Review and photos by Sarah Spencer
It may be surprising to some that David Cook is still playing small venues, as well as college and university campuses. As the reigning American Idol, I expected to see him selling out arenas. Although, on April 29, The Revolution Music Room was a sold out packed house that sounded just about as loud as any rock concert in any arena that I've been to.
We arrived at the already crowded club a little after 8:00 p.m. for the show which was slated to start at 8:30 pm. It didn't actually begin till 9:00 pm. The mixed crowd of teenagers to seniors were restless but patient. No one started chanting for the show to start. The lights finally dimmed low and Ryan Star (pictured below) of ABC's reality show, "Rockstar: Supernova" fame (or lack of) and his band mounted the stage. The 31-year-old singer-songwriter, guitarist, pianist started off with his song "Brand New Day" along with "11:59," then "Psycho Suicidal Girl" and then finally chose his most popular song, "Last Train Home" as the next to last to entertain the crowd by.
Star was not overly conversational, although he was friendly and wanted desperately to connect with the crowd. At one point during his set, he took a girl's camera and snapped a picture with it for a theatrical effect. At the end of his show instead of exiting stage left, he decided to make his way through the crowd. His bad boy good looks and his raspy voice make him popular with some of the ladies but, as for this lady, I did enjoy seeing him in concert. He has obvious talent but, other than "Last Train Home," his music didn't make me a huge fan. But the girl next to me at the concert would probably disagree, as she knew every song and sang along with him. So what do I know?
Now, all we had to do was wait for David. The geriatric
couple next to me were getting antsy and the man, who must of been in his early 70s, kept looking at his watch but, then again, so was I. Cook's self-titled album has had enormous record breaking success and we were
ready to share our congratulations. As "Milkshake" by Kelis played, the
rock-oriented vocalist and 26-year-old David Cook along with his band came out
to meet the boisterous crowd. They started off this stop of The Declaration
Tour with "Heroes," just one of the many of Cook's monster ballads.
After singing "Declaration," Cook paused to sing (not literally) Ryan Star's praises, eventually calling Star back up to the stage for another round of applause. Star then got down on his knee and proclaimed his love for Cook, then, Star gave him a big fat kiss on the cheek. Cook was obviously thrown off by Star's show of affection because after he wiped his cheek dry said that he was now unsure of singing the next song, which happened to be a love song. He said it just didn't feel right. But, then told his fans he would be professional and continue on with the planned song, "Avalanche".
For the next number, David dedicated
his super sexy song "Kiss on the Neck" to all the singles in the audience. He
then sang "Souvenir," a song that didn't actually make the album, then he sang
"Mr. Sensitive," "Lie" and then his stirring rendition of Alice in Chains "Man
in the Box." David reminded us of how new he was to all the success by
constantly egging the crowd on for cheers and accolades between songs. He was
obviously eager to hear the audiences' enthusiastic fascination. He let the
music lovers know how much he enjoys his job when he let us in on a little
secret, "It's a hell of a way to make a living!"
He introduced his pseudo last song by stating how he was able to get paid to "kiss a very attractive blond girl" in the new video for "Come Back to Me," but he also said he had to learn how to sing the song backwards. After briefly exciting, Cook and his band (which, by the way, consists of Neal Tiemann on lead guitar, Andy Skib, guitarist and keys player, Joey Clement on bass and, last but not least, Kyle Peek on drums) returned with encouragement from the audience.
They were ready to go and
started back up with the emotive first single and hit song, "Light On" and then
finished the set with the masculine "Bar-Ba-Sol," which Cook stated was his
favorite song to perform while it happens to be my favorite to listen to. He
then asked the audience to request it by calling the radio stations on the drive
home.
The celebrated David Cook, with his smokin' hotness and brawny voice, was
charming and had a power to please. I'm sure I'm one of the last to resist the
huge phenomenon which is American Idol, but although, I'm not a fan of the
show, I am an absolute David Cook fan. Our sincere condolences goes out to him
and his family for the lose of his eldest brother, Adam Cook, age 37, to cancer
this past Saturday, just three days after this show.
