As good as Pentatonix was, opening act David Archuleta might have been better.
In a way-too-short eight-song, 28-minute set, Archuteta showed he still has the rich-tone voice that made him runner-up on "American Idol" 16 years (!) ago (he should have won — where's David Cook now?)
But now 33, he seems to have added stage confidence to his singing ability.
John J. Moser/Lehigh Valley News
He opened with "I'm Yours," among recent singles he has released — singing this time in a high falsetto and holding long notes, even as he did routines with two dancers on stage.
And he occasionally did deep knee bends for emphasize his vocal investment.
Singing to recorded music, he did one of his early singles, "A Little Too Not Over You" that showcased that tonal quality.
"Sixteen years ago I was on this show, 'American Idol," he told the crowd, and reminisced that his first-ever tour took him through Allentown (he sold out the former Crocodile Rock Cafe in 2009.)
He introduced his recent single "Hell Together" by saying, "I went through a lot of changes in the past two years that I was going to get through," and his performance conveyed that pain.
It was a disappointment he didn't sing his newest single, "Rather Be Lonely," an equally devastating song.
Another new song, "OK, Alright" had a tropical beat, and he sang well on covers of Cyndi Lauper's "True Colors" (another song he said "meant a lot to me over the past few years") and One Direction's "You Don't Know You're Beautiful" (an underrated song, and Archuleta could easy have led a boy band.)
And he did a mashup of his single "Movin'" with "Expresso," the chart-topping hit by Sabrina Carpenter (Did he know she's a Lehigh Valley native?)
Archuleta closed his set with his 2009 debut chart-topper "Crush" — still a very good song and he still sang it well, and the audience sang along, too.
An indication of how good Archuleta was came during Pentatonix's set, when they brought him back out to perform Miley Cyrus's "The Climb" with Hoying for what they said will be a Tik Tok video. Archuleta was easily the better voice.
Courtesy Lehigh Valley News
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