Karen who sat next to little angie, modeling Michael Sarver’s jacket after she caught it!

LittleAngie’s Big American Idol Adventure or a Manchester Concert Recap

Because this is a recap of the very last concert, I am not going to worry about how long it is. My decision to go the Manchester concert was very last minute; MJ e-mailed me that I could have her extra ticket and I went. Reading this, I hope you feel as though you were there because you really were. Especially during two moments of the concert that I will get to later. By the way, I have not read any recaps or looked at any videos yet because I don’t want my impressions to be influenced by them. This was my third concert. I went to concerts in Milwaukee, Chicago/Rosemont and Manchester. My eighty-four year old mother who only knows about the Chicago concert–and that’s because she went with me– actually told me I was crazy to fly off to Manchester. No comment. The venue wasn’t as comfortable as either Milwaukee or Rosemont, but the view was great thanks to the two elementary school girls sitting in the row in front of us.

The concert was in one word: wonderful. The Idols seemed to feel this performance was special and the audience responded. I saw affection for the Idols at the other two concerts, but the outpouring of love for all of them in Manchester was touching. Some of you might feel that your favorite has not gotten the respect they deserved during the concert tour, but let me tell you, last night they did. I think that is the way it is with our favorites, they are the only ones we notice. The stage can be filled with people, but that one person (performer, child, beloved) is the one we follow with our eyes. If we think they are slighted, it hurts us. Be assured there was no slighting last night. I looked out into the arena and it was filled with twirling glow sticks, camera and cell phone light. This sweet woman, I think she belonged to a fan club–she brought the most beautiful bouquet of tie-die roses to give someone, handed out blue glow necklaces. Our section was a sea of florescent blue. It was obvious how happy the audience was to be there.

The SYTYCD dancers paraded through the arena. I don’t know whether they were sent out by the producers to get people excited about their upcoming show or whether they were going to their seats for the concert. All I do know is that I couldn’t find them at intermission and that they are extremely good looking.

The concert:

Michael Sarver always seems good to me. I think that’s because I don’t expect much from him and because he seems to understand that he will always be a second favorite, attracting fans by saying the right things and by being nice to them instead of by his singing. He mentioned that his wife was there.

Megan, Scott and Lil (along with Michael) are all minor talents. I am sure there are hundreds, if not thousands of people at last season’s auditions who sing as well, if not better than any of them. The four of them did their best last night. Again liked Megan’s first song and Scott’s second one. They both had an adorable moment. Megan ditched the Barbie dress for one that she seemed far more comfortable in and during her second number, a very masculine, handsome, tattooed crew member walked out in her pink dress. She ignored him and kept singing; it was a great sight gag. And when Scott was doing his stand-up, Aaron Spears came over wearing a giant Mickey Mouse hand and gave Scott a high five. Lil, on the other hand just did her routine. I kept hoping, even as the last bars of Single Ladies died away, that Megan and Michael and maybe even Scott or Allison and Danny would come out and dance behind her, but it never happened.

Anoop and Matt. Alison, Anoop gave it his all. He sang beautifully, but I don’t see much future for him unless he finds a band that needs a smooth-voiced front man. Adam might be bringing back Queen/Bowie style glam rock, but there is interest in that. Anoop, unfortunately, is bringing back Perry Como (Alison, ask your mother who he is) and nobody wants to hear that again. Matt continues to impress me as the most under-rated of the Idols. It always struck me how on the show he seemed to be confused by his bad critiques. As though he thought that he was at least as good as others who got better judges’ response. I remember Adam saying that Matt was incredibly talented (I think that’s a quote) and the others said that when they were hanging around the house, Matt would play piano and they would sing. So I wondered whether there was more to Matt than we saw on the show. I think the tour proved that to be true. In fact, while some reviews have said that the order of the top four performers should have been switched around, I never read a review that said that someone other than Matt should have been the headliner of the first half. I do think, however, that Anoop is the star of the group number.

I thought Allison was great. She really was a rock star last night. I liked Cry Baby the best and had no problems with So What this time. Maybe it was because I knew what to expect. There are seventeen year olds and there are seventeen year olds–she is one wild child. I hope it doesn’t become a problem for her. She came out with a weird black wig which she put on someone’s head. And during Slow Ride she wore this thing that I can only describe as having a decorated cup (like a sports cup) in the front and a black, boa-ish tail in the back. When she took it off, it came off in one piece. I think that Slow Ride is the most entertaining number of the entire concert (followed by the two group numbers). It was very sweet when Adam kissed her hand. An aside, (I think it was when the curtain fell during Kris’ performance) Tim Stewart had huge red kiss marks on his face. I think someone must read the blogs.

Danny Gokey reminds me of a kid who used to be on my son’s soccer team. The parents thought the kid was the best soccer player ever, but he had only played in inferior leagues under inferior coaches so that even though he had a lot of talent, he never achieved the skills needed to become great. When he moved to my son’s team, the parents were horrified that their son no longer scored four goals a game. Well, duh, you can’t score if you’re so busy looking at your feet you can’t see the field. Danny is like that. He has a great voice. Since it is deep and gravelly, it kind of indicates that AI doesn’t only want high notes. But Danny can’t tell a story with a song. When the song gets to its climax, he just gets louder. For me his biggest flaw during AI was that in the time between his receipt of the golden ticket and his trip to Hollywood, he never bothered to learn contemporary music. If you were going on Jeopardy, you’d study up, wouldn’t you? He seemed proud during the interview with Michael Slezak that he knew nothing about the music he was supposed to sing. On the other hand, it was obvious how well prepared Adam (every time) and Kris (most times) were. But the crowd loves Danny. He has a lot of fans. At every concert I attended, there were mad cheers for him. Of course, two of those concerts were Milwaukee and Chicago (Milwaukee south). He really is a personable guy (see finale). I liked all but his last song. His speech was too long this time, but it was the last concert.

Now I am going to put Adam where he belongs: first place, and go on to Kris. Kris was great. He really connected with the audience and with the music. I still feel Kris would be more comfortable in a band because he seems happier when there are others on the stage with him or when the audience is singing along. And we really sang along in Manchester. It was wonderful to see how much the others like Kris. He was so moved when Michael, Anoop and Matt came out with the boas. I didn’t hear it when he said that he’d miss those guys, but I heard it when he talked about you. He was thanking the crowd and he mentioned the people who had come to way too many shows. In that moment, you were all there. He wasn’t just talking to those fans in the audience who had been to so many shows that he could recognize them in the crowd he was talking to you who were watching/listening to the concert via the Adamcast or reading MJ’s blog throughout the night. He was thanking you for all your love and support.

I think Adam should have won AI because the season belonged to him. Like his music or hate it, he was the reason so many of us watched week after week, the reason so many of us went to way too many concerts and spent way too much time on the internet. If AI wins an Emmy next week, that will be Adam’s first major award. Last night, I think the other Idols tried their best to sing beautifully while inside the boxes AI had placed them while Adam cast off AI. With his Zodiac Club hair and a little glitter around the eyes and everything on the list tossed in–woman, groans, microbation, swivel hips, backdoor man, WLL felt like a parody. It felt like a Zodiac Club version of the song. Now don’t misunderstand me. I have seen this number live three times. It seemed strangely subdued in Milwaukee. I have come to the conclusion that Milwaukee was an odd concert. It was sexy and butch in Chicago. I think the Manchester version was Adam saying this is the last concert, this is me and this is how I want to sing this song. Starlight, on the other hand, has always been a little OTT. Love it anyway. Mad World was especially good last night in spite of the screaming by the darling tweens (no sarcasm intended) sitting next to me. Loved SR even though Allison cracked Adam up a couple of time and he was very busy responding to the flood of objects tossed on the stage. Bowie was great as usual. I do wonder however whether his voice is back to well.

The finale was wonderful. I felt bad for the people who had never seen DSB before because the Idols couldn’t even finish it with all the silliness, especially the silly string. At first I thought Adam’s make-up was like the one he wore for the duet with KISS, but then I saw Suzy’s (I think) picture and it stuck me he was made-up more like Pagliacci, the sad clown. It almost seemed either that he had been crying or that he did his make-up to give the impression of tears. It doesn’t surprise me that the Idols didn’t want to get off the stage. When my daughter was in plays and ice shows, no one wanted the finale of the last performance to end and destroy the magic that had created a community out of disparate people. I remember standing at the side of the ice rink, especially when she was little, watching her skate around the edges while the stars of the show did their jumps and spins in costume for the last time. That was what last night’s finale was for me and I felt blessed to experience it. Once the Idols walked off the stage Season 8 would be over. That was the second time you were there. I had seen your hugs, your passes around the rink the night before when I read your sorrow about what would happen to this community and the shared love for Season 8 once MJ moved on to Season 9.

On a lighter note, during DSB, all the objects that had been kept from previous shows fell from the rafters. The Idols picked them up and tossed them into the audience much to our amusement. Danny and Michael tossed their coats. Danny even tossed the pair of glasses he was wearing. The lovely woman with the noisy tweens caught Danny’s jacket(she loved Adam, the girls Danny and Kris. Another daughter and some friends were in the front row because they had camped out all night to be first in line to buy tickets. These are fans who never visit websites. There’s a big world out there that loves the Idols without ever visiting an AI website. Can you imagine?). MJ has a couple of pictures of her in it. Kris who was wearing Adam’s jacket pretended to toss it into the audience. Adam looked appalled. It was during this throwing frenzy that Adam took off his gloves and threw them into the audience. Then he stopped for a moment and decided to take off his jewelry. I think there were a lot of fan groups in the front center rows and Adam threw things to them. He mouthed that one of the necklaces was heavy just before he threw it and he apologized to someone for tossing her beautiful bouquet of roses into the crowd. He throws pretty well, by the way.

I have had a lot of fun lurking on this site. It was part of my morning routine to the detriment of the things I should have been doing. I have enjoyed reading all the threads, all the comments. I have liked the gentle teasing and the displays of concern. It was so much fun going to the concert with MJ last night. I hope to meet you all on this site again, but in all honesty, I don’t think I’ll care about any contestant the way I did Adam. However if any of you in the Midwest are going to his solo concert, will you let me know?

66 Responses to “Little Angie’s American Idol Tour 2009 Manchester, NH Recap”