'hollygo72' date='Aug 7th 2009, 7:26 PM'
As we wait:
http://www.popnography.com/2009/08/adam-la...ew-york-ci.html
Adam Lambert Is Coming To America
Adam Lambert and the American Idols Live tour finally rolls into the tri-state area today, with all the attendant New York City media pit-stops. Adam performed acoustically for Good Morning America, then does a night in Atlantic City, two at Newark's Prudential Center and two more at the Nassau Coliseum on Long Island.
For all you big city types breaking out in hives at the idea of sharing a row with screaming tweens and their cougar moms, here's why it's worth making the bridge and/or tunnel haul to one of those venues: America, it turns out, loves Adam Lambert. No, they really love him. Really really love him. At the show I saw last month at LA's Staples Center, and by all accounts of every stop in between through the South and Midwest, Lambert is the headliner of this tour in all but name (even winner Kris Allen said so).
You know the first time you went to a big Pride event, or a huge gay dance club, or, say, the Blonde Ambition tour? And you realized there were hundreds or thousands or maybe even a million other queers all around, everywhere you looked? Seeing Adam Lambert live made me feel like that, but flipped upside down and around a million times on a ridiculous roller coaster where nothing is what you expect. Being in a sports arena while a straight-up cross-section of mainstream America is screaming their freaking faces off for the queerest, kinkiest pop star since Madonna is a moment every 'mo should experience for themselves.
There were teenage girlfriends holding up a rainbow flag during the anthemic "Mad World," 8-year-old boys staring dreamily up at Adam masturbating his mic stand for "Whole Lotta Love" (no, that's not overstating the case) and jaded middle-aged industry dudes shaking their head in amazed and impressed disbelief. (Last month, I had dinner with my eightysomething Mormon grandmother, who gushed about Adam and demanded to know my expert opinion on how it was possible he hadn't won. If she's Adam's biggest fan, anyone's fair game.)
It's one thing to watch Idol at home every week, wondering how the hell Adam kept managing to advance in a "family-friendly" popularity contest. It is a whole other mad, mad world to hear 20,000 people explode with excitement every time he shimmies like a stripper while demanding the crowd "get up and dance, bitches!"
It's not entirely the Adam show: Anoop and Matt are doing their best to bring sexy back, and they both make a good stab at it. Allison attacks Pink, Janis, Heart and her "Slow Ride" duet with Adam with such attitude and aplomb that it's like a huge flashing pink warning to any teen diva-in-training that there's a new girl in town (I'm looking at you, Jordin Sparks).
And the actual headliner, winner Kris Allen, glides right into a much more traditional pop-rock set with almost Fred Astaire ease, given the wild show that immediately precedes him. "Ain't No Sunshine" is as cinematic as on the finale episode, the godawful single "No Boundaries" was quickly yanked in favor of a heartfelt take on the Killers' "All These Things That I've Done" and "Hey Jude" is as sweet and sincere as Kris' southern aw-shucks smile. If you haven't heard Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" enough this year -- it was one of the only songs, thanks to the cast of the new TV show Glee, that out-charted Kris or Allen during Idol season -- you'll love the dueling pianos ensemble finale.
If you can't make the trek, get a front row seat via the YouTube video at the top of the post.
-- SHANA NAOMI KROCHMAL