Jesse McCartney's Departure tour rolled into Atlantic City last night. The 21-year-old singer/actor has come a long way in the eight years he's been in the spotlight. With his latest album and tour he's trying to prove to the world that he is maturing as a man and an artist. Unfortunately for him most of his fans are still in high school, which makes it a little awkward to hear him sing about sexy time.
The opening act was some girl named Anjulie, who hopefully I will never hear from again. She barely had stage presence and to steal a line from American Idol there were some pitch problems. Things went from bad to worse when she started to work lyrics from Time After Time into one song.
He puts on a decent enough show, opting more to focus on the performance rather than the spectacle like some pop acts. The atmosphere in the Tropicana theater is enough to bring any naysayers into the fold.
McCartney sang mostly songs from his Departure album, even including some of the new tracks from the soon to be re-released version. Some of his previous hits were ignored in the show, but the fans didn't really seem to care.
For me, the best part of the concert was seeing the grandmother dancing in front of us throughout the whole concert, even after her two friends left and her husband went for an extended bathroom break. She said she was there just so she could tell her granddaughter she went. Now that's a cool grandma.
FYI, my friend Al is an awesome photographer. Photo above is courtesy of her.
