It was a long road for most of us Filipino fans. Dreaming of seeing American Idol contestants perform onstage live is a long shot for most. I resolved that I would see Kris Allen or Adam Lambert when they perform here no matter what after the finals. So I headed with my friends to the empty lot in Mckinley hills to see the season 8 winner perform.
It was good that there was no rain but the air was cool and there were few stars that night. After dinner at Abe at Serendra over sinigang sa bayabas, pla pla and crispy tadyang, we got a taxi to the concert site. The place was not jampacked as I expected. I thought there were millions of Kris Allen fans out there. Hey following a thread on pinoy exchange I really thought there might be a legion trying to vote his songs to number one. But a ticket booth in front of the concert site is proof it's not sold out.
I never expected anything great from Boyce Avenue. It might be hard to do a front act. Their rendition of Wonderwall and Bleeding Love can make me forgive the almost half a dozen original songs they sang that never did take off with the crowd.
It was Jabbawockeez that was a major revelation that night. Although the start was slow and everyone kept on standing and blocking each others view, their dancing made me change my mind about it being a major work of art. Their "single ladies" and "ocho coho" numbers were hug crowd pleasers. It was a marriage of funk, rnb, breakdancing and mime that thug the souls of the audience. Nobody needed to tell the crowd to clap or scream or stand up They had everyone captured with their performances. That part when one of them say that performing here is a humbling experience, I say Mabuhay to the group. You make us proud to be pinoys.
Now that Kris Allen sucks. After waiting for 3 hours, he came out singing on top of the stage. At first it was mesmerizing imagine that was a live idol winner performing even if I'm on 30th row left side, I was filled with excitement. But a couple of songs later, it was sheer bad performance and song choices that were not actually suited for him. He was singing songs from his album that would have been better sung by Adam Lambert because of a U2 rhyth to them. Remember what Adam did to U2's "One." Well it feels like Kris was trying to do that but well he will never be an Adam.
Aside from those, Kris Allen looked like he was performing just for the sake of performing. When he went down to the crowd and starting pointing "You get up. You go up." and the whole time he was singing onstage, I could only think of two things, he is on drugs or he is so beat up and tired that he was not enjoying performing anymore. He was banging his head. He was sweating like hell because of the heat. He was all over the place. His voice never faltered though because he never sang "No boundaries." But his performance was lackluster. He was bored performing. He was not happy with his songs. He uses his guitar as a safety blanket to make it look like he is doing something on stage because he could not command the crowd. Being pretty can only take as far. Talent can take you all the way. So I wonder why he won the contest.
Going back home, my friend opened his copy and listened to the tracks in the car. Mine is still in its original sealed plastic cover. I'm seriously thinking of getting a refund.
