Last night the Idols took their tour to the Mohegan Sun casino for the first time ever. This was considered Katie Stevens home town show and it appeared most of the floor was filled with her friends and family!
My seats were the front row of the section all the way in the back, but were centered with the stage. It was a great perspective of the whole show, but not so great with trying to get photos. I haven’t had a chance to look at the photos I took yet, but if anything came out decent they will be posted at a later date.
Before the show started we tried the text contest to win After Party passes, but had no luck.
Didi kicked off the show, and her style was a bit too laid back to kick off the show, but she sounded great.
She was followed by Andrew Garcia who did his rendition of Straight Up that made everyone fall in love with him during Hollywood week as well as Maroon 5’s Sunday Morning. Also mellow, but good!
Next up was our hometown girl, Katie Stevens. She came out to tons and tons of cheers and rocked to Here We Go Again (which I think she did even better than Demi Lovato) and Fighter.
She was followed by Tim – who I wasn’t all that impressed with. I do think his studio songs sound pretty good though so I can see him having a decent album, but if you can’t really keep up with it live, I’m not sure if that will get him very far. (But he’s cute and the girls love him!) He really tried to get the crowd involved with his songs as well.
Next up was my fellow Hanson fan, Siobhan. She started with Paint It Black and held out the last note for what seemed like FOR-EV-ER! It was awesome. However I felt like she lost it a bit on her other two songs, she might have overdone it on that note. She had great stage presence though and seemed really into her performance.
Aaron Kelly was next. He was my mom’s favorite and she enjoyed his set but I am just not into country. He did a good job and also had great stage presence and I can see him doing very well for himself. Most of the Idols who choose the country route do, and I don’t see Aaron as being any different. Kids got talent, even though if its not my favorite genre.
Then they all (#10-#5) came out and sang Miley Cyrus’ “The Climb” before it was time for intermission.
After the intermission it was time for Big Mike. I had liked him early on in the competition, but not so much after the Judge’s Save was used on him. I also thought his falsetto for Justin Timberlake’s “My Love” was WAY too much. His other two songs were better fits for him and he does have a good voice but I just wish he did more upbeat stuff.
Finally it was time for my favorite, Casey. I really wish he got to display his guitar skills more on the show – but it was probably hard for him to “jam” when songs had to fit into a two minute or whatever it was time limit. I felt like Casey was the best overall musician in the competition this year and I see him doing pretty well for himself in his career in the future. (And I was also really impressed with his studio versions pretty much every week) He was joined by Big Mike for “Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman” and they sounded great together. I also thought it was funny that Mike referred to Casey as “Mr Pretty” haha.
Next up was Crystal, who was probably one of my least favorite contestants ever. She has a good voice but I just feel like the competition was not for her. She sang “Whats Up”, “Come To My Window”, “Up To The Mountain” and “Piece of My Heart” My parents seemed to enjoy her though – if that is saying anything.
And then it was time for our winner, Lee. I have tried really hard to like him, really I did. There were some weeks I thought he was the best during the show, but most of the time I felt like he was trying too hard to emulate someone else and I just wanted him to find his own voice. I was not impressed with his set at all – I felt more like he was yelling at me than singing for me. He had a mic, no need to be so shouty with his performance. But once again the crowd seemed to love him. He did what I have dubbed the cover of the year – “Use Somebody” I have also heard this done by Nick Jonas and Jason of Honor Society and so far I have to say that Jason has the best rendition. However, next month I am seeing the originals – Kings of Leon – so that might be a bit of a tough call after that show 😉
When Lee’s set finally ended (I think it is the longest winner set I have ever seen of the 5 or so Idols shows I have been to over the years) the boys came on stage (yay casey!) and sang Bon Jovi’s “Its My Life” and then the girls came out to start “My Life Would Suck Without You” by the original Idol, Kelly Clarkson, and then they were joined by the guys and all 10 of them finished out the song.
I am glad that I ended up getting to see a show when I thought it wasn’t going to happen when the Bridgeport show got shuffled, but I just wish I could have had better things to say. I will definitely go see Casey again and will probably be dragged to see Lee by friends, I just hope he can work on his live performance a bit before then…
After the show we tried to find a spot where the Idols would be meeting with fans as I really wanted to meet Casey, Katie and Siobhan (at the very least), but unfortunately the security would not let them come out.
So now I have gone to what will probably end up the only show that they were not allowed to sign after at and the only show Kris Allen didn’t perform at during last years tour. Apparently I should stick to only seeing Idols after the tour is over and they are doing their own thing – I seem to have much better luck with that!
Setlist under the cut, pics possibly coming later
- Didi Benami – ”Lay It On Me” by The Rescues, “Terrified” by Katharine McPhee and
- Andrew Garcia – “Straight Up” by Paula Abdul, “Sunday Morning” by Maroon 5
- Katie Stevens – “Here We Go Again” by Demi Lovato, “Fighter” by Christina Aguilera
- Tim Urban – “Better Days” by Goo Goo Dolls, “Viva La Vida” by Coldplay
- Siobhan Magnus – “Paint it Black” by the Rolling Stones, “Spiderwebs” by No Doubt and “Stockholm Syndrome” by Muse
- Aaron Kelly – “Somebody Like You” by Keith Urban, “Walking In Memphis” by Marc Cohn, “Fast Cars and Freedom” by Rascal Flatts
- Didi, Andrew, Katie, Tim, Siobhan, Aaron – “The Climb” by Miley Cyrus
- Michael Lynche – “Woman’s Work” by Kate Bush, “Ready For Love” by India.arie,” “My Love” by Justin Timberlake, (raps the TI part)
- Casey James – “I Got Mine” by the Black Keys” (guitar duel with Idol lead), “Don’t” by Shania Twain (acoustic), /w Mike Lynche – “Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman”, “It’s All Over Now” by the Rolling Stones
- Crystal Bowersox – “What’s Up” by 4 Non Blonds (Headset mic w acoustic), “Come To My Window” by Melissa Etheridge (Harmonica), “Up To The Mountain” by Patty Griffin (acoustic), “Piece of My Heart” by Janis Joplin
- Lee Dewyze – ”Beautiful Day” by U2, “Rocket Man” by Elton John, “Hallelujah” by Leonard Cohen, “Treat Her Like a Lady” by Cornelius Brothers and Sister Rose, “Use Somebody” by Kings of Leon
- Finale – Lee & the boys sings “It’s My Life” by Bon Jovi The girls begin, the boys join in on “My Life Would Suck Without You” by Kelly Clarkson
(Thanks to MJs Big Blog)