Last week I won tickets to see the American Idols Live tour on Long Island from a twitter contest sponsored by Mastercard. The show was Tuesday night and I didn’t remember until we got there that Pia is from Long Island so it was her hometown show! (I didn’t remember until I saw all the people in neon Pia shirts walking around!) The seats were on the floor, Row 8, which was actually 12 rows from the stage because the section started with A1, A2, A3, A4.
The show started out with all the girls dressed in white singing Lady Gaga’s Born This Way. Then Pia came out and said hello to her hometown crowd and sang some of Empire State of Mind. Looks like that is the over covered song of the week 😉 At least it was appropriate this time since we were in New York! Then Pia went in to California King Bed and Stefano came out to sing with her. My mom was nudging me that he was on the stage but I couldn’t see him at all because there was a HUGE guy a couple rows ahead of me who was standing up to let someone else in to their seat! Of course! This would end up being the theme for the night as somehow every time this guy stood up he managed to only block Stefano.
Paul came out and sang Maggie May – and man does that guy run around a lot. It was damn near impossible for me to get a picture of him because by the time the camera focused, he was already on the other side of the stage! This happened a lot with the guys on the more upbeat songs but Thursday I’ll get a second chance so maybe I’ll be able to figure out how to get a good shot with them running all around. Thia came out and did Selena Gomez’s “Who Says” and her dress had a long tail that almost looked like a cape. Then she ended up taking that part off and joining Pia, Haley and Naima to perform Janelle Monae’s Tightrope.
Then it was time for Stefano! He did Bruno Mars Grenade and the girls joined him for DJ Got Us Falling In Love. And near the end of the song he TOOK HIS SHIRT OFF. Somehow I managed to get a picture and then realized he did it on the catwalk which is right where my seats are for Thursday. At least now I know to be prepared for it!
Then the guys (minus Scotty, who was not on stage at all in the first half of the show) performed Neon Trees Animal. We got a video greeting from JLo and Naima came out and peformed On The Floor. She also had a breakdown where she just danced. Pia came back out (it seemed to very much be the Pia show) and performed her first single – This Time. Then it was time for Casey! He started his set playing his upright bass and did Santana/Rob Thomas’ Smooth. Then Haley joined him for Moanin’. He said how he was getting hot in his leather jacket and it was getting harder to breathe and then of course sang Maroon 5’s Harder to Breathe. Then the whole crew (minus Scotty, of course) came out and did Forget You and I think there was some Crazy mixed in there as well.
Then it was time for intermission. I liked that it wasn’t in the order of being kicked off doing 2 songs, etc like it was in years past (plus Lauren was out there a lot in the beginning, Haley and James too which probably wouldn’t have been the case with the old format) but it seemed like it was not an even spread of who was singing what. For the places they came in it seemed like Pia sang too much and Paul, too little.
After the intermission Lauren came out first. I assume this was to separate her and Scotty so it wasn’t back to back country. She has great stage presence and was saying how Randy Jackson was at the show and backstage. She did Flat on the Floor, Like My Mother Does and If I Die Young. Then it was time for James. He started at the back of the venue and walked up to the front and ended up going right by our section (We were 4 people from the aisle though) while singing Sweet Child O Mine. He also did Muse’s Uprising. Then Jacob came out and did Never Too Much and You’re All I Need To Get By which he dedicated to Ashford, the songwriter who had just passed away. Haley did a great performance of House of the Rising Sun and Bennie and the Jets.
Then of course it was time for the main event – Scotty! They did a medley of announcing all the winners on the video screen. I still love that Kris Allen’s reaction was =-O! Appropriately Scotty came on stage singing… baby lock them doors and turn the lights down low! I would have been so disappointed if he did not do Josh Turner’s Your Man because he had sung it SOOOO many times in Hollywood week. haha. He also did Are You Going To Kiss Me OR Not and then his first single, I Love You This Big… Lauren joined him and they sang When You Say Nothing At All and then the girls joined him on backup vocals for Gone. I also noticed that Scotty was holding the mic like normal and NOT like a flute like he did during the season. I wonder how hard it was for him to break that habit!
Then it was time for the final number which was very high energy and again, pretty hard to get photos of. James was doing wrestling moves on Casey and Scotty while they were singing and hime and Paul did a weird little dance… Then all the contestants were introduced and when James came out he had on a clown nose! lol They did a little bit more of their final song and then the show was over!
Setlist under the cut!
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Katie 