Fans scream for all that is 'Idol'

By Derek Paiva
Advertiser Entertainment Writer

Screaming fans. Camile and Jasmine back home. And a tribute to Prince that made more than doves cry.

Kelli Kawamoto of 'Aiea shows off her "American Idol" sign at a concert at Blaisdell Center Arena. Kawamoto and her family were among about 8,000 people who attended the concert, which featured Hawai'i's Camile Velasco and Jasmine Trias. Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser

Levonne Kukahiko surprised her granddaughter Angelynne, 11, with two tickets to the concert after she got home from school. Suddenly all plans for the evening were off and nine other grandchildren would have to get the full scoops from Angelynne.

"I was hoping to find two seats together and suddenly there they were when I called this morning," said Levonne, waiting for the gates to open outside the arena. "I asked Angelynne because I'm closest to her. Everyone understands."

Inside, near the Blaisdell's back entrance, LaToya London and Diana DeGarmo waved to fans gathered near a barricade. George Huff approached the small gathering and graciously bowed, "Mahalo! Mahalo!"

The grand plan for the first half of the show was basically bringing out one soloist after another in the order of their elimination from the show. Here, the soloists either hit their marks soundly or were, at worst, near-misses.

Jennifer Hudson, London and Fantasia Barrino offered the best work here, as did a surprisingly solid John Stevens with a ring-a-ding "Come Fly With Me."

Not so successful was a manic Jon Peter Lewis, whose tone-deaf take on Stevie Wonder's "Superstition" topped off with him running into the audience screaming, "Who wants some? Who wants some?"

Uh, some ... what, exactly?

An unnecessary intermission was followed by a second half filled with the kind of odd pairings, medleys and group performances that usually take up space on "Idol's" overlong Wednesday night "just-tell-us-who-got-the-boot" shows.

The worst of these was a group-sung Prince tribute so devoid of funk it sounded like an Up With People concert gone horribly wrong. Well, except for Hudson, who belted her section of "Nothing Compares 2 U" as if channeling the mojo of Rosie Gaines.

And how did Jasmine Trias and Camile Velasco measure up?

Trias came back from a somewhat weak take on Whitney Houston's "How Will I Know" to shine with a fantastic cover of Alicia Keys' "If I Ain't Got You." A confident Velasco proved she could work a stage and dance, scoring points with a cover of Keys' "Heartburn" that had Mufi Hannemann grooving back stage.

The relentlessly energetic crowd, for its part, eagerly ate everything "American Idols Live" served up like so much sweet, sugary nothing-ness. There's nothing wrong with that, of course.

I just hope everyone brushed and flossed afterward.

Reach Derek Paiva at dpaiva@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8005.