My Summer of Adam
So, this past summer, I got to see Adam Lambert play 8 times. All but one was an official part of his Glam Nation Tour, the other was a radio festival. I got to see him at the Starland Ballroom in Sayreville, NJ, the K-Fest show in Fishkill, NY, the Nokia Theatre in NY, NY (twice!), the Ram's Head in Baltimore, MD, the 9:30 Club in Washington, DC, the Roanoke Civic Center in Roanoke, VA, and the National Theatre in Richmond, VA.
I was lucky to have been able to see this show near the beginning (the Starland was the 2nd stop on the tour), in the middle (the Nokia and DC Area shows) and not quite at the end (Roanoke and Richmond). The show changed between the first show I saw and the last one I saw (not in setlist, but in presentation), and each show was a different experience. Overall, my favorite show of all of them was the 9:30 Club. I sat in line all afternoon, first in blazing heat, then in pouring rain, to secure a spot for me, corilannam and stellarmeadow in the balcony. We got the exact spots we wanted, and had a fantastic view of the show. Adam was really on that night, clearly feeding off our energy, and it was an amazing, amazing time.
If I were forced to put the rest in order, it would be: Nokia #2, Nokia #1, Richmond, Roanoke, Ram's Head, Starland, K-Fest. But that is not to say that each show did not have its selling points. For example, at Starland, I got to be in the 2nd row, the closest I got to the stage on the tour, and at the Ram's Head I got to stand next to a row of kids (all under the age of 10) who were having the best time and knew all the words to For Your Entertainment (at once cute and disturbing).
The show is set up as three distinctive sections. The first is a trippy, glam rocky set of 4 songs which are meant to convey the feeling of falling in love. The middle section is 4 songs, 3 of which are acoustic, which are meant to convey how much it sucks to lose love. The last section is a set of 4 songs which are just partying pop songs which all have a positive message to share. The encore has changed over the course of the tour. I am partial to the first and last sections of the show, but the middle part is pretty awesome, too. Since it's, you know, Adam. *G*
He has not changed the first section since the opening, nor the last. The first section consists of Voodoo, Down the Rabbit Hole, Ring of Fire, and Fever. It's very difficult to choose which of these I liked best. Voodoo and DTRH are bonus tracks on his CD, and I loved them a lot before I got to see them live, and I am so very excited he included them. Ring of Fire is from American Idol, and while I have never really much enjoyed the Johnny Cash version of this song, I do love the spin Adam has put on his. All this said, I probably love Fever most of all live. Adam has been known to get frisky (mostly with his bass player, Tommy) during this song, and it's been fun to see what he does (the kiss with Tommy in DC was the hottest, though the kiss in Richmond was pretty smoking, too, as was the biting at the Nokia).
The middle section is Sleepwalker, Whataya Want From Me, Soaked, and Aftermath. They are all beautiful, but my favorite of this part is Soaked. It's one of my favorite songs on the CD, and live, it is about 10 times better. This song really shows off his range, and he performs it only backed by keyboards. Just fabulous (even when he messed up the lyrics in Roanoke *G*). At the very first show I saw, this section also included Broken Open. By the time I saw him at the Nokia, he had cut BO in favor of adding a song onto the encore.
The last section features Sure Fire Winners, Strut, Music Again, and If I Had You. My favorite of these is absolutely IIHY. However, it is worth noting that I never really cared for SFW on the CD, but now I've heard it live, I am much more appreciative of it, and I don't skip it on my MP3 player anymore. *G* By the time Adam gets to IIHY, the whole room is usually in a frenzy, and it's such a great song to dance to. My friends will tell you that I am not a big dancer at concerts usually, but I danced to this song. So. Much. Fun.
At the beginning of the tour, Adam was doing Mad World from AI as his encore. Midway through, he killed BO to add in Whole Lotta Love, also from AI. By August, he'd dumped WLL in favor of covering T-Rex's 20th Century Boy. I got to hear just about every iteration of this. I got to hear just MW, MW and WLL, just WLL, and just TCB. I loved all three, but I probably enjoyed both WLL and TCB a little more than MW. MW is a little slow for an encore, even if it is pretty, and he really ratchets up the sexy on the other two, so they win.
The most interesting part of seeing this show over a long period of time was seeing the changes that came over Adam. Even at the beginning, he was confident, but by the Richmond show, that was even more obvious. He's changed the pitch of some of the songs. He changes up the melody of some of them. And he has even added a small audience participation moment to IIHY. He is so clearly having a great time, and that totally bleeds down into the audience. He loves his band and his dancers, and they make the show very full. Lots to look at! Every crowd I saw him with was incredibly enthusiastic. And when I waited on lines to get in, I met fantastic people who love Adam as much as I have grown to.
It was a truly wonderful way to spend part of my summer. My only regrets are a) somehow missing Philadelphia and b) that it's all over. Well worth every penny I lost to tickets, travel, and merchandise.
My apologies for the effusive use of adverbs (which my best friend will beat me for). I mostly wanted to get all my thoughts down before I forgot them. Thanks so much for reading (if you made it this far)!