Worshipping False (American) Idols
Jul. 10th, 2003 02:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
disbelief11Last night was the American Idols Live concert (further proof of my geekdom, I know). It was really great to see all the little kids there with their parents, the whole family enjoying the show. Right in front of us (on the floor, row 14!) were 6 girls who were about 12 or 13, and they were so cute as they squealed over all the AI finalists.
Anyway, here's what I noticed:
Charles Grigsby is adorable. He's a good singer (though not great) and he's got some decent dance moves (though not exceptional). Even though he wasn't good enough to make it very far in the competition, he's got a 1000 mega-watt smile and a confidence that is engaging.
Julia DeMato can sing way better than I thought she could. If she had shown this much confidence in herself during the show, she would have gotten much farther. Who knew?
Rickey Smith wasn't anywhere near as annoying to me as he was during the tv show. For starters, he showed that he could sing some low notes too, instead of all those falsetto songs he was doing. I still don't understand his appeal, though.
Kimberly Caldwell looked like a 40 year old stripper. I'm sure the front rows got a spectacular view of her crotch - there's no way they could have missed it given how short her skirts were. The costume designers seemed to have stolen all her outfits from Barbarella, including some weird white and gold stiletto boots (not that the 12 year olds would have any idea who and what Barbarella is). Plus, she kept screwing up the dance moves (she looked more like she was doing aerobics than dancing) and she had enough eyeliner on to rival Johnny Depp's latest screen incarnation. Her singing was only so-so. But boy! can she pump her left arm in the air.
Carmen Rasmusen is teeny tiny in person. She must weigh about 90 pounds. She's really cute on stage, despite the really bad hair (wig? weave?) she was sporting. Her singing was tons better than on the show, but still nothing I'd seek out for my listening pleasure.
Trenyce was amazing. That girl can seriously sing. My friend turned to me and said, "I can't believe Ruben won when Trenyce can sing like this." The audience around us seemed to be rooting for her quite a bit too.
Kimberley Locke had some unfortunate hair braiding going on - what's the matter, AI Tour Producers...can't afford a hair stylist to tour with them? I suspect that the people in charge of the tour decided that Kimberley would handle all the female songs with "power" notes, as her song portions seemed to all be like this: short throwaway note, short throwaway note, short throwaway note, show the audience how strong your voice is power note, power note, power note, power note, power note, power note, power note. POWER NOTE. By the end of the night I was afraid she's going to end up damaging her voice.
Clay Aiken was incredible. He sang a lot of different kind of songs and was really funny and personable when he was talking.
Ruben Studdard was good. His first 3 songs, however, were not his shining moment. They just sounded so uninspired and dull. He's cute though. However, I'm thinking that he wouldn't have gotten this far if he wasn't 300+ pounds. If he had been a skinny dude, he wouldn't have gotten all the underdog, "hey, he's just like me" votes.
Okay, let's talk about Ruben and Clay. First of all, I'm going to ignore the votes from the show. After all, what the voting showed was not necessarily what America felt; because of the limitations of the phone system, what the votes showed was the capacity of said system. If everyone who wanted to vote could have, that would have meant more for both Ruben's and Clay's fans.
So, ignoring the votes and going from purely anecdotal observation of the crowd around me: Clay is the King. Throughout the show, when Ruben was on stage about 50% of the audience stood. When Clay was onstage, about 95% of the audience stood. Clay also inspired much more cheering, to the point of him not being able to speak while the crowd shouted at earsplitting decibels. As well, the Clay signs in the audience outnumbered the Ruben signs by about 4 to 1.
As for my personal opinion of Clay and Ruben? Well, I liked both of them on the tv show although Clay was my favorite. I really wanted to like Ruben last night. However, he's *boring* onstage. He just doesn't have the spark that Clay does. Ruben also messed up a few of his notes last night and didn't always have the hang of his stage entrances and exits (it was only the second concert of the tour but presumably they've been rehearsing).
The crew, however, seemed to be Ruben fans. In fact, they seemed to be sabotaging Clay. First, they sent Clay out with a microphone that didn't work for half of his first song. Second, the person in control of the spotlight always left Clay in the dark for a few seconds before getting the light on him - which I didn't notice with any of the other performers. I'm sure the crew wasn't really trying to sabotage him, but it sure seemed suspicious.
Overall, a really fun time. Though I'm thinking I might skip watching future seasons (maybe). The excessive milking of the cash cow by the producers is leaving a sour milk taste in my mouth.
Anyway, here's what I noticed:
Charles Grigsby is adorable. He's a good singer (though not great) and he's got some decent dance moves (though not exceptional). Even though he wasn't good enough to make it very far in the competition, he's got a 1000 mega-watt smile and a confidence that is engaging.
Julia DeMato can sing way better than I thought she could. If she had shown this much confidence in herself during the show, she would have gotten much farther. Who knew?
Rickey Smith wasn't anywhere near as annoying to me as he was during the tv show. For starters, he showed that he could sing some low notes too, instead of all those falsetto songs he was doing. I still don't understand his appeal, though.
Kimberly Caldwell looked like a 40 year old stripper. I'm sure the front rows got a spectacular view of her crotch - there's no way they could have missed it given how short her skirts were. The costume designers seemed to have stolen all her outfits from Barbarella, including some weird white and gold stiletto boots (not that the 12 year olds would have any idea who and what Barbarella is). Plus, she kept screwing up the dance moves (she looked more like she was doing aerobics than dancing) and she had enough eyeliner on to rival Johnny Depp's latest screen incarnation. Her singing was only so-so. But boy! can she pump her left arm in the air.
Carmen Rasmusen is teeny tiny in person. She must weigh about 90 pounds. She's really cute on stage, despite the really bad hair (wig? weave?) she was sporting. Her singing was tons better than on the show, but still nothing I'd seek out for my listening pleasure.
Trenyce was amazing. That girl can seriously sing. My friend turned to me and said, "I can't believe Ruben won when Trenyce can sing like this." The audience around us seemed to be rooting for her quite a bit too.
Kimberley Locke had some unfortunate hair braiding going on - what's the matter, AI Tour Producers...can't afford a hair stylist to tour with them? I suspect that the people in charge of the tour decided that Kimberley would handle all the female songs with "power" notes, as her song portions seemed to all be like this: short throwaway note, short throwaway note, short throwaway note, show the audience how strong your voice is power note, power note, power note, power note, power note, power note, power note. POWER NOTE. By the end of the night I was afraid she's going to end up damaging her voice.
Clay Aiken was incredible. He sang a lot of different kind of songs and was really funny and personable when he was talking.
Ruben Studdard was good. His first 3 songs, however, were not his shining moment. They just sounded so uninspired and dull. He's cute though. However, I'm thinking that he wouldn't have gotten this far if he wasn't 300+ pounds. If he had been a skinny dude, he wouldn't have gotten all the underdog, "hey, he's just like me" votes.
Okay, let's talk about Ruben and Clay. First of all, I'm going to ignore the votes from the show. After all, what the voting showed was not necessarily what America felt; because of the limitations of the phone system, what the votes showed was the capacity of said system. If everyone who wanted to vote could have, that would have meant more for both Ruben's and Clay's fans.
So, ignoring the votes and going from purely anecdotal observation of the crowd around me: Clay is the King. Throughout the show, when Ruben was on stage about 50% of the audience stood. When Clay was onstage, about 95% of the audience stood. Clay also inspired much more cheering, to the point of him not being able to speak while the crowd shouted at earsplitting decibels. As well, the Clay signs in the audience outnumbered the Ruben signs by about 4 to 1.
As for my personal opinion of Clay and Ruben? Well, I liked both of them on the tv show although Clay was my favorite. I really wanted to like Ruben last night. However, he's *boring* onstage. He just doesn't have the spark that Clay does. Ruben also messed up a few of his notes last night and didn't always have the hang of his stage entrances and exits (it was only the second concert of the tour but presumably they've been rehearsing).
The crew, however, seemed to be Ruben fans. In fact, they seemed to be sabotaging Clay. First, they sent Clay out with a microphone that didn't work for half of his first song. Second, the person in control of the spotlight always left Clay in the dark for a few seconds before getting the light on him - which I didn't notice with any of the other performers. I'm sure the crew wasn't really trying to sabotage him, but it sure seemed suspicious.
Overall, a really fun time. Though I'm thinking I might skip watching future seasons (maybe). The excessive milking of the cash cow by the producers is leaving a sour milk taste in my mouth.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2003-07-10 01:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-10 02:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-10 02:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-10 04:55 pm (UTC)