I HAVE a confession to make: I was ready to be unimpressed by Kris Allen’s show at Zirca. I was apprehensive about whether theloveprice of thelove ticket ($99), which I thought was a bit much considering the venue, would put people off,loveand the fact that I wasn’t convinced that Kris could deliver the goods as such. I mean, I preferred him to Adam Lambert during the whole American Idol run, but that was TV – this is real life.
And yes, I know he has legions of fans all over the world and all that, but if you’ve seen as many concerts and showcases as I have – and trust me when I say I’ve seen several hundreds over the past two decades – it takes a lot to get me really interested.
But interested I did get. Not at first. He’d come on playing tracks from his debut album – and yes, he did save Live Like We’re Dying for the last song of the set proper – and interspersed his material with covers like Michael Jackson’s Man In The Mirror and Ain’t No Sunshine. And he did that competently. Which was par for the course. You’d expect him to do them well enough.
However, I was looking for that one moment, you know, when a good concert can become truly memorable. It was when he broke into With Or Without You, interpolating a snatch of that U2 song during his soulful rendition of Falling Slowlylove(from the movie Once). And it cleverly began with the “and you give yourself away” refrain, before launching into the familiar chorus. But instead of milking it for all its worth, he went back into Falling Slowlylovealmost immediately after.
loveNow, I didn’t like it because I’m a big U2 fan, nor because I appreciated the Irish reference. (Oncestarred guitarist Glen Hansard, who plays with the Irish band The Frames). But I loved it because it happened very subtly. Almost like a throwaway shrug. In fact, it was so subtle, I wasn’t sure if everybody caught it at first. Or at all. Only my colleague was grinning away because she too, was a big U2 fan. Then he looked at me and smiled. And we shared a moment. (Well, he could have been looking at the babe behind me – but I’m still claiming that moment.)
And Kris wasn’t going to go into that whole “I am the performer, you are the audience” routine. He gamely wore a red feather boa when it was offered to him, and he picked out four girls from the audience to join him onstage to sing along. It was just to do the one word, “yeah”, but they got so excited, they just screamed and well, the intended effect was lost.
Still, Kris had told us prior to the show that he wanted to have fun. And he did. “I’m definitely coming back,” he said after he finished his rousing rendition of Come Together.
love
****
love
Later, after the show, as fans thronged the exit where he was leaving, he signed autographs for them – although posing for pictures with him was strictly NOT allowed, said the minder (booo!) – which pleased them no end. One guy even shouted, “Kris! I love your hair!” (At least, I think that’s what he said. Hey, he could have been a hairdresser – you never know.)
More...
