Young Fans Go Crazy Over David Archuleta! Oh yeah, and Demi too..

Young fans go crazy over Demi Lovato, David Archuleta
The Disney star and the ‘American Idol’ charmer show growth with their Nokia Theatre performances.
By PETER LARSEN
The Orange County Register

Photos by Armando Brown, for the Orange County Register

About halfway into Demi Lovato’s concert at Nokia Theatre on Friday the teen pop star paused to introduce her next song with the truest words she’d speak all night.

“You know, last year I shot a movie that changed my life forever,” she pointed out before instant cheers of fans cut her off, making it clear that she really didn’t need to fill in the rest of that sentence.

“Camp Rock,” the 2008 Disney Channel hit, plucked Lovato from relative obscurity and placed her alongside the Jonas Brothers, the hottest teen act of the moment. Within months, Lovato, still just 16 years old, was a very big thing.

Her first album, “Don’t Forget,” debuted at No. 2 in September. By February of this year she was starring in her own Disney Channel show, “Sonny with a Chance.” And when her sophomore effort, “Here We Go Again,” arrives on Tuesday, it almost certainly will make a huge splash on the charts.

But beyond just Lovato’s sudden popularity, this entire night at Nokia was a reminder of the magical success that can result when young fans, young stars and old media collide.

Opening act David Archuleta, just 17 last year when “American Idol” made him an overnight sensation, referenced that too during his set. “I’ve got a lot of great memories here,” he said at one point of the L.A. Live venue, where he sang in the Season 7 finale and finished second in the competition.

In the audience you saw more evidence of the same: Sabrina Bryan, plucked from Orange County by Disney to star in the 2003 “Cheetah Girls” movie (with more movies, albums and a run on the company’s ABC side for “Dancing with the Stars’ to follow), showed up and was mobbed by fans as she made her way to her seat – an appropriate reception for a 24-year-old grande dame of tween entertainment.

Still, while it’s possible to win the life lottery and score seemingly instant success – Lovato, Archuleta and Bryan all worked for years as child actors and singers first, we should note – pulling it off live can be a trickier feat.

Fortunately for the 7,000 screaming fans (including the sizeable contingent of parents who drove them) the answer on Friday was a solid yes.

Archuleta in his turn delivered a 45-minute, 11-song set that earned almost as much fan love as Lovato’s. With his typically lovely voice, he sang singles off his self-titled album, “Crush” and “A Little Too Not Over You,” as well as a few dancier numbers such as “Zero Gravity.”

Compared to his first Southern California solo show in Pomona earlier this year, he seemed more settled as a showman – a little less “aw shucks,” though you’re never going to get all the “gee whiz” out of this guy.

Archuleta was preceded by a five-piece all-girl rock band called KSM, a group mentored by the Go-Go’s, something you notice right away in both their sound and fashion. We’d never heard of them before, but with a new album coming from Disney subsidiary Buena Vista Records later this year, does anyone want to bet on whether they’ll be headlining Nokia in 2011? Didn’t think so.

*This is a pretty good review all around, so good for KSM, David, and Demi! Fans of all got treated to a great show! The writer obviously has respect for David’s voice, but it bothers me that he has to mention his “aw shucks” personality like it’s a character flaw. Then he goes on to say “you’re never going to get all the “gee whiz” out of this guy” and I say, why the heck would we want to?! That’s what we love about him!
I didn’t post the whole review so if you’d like to read Demi’s review or leave a comment, go HERE