It's summer, it's hot, and it's time to lookback at a happier time - Summer of 2009, when Kris Allen and his fellow season 8 American Idols went on tour! Devoted fans of the season logged on their computers for each show's cellcast. (Yes, that's right, back in 2009 we listened to someone at the show sharing the garbled audio from their cell phone.) A few of the shows were livestreamed thanks to some intrepid Adam Lambert fans who started a UStream account (gotta give credit when credit is due! The Adamcast as it was called was much better quality than the cellcasts.) People had nice cameras in 2009 and where livestreaming was off and on, pretty much every show featured spectacular live videos, which made the Idol tour 2009 easy to follow.
As for this blog's subject? Kris Allen, having won Idol, got to close the show. I'll have a few more posts about the 2009 summer tour coming up that will focus on some specific fun things (the NY shows, the show I went to (Philadelphia) and the tour finale in Manchester, NH). This post, however, will focus on the overall tour and also contain Kris' setlist and some favorite videos from the starting shows of the tour (including the now hard to find official Bright Lights video). Enjoy the memories from a far more innocent summer ten years ago!
The tour's first stop was July 5, 2009 in Portland, Oregon and it ended on September 25 in Manchester, NH. The full set list for all the performers can be found here and the complete list of tour stops is here.
Kris' set list with some favorite videos from the July shows (and yes, he did wear the same shirt every night):
- Heartless: Basically the Idol single version, and not like the version he currently performs. His hometown performance in Little Rock on July 25 was one of the tour's highlights and led to all night trending of #KrisAllenRockStar on Twitter. Listen to that crowd! The fandom truly felt like one that night and anything seemed possible for Kris. This video also shows the complete intro he got at each show.
- No Boundaries: Enough said. This was replaced after July 10, 2009 with All These Things I've Done.
- All These Things I've Done: This Killers cover was far more of an interesting choice for Kris and was much better live, although we all worried he'd drop back into the pit that he came onto the stage on.
- Bright Lights: This cover of Matchbox 20's classic tune was my favorite number he did on tour. Idol must have thought so too as they sold an official live video of it as part of the iTunes pass for Kris fans. The video has been pulled off iTunes and can't be found on YouTube, but you can check it out here and download an mp3. For this post, here's a classic tour video of the first live version done in Portland!
- Ain't No Sunshine: Kris' tour rendition of his smash Idol cover was fantastic and another highlight of his set.
- Hey Jude: I confess, this was not a favorite for me. But it does feature a crowd-pleasing appearance by his fellow Idols at the end, and I loved that Megan and Allison regularly shouted "Kris Allen is the man" at the end of it.
- Don't Stop Believing: This was a group number and Adam and Kris sprang up from the pit each night at the end of it to close it out to thunderous applause. It was a lot of fun each show and there's tons of great videos from the tour.
Hope you enjoyed this lookback at the first month of the Season 8 Idol tour. I'll RT videos you fondly remember from this leg if you tweet them to me. :)
I remember I enjoyed watching and following this tour on YouTube, Thank you to the fans who took pains videoing the shows. I remember thinking how can they launder their performance clothes when they perform every night ��
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