of Anoop. What I heard of Anoop as the security guard was chasing the teenyboppers out of our 4th row seats was great.
We met elements after the concert, because she recognized bayleaf from a con, and we tugged her along with us for pizza and booze and gelato afterward. Awesome post-concert hangout. But in between...
I didn't take any pictures, because astolat was right beside me and totally had audio-visual duty covered. She's got a lot of it already uploaded (link at the end). We had great seats, 4th row just left of center, close enough we could have been at opposite ends of my living room. (Had they not been singing their faces off surrounded by a jillion screaming fans at the time, my southern upbringing would have compelled me to offer them a glass of tea and a sandwich.)
So, skipping the ones we missed. I admit, the only one I'm really sad I missed was Anoop. I think we're going to the Manchester show, though, so I'll catch him there.
Matt -- loved his first song, Hard to Handle. Georgia slowed things down a bit too much, I thought - I wish it had been at either the beginning or end of the set. You Found Me was awesome. I know everybody says this, but I liked him much more than I had thought I would, far better live than on the show. He just didn't move me much on the show, I didn't dislike him, but he didn't strike a chord. Live, he was really really good, funny and engaging in a way the other idols, even Adam and Kris, weren't. Not that they aren't capable of it, we know from the show that they are, but Matt was obviously choosing to be interactive, and the others chose to be much less so. I would totally buy a Matt Giraud album. Somebody should sign him.
I liked the dueling Billy Joel number on piano with Matt and Scott. Barely recognized Scott with most of his hair under a hat. I was like, "Who is that guy?" Then I remembered Scott exists, and knew it was him because I was spoiled for the number. (Yeah, I'm pretty awesome, right?)
Beggin' was kind of lame. Lil and Megan's voices do absolutely nothing for each other. Sweet moment with Matt leading Scott out to his mic though.
I love Allison. I think she's awesome. That said, Allison's first song (So What) was not great (for me, for you). She sang only some of the words. I wasn't sure if she was trying to get the audience to supply the missing words, or what. If so, the audience was not clued in. (Later it occurred to me that maybe she was relying on some kind of backing track for parts of the song, and the sound system might have failed her. I don't know!) Also her voice bottomed out a few times, too low even for her range, and you could just hear her lose whole words to that in addition to just neglecting to sing some of them. Great energy, though, she looked awesome, and I really loved Cry Baby and Barracuda. You could see she totally loved being on stage, and the audience (and I) loved her.
Danny... Let me just get this out of the way. I don't like Danny, like, at all. I went prepared to hate, unashamed! But it has to be said...Danny has great arms. He's got a really good voice, too, and maybe I would have liked him more if he'd chosen songs I liked instead of songs that made me want to spork his eyes out. But that said, if AI had been an arms contest, I totally would have voted for Danny. I was ready to be displeased with his set on account of my hateration, and then he took his jacket off. It was like he KNEW MY WEAKNESS. bayleaf leaned over and said to me, "I think he bought that girl's top a size too small." I said, "I don't care. Look at his biceps." You have to give it to him, the arms are impressive. Also, I think he sang some stuff? astolat and I made many "ugh" faces at each other during his mini-sermon. The inspirational forest-with-sun-peaking-through-trees background image was a world of lame, and just generally embarrassing to look at. (There, my hate is restored! I feel somewhat better now.)
And then Adam, who I showed up for, because I am full of sparkly love for him. But my love, alas, is not even half as sparkly as his belt buckle was, which made me love him even more. Because clearly in addition to being hot, and amazing, and awesome, and adorable, he's also total dork; nobody wears a belt buckle like that without laughing at themselves inside, and he totally was. =) And his voice has entire tones and shades that we never heard on the show. It's like the aural equivalent of the difference between black and white, and color. I know a couple of people were less than impressed and thought he was lip synching, but no offense, those people were on crack. We were close enough to tell - there was no lip synching. If you check out astolat's videos, you can see the breath breaks and watch his throat -- he was singing the whole time. And he was wildly, wildly good - I was so impressed with him, and I say that as someone who didn't know she could get more impressed with him. Apparently there are levels of love for him that can only be achieved while he's singing his heart out to your face.
Anyway, songs - Whole Lotta Love - seriously, the man is made of Slinky (tm). He has more vertebrae than most people. Crotch grab, much thrusting, great deal of love for microphone stand, graphically expressed. He is AWESOME, and clearly loving his life right now. He's in fabulous shape. And the thing I said about Danny's arms above, I totally took back when Adam took off HIS jacket. He totally won the arms contest too, uh, hands down. He's been working out and it shows. I was completely entranced. Um, by the singing and performing. For the most part. =) Starlight was life-changing. I am a new person now. Mad World was ethereally beautiful as expected; he did the nice falling note on "ever" in "best I ever had" that has made me wildly happy since he started doing it. And he and Allison were so adorable for Slow Ride. It was great, and they hugged at the end. I was v. happy, because I loved that on the show and it didn't show up (too dark or cut off) in most of the tour videos I've seen. And I totally fucking loved the Bowie medley - knew I would love Life on Mars, but was not prepared for how happy and dorked out I got over Let's Dance. He started singing it and I felt psychically compelled to obey. (that is a story that needs writing.)
(Side note: During intermission, a very um, fervent, lady decked out in more Adam gear than I thought existed in the world (srsly, there were flashing lights on her hat) came up to our row and asked astolat if she would throw something onstage for Adam. She was in row 17 and too far back. Then she handed astolat the most gigantic leopard print bra I have ever seen. Seriously, if you've ever met astolat - she could have hung this between two trees and used it for a hammock. It was brand new, so that at least was good, and we're assuming the size was meant to give it heft. There is absolutely nothing astolat is unwilling to do, so she promised (she was made to promise, several times) to throw it to him. Which she did, and Adam twirled it around his head and fired it back into the audience. Yeah, that was us. The hilarious part was, he fired it right back to us; It landed on bayleaf's head. I think I tweeted something about his uncannily accurate aim.)
Then there was Kris, and he was also fantastic. Others were really good, but it was obvious that the right two guys made it to the finale; they were orders of magnitude better than everyone else, negl. Is that okay to say? Look, I love Kradison as much as anybody, but I have to include Allison in that statement. I wish she'd made top three, she deserved to make top three, but these two guys are right where they're supposed to be. I loved Heartless, loved how Kris plays guitar and piano with his entire body, loved that he also has range and depth we never heard on the show; his voice is far richer and goes far deeper when you hear him live. He said "Let's slow things down" for Aint No Sunshine - and that was not my idea of slowing down. It was awesome. It's always been my favorite of the stuff he did on the show. I'm glad we were sitting where we were; we could actually see him; I imagine the people at center stage saw a piano and a tuft of hair. The No Boundaries replacement really worked great for him - he's so into it and so adorable with it. It stayed with me, I was singing it in my head as we left. Someone threw him a Red Sox t-shirt during his set and he held it up, then later when he and Adam came up for the finale song, he was wearing it under his jacket. Bright Lights knocked me flat, it was so good. I've always had a secret crush on that song, and Kris is great at it. I wish he hadn't tried to go so high on "baby baby baby" because the sound vanished every time he did it; his voice just doesn't have the support to get up there. But I loved the way he did the rest of that song way more than enough to compensate. Hey Jude was as corny and cheesy and wonderful as that song has always been, and I can't leave out adorable white-haired guy ahead of us in the second row rocking out to it, which was fun and hilarious. I don't know who that guy came with, but he stayed for bb Kris.
And then there was the adorable Kradam dance during DSB, and lots of eye contact and grinning, which was worth the price of admission, and just ♥ ♥ ♥. The dance looked really good, they were both using their moves and obviously having a blast with each other. I have given those few seconds of interaction a great deal of mental real estate for the past few days - it's my new happy place.
And here is the video astolat took! I think she's still uploading stuff, but some of it you can already see here. She got some really good stuff; my favorites are Starlight and the Kradam dance at the end =).
~
ETA: If you go to astolat's youtube page, it's also worth it to scroll down past the Boston show uploads to the GMA performance, which is its own brand of hilarity. It's like, plaid, plaid, plaid, plaid, ADAM, plaid... One of those things is definitely not like the others =D
I went with astolat, bayleaf and giddygeek. We were late, because we had to wait for someone to get off work and get to my house, and I am not saying her name because she lives too close to me and would come kick my ass. So we missed Matt, Megan, Lil, Scott, and all but the last .5 seconds of Anoop. What I heard of Anoop as the security guard was chasing the teenyboppers out of our 4th row seats was great.
We met elements after the concert, because she recognized bayleaf from a con, and we tugged her along with us for pizza and booze and gelato afterward. Awesome post-concert hangout. But in between...
I didn't take any pictures, because astolat was right beside me and totally had audio-visual duty covered. She's got a lot of it already uploaded (link at the end). We had great seats, 4th row just left of center, close enough we could have been at opposite ends of my living room. (Had they not been singing their faces off surrounded by a jillion screaming fans at the time, my southern upbringing would have compelled me to offer them a glass of tea and a sandwich.)
So, skipping the ones we missed. I admit, the only one I'm really sad I missed was Anoop. I think we're going to the Manchester show, though, so I'll catch him there.
Matt -- loved his first song, Hard to Handle. Georgia slowed things down a bit too much, I thought - I wish it had been at either the beginning or end of the set. You Found Me was awesome. I know everybody says this, but I liked him much more than I had thought I would, far better live than on the show. He just didn't move me much on the show, I didn't dislike him, but he didn't strike a chord. Live, he was really really good, funny and engaging in a way the other idols, even Adam and Kris, weren't. Not that they aren't capable of it, we know from the show that they are, but Matt was obviously choosing to be interactive, and the others chose to be much less so. I would totally buy a Matt Giraud album. Somebody should sign him.
I liked the dueling Billy Joel number on piano with Matt and Scott. Barely recognized Scott with most of his hair under a hat. I was like, "Who is that guy?" Then I remembered Scott exists, and knew it was him because I was spoiled for the number. (Yeah, I'm pretty awesome, right?)
Beggin' was kind of lame. Lil and Megan's voices do absolutely nothing for each other. Sweet moment with Matt leading Scott out to his mic though.
I love Allison. I think she's awesome. That said, Allison's first song (So What) was not great (for me, for you). She sang only some of the words. I wasn't sure if she was trying to get the audience to supply the missing words, or what. If so, the audience was not clued in. (Later it occurred to me that maybe she was relying on some kind of backing track for parts of the song, and the sound system might have failed her. I don't know!) Also her voice bottomed out a few times, too low even for her range, and you could just hear her lose whole words to that in addition to just neglecting to sing some of them. Great energy, though, she looked awesome, and I really loved Cry Baby and Barracuda. You could see she totally loved being on stage, and the audience (and I) loved her.
Danny... Let me just get this out of the way. I don't like Danny, like, at all. I went prepared to hate, unashamed! But it has to be said...Danny has great arms. He's got a really good voice, too, and maybe I would have liked him more if he'd chosen songs I liked instead of songs that made me want to spork his eyes out. But that said, if AI had been an arms contest, I totally would have voted for Danny. I was ready to be displeased with his set on account of my hateration, and then he took his jacket off. It was like he KNEW MY WEAKNESS. bayleaf leaned over and said to me, "I think he bought that girl's top a size too small." I said, "I don't care. Look at his biceps." You have to give it to him, the arms are impressive. Also, I think he sang some stuff? astolat and I made many "ugh" faces at each other during his mini-sermon. The inspirational forest-with-sun-peaking-through-trees background image was a world of lame, and just generally embarrassing to look at. (There, my hate is restored! I feel somewhat better now.)
And then Adam, who I showed up for, because I am full of sparkly love for him. But my love, alas, is not even half as sparkly as his belt buckle was, which made me love him even more. Because clearly in addition to being hot, and amazing, and awesome, and adorable, he's also total dork; nobody wears a belt buckle like that without laughing at themselves inside, and he totally was. =) And his voice has entire tones and shades that we never heard on the show. It's like the aural equivalent of the difference between black and white, and color. I know a couple of people were less than impressed and thought he was lip synching, but no offense, those people were on crack. We were close enough to tell - there was no lip synching. If you check out astolat's videos, you can see the breath breaks and watch his throat -- he was singing the whole time. And he was wildly, wildly good - I was so impressed with him, and I say that as someone who didn't know she could get more impressed with him. Apparently there are levels of love for him that can only be achieved while he's singing his heart out to your face.
Anyway, songs - Whole Lotta Love - seriously, the man is made of Slinky (tm). He has more vertebrae than most people. Crotch grab, much thrusting, great deal of love for microphone stand, graphically expressed. He is AWESOME, and clearly loving his life right now. He's in fabulous shape. And the thing I said about Danny's arms above, I totally took back when Adam took off HIS jacket. He totally won the arms contest too, uh, hands down. He's been working out and it shows. I was completely entranced. Um, by the singing and performing. For the most part. =) Starlight was life-changing. I am a new person now. Mad World was ethereally beautiful as expected; he did the nice falling note on "ever" in "best I ever had" that has made me wildly happy since he started doing it. And he and Allison were so adorable for Slow Ride. It was great, and they hugged at the end. I was v. happy, because I loved that on the show and it didn't show up (too dark or cut off) in most of the tour videos I've seen. And I totally fucking loved the Bowie medley - knew I would love Life on Mars, but was not prepared for how happy and dorked out I got over Let's Dance. He started singing it and I felt psychically compelled to obey. (that is a story that needs writing.)
(Side note: During intermission, a very um, fervent, lady decked out in more Adam gear than I thought existed in the world (srsly, there were flashing lights on her hat) came up to our row and asked astolat if she would throw something onstage for Adam. She was in row 17 and too far back. Then she handed astolat the most gigantic leopard print bra I have ever seen. Seriously, if you've ever met astolat - she could have hung this between two trees and used it for a hammock. It was brand new, so that at least was good, and we're assuming the size was meant to give it heft. There is absolutely nothing astolat is unwilling to do, so she promised (she was made to promise, several times) to throw it to him. Which she did, and Adam twirled it around his head and fired it back into the audience. Yeah, that was us. The hilarious part was, he fired it right back to us; It landed on bayleaf's head. I think I tweeted something about his uncannily accurate aim.)
Then there was Kris, and he was also fantastic. Others were really good, but it was obvious that the right two guys made it to the finale; they were orders of magnitude better than everyone else, negl. Is that okay to say? Look, I love Kradison as much as anybody, but I have to include Allison in that statement. I wish she'd made top three, she deserved to make top three, but these two guys are right where they're supposed to be. I loved Heartless, loved how Kris plays guitar and piano with his entire body, loved that he also has range and depth we never heard on the show; his voice is far richer and goes far deeper when you hear him live. He said "Let's slow things down" for Aint No Sunshine - and that was not my idea of slowing down. It was awesome. It's always been my favorite of the stuff he did on the show. I'm glad we were sitting where we were; we could actually see him; I imagine the people at center stage saw a piano and a tuft of hair. The No Boundaries replacement really worked great for him - he's so into it and so adorable with it. It stayed with me, I was singing it in my head as we left. Someone threw him a Red Sox t-shirt during his set and he held it up, then later when he and Adam came up for the finale song, he was wearing it under his jacket. Bright Lights knocked me flat, it was so good. I've always had a secret crush on that song, and Kris is great at it. I wish he hadn't tried to go so high on "baby baby baby" because the sound vanished every time he did it; his voice just doesn't have the support to get up there. But I loved the way he did the rest of that song way more than enough to compensate. Hey Jude was as corny and cheesy and wonderful as that song has always been, and I can't leave out adorable white-haired guy ahead of us in the second row rocking out to it, which was fun and hilarious. I don't know who that guy came with, but he stayed for bb Kris.
And then there was the adorable Kradam dance during DSB, and lots of eye contact and grinning, which was worth the price of admission, and just ♥ ♥ ♥. The dance looked really good, they were both using their moves and obviously having a blast with each other. I have given those few seconds of interaction a great deal of mental real estate for the past few days - it's my new happy place.
And here is the video astolat took! I think she's still uploading stuff, but some of it you can already see here. She got some really good stuff; my favorites are Starlight and the Kradam dance at the end =).
~
ETA: If you go to astolat's youtube page, it's also worth it to scroll down past the Boston show uploads to the GMA performance, which is its own brand of hilarity. It's like, plaid, plaid, plaid, plaid, ADAM, plaid... One of those things is definitely not like the others =D