Archive: Around Town

Naysayers said that Simon Cowell's departure from American Idol this year would tank the ratings and make the show less fun.  But the new incarnation turned out to be more about the music, with three performers acting as judges and music producers working with the contestants each week.  The show was more than ever one about young rough-edged singers learning to perform music rather than just singing it.

That must have resonated with viewers.  There was a decided dip in ratings for season 9 last year, but while season 10 didn't garner the highest ratings ever, the finale in which it was revealed that Scotty McCreery had won the competition attracted 29.3 million viewers, about five million more than last year's finale.  Tuesday's concert confirmed that American Idol is still alive and well.  There were some empty seats at the War Memorial Auditorium, but most of them were full.
 

And the crowd definitely had its favorites.  You didn't need the Applause Meter from the 1950s 'Queen For A Day' to know that Scotty McCreery was the crowd's favorite. The screams were so loud that one hoped paramedics were standing by with popsicles to provide his fans some throat relief.  Lauren Alaina, James Durbin, Haley Reinhart, and Casey Abrams were also favorites.  And when Alaina and Abrams or McCreery and Alaina paired for duets, the crowd went wild.

They had good reason to.  While it was pretty clear that some of these performers will become stars while others are just good singers, none of the performers disappointed.  Whether performing a solo or as a backup singer for a fellow contestent, they gave a polished performance that they obviously had fun doing.

Anyone who has ever performed live knows that when you put together a show you build to a climax, starting loq so you really feel it when you get to the high point -- you don't go with the same volume, tempo, and emotion for two hours.  Rather, you create variation, mixing ballads with hard hitting songs, providing highs and lows that eventually build to a smashing finale.  If there was anything wretchedly wrong with the Idol concert that was it: for the most part it was an unrelenting pounding of more or less the same.

Reinhart and Abrams' duet was a major crowd pleaser
There were some standout exceptions, though they tended to be because of differences of style rather than of tempo and power.  Casey Abrams' set was quirky and wild, and musically delightful.  When Hailey Reinhart joined him in a duet of 'Moanin' the crowd went bananas.  These are two performers who know how to own the stage, going well beyond 'just singing' to the point where the audience is stirred by their personalities, not just the song.  While the audience's wishful thinking that this duet could also be a couple partially drove the crowd response, it didn't really need to.  They made the performance exciting, and the onstage spark between the two didn't require an offstage one to light the song on fire.

Naima Adedapo probably picked 'On The Floor' as a tribute to Idol judge Jennifer Lopez, but she didn't make the largely one-note 'five minutes of my life that I'll never get back' song better than Lopez's rendition.  That is... until she added her unique style of dance to the piece.  That made you want to see more -- gravity is a law that was meant to be broken for Adedapo, who managed a one-handed cartwheel, and incredibly was able to resume singing without missing a breath after a seemingly impossible dance riff that ended in a split.

James Durbin's hard rock set was another change of pace, though it seemed like a super-pounding on top of a pounding.  Still, when he appeared at the back of the auditorium, singing his way toward the stage with concert security guards flanking him like the trucks that accompany oversized loads on the highway, the crowd loved it.  Durbin seems like a reflection of Adam Lambert, who famously didn't win the competition, but has gone on to become a rock star.  Again, if he differentiates himself in the market we'll be seeing a lot more of him.

By contrast Paul McDonald reminded one of those pathetic tribute performers or singers whose star has faded, like watching a not-cute-anymore Davy Jones performing all the old favorites at the state fair.  Do we need another performance of Rod Stewart's 'Maggie May' really, when it just sounds like... well... Rod Stewart doing 'Maggie May'?  McDonald certainly had fun doing it.  It wasn't quite as much fun for the audience.  Jacob Lusk's two songs were about the same -- relics that didn't exactly explain why they needed revisiting.  While they did show off his incredible vocal range, they didn't reflect anything unque or 'now' about Lusk.

The boys (left). Abrams with his signature double bass (right).

And while Thia Megia and Stefano Langone have incredibly beautiful singing voices that lift your soul, do they rise to the true star quality performance that you know when you see it, because it produces a visceral response in your very soul?  That's the thing that separates star performers from just musicians and singers.

But an American Idol audience is forgiving, because they have followed these contestants through the ups and downs, the top votes and the bottom three, smiles and frowns from the judges, and all those 'it means the world to me' heart wrenching personal stories (that seem highly edited and manipulative when they do them, making you wonder what really happened...).  Still, while the audience obviously liked the weaker performances, they went wild over the outstanding ones, and with the high level of talent on that stage it wasn't easy to be outstanding.

Speaking of going wild, judging from the high timbre of the screams, the tween girl contingent was out in force for Scotty McCreery.  Winning American Idol means you have an easy time on the tour -- McCreery didn't appear until the end of the second set.  This was a relief, because his decidedly country set was, by that time, a very welcome switch from the same beat, often one-note-songs timber of most of the concert.  And his deep, bass voice was a welcome change from the pop, pop -- pop sound.

All the singers have picked up confidence and performance chops over the course of the summer tour.  None exhibited any of the jitters or amateur manifestations that we watched them struggling to conquer during the televised competition.  Those that learned the performance side as well as the music side on the show really excelled in the concert.  And those who suffered from the jitters on television have gained confidence that made each performer much better at selling what they are singing to an audience.

Scotty McCreery is this year's American Idol winner.

McCreery was a prime example.  On the Idol Finale he sang 'I Love You This Big', a vapid song that seemed to accentuate his youth and awkwardness in a way that made you wonder whether the Idol producers weren't trying to sabotage his launch as a singing star.  But on the Syracuse stage it was an entirely different story.  Not that the song is any less vapid, but McCreery punched it differently, and the sentiment behind the song actually worked, making it seem heartfelt and almost a little edgy (well, a little).  He owned it, and it worked.

Reinhart has the whole package -- voice, personality, looks, a unique style, and a stunning sense of performance.  Interestingly, her two solos were songs she performed in the competition, 'The House Of the Rising Sun', and her rendition of Elton John's 'Benny And The Jets' that many thought was her breakout performance on TV.  Neither new songs, but her unique style made them seem new.  Pia Toscano, a very strong contestant who has already successfully launched her career by being eliminated from the competition unexpectedly and shockingly soon, has most of that, but not necessarily the uniqueness that will make a difference between becoming a star or a footnote in Idol lore.  Her new single is pleasant enough and shows off her pipes, but it just seems like one more pop song.

Country and Rock: Lauren Alaina (left) and James Durbin
For Lauren Alaina it may also come down to song choices.  She is clearly one of the strongest singers and personalities among the eleven.  If she sang the phone book you would have to enjoy it.  Her challenge will be to match new songs to her personality that will differentiate her from other popular country singers.  Her rendition of Carrie Underwood's 'Flat On The Floor' was terrific and hard-hitting, but we already have a Carrie Underwood, and this rendition didn't bring anything new to the table, enjoyable as it was.  And her performance of Alison Krause's 'When You Say Nothing At All' with McCreery may have been appreciated more for the musical pairing than for the performance. Alaina's new single, 'Like My Mother Does', was much, much better, well suited to her onstage persona.

On the technical side, the use of enormous LED screens as scenery was innovative and exciting.  The layout of the screens was much more interesting than at the concert two years ago, which used one big screen.  But this show was lit for the set, not the performers.  If you weren't close to the stage this made it harder to pick out the performers from the background, a rookie lighting mistake.  While seeing the closeup on the screen to the right and left of the stage allowed everyone to see the performers 'close up', it seemed odd to light a show for that, rather than the actual performers live on the stage.  It was a little like bringing a portable television set to a football stadium so you can see the game.

Stefano Langone, Pia Toscano

And one huge costume faux pas!  Whose idea was it to make the star of the show look like a shlump?  Really, a flannel shirt and jeans?  It looked like McCreery couldn't be bothered to dress for the performance, or, again, that the Idol producers were trying to sabotage his rising star.  Every other performer dressed for the concert -- it was a show, not just a bunch of people sitting on the front porch pickin' with Sheriff Andy. In the finale he came out in a T-shirt. Oddly an undershirt was an improvement over flannel.

But that's just an old show-biz grinch expecting the best production values from what an American phenomenon.  The American Idol machine is already garnering excitement for season 11 this coming January with coy reports about Jennifer Lopez returning as a judge and excited announcements about auditions for the new season.  The TV show itself often has miserable production values, notably bad sound mixes (can you believe it?!) and bizarre camera angles that detract from the performances.  This year it reportedly took Lopez's then-husband Marc Anthony to realize the singers were off key because they couldn't hear themselves, fixed when he volunteered to spend time with the contestants to teach them how to properly use their in-ear monitors.

(Left to right) lauren Alaina, Thia Megia, Haley Reinhart, Naima Adedapo, Pia Toscano
Evidently production values are not what American Idol is about.  While for Fox it's a really successful money machine, for the audience it's about the singers.  It's about young performers coming from places in America that we all live in to win the entertainment lottery and get the opportunity to become a superstar if they have the talent, drive, agents, and producers to make that happen.  It is surprising how many of them don't, virtually disappearing after doing very well on the show.  It is thrilling when some of them do.

Scanning the crowd, you saw all ages except, perhaps the demographic you would expect -- the late teens, early twenties set.  There were people of all other ages, and certainly some from that demographic.  But this was more of a family event than a pop concert.  Even though those McCreery fans seemed awfully young, look at the huge success of Hannah Montana, and she was just a fictional pop star!  That is not an audience to be underestimated.  And the... ahem... older contingent was well represented and having a rockin' great time.

A considerable crowd gathered behind the theater after the concert to watch their favorites travel the width of the sidewalk from the auditorium to the busses, cell phone cameras flashing, and cheers that rivaled in volume those inside the concert.  Which of this year's batch will become the next Clarkson, Daughtry, Underwood, Sparks, or Lambert?  Tuesday's concert gave us some clues, and was a lot of fun to boot.  Some of these singers will certainly become superstars, and Tuesday's audience was all about making that happen.

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