2009 Lookback | Kris Allen headlines Season 8's American Idols Live Summer Tour

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!

Flashback Friday: San Diego 2/2/13 and Kris Plays Electric Guitar in 2009 and 2010!

On Fridays, we try to catch up on tour media around here! We'll check out a video to catch up on the Out Alive Tour. Plus I'll try to give you a bonus video - Out Alive Tour!

Out Alive Tour Video
I'm up to San Diego and wow, was that an epic show on February 2, 2013 at the Soda Bar. There's no shortage of media to choose from; so I've updated the post for that show with all of the videos and yes, mp3s! Special shout-outs go to Ocamy21, SnapCracklyPop, Kradamantium and TheRealConcertKing who all went the extra mile and made you YouTube playlists (linked on the show post), and to Summerdaze_, coming through once again with the mp3s.

I couldn't decide between these two videos to feature here so you get them both:

Kradamantium's sexy video of Kris being sexy and ad-libbing during Leave You Alone


Ocamy21's awesome video of Seven Nation Army/Shut That Door


But also be sure to hit up the show post and check out Torres singing lead on California Dreaming and the band just doing another great job on Breakdown. Plus if you are West Coast, don't miss the banter before Better With You.

Bonus Video

We also try each week to take a look back at a fun or great (or both) video that maybe got overlooked or maybe just deserves a second look! I put out a request on Twitter and Summerdaze_ asked for something featuring Kris on electric guitar. (Perhaps inspired by this picture he tweeted.) Sounds good to me and it's the least I can do to thank her for the mp3s. But what to choose?

There's the first video that comes up in search on YouTube when you input "Kris Allen Electric Guitar"


Ah his Bright Lights solo during the 2009 Idol Tour, Charlotte version. He did great on that. Here's another fun video of it from the Portland 2009 Idol Tour



Then thinking through his own songs, the ones that have always stood out to me for electric guitar were Can't Stay Away and Is It Over, but Is It Over was always more of an Andrew DeRoberts tour de force. So we will go with Can't Stay Away, back to the Fall 2010 Lifehouse tour, where the KAB had evolved the song into a big guitar jam at the end. I found 3 pretty videos for you of Kris and his red electric guitar.

Here's Westbury, NY (k21886):


Here's Washington, DC (mamaygr - disclaimer - that's my personal account so this is actually my video)


Here's Kansas City (Debbi Ronnebaum) with bonus Red Guitar (for which he puts the red guitar down and picks up a brown one, LOL.)


Enjoy!

Flashback Friday: New York Edition! (January 13, 2013 and October 16, 2012)

To pass the time when we've got a stretch between shows as we do now ... I'm doing Flashback Friday! Every Friday we'll take a look back and check out a video to catch up on the Out Alive Tour. Plus I'll try to give you a bonus Kris video of yore - maybe one that got overlooked or one that is just worth watching again.

This weekend I'm looking forward to a little getaway with my family to New York City. So for the Out Alive Tour Catch-Up Video of the Week, we're going to flashback to January 13, 2013, when Kris played a show at Littlefield. The request song for the night was his cover of Matchbox 20's Bright Lights, his Idol tour staple, and the Kris Allen Band put its own stamp on it. Check out this video from omgblondeox:

For the Bonus Kris Flashback Video, I thought we'd go back to New York City again and look back at Kris' performance at last October's Little Kids Rock fundraising gala. He did a great job honoring the guest of honor, Steven Van Zandt, with this take on Van Zandt's The Time of Your Life (video by Annave47 aka MJ):

Hope you enjoyed this trip in time to some special NYC performances! If there's an overlooked Kris video or just one you want to enjoy again, please let me know in the comments or on Twitter at @KrisAllenLists.

p.s. Next list is March 28!

Throwback Thursday (September 13, 2009)

Every Thursday, we take a look back at an awesome old Kris video!

This one of Kris covering Bright Lights by Matchbox 20 is from the Idol tour, September 13, 2009, in Providence, RI. Ah, when Kris was sick. He makes it look actually kind of hot to be sick.

Find a playlist of other Throwback Thursday videos here.