If there’s one thing you can say about , itap that he’s not subtle. Not even in the least.
The Season 8 “American Idol” runner-up fills his live show with such ostentatious flamboyance there’s really no question of ever mistaking him. There wasn’t a moment during his hour and a half performance at on Saturday that was lacking in camp and spectacle, from the enormous ring of fire that bedazzled his video screen as he crooned Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire” to the rainbow laser lights that sparkled out across the screaming crowd as muscled male dancers gyrated onstage — even to the fact that Lambertap Orange amps are in fact coated in pink glitter.
Lambert stomped onstage clad in an ensemble potentially borrowed by Boy George — complete with a maroon top hat emblazoned with an “A” — and immediately launched into “Voodoo,” a track from his debut. This was only his first of many looks. The costume changes that occurred throughout the set never caused a lull, however. As Lambert slipped off stage to don a long black trench coat, his four scantily-clad dancers wriggled around to a tribal beat, seemingly missing only a thick metal pole and a few cages in their performance.
Later Lambert, who spent all of the show barefoot despite his elaborate costumes, was squeezed into a glittery blue tux of sorts. He asked, “Are you ready to dance? I’m ready to dance. I may not be able to breathe but I can dance!” He certainly could. He clutched and twirled a cane with one hand while howling his number “Strut” into his microphone, occasionally using the cane to mime something that was, again, not subtle.
It was almost unimportant what songs Lambert sang, or whether they were from his album or covers borrowed from his stint on “Idol.” His now well-known renditions of Tears For Fears’ “Mad World” and Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love” received equal cheers to his own “Music Again” and “What Do You Want From Me.” The audience, an overly excited group composed mostly of husky middle-aged women waving glow sticks and screeching every lyric, didn’t seem to care what Lambert was singing; they just cared that he was.
Although aspects of the concert came across like a chaotic gay pride parade, Lambertap performance was, as whole, a wildly successful exhibition of pop music spectacle, unabashed and confident in self-identity. It never felt like someone trying to cash in on a career launched via Fox, even if thatap ultimately what it was. Lambert preached a message of love throughout the night, saying before he intoned “Aftermath” that “sometimes the goal is to look inside yourself and then love will come.”
A nice sentiment, certainly, but ironic in contrast to the external explosion of visual stimuli the singer builds around himself onstage every night.
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Emily Zemler is a freelance writer and a regular contributor to Reverb. She also writes for Spin, Alternative Press, Relix and has a weekly column on where she forces musicians to talk about books.
Denise Chambers is a Denver freelance photographer and regular contributor to Reverb. See more of her work .
