Event: The Inaugural New Year's Eve BigBall Dropping Celebration 2014, Little Rock, AR, December 31, 2013

Photo by @NaturalStateofMusic.com

The Inaugural New Year's Eve Big Ball Dropping Celebration 2014

Northshore River Wall

Little Rock, AR

7 PM CST

Also appearing: Bow Wow, Cody Belew and others

Show Preview:

Kris is part of the entertainment lined up for Little Rock's first ever "New Year's Eve Big Ball Dropping Celebration." The line-up consists of various Arkansas entertainers and is headlined by Kris, hosted by rapper and BET Host Bow Wow, and will also feature The Voice season 3 contestant Cody Belew. According to this tweet, Kris will have a backing band and will perform four songs. I don't have any information at this time about the time Kris will be on stage, but will update this post if we get some.

Pre-Event Press and Publicity:

• Arkansas Times
• KARK News Video
• Fox16 story | Video | Story | Video
• THV11 Story
• River Valley Leader
• Facebook Page for Event
• Show Producer's Blog Post

The Ticket:

Photo by @RustiMajere

Soundcheck:

Photo by @BigDaddySays

  

Photo by Aaron Nolan, Fox16 News

Oh - and - Happy New Year! May 2014 bring us many Kris Allen Lists and live performances (plus a new album to boot)!!
--KAL

The Show:

Photo by @PStiles

Photo by @PStiles

Photo by TreDayAllDayEveryday

Set List: (Order Uncertain)

• Better With You [FoxNews16 Video]
• Man in the Mirror (Cover - Michael Jackson) 
• Come Together (Cover - The Beatles)
• Live Like We're Dying

2013: The Year in Kris Allen Performances (Part Two of Two)

Every year, I try to keep a YouTube playlist of Kris Allen's live performances and get it out to my followers as a thank you for following me. I look for a good video of each performance and try to make sure that people who don't normally post video are included as well. This year, with the Out Alive tour, we ended up with a five part playlist (YouTube allows 200 videos per list, and I left some room on each one for missing songs.). In my last installment, we had three playlists taking us up through the end of April. Let's continue our journey through the year...

Part Four of the playlist picks up with the spring leg of the Out Alive Tour, which saw Kris return to the east coast. It begins April 26, in Rockland, ME, finishes the leg, and then ends with some one-off gigs in May, June and July. As I was compiling this and reviewing videos, I realized that I would love to see Kris in an outdoor venue. (Actually, I have, in August 2010, but I would love to see him that way again.) This part includes the premiere of his awesome original song All We Need Is This Love (hoping that makes his album!) as well as some great covers of She Thinks I Still Care (George Jones) and Mirrors (Justin Timberlake). Memorable shows included Burlington, New York City, Hanover (MD) and Bay City (MI). Also don't miss the videos of him at a charity gig in New York for Give an Hour and with Idol contestant Shubha Vedula in Mount Pleasant, MI singing Live Like We're Dying.

And whew, Part Five! Part five takes us through the second half of the year, from his one-off in August at Hershey Park through his recent Christmas online concert. As you probably know, Kris' son Oliver was born in late July, and naturally his time on the road was limited. Still he gave us quite a few live highlights, including a reborn version of Rooftops with a new intro and a mashup with Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines. The best shows in this bunch included Hershey #2, the Live on the Levee show which turned into a mall show thanks to a scary West Virginia severe thunderstorm, and an AMAZING college crowd at Brigham Young Idaho in Rexburg. Kris ended the year with an awesome holiday show including a new, untitled, holiday song which I love.

Also, I promised you some stats. I did lists and/or posts for 82 different events. You can find the complete spreadsheet of  all songs Kris sang in 2013 here. The only song not performed (:() from Thank You Camellia was Turn the Pages. Only four songs were performed from KATA: Live Like We're Dying, Alright With Me, Red Guitar and Before We Come Undone. Kris also did a few from Brand New Shoes in a most welcome development; I hope he'll continue to perform them live! By my count, he did 65 separate covers (some a number of times) including the Christmas songs. (Please correct me if needed on any of these stats.)
In summary, 2013 was a busy year for Kris and his fans, which we will end with one more show and one more list on New Year's Eve! I'll also give you a final stats post with the stats from that added in. Thank you for all your wonderful feedback this past year and for all your great live tweets and media! Let's do it again tomorrow!
--KAL

2013: The Year in Kris Allen Live Performances (Part One of Two)

Every year, I try to keep a YouTube playlist of Kris' live performances and get it out to my followers as a thank you for following me. I look for a good video of each performance and try to make sure that people who don't normally post video are included as well. This year, with the Out Alive tour, we ended up with a five part playlist (YouTube allows 200 videos per list, and I left some room on each one for missing songs.).

So for those of you who really need to catch up on Kris, you are all set! Before I list the playlists, a few acknowledgments. First and foremost, thank you to every single person who has live tweeted a Kris show, posted pictures and/or posted video. You may not even realize this, but many Kris fans truly appreciated it!

Special shout-outs to @ameeliu15 and @headonfire1105. You'll see their videos a lot. Thank goodness they went to Kris shows and were nice enough to video every song! Also special shout out to @maryet34 who makes invaluable playlists for almost every Kris show. These were super helpful for compiling my lists!

So here's Part One! This part covers the January 2013 shows in the first month of the Out Alive tour (from Killington, VT through Tulsa, OK). I'm sure those who went to a show during this time frame will remember how amazing it was that Kris even was able to perform given his terrible accident at the beginning of the year. I went to the Vienna, VA show in January and remember just feeling grateful that Kris was OK. Highlights here include his performance of Where Are You Amy (dedicated to the citizens of Newtown) in Ridgefield, CT, and awesome covers of Where Doves Cry (Prince), Breakdown (Tom Petty) and Cry Me a River (Justin Timberlake). Since the East Coast loves them some Kris, you will find the Boston, Philadelphia and Vienna videos to be especially popping.


And here's Part Two! This part covers shows from Albuquerque, NM (January 31), all his west coast Out Alive shows, and goes through Aspen, CO (February 20). Yes, there are that many shows and videos! Kris was an enormous trooper considering he was recovering from a serious injury, and he deserves a ton of credit for not letting his fans down and continuing with the tour.Highlights during this playlist include some great requests (Wicked Game (Chris Isaak), Jealous Guy (John Lennon) and High and Dry (Radiohead) are my favorites). Standout shows in this part included San Diego, Agoura Hills, San Francisco, Portland and Seattle.

 
The playlist for Part Three runs from February 21 (Denver) through the Sophia's Heart cruise and on through the first few shows of the spring leg of the Out Alive Tour (through Plymouth, NH, April 25). Highlights here include first performances of Kris' original songs Fighters, Love Too Much and Unique, as well as some great covers of Tighten Up (The Black Keys) and In Your Eyes (Peter Gabriel). Shows that stood out for me included the cruise, Chicago, Ann Arbor and Toronto.


Click here for my second installment, with the rest of the year's playlists and a look back at Kris' stats! In the meantime, please let me know your Kris highlights in the comments, and if you spot any videos I've missed, or corrections to be made, please hit me up and let me know! --KAL

Throwback Thursday: April 17, 2013: Kris covers "Something" by the Beatles in Minneapolis, MN

Every Thursday we take a look back at Kris' career via video.

This week, I'm feverishly working on my annual project of culling all of Kris' performances that I can find for the year into a YouTube playlist. This year, given that he went on an extensive tour, I am only up through April and I already have four playlists! It's a lot of fun to work on them and look at some of the performances I may not have noticed while bringing you the lists. Especially by spring, there were so many videos of Kris performing that sadly, some of the April shows got a bit overlooked by the fandom at large. One of these was the April 17 show in Minneapolis.

As you know, Kris did a request song each night of the Out Alive tour. In this show, he chose to cover Something by his favorite band, the Beatles. The performance is lovely and there's some pretty funny pre-song banter, as well as Kris apparently imitating a kazoo. Here's a nice video from SheriH for you to enjoy!


As a bonus, I made a quick and dirty mp3 from it - untrimmed - which you are welcome to have. Click here to download.

Look for me to post and tweet out the 2013 Kris Live video playlists over this upcoming week!

Throwback Thursday: December 16, 2009: Kris Allen Band sings Live Like We're Dying in Christmas Sweaters on Letterman

Every Thursday, we take a look back at Kris' career via video. As it is the Christmas season, let us go back to a wonderful time in 2009 when KATA was eponymous and the band made their first (and hopefully not their only) appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman to sing Kris' hit at the time, Live Like We're Dying.

Here's a cute post from Entertainment Weekly about the appearance. Kris and the band had planned to dress then drummer Ryland Steen as Santa, but were thwarted by Letterman producers. Ugly Christmas sweaters and an adorable performance ensued. Enjoy!

StageIt Concert, Christmas in Nashville, December 12, 2013

Screencap by @heartsandroses9

Christmas in Nashville

StageIt Show

December 12, 2013

8 PM EST

Kris did his second annual Christmas show on StageIt (well, hopefully we can call this an annual tradition) and it was wonderful! He performed with Cale and Andrew St. Marie, and brought in Two Story Road for the encore. (They are a married performing duo he met on the Gokey Sophia's Heart cruise and the show was done out of their house.) I logged off feeling Christmas warmth and cheer. 

In the end, he performed six Christmas classics and premiered one original song which I love! We will need to figure out its title though. Let me know your thoughts on that. I'll link mp3s and videos to the performance below, but make sure to pick up the studio recordings of the classics if you haven't already! (You can get the five tracks from Waiting for Christmas on iTunes and I'll Be Home for Christmas from NoiseTrade (no longer available).)

Screencap by KrisAllenLists

Plugged In - Kris, Cale, Andrew S. and Two Story Road

Set List:

1. Holly Jolly Christmas (Cover - Burl Ives)  [Video] | [Video] | [Video]
2. The Christmas Song (Cover - Nat King Cole)  [Video] | [Video] | [Video]
3. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (Cover - Judy Garland) [Video] | [Video] | [Video]
4. New Untitled Original Christmas Song by Kris - PREMIERE [Video] | [Video w Q&A] | [Video]
5. White Christmas (Cover - Bing Crosby) [Video] | [Video] | [Video]
6. O Holy Night (Traditional Carol) [Video] | [Video] | [Video]

Encore:

    7.  I'll be Home for Christmas (Cover - Bing Crosby) - PREMIERE [Video] | [Video] | [Video]

Banter Videos: [Banter] | [Q&A] |

Related Links:

• YouTube Playlists:  [p_eleph] | [sirkandthedirtyminds] | [snapcracklypop]
• Mp3's: By Song | Full Show | New Song
• Recaps: Pink Elephant

Throwback Thursday: Kris' Stage-It Christmas Concert, December 20, 2012

Every Thursday (most of them anyway) we take a look back at Kris' career via video.

Today is a special Thursday, because tonight is Kris' Stage-It Christmas concert. This year it will be held in Nashville and feature Cale, Andrew St. Marie and maybe some others. This is an online concert and a rare opportunity for international fans, not to mention American fans of scorned states and cities, to catch Kris live via the magic of the Internet.

So if you haven't gotten your ticket yet, what the heck are you waiting for? The first batch sold out and the second batch of tickets will too. As of the time I write this (Wednesday night), there are only 44 tickets left! Get yourself a ticket here! And if money is tight or you don't have a Paypal, then just post in the chat area that you are looking to hitch a ride and I'm sure a generous Kris fan will gift you the ticket. (For those wondering, I won't do a list since really everyone in the fandom who is not otherwise engaged with work or school events should go to this show. But I will post the setlist afterwards.)

Still not convinced? Let's take a look at some highlights from last year's Christmas show for Throwback Thursday!

Here was the 2012 setlist:

Part 1 Video, including:

• Holly Jolly Christmas (Cover - Burl Ives) - PREMIERE
• The Christmas Song (Cover - Nat King Cole)
• Please Come Home for Christmas (Cover - Charles Brown) - PREMIERE
• Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (Cover - Judy Garland)
• Christmas All Over Again (Cover - Tom Petty) - PREMIERE

Part 2 Video, including:

• White Christmas (Cover - Bing Crosby)
• Oh Holy Night (Traditional Carol) (This one is soooooo pretty)

And the encore (yes, if enough people buy tickets and tip $, you get an encore/longer show):

• Monster
• No Boundaries (Reggae)
• Blindfolded

And this last hauntingly beautiful number, which he sang right after the Newtown tragedy of 2012...

• Where Are You, Amy? - dedicated to people of Newtown, CT - PREMIERE [Video]

During the show last year, people got the opportunity to tip the artist (i.e., Kris). The top tippers won cool swag including personalized ornaments. This year, according to a post on Kris' official website, we shall be tipping for the opportunity to win "some exciting new-album related rewards." Sounds good!

See you there in the StageIt Main Stage Chatroom tonight! 8 PM Eastern Standard Time (7 PM Central, 5 PM Pacific).

- KAL