Having attended the American Idol concert, I can say for certain that David Cook most certainly deserved to win the contest this year. He was by far the most engaging performer of the evening (and there were sets from each of the top ten). His musical performance entertaining, and his stage persona was relaxed and charming. It might have been a bit of stage direction, but he took several opportunities to make it appear as though he was actually enjoying himself and reveling in the hard-fought victory.
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Much of the rest of the show was a bit more problematic. The biggest disappointment of the evening, by far, was what seemed like a half-hour long advertisement for Guitar Hero during a seemingly endless intermission. I guess the organizers wanted to give all of the teenagers and grandmothers ample time to buy their $35 David Archaletta (sp?) t-shirts. That's right. I said thirty-five American dollars. The more conservative fans could walk away with a five dollar headshot. The unidentified m.c. and poor man's Ryan Seacrest conducting the Guitar Hero commercial ran around the stage and on the floor like some kind of mountebank selling hair tonic. We were supposed to vote for two competing video game players who I think were supposed to be semi-famous people, but it was never clear which player was controlling which side of the screen...and nothing happened after we voted. Then he dragged to little boys out to play "air guitar" hero...which, essentially, meant they weren't given controllers and were expected to humiliate themselves in front of the audience. One of the boys actually said, "I don't want to." Anyway, this is about the same time when the person dressed like the giant pop-tart was running around, so things were very confusing and hectic. When the boys were done being embarassed, they were given copies of Guitar Hero video games for systems they didn't own (and they said as much, the brave young lads).
I know we all wanted to capture the essence of American Idol, but did it really mean we had to sit through live commercial breaks?
As for the nine other losers, they all performed relatively well, but none of them had much personality on stage. Here's the rundown:
Isabel and I decided that Syesha (#3) might have been drunk, given her narcissistic and somewhat non-sequitur banter ("Well, this is my final song...but the show is still going on after it...").
Little Archie kept emmitting these disturbing and possibly psychotic chuckles after muttering to himself (I think he's breaking under the pressure).
The Australian guy got really goofy (I think he's about ready for a leisure suit and a Vegas act).
The dreadhead seemed particularly spaced out (I'm not sure he remembered what city he was in).
I'm pretty sure I saw more of Kristi Lee's rear end then I did of her face.
I can't say anything about Chikeezie, since we showed up in the middle of his set.
Carly did well, but she had to keep pulling her top closed to avoid a wardrobe malfunction (skimpy attire was par for the course for everyone but Brooke White).
Brooke White gave a completely half-hearted into to American Idol Strikes Back, or whatever the charity arm is called. She performed pretty well, but she remembered all the words to her songs, which kind of ruined the authenticity.
There was some other girl who sang really loud and made obnoxious comments, but I can't remember her name now.
In any event, all of the fourteen and forty year old women seemed to enjoy themselves immensely, while their baldheaded escorts patiently sat through the night, so it seemed to have been a successful (if commercialized) event. I would be very curious to see what will happen to David Cook when he is performing with hardcore musicians in a serious venue, and where he can't get away with cute games like video-recording the audience and grinning like a cheshire cat at his own success. Personally, I think he'll be able to pull off a grown-up music career...just as soon as he gets to perform at a venue that doesn't involve giant, anthropomorphized breakfast pastries running through the crowds.
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