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'American Idol' Season 9 Tour: Crystal Bowersox says 'What's Up,' Los Angeles
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The "American Idol" Season 9 tour came to Los Angeles Friday, Aug. 13 and we got ourselves a ticket. Not a hard thing to do, since the concert was nowhere near sold out.However, the Top 10 still gave an energetic show. At this point in the tour, when shows have already been canceled for lack of ticket sales, the enthusiasm is commendable.
Much like the season itself, the concert featured much stronger female performances than male ones.
Didi Benami kicked it off and it's actually kind of fortunate she went out first of the Top 10 because her "Terrified" was one of the best songs of the night. At least the concert opened strong, which would not have been the case if Andrew Garcia, Tim Urban or Aaron Kelly had hit the stage first.
Crystal Bowersox was the evening's penultimate soloist, but still manged to bring the house down. All four of her numbers -- "What's Up," "Come to My Window," "Up to the Mountain" and "Piece of My Heart" -- were spectacular. She hasn't lost her stage presence, was having fun and the audience responded accordingly. But why no "Me and Bobby McGee"?
And, yes, Siobhan Magnus' "Paint it Black" was suitably melt-your-face-off with her patented shrieks, especially since she got to do the whole number and not just the 90-second "Idol" version.
Not that "Idol" the men were totally devoid of good performances.
Second runner-up, Casey James, had the best night outside of Bowersox and Lee DeWyze. He did "Don't" from Shania Twain week and "It's All Over Now" from Stones week, plus "I Got Mine" by The Black Keys. James recently signed with the Sony Nashville label and country should be a great career path for him. Away from the pressures of a "singing" competition, it was nice to see him free to wail on his guitar.
Winner Dewyze concluded the evening's solo performances and he had a decent set, but it was a bit anticlimactic after Bowersox. The energy of audience seemed to deflate. However, his "Rocket Man," "Use Somebody" and "Treat Her Like a Lady" were all solid, and his "Hallelujah" was once again beautiful.
And those holding out hope to see Bowersox and DeWzye perform their "Falling Slowly" duet live were in for a disappointment
Instead, the "Idol" guys started out on "It's My Life," complete with cheesy choreography. The girls came in on "My Life Would Suck Without You," and that got better, but it wasn't a strong way to end the show -- which might just be a metaphor for the season as a whole.
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There was never any doubt that Crystal had talent, but she sings songs that are old and outddated. Lee has the knack of taking an old song and making it sound like it could be on the radio today. I saw Lee at the Newark show and he got the loudest cheers of all of them.
I saw the show at two locations this summer. In both locations, Lee was clearly the star the crowd came to see and received far more applause and audience adoration than any of the other singers. Most of the reviews I've read pan Didi, but praise Aaron, Katie, and Siobahn. It seems like this writer saw a different show than most. Hmmm...
Please stop with the, "my idol is better than yours" crap. If you have ears and actually listen to his songs with your ears rather than your genitals, you will discover that Lee is not very good!!! Good Luck Lee, just pray every night that someone invented Autotune!!
Its really amazing that lee's fangirl club cannot take it when someone praises crystal. You really need to find those diplomatic reviews where your boy was mentioned becos he was the 'winner' and he didnt choke on stage. Its better to focus your energies posting there cos believe me if you read every single review you are in for a dissapointment. surely not everyone is gonna be that kind to the tweeen screaming. (by the way most reviews say that tim gets the most screaming so he should be the best singer i guess).
Crystal is much praised and respected in the music industry now including people like melissa ethridge, linda perry and michael franti coming forward and sayin they admire her and would want to work with her. Who has said anything about lee? They are so far apart its almost a joke to compare them. These people get defensive at the slightest hint that crystal's name is mentioned, it seem they are in more denial of his "win" than her fans. Jus chill people and enjoy him while he lasts.. and if he doesnt there are still plenty of cute white boys on guitar around.. peace
To the previous comment: I have read a lot of reviews about Lee and Crystal, and can say that definitely women across ages love him, from little girls to senior citizens. Some men who claim they don't "listen to their genitals" get very verbally abusive when it comes to Lee. I think a lot of men can't accept Lee because he melts all the women's hearts and thereby presents a threat to them. But apart from all this senseless finger pointing, both of them deserve a place in music industry and both have loyal fans. Seems like Lee's fan base is a bit wider, but time will show... Crystal has a great voice and a great stage presense, and Lee is an extremely talented songwriter and someone who like no other is emotionally connected with every word he sings.
American Idol has a history of getting it wrong. Adam Lambert, Crystal Bowersox and Clay Aiken have all overshadowed the winners of their seasons. I blame this on the voting system which is set up to make AT&T rich by unlimted text voting. If American Idol wants any credibility they would go to a one person - one vote system.
Rita:
I believe you, it's the WOMEN who vote for lee. I guess there should be a reason why women vote 4 lee n it's pretty black n white, don't u think? Whether it's the hormones or motherly care or just feels sorry the poor fella getting picked on, none of those accumulate to the talent n this is supposed to be a talent show.
I don't blame lee either it wasn't his fault. I blame the show with their constantly reminding back stories, staging an "idol moment" n the biased voting system (the list goes on). No wonder Randy almost chocked on his final critique to crystal, maybe he realized the mistake he had done.
Lee is an extremely talented songwriter n most emotional on stage?? Are you kidding me..? Have u even listened to crystal's songs? They have so many range from heartfelt love songs (speak now) to political stands (hellbent) to social taboos (saved by grace, cry no more). Each song is so deep n sung with so much emotions tt at the end of it u give a sigh of relief or think urself 'Eff me' (which I literaly did).
The only thing lee has is his voice (his guitar skills ain't better either- crystal picks while lee just strums). For my taste it sounds too forceful n not unique while crystal is more natural n organic. The only emotional songs sung on ai9 were from crystal which were people get ready n upto the mountain. It takes a lot of emotional to breakdown n cry at the end or almost cry as in the latter song.
There are two many lees out there right now it's difficult to set them apart but there is only one dreadheaded soulful white singer n her name is crystal bowersox.
Both Lee and Crystal are talented. I happen to like Crystal a lot more than Lee, but I believe both will have great music careers. Don't underestimate Lee. I think he will do just fine in the long run. As for Bowersox, she's the best and I will buy her CD and pay money to see her perform ASAP.
Please don't say all women love Lee. I'm not one of them thanks.
With Clay-it was the voting system that wastotally screwed up. At that time-AI afforded each finalist just ONE phone line and just 2 hours of voting time. Definately NOT enough to handle the 'millions of votes OVER RUBEN that was trying to get in for Clay'---as two producers admitted a few months later: 'Clay was receiving 80 percent of the vote EVERY SINGLE WEEK HE WAS ON'. Remember- the very next year, and each year since, all finalists arewere given 2-3 phone lines each and FOUR hours of voting time. Although there wouldn't be another contestant with such a skewered voting difference since Clay-AI just wasn't going to take the chance of that fiasco happening again!! If you compare Clay's and Ruben's careers (and the way AI treated Clay following that season as opposed to the way they treated Ruben, you knew they knew who the real winner was. Clay was the Emcee for the AI2 Xmas Special; Clay narrated AI2 Rewind; Clay was a guest on AI more than Ruben,etc.)-you would never doubt that Clay was the 'REAL AI2 WINNER'.