Saturday evening, Kris Allen was going to do a performance at the Tanger Outlets at the Arches on Long Island. It was only about 2 hours from where I live, so my mom and I decided we would go to kick off my birthday week.
We got there around 2pm, went to see where he would be performing and then headed off to a few of the shops. After hitting up pretty much everything we wanted to check out, we stopped for Ice Cream. While sitting on the bench I heard Kris singing, so we headed back over to the stage to watch him soundcheck. He did bits and pieces of Monster, Always Better With You, Red Guitar and Rooftops. At one point he wasn’t singing they were just playing the instruments and he apologized for it being “the boring part”. Then he thanked those of us who watched and said he’d be back later. The funniest (or most annoying!) thing was when people would come by they’d say “Is that him?” “Yeah.. it’s him!” I guess these people had never heard of soundcheck before? It was funny because we were around the corner from the stage and I knew it was him soundchecking and these people were looking right at him and still didn’t know. (But that’s why I am concert katie and they are nobodies)
We opted to stay at the table until 6pm. (At this point it was 4:30). Z100 set up their tent and slowly the crowd began to form. It got to the point where we’d no longer be able to sit and watch the show, but that was ok. I was prepared to stand if I needed to. Finally at 6pm the emcee came on stage and started attempting to get us pumped up by making us dance to LMFAO (no thanks!) and Greg T from Elvis Duran’s morning show was there too. (I had to stand up to see what he looked like because his dumb ass is on the radio every day on my way to work)
Kris didn’t make his way to the stage until about 6:30 and by that point I was so glad to see him! He didn’t change his outfit from soundcheck – my mom commented on that – and then when we got home I realized he had the same shirt (or similar) on in all the ads for the show as well!)
From the first song he had great command of the stage and he interacted with the crowd a lot. And it wasn’t just boring banter either – he commented on the outlets and stuff like that so you know he had to come up with it in the moment and it wasn’t just “wow you guys are so great!” scripted nonsense that a lot of artists seem to do these days.
About halfway through his set I realized I had never seen him do a headlining set before – all the other times were either radio events or he was opening for someone else. It was nice to hear the new songs and get a full hour set out of him instead of just 4 or 5 songs!
He did a “karaoke hour” medley which made me cringe a bit though. It started with Rihanna’s “We Found Love” but then went in to Katy Perry’s “Firework” and then to Lady Gaga “Just Dance” (ugh) and then he kind of redeemed himself by doing Brian McKnight’s “One” but completely lost me again when he did part of Justin Bieber’s “Boyfriend” (I’m obviously joking – these are just not artists I am in to but I love Kris and he could sing whatever and I’d be totally cool with it.)
He also mentioned that one song got requested a lot and that he was finally going to play it – My Weakness. He split the crowd up and had us sing “no woman no cry” and “everything is gonna be all right” and said that we did great for it being his first time trying that and he thought he needed to step up his part to sound better with us.
Overall it was a fun time, it had been a while since I had seen Kris and I’m hoping it won’t have to be that long again!
Better With You
Alright With Me
Vision Of Love
Red Guitar
We Found Love / Firework / Just Dance / One / Boyfriend
Rooftops
Monster
Everybody Wants To Rule The World / The Way You Make Me Feel
Leave You Alone
My Weakness / No Woman No Cry
Out Alive
Shut The Door
Live Like We’re Dying