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Here’s a great review by Bill Pinella of The Press Democrat’s IdolChatter!

Archie during Santa RosaConcerts have a certain sameness to them – merchandise table, slightly late start, opening act you wish would hurry up, grand entrance of the main act. You know the routine.

Then comes the star of the show and one of two things occur after the obligatory 90 minute performance – you soon forget the act on the way home or you don’t.

You don’t forget David Archuleta.

Why?

Pretty simple – his voice.

Although as one of the judges on American Idol proclaimed two seasons ago when Archuleta finished second – “David, you could sing the phone book” – his 90-minute, one encore show Sunday night at the Wells Fargo Center was anything but songs from the Yellow Pages.

Dubbed David Archuleta’s “Christmas from the Heart” tour, it was really a combination of about half pretty pure pop Archuleta and half Christmas.

The venue wasn’t full, but it was close; the crowd wasn’t all screaming teenage girls, but it was close; and the songs weren’t all perfect, but they were close.

If you came just to hear for yourself if what you were hearing on Idol was real, well you found out – yes, and moreso.

At time, it was hard to fathom that you were listening to an 18-year old kid from Utah because the voice is something most singers take years to cultivate. And although he has been at this singing gig for much of his young life, the voice is still natural. They just don’t teach what Archuleta projects.

The first half of the show hit a peak with Zero Gravity and then Crush. The latter being his first mega-hit off his initial self-titled album.

Archuleta and his four-piece band took a mini-break to change clothes, alter the stage and change the mood to the holidays.

“It just seems so odd that we are really into the holidays now,” Archuleta said. “I’ve been working on this album for six months and now it’s finally here.”

He sang eight Christmas songs and if ever there was a voice holiday-appropriate it is Archuleta’s. Every song he did just seemed to get better.
Ave Maria sung in Spanish was then topped by a song in French – Pat-A-Pan. Then he went back to Spanish and a song titled Riu Riu Chiu, then Silent Night and finally an encore of O Holy Night.

He wasn’t perfect. Someone on Idol had given him the advice to not close his eyes while he sings, but he did that often. And his connection to the audience between songs was a bit scattered.

But who came to see his eyes or listen to him speak words of wisdom?

We came to hear the voice. And, oh, my, did we.

Videos are below the jump!

David’s intro with a short clip of “Waiting for Yesterday”:

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8 Comments for Santa Rosa, California Videos!

Janel Woodbury | November 30, 2009 at 2:24 pm

As for the review from Santa Rosa, Ave Maria was in Latin, not Spanish. I’m loving these awesome reviews for him. So many of these Christmas songs he sings just send chills up your spine!

pam05 | November 30, 2009 at 3:15 pm

Amazon’s Cyber Monday Lightning Deals, Christmas from the Heart will be sold for $5.99 from 11 AM-2 PM Pacific (2-5 PM Eastern) THAT WOULD BE NOW EASTERN TIME!!! There’s a limit of ONE per customer.

Janel Woodbury | November 30, 2009 at 3:39 pm

That was funny in the Oh Holy Night video when one person yelled out “I love you David” and the person taking the video yelled out “I love you more”. LOL

jeffreyd95821 | November 30, 2009 at 8:00 pm

I was there last night, and David had one slight blemish which proves he’s actually a real person. During Ave Maria there are two big power notes where he has to reach that place that no normal human being could go. He hit the first one perfectly. But the second time, he missed it. He didn’t address it and it didn’t really matter. He got a standing ovation anyway. In fact, he got 4 of them. Zero Gravity, Ave Maria, Silent Night and Oh Holy Night. And for anyone fearing listening to screaming tweeners during the Christmas songs, the crowd was respectful and quiet, listening to songs. Crazy loud when he was finished, but letting him sing without distractions. He does 8 pop songs and 8 Christmas songs and is onstage for 90 minutes. Plus he’s still super-nice in the I Love All Access Meet & Greets. Says they gave him a choice between doing autographs or pictures because there just wasn’t time for both. He chose pictures because he feels people will appreciate them more. And they come around with hand sanitizers and spray you. He shakes everybody’s hand as they go up and they want to keep him healthy. He even walks over to the bottle and uses it himself. Germ-free David = Happy David.

Katheryn | November 30, 2009 at 11:36 pm

jeffrey: Thanks for the info regarding the concert you attended. What a challenge it must be for David to do 16 songs, many of them very difficult to sing. I doubt anyone could hit every note perfectly on every song every night, but I’m sure David tries his best!

Hey, everybody: Please leave a comment at The Press Democrat if you haven’t done so already. (Note: You don’t have to register with the site.)

http://idol.blogs.pressdemocrat.com/10612/an-archuleta-concert-is-all-about-the-voice/comment-page-1/#comment-1030

Ray | December 1, 2009 at 2:17 pm

Great review!

I think this kid is just amazing. For 18? Who else at that age can sing like that with such passion. It’s like a velvet voice.

christy | December 1, 2009 at 5:58 pm

Musiqtone is going to have the top videos of the year. “ALTNOY” is on the list. If anyone knows when the voting starts, please let us all know. I tried to vote today but they weren’t taking votes.

Katheryn | December 2, 2009 at 1:06 am

christy: Keep checking back on the Musiqtone poll. It doesn’t say when voting starts, but it does say it ends on January 15th. In addition, although it says 50 votes per day are allowed, try getting in 50 votes twice a day, 12 hours apart, since in the past the site has reset its server every 12 hours.

http://musiqtone.com/music/thecount/

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