Idol worship, sans America

By Joe Brown

Tuesday, July 8, 2008 | 2 a.m.

In the interest of journalistic integrity, I must disclose at the outset of this review of “American Idols Live!” that I voted for David Archuleta.

In fact, I voted many times for runner-up Archuleta, right up to the end (there were 97 million votes). And I stood my ground in a roomful of David Cook followers on the night of that hard-fought finale.

Since then, I have come to accept Cook as my personal Idol. And as the divided voting blocs David vs. David came together Saturday night at the Thomas & Mack Center, it seemed that little bitterness remained (though some diehards were heard announcing their allegiance to Archie while waiting in lines for Rebel dogs and $35 T-shirts).

The high-pitched screaming started at the first glimpse of David Cook ‹ in a Disney World commercial projected on the screens flanking the stage.

At three hours, including an intermission, “Idols Live!” was a long show. But that was nothing to the 6,158 kids, parents and grandparents in the Las Vegas crowd they spent at least that much time watching season seven of the show each week from January to May. This was clearly My First Rock Concert for a good number of the very young audience members, and the squalling guitars and surprisingly full-bodied rock sound were too much for some of them.)

Each Idol performed a mini-set of three complete songs (instead of the show’s 90-second snippets), and took the stage in the order in which they were voted out, from No. 10 to No. 1.

No. 10 Chikezie Eze opened the show with the soul-shouter “I Believe To My Soul,” and took it upon himself to energize the crowd, romping up both of the ramps extending into the audience. Eze bounced through Usher’s “Caught Up,” dancing playfully with the five-piece band (not Ricky Minor and his crew) and two backing singers. He capped his too-short set with John Legend’s” So High,” ending on a rafter-raising falsetto note. (“Idol” fans go wild for falsetto.)

No. 9 Ramiele Malubay was the sole disappointment of the evening. Tiny and adorable, a Bratz doll come to life, she squeaked through the Jackson 5 hit “I Want You Back” like a cartoon mouse. She near-missed notes all through Taylor Dayne’s “Love Will Lead You Back” and Rihanna’s “If I Never See Your Face Again,” and was overshadowed by her backup singers for charisma and crowd connection.

No. 8 Michael Johns materialized atop a staircase, haloed rock star style in blinding white light, belting a triumphalist Queen medley of “We Will Rock You” and “We Are the Champions.” This is where the screaming got serious the Aussie hunk could be a leading man or a pop star, or both. John rearranged Dolly Parton’s “It’s All Wrong, But It’s Alright” as a blues number, and overall sang with much more assurance than he did on the show. “Randy Jackson didn’t like (this next song) too much, but I don’t care,” Johns said, tearing into Aerosmith’s “Dream On.” More falsetto, more screams.

No. 7 Kristy Lee Cook was the evening’s big surprise. Looking like Marcia Brady gone country with her center-parted blonde hair, silver sequined sleeveless shirt, with matching belt and stretchy white spangled jeans, she frisked around the stage singing “Squeezing the Love Outta You” like she had been playing Vegas her whole life. On the show, her choice of Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA” came off as a calculated ploy to woo heartland voters (“Idol” judge Simon Cowell called it a “clever choice” of song), but her full version seemed sincere and the crowd sang heartily along. Cook then twitched her patriotic hiney to “Cowgirls." She’s at least as credible a country singer as Kellie Pickler.

No. 6 Carly Smithson gave the first star-quality performance of the night, standing magnetically still and wailing like a fierce desert wind through the moody Evanescence rocker “Bring Me to Life.” “I feel like Cher. I’ve always wanted to play Vegas my whole life,” Smithson said before thanking everyone who voted for her. Kneeling at center stage, she started slow on Heart’s “Crazy on You” and built to another maelstrom. Stomping and storming through Celine Dion’s hit “I Drove All Night,” Smithson seemed ready and able to take over at a moment’s notice for any headliner in Vegas.

No. 5 Brooke White rose slowly from the stage floor behind a baby grand piano, her hair a nimbus of blonde curls, for a hymnlike reading of the Beatles’ “Let It Be.” Physically and artistically at the very center of a Venn diagram of Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon and Stevie Nicks, with her ’70s-style singer-songwriter sensitivity, fine-grained voice and hippie-nouveau style, White offered a refreshing antidote to the usual “Idol” overkill. Not nearly as fragile as she often seemed on the show, White strapped on a guitar for a credibly feisty version of Feist’s “1-2-3-4,” but was smothered by the overblown arrangement on Coldplay’s “Yellow.”

No. 4 Jason Castro was effortlessly endearing in his too-short set, serenely sleepy-eyed and strumming a ukulele while sweetly crooning “Over the Rainbow.” (No one cared that he still mixed and mismatched the words). Castro switched to acoustic guitar for a committed take on the Gnarls Barkley hit “Crazy” (which he auditioned with but we didn’t see on the show because of rights clearance issues). And he could have a hit right now with his jangly version of the Lovin’ Spoonful’s 1966 “Daydream,” which perfectly suited his persona as a “daydreamin’ boy.”

No. 3 Syesha Mercado was glamor personified, but seemed to suffer from anteclimax syndrome, as the crowd was clearly restless in anticipation of the Big Two. Leading off with an oddly snapless cover of Rihanna’s “Umbrella,” she picked up steam with Alicia Keys’ “If I Ain’t Got You,” and gave “Listen” the full-on “Idol” diva treatment, wrestling the song to the ground with glory notes and melisma-arama.

No. 2 David Archuleta made an aptly angelic entrance, emerging amid violet-hued clouds of stage fog, his cherubic face peeking above the piano as he sang Robbie Williams’ “Angels.” Archuleta showed he could rock a little with One Republic’s anthemic “Apologize,” but it was on Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me” that he proved himself a pop classicist, singing purely, without “Idol” affectations, evoking the yearning sweetness of ’50s and ’60s- era crooners. “I like songs with messages. I tried to do that on the show,” Archuleta said, before out-Groban-ing Josh Groban with a radiant “When You Say You Love Me,” which brought the show to a (screaming) standstill. On the TV show, the 17-year-old’s tongue-tied shyness seemed like shtick, but onstage it looked like genuine humility, as he giggled and waved, overwhelmed at the waves of response. With the right guidance, this young artist has what it takes to make a timeless album.

No. 1 David Cook, the reigning Idol, was introduced by Archuleta as “my big brother,” and proved he deserved his win. Playing electric guitar throughout the set, he started with his slow-burning grunge-lite makeover of Lionel Richie’s “Hello,” backed by a projected solar eclipse. With his expensive bed-head haircut, Cook was a charmer, twinkling and winking like a bartender turned superstar. No song was too brooding or intense for Cook to sneak a grin at his voting constituency. “I’m just trying to earn a paycheck, because Las Vegas took way too much of my money last night” he said, introducing his coronation song, “The Time of My Life.” (My seatmate said she had met Cook earlier in the day, and he confided that he took a bath on nickel slots.) He nailed Aerosmith’s “Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” and dedicated the Foo Fighters’ “My Hero” to his brother Adam, who is recovering from brain cancer. Cook came back for an encore, a slow-building, apocalyptic remake of Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” with its lyric about “breaking young girls’ hearts.”

At one point he brought the house lights up and filmed the screaming, standing crowd. “This way,” Cook joked, “at the end of the tour I can show this to Michael Johns and he’ll get jealous.”

Saturday’s show was stop No. 4 on a 53-show national tour — the Idols are raveling to each city via his and hers buses. Las Vegas was lucky to catch the gang of 10 while they are still fresh and energetic.

Now what will we all do until January?