Team Plaid

First, what you care about:

Meeting the buses/show pics:
Buses/Show album

Video:
TOTS
SWBL
YGLABN

Review:
Disclaimer: You know how Paula jams through all those performances?
Well, I was jammin’ Paula-style through most of the show, and I think
I know why all her “critiques” are positive - it’s cause you really
can’t be negative when you’re jammin’! (Beer helps too.)

Oh, and the lighting tricked me…Blake is not a blonde again. But he
is rocking the spikes, which makes me v. happy ^_^

Act 1:
-Blake did the security guard bit.
-I think I caught an eyeroll between Blake and Jordin re: the wtf dress during Let’s Get This Started
-Melinda and Kiki looked HAWT in their old skool white mermaid dresses for their medley (sadly up to this point I’d screwed up my camera settings, this is the best I could pull out for a pic)
-Melinda and Sanjaya were cute in their Proud Mary
-Phil killed with Blaze of Glory
-Haley and Sanjaya got their solos (lots of girls screaming for Sanjaya)
-Haley, LaKisha and Gina were cute in Lady Marmalade, but the sound mix was SO LOUD I could barely hear them singing.
-Chris R and Jordin surprised me with how pretty their What Hurts The Most was.
-Jordin and Melinda were sweet in This Will Be. I really do believe they’re friends, y’all.

Blake’s solo set:
-TOTS is as hot as you remember. Blake in the lime green and silver today. I have video, unfortunately I recorded the darned thing sideways so went through a crash course on video editing to fix it so it’s not sideways online. Also, an entire family decided to pass in front of me in the middle of the song. But B was sounding good and did lots of that awesome hippy dancing we all love ;)

-SWBL was perfect. You know how he asks everyone to pull out their cell phones to light the place up? The effect is really pretty in the dark arena - looks like stars in the night sky. Loop pedals behaved, boys with guitars are hot, B in good voice again and he gave us some bonus WOWY at the end :) I luuuuuuuv….

-Beatbox Intro for YGLABN lasted like a full minute and a half! The crowd ate it up. My sister gets points for some good closeup vid here, then promptly loses them for turning the camera sideways at random points afterwards. YGLABN was rockin’ of course, nice call and response with the drums and the beatboxing, and at the end all the guys joined him on stage for the last chorus. Blake jumped down from the stage, disappearing from my video and driving the front center section insane.

I just watched YGLABN again. CHRIST the way he moves. There are children around, B! ::faints::

***
Intermission - where some of us girls tried the guy’s restroom only to find it has only one stall (and probably a nasty one at that.)
***

Act 2:
-Phil in dress whites does America the Beautiful with the girls on stage with him, then the girls do a remix.
-Gina intros the guy Idol Band of Sligh, Blake, Phil, Chris, and Sanjaya. They do Crazy and Hey Jude. If it sounded bad like all the reviewer keep saying I didn’t notice. But then I was singing along the whole time soo…. Phil was hilarious, he was jamming SO hard on the keyboards!
-Gina does a Pink song, then…

CAKE section!
-Chris, who sounded surprisingly good to me throughout the show (he really does lose the nasal quality live) opened with Ain’t No Sunshine, Blake joined in about halfway through.
-Virtual Insanity and Geek In The Pink involved much duetting, random vocal entendres by both, and running around the stage. When Chris sang “from zero to hero” in GITP, a spotlight appeared on Blake and Chris pointed to him. It was cute. But I guess that was the point of this whole set. *g*

-LAKISHA! brought the house down with I Will Always Love You.
-*a moment of silence for Killing Me Softly*
-Chris R sang This Love for his solo. He sounded good, but I still love Blake’s the best ;)
-Phil and Gina have chemistry in their It’s Your Love duet
-Chris, Sanjaya, Haley and Sligh were aight with Life is a Highway
-MELINDA! did well with her solo, Natural Woman. Though it didn’t have quite the vocal impact/surprise factor LaKisha’s solo did, SD seemed to love MindyDoo.
-The girls minus Jordin came out and did a group number, Ain’t No Other Man, to intro our American Idol…

Jordin’s solo set:
-I Who Have Nothing rocked the house
-The energy went down a bit with Heartbreaker
-She was sweet on You Were Meant For Me (I give her props for playing the guitar while singing), didn’t oversing
-Crowd loved A Broken Wing (the lady next to me was tearing up)
-Livin’ On A Prayer was aight, the rest of the Idols joined her onstage for the end of the song.

Then they all left the stage, the stage went dark, and there was about 5 minutes of “Is the show over? Are they coming back?” pseudo-drama, but apparently we all screamed loud enough because Jordin reappeared in this gorgeous floor-length teal gown for TIMN. Now that I think about it, the fake-out ending was a wardrobe change. Because the rest reappear (the front of the stage OPENS UP all glowing-like and they scramble out) at the end of TIMN in white outfits. They sing along with TIMN, then reprise their solos, then take their bows and give their thank yous to the crowd. They kind of goof around on stage for a bit, Chris is snapping pics of them all, they’re running around to interact with the audience, then one by one disappear backstage.

Finally there’s a cute bit at the very end where it’s just Jordin and Blake left, and Jordin must have disappeared to change at some point because now she’s in a sparkly black dress. Jordin’s center stage tapping her foot and giving Blake that “get over here” look, finally Blake is corralled over and they take a final bow together. And then it’s really, really, the end of the show. No fakeouts. Free PopTarts at the exits, keep moving.

I really enjoyed the show, I totally understand why people go to 2-3-5-7 shows in one tour. The crowd had good energy through the whole thing, which I think in turn made the Idols give better performances. The arena was about 80% full, and every act got screams at the opening and cheers at the end. San Diego’s cool like that. :)