Jul 04,2010
Crystal Bowersox at the Summerfest
Summerfest was just the second stop on this year’s “American Idol” tour, and the biggest surprise came in the first half of the nearly three-hour collection of individual performances. The two youngest performers in the Marcus Amphitheater show, Katie Stevens and Aaron Kelly, both 17, offered sets that showed the promise of future stardom.
Stevens demonstrated a powerful voice and a rocker girl sensibility in two songs, Christina Aguilera’s “Fighter,” and Demi Lovato’s “Here We Go Again.” On the show, she demonstrated vocal talent, but an unsure stage presence.
Kelly, meanwhile, proved himself to be a marketable country artist, with a set list that included “Walking in Memphis,” and “Fast Cars and Freedom.” In his “Idol” run, Kelly seemed to offer a weak pop persona.
A quirky standout was Siobhan Magnus, whose combination of a unique fashion sense and singing came with a suitably dark take on “Paint it Black,” that was familiar to “Idol” viewers. She also did No Doubt’s “Spider Web.”
The night’s biggest names, of course, came at the end of a show that featured a number of empty seats. Lee DeWyze, this year’s winner, and Crystal Bowersox, the silver medalist in the ninth season of Fox’s singing competition, performed songs from the show.
DeWyze offered a more emotional presence than he did during much of his run for the “Idol” crown, belting out Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” a song that should be retired for a while to avoid burning it out. He also did an entertaining take on Elton John’s “Rocket Man.”
Bowersox also did familiar songs, like Melissa Etheridge’s “Come to My Window” and Janis Joplin’s “Piece of My Heart.”
Neither the winner nor the runner-up surprised the audience. But then, these “Idol” tours are marketed to the young audience that votes, and every one of the 10 finalists offered their profuse thanks and expressed their love to the squealing fans.
There were no tightly choreographed group numbers as in some previous “Idol” live shows, although the bottom six finalists performed a song together, as did Michael “Big Mike” Lynche and Casey James.
There was only one number featuring the entire group, the evening’s finale, with all 10 joining in on Kelly Clarkson’s “My Life Would Suck Without You.”
While the show unfolded with the characteristic precision of an “American Idol” production, the length of the show — nearly three hours with intermission — was visible in the tired younger members of the audience, many of whom stopped bopping about three-quarters through the evening’s entertainment.
ARTICLE BY: Tim Cuprisin
SOURCE: www.onmilwaukee.com
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Attended the show at Summerfest in Milwaukee. The show was arranged in order of dismissal from AI with Crystal the 2nd to last performer on stage. Before Crystal, the crowd appeared mildly interested with many yawns and a lot of movment in and out of seats by the crowd. The seats were at least 50% more filled after intermission when compared to the first half of the show. However, once Crystal took the stage the crowd jumped to their feet and mostly stayed on their feet throughout her performance and just came alive. Only disappointment was not seeing crystal peform for a longer segment. Can’t wait until I can see her tour without the other AI. Was truly bored with the show until the 4th to last perfomer, Big Mike.
I’ve read the tour is in trouble. this season is curse. no good moments at all. and when people tell me how good “crystal bowersox” is, I was like, uh uh and simply shrug my shoulders! I’m at the summerfest too and I don’t like saying this but Siobhan Magnus and Katie Stevens were the best from that gig. now I don’t want any trouble saying this. it’s the truth. I’m a crystal fan, but she’s too different from TV now and she can’t be adam lambert in any sense. no way! adam knows what he’s doing, crystal don’t and I’m loosing interest on her already. I’ve also read somewhere that her single is struggling hard in the charts. these are bad signs
I was at the Summerfest performance and I disagree completely with the first two comments here. We thought the entire show was outstanding. I find it difficult to understand how the tour can be in trouble. Yes, everyone loved Crystal, as did we, but the rest of the cast was also excellent. The teeny boppers went crazy over Aaron, people fought to get to the front of the stage, via cell phone award, to be near their favorites, Casey had the opportunity to show his genius on the guitar, Shiobon was amazing and dressed to the nines….Katie was better than she ever was on the TV show itself…and the place went bananas when Lee came onstage. My thought was more like “how can they maintain this energy and quality for 60 performances in 90 days.”
Crystal Bowersox, is the all time “Queen of American Idol”. Idol tour is to expensive for me to go… but someday I will see you, on your own tour! I will pay the price. I’ll buy CD’s too. Keep real… don’t let AI change you…too, much! God bless you!