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Lambert Wows Palace Crowd

Quote :: Detroit is Adam Lambert country.

The "American Idol" runner-up stole the show at Wednesday's "American Idols Live!" concert at The Palace of Auburn Hills, and earned the lion's share of the applause from the spirited audience.

"American Idol" has never seen anything like Lambert, who is like a glam rock serpent formed from the DNA of David Bowie, Freddie Mercury and Trent Reznor. As he tore through a super-sexualized version of Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" you could sense the unease from the parents who brought their small children to the concert.

Lambert effortlessly oozed sex appeal, swagger and rock star quality, and gleefully smashed the boundaries of what is expected from contestants on the teeny bopper show. It will be interesting to see what effect, if any, his run on "Idol" does for future seasons of the show, but don't be surprised if the answer is none. An Adam Lambert only comes around once every so often, and it will be thrilling to see what he does from this point.

Lambert of course lost "Idol" to Kris Allen, and the injustice was personified when Allen took to the stage at the concert's conclusion and gave an almost entirely charisma-free performance.

There are "Guitar Hero" renditions of the Killers' "All These Things I've Done" with more passion than Allen's version had on Wednesday, and he did everything he could to rob "Hey Jude" of its splendor. Allen seems bland to begin with, but compared to Lambert, he's almost nonexistent.

Wednesday night acted as a homecoming for Michigan's own Matt Giraud, who made a case for himself that he should have gone much further in the show than the fifth place finish he was awarded.

In an alternate universe, the finale might have been Lambert and Giraud, as Giraud gave a full-bodied, high energy performance that saw him successfully taking on both the Black Crowes ("Hard to Handle") and Ray Charles ("Georgia on My Mind"). As Giraud's friends and family cheered him on -- his father wore a shirt that screamed "Matt G's Dad" -- Giraud showed he had genuine chops on both the microphone and at the piano, and the ability to make a go of a music career.

Elsewhere there were few surprises. Performers took the stage in the order they were voted off, starting with roughneck Texan Michael Sarver, and on through Megan Joy, Scott MacIntyre, Lil Rounds, Anoop Desai and the rest of the herd. Joy's voice is unique and quirky but her performance came off as lazy, while sparkplug rocker Allison Iraheta was a good match for Pink's "So What." She played the rocker role to a T, and you believed her when she sang "I'm still a rock star" as wind blew through her magenta-colored locks.

The Detroit News