American Idol Tour 2008 – The Concert

Wow, there is so much to type up, I’m a little overwhelmed right now.  I’m really glad I wrote up our autograph session before the concert so that is done.  I do want to say that it turns out that Michael Johns DID show up at the autograph session yesterday.  I’m bummed about it but since we went to the meet and greet, I was fine.  (There are SO many names for that thing…the passes say After-Show, the AI guy called it meet and greet and then of course we just called it backstage).

OK, let me get straight to the concert.  I tried to type up the set list as they were singing but there were a few I didn’t know the songs. I didn’t read up on what they were going to sing beforehand so I’m sure these song names are out there.  Also, our seats were in the back halfway up.  They weren’t great.

Chikezie some Stevie song, Caught up and So high walking on Cloud 9 (?).  I was really impressed with Chikezie.  He has a great soulful voice.  He seemed sincere and I think he will make a great recording artist.  In the last song, he had some great falsetto notes.  I really enjoyed him.

Ramiele – Want u back, Love will lead u back, Maroon 5 song.  Out of all of them, I felt Ramiele was least comfortable on the stage.  It’s not that she has a bad voice, I just felt her confidence level at times was really low.  At others, she was a great performer and had a cute little spunk to her.  I would just say, go with it, girl!

Michael Johns We are the champions, It’s all wrong but it’s alright, Dream on.  Michael Johns was ABSOLUTELY AMAZING.  Seriously.  Heather and I kept looking at each other and like, wow, he’s good.   Dream on to me was the best.  He had several notes in there that were like, wow he’s goood.  He was the only one I videoed all three entire songs so you can go hear them.  Michael had so much fun on stage.  He completely owned it while he was up there, he knew how to work the crowd and he was just so much fun during group numbers.  I can not wait until he is on his own.  I will not miss a show.  I went in there loving Michael Johns but now I lurve Michael Johns.

Kristy Lee Cook Squeezin the love out of you ?, God bless the USA, Cowgirls.  Hmm.  Kristy is pretty.  In fact, I was pretty blown away about how skinny and gorgeous she was in person.  But her set?  Brutal honesty?  It was a little boring.  But Heather and I said she would have been perfect for the Coyote Ugly movie.  Good, entertaining but not great.  But she is oh so pretty!

Carly Smithson Bring Me To Life, Crazy on you, I drove all night.  Carly is an amazing talent.  She is absolutely gorgeous. I loved her outfit.  She completely commanded the stage.  Her set blew us away.  Particularly the first song.  I was incredibly impressed with her.  And can I say the woman has great boobs?  Seriously.  Heather and I were both thinking it at the same time and Heather says would it be weird to tell her her boobs look good?  I started laughing and said I was JUST thinking that.

Brooke White Let it be, 1234, Yellow.  Gone was the nervous girl from the show.  She was completely sincere, beautiful, comfortable and just all around a sweetie on stage.

Group Number – In the name of love.  Nice.  Nothing really stood out to recall.  Break was here.

Jason Castro Somewhere over the rainbow, Crazy, Daydream.  Jason mumbled.  A lot.  I had heard you couldn’t understand anything he says and you really can’t.  I heard him say I’m having a great time, are ya’ll?  But his singing was fabulous. He was one of my favorites so I really enjoyed his set.  Simon had said he was like a guy playing on a beach and I agree with what Paula said, I’d want to be there.  Seriously, I could listen to him all day. He was great live.

Syesha Umbrella, If I ain’t got you, My own.  Ok no one can argue that Syesha can blow, as Randy would say.  Her voice filled up that place to the very rim until you thought the roof would blow.  She had a really good performance but honestly?  I felt that’s all we got from her.  A performance. I don’t feel like we got to know the real Syesha.  But the girl can blow.

David Archuleta Loving angels, Apologize,  Stand by me with a mix of Beautiful girls, When u say u love me.  These are the words I wrote when he was singing his first song “pure spiritual connected”.  When Syesha left and David came up through the stage with the piano and sang, it was like his very soul was singing.  I don’t know if I can explain it other than that.  It was such a pure, unforced singing that I did not hear from any other person last night.  He is a true natural talent.  I particularly like Apologize.  I loved that it was a current song out and he did great.  Stand by me was a little boring although he dedicated it to the audience and when he sang Beautiful Girls, he pointed out the all the girls in the crowd and made us all giggle.  The last was a nice song and sweet but as Simon would say, a little forgettable.  The first two were definitely my favorites.

David Cook–  ? Missed what it was we were screaming so much, Hello,  Time of my life,  Miss you, For his brother Alan Hero, and then he came back out for Billie Jean.  David Cook ROCKED last night.  Heather and I kept looking at each other and alternated between saying He is awesome, He is hot and He’s really good.  We screamed until we could not scream anymore almost.  David was totally in his element.  He knew EXACTLY what to do when.  He had a confidence on that stage that has rivaled well almost no one else I’ve seen on stage.  He was sexy and he knew it.  I knew it.  Every single person there knew it.  He paused at times in the songs just so we could all scream for him.  His voice was amazing. I particularly liked Billie Jean.  OMG, I really don’t know how I can say how much we enjoyed him.  I really hate to say but he is up there in my love for Chris Daughtry.  And seriously, that is huge for me.  What I think David was good at is knowing what he is good at and interacting with the crowd.  I’ve seen Daughtry three times and he didn’t work the crowd nearly as much as he could have.  But anyway, this is about David.  He was awesome, I can’t say it enough.

Group number – Please don’t stop the music.  This was so much fun.  As all the reports are saying, Mavid did an umbrella number.  It was really cute.  We were all dancing and it was a GREAT way to end the show.

One other point, my husband was making fun of me for “going to hang out with the teenagers” but let me tell you, I bet the average age was up in the 20s somewhere.  There were A LOT of older women there.  In fact one point I was in the restroom and I was in there with 5 other women probably over 55.  No lie.  Now, there were plenty of screaming teenagers but I would say I was right in the middle.  In fact, the women next to us were probably early 60s and had driven down from Pennsylvania just to see the show.

This was much, much better than the other show we saw two years ago.  It was organized much better and the talent this year was amazing.

OK, now I just have to write up backstage!!

And here all my pictures and videos.  I’m going to work on labeling things better.