7.21.15 Adam News and Info

Photo in banner by DianaKat dianakat.smugmug.com/Adam-Lambert-Morongo-Casino-71/i-mfgx7kf/A

DianaK ‏@dianakat13
Here's the whole album from Morongo! Some are better than other! Enjoy! @adamlambert dianakat.smugmug.com/Adam-Lambert-Morongo-Casino-71/i-q7rqHg3



Adam on The Talk
Broadcast July 20, 2015

www.cbs.com/shows/the_talk/video/sL8mlsuSm5Wh18Spoip0GwBlYOKIepKv/the-talk-7-20-2015/



My Take on Adam Lambert at Morongo!
7.21.15 by Q3

A massive thunderstorm knocked out Time Warner internet for a large part of Palm Springs including my hotel. When I called a recorded voice informed me that repairs are underway and internet services would be restored shortly. Is shortly similar to soonish? 48 hours later “shortly” has not arrived. Thankfully, I have left the dessert and am now in West LA and reconnected.

Since the concert ended on Saturday night until now I have only had a few minutes of internet access grabbed on my phone and 20 minutes on a late night, “I have to build a thread” trip to a Starbucks last night.

I mention this because I have not had a chance to read much about what other people thought of this concert. So if this all has been said before, I apologize.

****

Let me start by saying that I had a lot of time to think about this concert and I have one overriding thought – no matter how great the videos are, no matter if every second is recorded, not even if the recordings are perfect, the live concert experience is not the same as the video experience.

For some reason this concert more than any other made me realize the difference in the video vs. the live perspective. Was it because I could not I hope to capture some of the feeling of this concert, some of the experience.

Let me give you an example. Adam took the stage and looked stunning in white, with a bit of blue light. Head to toe, and particularly with the white hat. I looked briefly at a video of the opening number. The white hat looks large. There is no scale in the video, no stage set. It is a close up of Adam – not anything you see live.

Video also affects the way the music sounds and feels. For example, Adam covered “Wicked Game”. Listening to it live was stunning. I was most impressed because Adam seamlessly transitioned between the sections of the song and shifted voices throughout, he sang the normally falsetto parts of the song in his full voice, with a crisp bell tone, and it was possibly the sexiest vocal performance I have ever heard. In context with the concert the unusual arrangement worked really well. Tonight, two days later, I watched a video of Adam performing “Wicked Game”. The 2D video versions was a pale reflection of what I saw and heard, but I expected that. What I did not expect was that watching just this video, out of context of the entire concert the arrangement seemed a bit off. Now I am sure that I would h ave questioned the decision to use this arrangement if I had just watched the video of this song – but that thought never entered my head in the moment because it worked on that night, in that concert.

So trust me – or ignore me – the big white hat, the lighted shirt, the arrangements used for “Wicked Game” and “If I Had You” worked. In fact everything about this concert worked.

So here goes…..my attempt to relay what I saw, heard and felt at Morongo.

****

Before the concert, we waited in the lobby and had some drinks.

About 30 casino VIPs lined up to get a fast meet & greet/photo with Adam. They were not the typical casino VIPs – most were in their 20’s and 30’s. I talked to several of the people in line. They were all fans, none had ever met Adam and everyone I spoke to was a bit nervous/excited to meet him.

We had about an hour to kill so I talked to a lot of people who were waiting and also to some of the people working at the event.

Another fan and I struck up a conversation with our bartender.
“Are you going to get to see the concert?” I asked.
“No,” she replied, “but I did get to bring him his lunch.”
A fan asked her, “Did you talk to him?”
“No, I just gave him his lunch and he said thank you. He had a turkey burger.”
“Did he have it on a bun?” I asked. (What a stupid question – but I wanted to know about this no gluten comment he made recently.)
“No he had it on a roll,” the bartender replied. (So much for gluten-avoidance I thought. And what exactly is the difference between a bun and a roll? Must be a California thing. Back to important info.)
The fan said, “He really nice, isn’t he?”
“He seemed to be really nice. He spent a lot of time working on his hair in front of a mirror. And he had this hat. A white hat. He kept working on his hair and hat.”
The fan smiled and said, “He such a diva!” and laughed. She was totally joking but the bartender did not know that she was.
“Oh, no. He didn’t seem like that at all. It was just that he seemed to want it to be a particularly way and could not get it right.”
We finally thanked her, took our drinks and left her to serve the next customer.

There was an opening act playing. I was told their name, I forgot it. I listened to part of a song but I could not really care about it. All I could think about was Adam would be playing in about 30 minutes.

I wandered off and talked to a couple of audience members waiting in the lobby area. “Have you seen Adam live before?” “Just once" she said, "I saw him on the Idol Tour but my husband has never seen him.” I learned that they did not know he had a new album out. I hoped to find them after the concert and find out what they thought.

There was a small merchandise table set up. Basically you could buy a copy of Adam’s new album. The guy behind the table was not doing any business.

I was really anxious for the concert to start. I decided to go to my seat which was just slightly off center, near the stage --- but it was occupied by someone who had a different seat further back. I took a nearby seat that was dead center – and expected that I would need to move over eventually. I decided to look at the ticket broker sites to see what tickets were left and I hit the jackpot. The woman who was in my seat could stay there because the seat I ended up in was unsold – the ticket holder had asked way too much for it and no one bought it. We all stayed where we were.

I noticed some of the casino VIP folks were in front of me. I had talked to them in the lobby and re-engaged them in a conversation. There were two couples – in their mid 30’s. All Adam fans. They told me the meet & greet was really fast so they all went up together and got a bit more time. “He was so nice and so tall” one woman said. They all agreed he was nice and so tall and thin.

The lights went down. The show began. The whole audience is standing.

The band came out and then Adam was on stage. The lights were all blue but he was white inside the blue light. He was glowing. He started to sing “Outlaws of Love” in the blue light. His voice was ethereal but strangely powerful. The blue light was everywhere. I could not see his face. (I do not think my heart was even beating.) The song had a slightly more western feel to it than I ever heard before. After about a minute Adam segued into “Ghost Town”. He was still shrouded in blue light. It seems like something is going to happen – but what?

At the drop, Adam shirt lit up. It was odd but very effective onstage. (A thought ran through my head – this looks good here, it will look weird/stupid on video.)

Next up – “Underground”. It was well sung. Just not a standout song for me. (If I had not worked hard to remember it for the recap, I would have forgotten he sung it.)

He took off his hat. It was time for a change of tone.

I heard the first few notes of “Another Lonely Night”. All of the sudden I noticed there was an audience in the room --- it was not just Adam and me. People started dancing in front of their chairs. People were singing. Even the casino VIPs in front of me were singing along. (They are really Adam fans! They know all the lyrics.)

The next song was a big surprise – fulfilling a 6-year old wish for many fans including me – Adam sang “Wicked Game”. He did not just sing it, he moved in and owned it. I never heard “Wicked Game” sung like this. It was brilliant.

He followed this up with more surprises – “There I Said It” was next up. The first live performance and truly better than the recorded version. I still am amazed by how great this was live. After this song, Adam left the stage.

The band played for a bit. A woman next to me said, I bet he is changed costumes. I agreed. We decided that black leather had to be up next.

Adam returned and said, “I had to do a costume change guys.” Then he really surprised us with “After Hours”. I had not expected to get a bonus track song at this concert. It was great live. I am sure it will be a fixture and bet it is the opening song for his more dance-oriented segment in the real show when he tours.

Adam got a sly look in his eyes, joked about late night and said something like “I put on leather”. Women and some men squealed. It was his intro to “The Original High”. He looked like he was having such a great time performing it. The audience was all in motion. It was stellar. Right song, right moment. When he sang the “high, high, hi-----gh” part I thought a few women were going to faint. At the end of the song, he spun around and tipped his white mike to the sound guy I believe.

Next up was a new arrangement of “If I Had You” which was fun but one of the two off moments in the concert for me. I think the concept of updating the arrangement of IIHY made a lot of sense but the reggae arrangement just was a miss for me.

Things got back on track with “Shady” and “Trespassing”/”Another One Bites The Dust”.

For the final song of the set, Adam performed “Evil In The Night”. It was pretty much the same as previous performances of this song. At this point, I was ready to declare this the latest “best Adam Lambert concert ever.”

There was a break. There was an encore. He had not performed it yet, so it had to be the encore. I was not happy. As you know, the encore was “Whataya Want From Me”. It made sense sonically, but was just not the way an Adam Lambert concert in 2015 should end. I hope he figures out how to integrate IIHY and WWFM into his current music more effectively. And I hope he comes up with a better encore for future concert – and does not end with a mid-tempo ballad that sounds a bit dated now.

So if this concert is not the “best Adam Lambert concert ever,” what is it? I think it is “my favorite Adam Lambert concert ever.” I think the “best Adam Lambert concert ever” will be in the future when this setlist and the arrangement are tightened up and he adds in a few more songs. I can’t wait.

Looking at you New Zealand! ‘cause I think it may be your concert!! So please go out and buy some 3D cameras because regularly clearly will not do!

Postscript: Remember the couple who I met who did not know Adam had a new album out? Well after the concert I saw them across the room buying a copy of the album. Not sure how the merchandise sale went but I am sure they sold at least one album.




Ghost Town Remixes are available for streaming and sale!

The best thing to do for the Billboard charts is to purchase the individual GT Remix Tracks. On iTunes, make sure that you do not buy the whole EP – leave on track unpurchased. GT remix track sales count as GT sales and will count toward both the Hot 100 and the Billboard 200 (TEA’s).

Track listing:

1. Ghost Town (Tritonal Remix) 5:10 [you can download this for free, see below]
2. Ghost Town (Dave Winnel Remix) 4:42
3. Ghost Town (Blood Diamonds Remix) 3:48
4. Ghost Town (Steven Redant Remix) 7:02
5. Ghost Town (KREAM Remix) 4:05
6. Ghost Town (Unlike Pluto Remix) 3:39




Time for some more Radio Games
Vote for “Ghost Town”!
by Q3

Open House Party: Click on Music Requests in the top bar, complete and submit form: www.openhouseparty.com/monday-411.php

SirusXM: www.siriusxm.com/topsongs

New York: Z100's iHeartRadio 9 @ 9: www.z100.com/pages/info/request.html




Adamtopia Calendar


July 25, 2015: Adam will be on Saturday Night Online

July 30, 2015: Adam performs at Marquee, The Star, Sydney, Australia
Performances from Jason Derulo and Adam Lambert.

August 5, 2015: Adam performs an iHeartRadio promo concert at the Civic Theatre, Auckland, New Zealand

Queen + Adam Lambert South America Mini Tour
AKA “Don’t Stop Them Now Tour”
September 16, 2015 Q+AL Sao Paulo, Brazil, Ibirapuera Arena SOLD OUT
September 18, 2014 Q+AL at Rock in Rio, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, City of Rock SOLD OUT
September 21, 2015 Q+AL Porto Alegre, Rio Gande do Sol, Brazil, Bibantinho Arena
September 25, 2015 Q+AL Buenos Aires, Argentina, GEBA Arena
September 27, 2015 Q+AL Cordoba, Argentina, Orfeo Stadium
September 30, 2015 Q+AL Santiago, Chile, Athletic Track of the National Stadium

*****

The Adamtopia guidelines are quite simple. To be a member of Adamtopia...

1. You must be an Adam fan.

2. You must be respectful of other members. Feel free to express your opinion, but be glitterier and golden.

3. Strive to be funny, entertaining or informative when you post. Avoid posting something that has already been posted.

4. Never question anyone's right to post, the appropriateness of a topic or define the proper way for an Adam fan or Adamtopia Member to behave. Let the moderators do their job.

More rules will be added if the need arises but, if everyone follows these rules, we will not need a lot of rules.

*****

Happy Birthday!!