Idol Tour Reviews - Vancouver

The American Idol Top 10 ventured out of the country last night to play in Vancouver, Canada.

The Province has a review of the concert, plus another article about the tour in general, focusing on Adam Lambert and Anoop Desai.

The review singled out Matt Giraud, saying he was the "first performer to look like a viable recording artist"; Allison Iraheta, who "demonstrated why she was the last female standing on Idol this season with a fiery rendition of the Janis Joplin classic, 'Cry Baby.'"; Adam Lambert, who "swaggered around the stage, looking and sounding every bit like a rock star straight out of the 1970s" and "thrilled the audience with a showstopping David Bowie number"; and Kris Allen, "an unlikely but refreshing Idol" who "had the whole arena smiling with singalong standard 'Hey Jude,' a song that appeals to almost everybody."

In the Adam/Anoop article, Adam once again has to field questions about his sexuality. It's pretty ironic that he acknowledged it to the media partially to stop the speculation and to have them focus on the music instead, and yet a lot of the media still can't let it go. Anoop is relieved to be on tour instead of the show and says he felt boxed into the ballad singing by the judges and that "you knew sometimes [the judges] knew what they were going to say before you even got done singing."

The Vancouver Sun brought out a reviewer who seemed to have disdain for the whole Idol phenomenon before he even got to the show. If you scroll down to about halfway through the article, you can finally get to the review. It's filled with backhanded compliments, such as Scott MacIntyre "actually turned in a solid Keane cover"; Matt has a "good voice" but "time will forget most of these performers, and they'll take their place in obscurity"; Danny's "Maria, Maria kind of made him look like a substitute teacher doing karaoke (although he would totally win the prize money in the film, Duets)"; Kris is a "solid singer, but (with) none of Lambert's chrisma, presence or guy-liner." Adam also got some backhanded compliments: "Sure, his rendition of Led Zeppelin's Whole Lotta Love sounded a bit showy (think Sebastian Bach rather than Robert Plant), but this kid's got a serious set of pipes. (Although, for some reason, I kept thinking I was the evildoer in a Andrew Lloyd Weber goth musical.)"

And for much more detailed (and better-written) fan reviews, check out these two from MJ's Big Blog.