So glad to have the Blue Martini back re-capping the Idol show again, this year. Read her recap below
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Hello! I’m 18 years old, and I’ve attended an Idol concert each year since Season 4 (it’s a bit of an annual tradition for me & my mom!). Anyways, so the time came this year-thank goodness the Idols came to Houston, instead of making us drive to Dallas like they did last year!
We arrived at the venue at about 6:15, and the doors opened at 6:30. Now only opening an hour before showtime did not provide enough time to do all that stuff going on. I mean first you go to the merchandise table to buy stuff, after waiting forever in line. Then you go buy food, after waiting in line, and then of course you have to go get your picture where they photoshop in a photo of the idols after waiting in line AGAIN! I ended up giving up on the photo thing because it was 7:25 and we needed to get to our seats! There was no way I was missing a second of the show!
So we went to our seats (man, the staff was crazy about checking your tickets-you had to have 3 people check before going to your seats!). Our seats were located pretty close to the stage! A few minutes later the show started…so I suppose we shall go through the rundown of each of them…
Didi-I really liked Didi on the show, so I was excited to see her. She really did sound great! Like everyone has pretty much said, her songs weren’t really ones to get the crowd going-still loved hearing her sing though!
Andrew-He wasn’t one of my favorites on the show but I thought he still sounded good!
Katie-I always felt that Katie didn’t have too unique of a voice and I just didn’t care for her on the show. But in concert, she was way better than how I remember from the show. I think she displayed much better vocal skills and her songs really suited her. She dedicated “Fighter” to “another Katie Stevens family” (well, later found out that whole story from her twitter).
Oh! Forgot to mention earlier, that the venue was way more crowded than I expected it to be. I was expecting to see the size of the crowd I saw for Season 6-but this seemed to be a bigger crowd. (then again, I could be estimating wrong since the Season 6 concert was at an indoor venue and this one was outside! Why Texas has outdoor venues, I will never understand…)
Tim-A.K.A. Bobby Brady in my family-Oh Tim. My mom and I were really annoyed with him on the show since he was there for so many weeks, but you know, after Idol not being on for the past 2 months, the hate you have for any of the contestants tends to go away, so I actually found Tim to sound good. I think “Better Days” suited him better than “Viva la Vida” though.
Siobhan-Suddenly, the show turned into a rock show. I thought Siobhan was fantastic! She just held that last note of “Paint It Black” for FOREVER and it caused the audience to stand up and cheer. Her other 2 songs were great too.
Aaron-Now the show changes into a country show. I felt he handled the stage much better than on the show and he sang wonderfully.
“The Climb”-Suddenly, it appeared as if some inspirational movement was happening in the audience. I heard shrieks from little kids when they realized what song it was. Everyone rose to their feet-including people sitting in the handicapped section. I thought it was pleasant group number.
Big Mike-I didn’t care for Big Mike on the show, but he still sounded great. I just wish he had 2 kinda more upbeat songs, rather than just the one.
Casey-Well, it’s a rock show again! Casey was really jamming, and he was really excited to be back in his home-state. I know that Houston Chronicle reviewer said something about having pitch problems, but I didn’t hear any-then again, I don’t really recall hearing pitch issues throughout the night. I don’t know-it seems like when you go to a concert, you’re way too wrapped up in the energy and the excitement of being there then to focus on “oh-let’s make sure they’re perfect from note to note”. So I thought Casey was awesome.
Crystal-She was super awesome! Her songs had people up on their feet and singing along! For “Up to the Moutain, ” it felt kinda weird to see her guitarless-you know, she like looks naked without one! haha But I didn’t think she looked too uncomfortable about it. Also, one of the crew brought her a big jug of water on stage and Crystal said something like “Things are really bigger in Texas!”
Lee-The crowd suddenly erupted like a volcano with all the loud cheers! Lee was my favorite this year. I really enjoyed his whole set, and thought he sounded wonderful. I felt he was really passionate and energetic throughout his songs and he looked really happy to be performing.
Group Number-It was really funny to see the 6 guys together and you think back to how this was supposed to be the girls’ season! And then you just see the 4 girls on stage together-haha. Anyways, the final number was fun! It didn’t really have any KAPOW! moments, but everyone was standing and singing along, so a good time was had by all.
Overall, I thought it was a great show-much better than I expected and was pleasantly surprised by some of the contestants!
After the show, I decided to go out and wait by the barricades for the idols to come out. There was a huge mob of people waiting-the staff ended up having to extend the barricades. I think we had been waiting for a half hour, when Aaron Kelly came out! And then after that everyone came out one at a time (including Katie, who the staff said wasn’t coming out! What Liars!). When Aaron came by, I was like “Hi Aaron! How are you?!” in which he responded “Good! How are you?” He was so cute and sweet.
Tim came by and he turned out to be a really nice and funny person. One girl asked him if he liked signing his face, and he mentioned how some people have brought photos of him from the swimsuit competition and how he feels awkward signing those.
When Lee came by, I decided I was going to ask him for a handshake because I was in the 2nd row of people, and I felt it would be impossible to ask for a hug or a photo. So I kept asking him-because other people were screaming stuff at him too. And then he finally heard me and then said “Do you want a hug?” and I was like YESSS! and so the people in front of me were able to kinda move out of the way and Lee was able to pull me into a quick side-hug. He was really sweet. Also with talking with some of the other fans, he mentions how he sometimes reads the messages that people send to him through his website, and he also took a photo with these little kids, which caused one girl to say he should have his own kids (or something like that) and Lee was like “Believe me! I will have kids!” haha.
All of the idols were really sweet. Some little notes about some of the others: Big Mike seemed to be tired. Siobhan seems to be more of a quiet person when not on stage! Didi was really sweet-she received a gift from this girl next to me, so when she autographed the girl’s picture, she put the girl’s name on it and wrote her a message. My mom asked Katie if the tour is what she thought it would be and more, and she said that it definitely was and she talked about how awesome it was.
Overall, it was an AMAZING evening!
Photos: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=263937&id=548617626&l=5229ebd8c7
