The Idol Tour concert review from Charlotte is there, on charlotteobserver.com, published today, on the 2nd of August 2009. Jen Aronoff has been there and below are the fragments of her impressions:

The concert and the Idols

Saturday’s stop before a nearly full house at Time Warner Cable Arena provided plenty of clues about what awaits the top 10 contestants from the most recent season. For some – say, runner-up Adam Lambert, a one-man rock spectacle – that’s probably pop stardom; for others, it’s a return to obscurity.
But performing together, in order from the tenth-place finisher to first, they played like a lean, mean, supremely entertaining version of the show itself – slightly slick, a tad cheesy, but with a generous pop sensibility and tremendous heart.

Adam Lambert

After his (Danny Gokey’s) performance, the sounds of explosions heralded Adam Lambert’s arrival. That, it turned out, was unnecessary; the building had already exploded with deafening screams releasing pent-up anticipation.
Taking the stage dressed in a studded blue leather tailcoat as the band cranked out the opening bars of Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love,” the emo-coiffed 27-year-old unleashed his classic-rock howl and some PG-13 gyrating and belt grabbing. Then, he dialed down to a sensitive croon for Muse’s “Starlight” and Tears For Fears’ “Mad World.”
Throughout his set, Lambert displayed an experienced performer’s comfort and vocal control, hitting stratospheric notes with ease. Yet though he delivered, the thrilling “what will he do next” audacity that helped him electrify the TV show isn’t as much of a factor in the tour, and his stage training appeared to coat him with a bit of a hardened sheen in a live setting, with good-natured personality emerging only in between-song banter.

Adam Lambert vs. Kris Allen

All of that makes Allen’s post-“Idol” musical direction completely clear: He’s mainstream soft rock. Lambert, on the other hand, is a trickier proposition: Of all the show’s contestants, he has the greatest potential to be a transformative male solo pop-rock star in a landscape that has produced few in recent years.
But the “Idol” machine has had trouble figuring out how to handle unconventional talents. With his voice and showmanship, Lambert could enthrall arenas for years to come – but only if he isn’t squandered on the subpar.