October 17th, 2010
Adam Lambert
Last year, those of us who watch the endless parade of TV talent shows were at last rewarded for our patience/dumb stupidity with the emergence of a talent the likes of which only comes about once every ten years or so.
When I first saw Adam Lambert featured on Season 8 of American Idol, I realised that it hadn't all been in vain. As the weeks went on and he grew in confidence, his performances didn't just outstrip his fellow contestants, in pure vocal ability and showmanship, they also cast a shaming light on 99% of established artists performing today. Come the final, even the eventual victor, Kris Allen, looked shocked that he'd beaten Adam. During that finale, the two performed with the remnants of Queen, Brian May and Roger Taylor, May himself saying after the show that he'd love to work with Adam in future. Hardly a surprising judgement to be made about the finest and most natural rock vocalist since Freddie Mercury, even from the Queen legend's closest musical collaborator.
On Thursday, I took Lynn to her first major concert, the KL stop on Lambert's Glam Nation tour, at the Putra Indoor Stadium Bukit Jalil (think Wembley Arena, but with slightly poorer acoustics).
As usual, PAS Youth had been stirring things up, as they do every time a western artist performs (or tries to) in Malaysia, saying that his show "promotes a gay lifestyle" (what is the "gay lifestyle", anyway? A penchant for dressing up in comedy outfits, a la Village People, and growing bushy mustaches? Saddam could have fallen foul of that one), and corrupting Muslim Youth. Apparently, they were outside the venue before the show. There could only have been a handful, because we didn't see a thing, aside from noticing that we were in a tiny minority of adults.
The show: in two words, absolutely astounding. From the first number, Voodoo, you could tell that Lambert has come a long way in a year. The vocals were acrobatic, yet somehow restrained, but what impressed more was his utter showmanship. This is a choreographed show, which I usually don't go for much, but in this case the performance would have been poorer without it. Lambert's background in music theatre shows, as he absolutely owns the stage. Voodoo was the first of a medley of tracks from his debut album, plus his American Idol version of Ring of Fire, complete with the Led Zep, Kashmir feel.
Following that came a quieter segment, including a stripped down, acoustic version of Whataya Want From Me, before the darker Sleepwalker, a superbly camped-up Strut, before the final crowdpleaser and obligatory singalong (though mercifully no left vs right) of If I had You. The very short encore consisted of a souped-up Mad World, much more reminiscent of the original than his Idol rendition, and 20th Century Boy (well, it is the Glam Nation tour).
All the way through, Lambert was superb, bringing light and dark to both his vocal and theatrical performance. Yes, this is as much a piece of theatre as a rock show, but that's always been this case with this guy.
As I said above, I consider Adam Lambert to be possessed of the most outstanding rock voice I've heard in many a long year. It will be very interesting to see how he matures, and how he copes with "difficult second album" syndrome. Personally I think he'll cope with the pressure just because of his background. Now he's recognised as an artist in his own right (with writing credits for six tracks on his album, to boot), the world's his for the taking.
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