Adam Lambert- Glam Nation Tour

Tonight I was at the Palais Theatre in St. Kilda (amazingly the first time I've ever been there) for the first stop of Adam Lambert's sold out Australian Glam Nation tour.  Earlier this year very few people would have known who he was, but his promo visit in March really did the trick so far as radio is concerned and he's had a couple top five hits on the Australian charts.

This show was originally a general admission concert at The Palace, but it got moved to a bigger, all ages venue when it sold out within a couple weeks.  The Palais Theatre is seated, and while I would have preferred it to remain a general admission gig, I couldn't really complain about the fact I got allocated a seat in the eighth row on the side.  I had an excellent view!  The opening act for the evening was Sydney-based singer songwriter Morgan Joanel.  She played a good half hour set on acoustic guitar and used a loop petal to overlay instrument and vocal samples into her songs.  She even did a cover of Rihanna's "Please Don't Stop the Music."

When Adam finally took the stage the whole floor section was standing up and cheering.  He started off with a medley of "Voodoo," "For Your Entertainment," and "Down The Rabbit Hole"  (I would have loved to hear full versions of all three songs!)  as well as a teaser of "Ring of Fire," which he performed on American Idol.  The show is set up as a musical journey and the set list doesn't really change from night to night.  "Fever" really got the crowd pumping (especially the kiss with bass player Tommy) before the set moved into the acoustic section of the evening.  Absolute highlights were "Soaked" and "Broken Open."  The final more rock section of the night included fantastic renditions of "Sure Fire Winners," "Strut," and "Music Again."  Probably my favorite song off the album, "If I Had You" finished up the main set and had everyone dancing and singing along.  The band returned for just one encore, "Mad World," which was performed much closer to the tempo of the original Tears For Fears version.  It was a bit of an odd way to end the concert as I would have expected them to play at least one more song.  In any case, I still can't believe I actually saw Adam in person.  His voice is amazing live and he and his dancers and band put on a great show.  Hopefully he will return to play in Melbourne again, and actually get to spend more than a day in my fair city.