American Idol Concert ROCKED!

In a nutshell: BO ROCKED! I felt like banging my head. Nikko can MOVE! Jessica Sierra has a set of Pipes! Scott can be funny. Anwar is a great crooner. Constantine is HOT. Carrie is adorable. Anythony is a great balladeer. Nadia Turner is like a sexy young Tina Turner. We really enjoyed it alot! It will be hard to live up to these contestants next year.

Here is the review from our paper:
Nikko's 'Idol' concert performance far surpasses TV appearances By Kevin C. Johnson Post-Dispatch Pop Music Critic Wednesday, Aug. 10 2005 Carrie Underwood is the reigning ``American Idol’’ and Bo Bice and Constantine Maroulis are obvious crowd favorites, but it was Nikko Smith’s night when American Idols Live featuring the show’s top ten contestants came to the Savvis Center Tuesday night. St. Louis’ Smith, dubbed the Comeback Kid after he initially failed to make the show’s finalists lineup only to be reinstated after another contestant withdrew, far surpassed his televised ``American Idol’’ appearances during his solo segment in concert. Smith, a good R&B singer who on TV always came off a couple steps shy of being a great singer, rose to the occasion on tour with a naturally fun and comfortable performance. Sure, he was a bit Usher-like in presentation, but he pulled it off during his three-song, dance-heavy set that made one wonder why he wasn’t so animated in the actual competition. Donning a St. Louis baseball cap, dark shades, a funky airbrushed jacket, and distressed jeans, Smith walked out crooning Sisqo’s ``Incomplete,’’ a song the judges thought he wore well when he performed it on ``American Idol.’’ After telling the crowd he felt like dancing, Smith high-stepped to Stevie Wonder’s ``Part-Time Lover’’ before he really surprised with his moves on Justin Timberlake’s ``Like I Love You.’’ Scott Savol joked Smith wanted to be a baseball player when he grew up. ``I don’t know where he got that from,’’ Savol said before giving a shout out to Smith’s father, baseball Hall of Famer Ozzie Smith. All was good on ``American Idols Live,’’ a vast improvement over the past three, often hard-to-take installments. Some necessary tweaking in the format served the tour well. Previously, the first half of the ``American Idol’’ tour featured routine solo performances followed by the goofiest groups songs imaginable. Now, the tour is like ten mini-concerts, with the identity-robbing group songs all but dropped until the very end. Highlights were plentiful, as the singers performed at the top of their games, and Bice didn’t let a little something like a recently broken foot stop him. He hobbled on stage and warned the crowd he wouldn’t be able to jump around. But he moved just fine, albeit with a major limp on ``Vehicle’’ and ``Sweet Home Alabama.’’ The likable Underwood brought her light country edge to ``Independence Day’’ and ``Sin Wagon,’’ and she and Bice made for a great pair on ``Bless the Broken Road,’’ both seated with acoustic guitars. Vonzell Solomon was in diva mode, giving a full throttle performance on big R&B staples ``I Have Nothing,’’ ``I’m Every Woman,’’ and ``Best of My Love.’’ She entered the stage joining Robinson, on piano, during ``Superstition.’’ Robinson shined on ballads, ``A House is Not a Home,’’ dedicated to Luther Vandross, and the gorgeous ``What a Wonderful World.’’ Maroulis was best at mugging marvelously. He only played to the camera -- the arena could’ve been empty and he would’ve been fine so long as the cameras were on him. On songs like ``My Funny Valentine’’ and an ego-stroking ``Bohemian Rhapsody,’’ which came with multiple images of himself that bordered on parody, he delivered. Anthony Fedorov, perhaps underrated on the show, proved watchable on oldies such as ``Every Time You Go Away’’ and ``Can You Stop the Rain.’’ Nadia Turner brought fire power to her trio of rock songs. Jessica Sierra and Scott Savol were best in duet form on ``Total Eclipse of the Heart.’’ The concert wrapped with all the finalists back on stage to join Underwood on her hit ``Inside Your Heaven’’ before the encores of ``Lean on Me’’ and ``R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.’’