Mixed Bag For Idols
In LA Concert

It's Destiny!'s own Liza reviews the
American Idols Live! tour stop in Los Angeles.

The American Idol Season 6 Top 10 returned to Los Angeles on Monday evening for a tour date at the Staples Center. While some Idols gave several performances that made you wonder why they went out when they did, others were hit and miss with their numbers.

The true standouts of the night were Phil Stacey, LaKisha Jones and Melinda Doolittle. No misfires from either of the three tonight. If there was an MVP award to be given, I'd give it to Phil Stacey, who really stole the show for me. His first-act solo of "Blaze of Glory" was just as good, if not better, than the two he did on the show. It's still ridiculous that he got kicked off after that performance. Phil really delivered in the opening act of the second half, belting a soulful rendition of "America the Beautiful", backed by four of the five women (who then segued into "America" by Prince. Hee!). Phil showed off impressive vocal chops and great range, and, for me, he has become one of the best male singers Idol has ever seen, if not THE best. It's such a shame that he came on strong way too late on the show because if not for that really bad start, who knows what would have happened. Everything Phil touched was gold tonight, including the guys' "Idol Band" set of "Crazy" and "Hey Jude", and a country duet ("It's Your Love") with Gina Glocksen.

The biggest show-stopper of the night was most definitely LaKisha's "I Will Always Love You", which got a huge standing ovation well before it was over. LaKisha's powerhouse pipes were truly flawless, and she hit those huge glory notes with such ease. They say no one should sing Whitney but Whitney ... right now, I think LaKisha can out-Whitney Whitney. She was that good. Kiki also added class to "Lady Marmalade" (where Gina nearly pierced my eardrums by shrieking into her too-loud microphone) and was just as impressive as Melinda on their Motown medley despite some early microphone troubles.

Speaking of Miss Doolittle, Melinda received one of the two standing ovations on the night (at least near my section) after her soulful "Natural Woman". Like she was on American Idol all season, Melinda's rich vocals were perfect on all of her songs, including her duet with Jordin Sparks on "This Will Be". Melinda also brought out her wild side, aka Chanel, channeling Tina Turner in a short silver dress while dueting with Sanjaya Malakar on "Proud Mary". There was only one issue I had with Melinda, and it was that there wasn't enough of her!

On the other hand, there was way too much of Chris Richardson, who seemed to appear in every other number. And I'm totally not kidding. It got to a point where he came out on stage and my friend and I looked at each other and said "He's coming out AGAIN?!" I think someone forgot to tell the tour director that he came in fifth, not first or even second. To his credit, he did well on most of his songs, with a high point being a duet with Blake Lewis on "Geek In The Pink". Chris and Blake's voices blend very well together, and they both work the stage very well. The two of them seemed most at ease on stage, which may explain Chris' ubiquity throughout the show. Chris also did a good job playing drums in the "Idol band".

Winner Jordin Sparks seemed a bit under-utilized relative to her finish on the show. In the opening number, "Let's Get It Started", Jordin appeared briefly at the top of the song (with Blake in tow carrying the ridiculous trail on her dress) and only re-appeared once in the first act on a duet with Chris Richardson ("What Hurts the Most") and then not again until the end of the second, when she introduced Melinda and then did a six-song set to close the show. Jordin was in fantastic voice on "I Who Have Nothing" and "A Broken Wing" in particular, hitting huge high notes, but one of the major disappointments of the night was her "You Were Meant For Me", during which she accompanied herself on guitar. While I'm sure it was lovely vocally, I could not get past the horrible guitar playing. I give her credit for going out there with an instrument and all that, but if you can't really play well, by all means, bring some help with you onstage. Jordin obviously hasn't gotten to that guitar lesson where you learn chord progression. Oof. It was painful to hear her strumming the same chords on certain parts of the song where that chord didn't belong. I didn't hear this problem on her acoustic duet with Chris Richardson, so I'm thinking maybe her guitar mic was set to low on that one.

Jordin was not the only one with problems. Blake struggled mightily with his vocals on "She Will Be Loved", sounding like he needed to take a big swig of water before veering out of tune. It got so bad at one point that Blake pulled away from the mic. He definitely recovered for his next song, a big beat-box interlude, accompanied by cool video cuts on the big screen, into an energetic "You Give Love A Bad Name", which I've really come to like (and you may recall I hated it the first time I heard it on the show). Blake was the fan favorite, eliciting the biggest screams from the second he stepped onstage for his opening solo number, "Time of the Season".

Unlikely teen hearthrob Sanjaya was a bit of a surprise. I found myself realizing that I was rather fond of the kid. Not necessarily for all the right reasons, but he really is entertaining one way or another. His dancing left little to be desired on both "Proud Mary" and "The Way You Make Me Feel" (he didn't quite get the Michael Jackson moves just right, but at least he didn't grab his crotch!), but, regardless, he gave it his all and really sold what he had. Sanjaya doesn't have the vocal chops to carry a concert, but darned if he didn't try on the boys' group number of "Hey Jude". All of a sudden, I heard someone wailing "Jude, Jude, Jude, Judy, Judy, Judy", and it was Sanjaya! Go figure!

Chris Sligh also stood out on "Hey Jude" and was impressive on guitar on "Life Is A Highway". His solo of "Typical" and his duet with Gina Glocksen to "Thnks Fr Th Mmrs", however, did not seem to go over too well with the audience despite standout vocals from Gina in particular (Chris' mic wasn't nearly loud enough ... should have switched with Gina on "Lady Marmalade"!). In fact, a good dozen or so people near my section picked Chris' solo to make a beeline for either the restrooms or the concession line.

Gina fared much better on a country duet with Phil, but her solo to Pink's "Who Knew" lost the pure emotion of the song as she moved back and forth to the wings to shake hands with the fans.

Haley Scarnato played to the crowd as well, bringing back her "I Got Rhythm" cutsie-pie moves during all of her songs, especially in her butt-shaking last group number of "Ain't No Other Man". The prancing was unmistakably Haley and very cruise-ship, amusement-park style. Her "When God Fearin' Women Get The Blues" solo was capable but not very strong vocally. She was better on "Life Is A Highway" with Sanjaya and Chris Richardson but not so much on "Lady Marmalade".

Overall, it was an entertaining show (especially when you consider the bargain I got on eBay!) and set up better than most of the Idol tours I have either seen or heard about. I do admit, though, that I kind of miss the cheesy medleys that made the season 2 tour fun.

Top 3 Performances:
1. LaKisha - I Will Always Love You
2. Phil - America The Beautiful
3 tie. Phil - Blaze of Glory
3 tie. Melinda - Natural Woman

Could Have Done Without:
1. Gina/Haley/LaKisha/Melinda - Ain't No Other Man
2. Gina/Chris Sligh - Thnks Fr Th Mmrs
3. Jordin - Livin' On A Prayer (First of all, it wasn't good on the show, so why sing it? Second of all, this one was an even worse arrangement ... it was like Bon Jovi on speed. Just, no!)

Random Mentions:
*Phil/Sanjaya/Chris Sligh busted out some bad-audition worthy Backstreet Boys "I Want It That Way" before plugging AI auditions
*During dead time before the show and during intermission, the video screens played Idol videos - Carrie Underwood, Kellie Pickler, Chris Daughtry, Fantasia ... and no Kelly Clarkson. Can you say doghouse? BTW, for those counting, Chris Daughtry got the loudest cheers from the videos.
*Also during the dead time, in between videos, the audience sent text messages to be displayed on screen. There were a lot of anonymous "Marry Me Blake" texts put up there. Probably from tweeners. Hello? Can you say jailbait?! (not to mention how can he marry you if he doesn't even know who's asking?!)
*The first time Jordin made a dramatic face to the camera on "I Who Have Nothing", I nearly jumped back in fright because girlfriend looked ROUGH. Pan back, camera operators!
*The encore was a reprise of each person's solo. I missed it, but my friend said Chris Sligh nearly tripped while walking on stage. And some of the outfits for the encore? ... Yikes. They were all wearing white, except for Jordin, who had a great black dress on. Chris Richardson looked like a little sailor boy in his white shorts and white shirt. Sligh looked like the milk man. Sanjaya had a white doo-rag. Phil looked like Mr. Clean. Haley had on a really short gold skirt under a longish white shirt, so she looked practically nekkid from the waist down.

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