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Adam Lambert Joined Local Onstage

“I had American Idol's Adam Lambert show up to my dinky little weekly Sunday night gig at the Turf Supper Club this last weekend,” local singer/songwriter J.D. Boucharde tells the Reader. “He got up and did a song with me, and brought the friggin' house down.”

(Lambert's surprise local jam with Boucharde and Tim Flack)

Boucharde says Lambert went all but unnoticed. “Not one person that I saw before he got up to sing even recognized him. I asked him if he wanted to get up and sing ‘Mad World,’ which, apparently, he sang on the show when he was competing. I only know because, after he did, I started getting all sorts of requests then to cover that song, which I'd been covering for years.”

After getting an “Okay” from Lambert, “I got back to the piano and I introduced him. I look out, and everybody's looking around like they're in a dream. Adam Lambert's here? HERE? And the place went crazy!”

"They [patrons] were stunned. I said his name, and the place got quiet, like they thought I was putting them on. He walked up, and men and women alike were standing there with their mouths hanging open, like they still couldn't believe what they were seeing. I started playing 'Mad World' and, taking the mic, he said: 'Slow it down a little bit.' I did. 'A little more.' And he friggin' NAILED it: every high note right on the money. Finished, and the place erupted like it was U2 at the Coliseum."

“I guess I sort of assumed that, at least in the public's eye, which can no longer hold its beloved gaze on anything longer than a few minutes, he had sort of come and gone. And, since I don't watch TV, how the hell would I know, anyway? But he's still this household word. People simply love the guy.”

"Adam was warm, friendly, open, and presented such a loving presence about him. No ego, just an all-around great guy. When I asked him if he wanted to sing, I sorta figured he'd probably say no: like singing at a little podunk bar was not as cool as what he was used to. And I totally would've understood."

Once the impromptu performance wrapped up, “I was getting texts and e-mails from friends the next day: why the hell didn't you CALL me?”

"He's a class guy, and I wish him the deepest blessings in his future creative endeavors. Just know there's one more Adam fan in the world tonight."

Lambert's Dad Eber tweeted of the outing. "Surprise Fathers Day visit from Adam. Listened to demos, hit Turf Club to see piano bar friend JD, scotch & 3-way philosophical debate til 2.”

Boucharde originally went to college with the intention of becoming a Lutheran minister.

His four-album project Contra Mundum (Latin for "against the world") is a biographical odyssey about his experiences with addiction, abuse, and depression. He specializes in telling stories, though not all are based on true life. He sometimes tells audiences that he was only three days old when he gave his first piano recital in the lobby of the hospital where he was born, playing a tune he'd heard playing over the hospital PA ("Do You Know the Way to San Jose?") with "hands the size of teaspoons." As such, it's no surprise that, when asked to describe his music, he spins another chimerical yarn.

"In 2002, just after finishing the Up album, Peter Gabriel stops by Calvin and Hobbes's house to borrow their cardboard-box time machine. Peter puts on the goggles, climbs in the box, and flies back to 1994, picking up Kevin Gilbert. Together, Peter and Kevin travel to 1983, picking up Roger Waters from Pink Floyd, and six more years back to get Randy Newman from 1977. The four of them scoop up Elton John from 1973 and Brian Wilson from 1960 and they all arrive in 1956 at Sam Phillips's Sun Studios in Memphis. There, they order out for ribs, buy several cases of beer, and write 147 songs, recording 23 of them in one extended four-day weekend. They fly the time machine home, exhausted, each to their respective eras, but promising to write each other."

Boucharde's one-man musical Happy Songs about the War -- co-created with local theater maven Leigh Scarritt -- debuted in 2008 at 6th@Penn in Hillcrest.

"It started as a concept album about the war in Iraq that I rewrote as a stage show," says Boucharde. "Then, my wife and I bought a house, and our new next-door neighbor was Leigh Scarritt.... This name meant nothing to us, but everyone we spoke to seemed to go ga-ga when we mentioned her."

Scarritt is a Tony Award-nominated actor, playwright, director, composer, and choreographer with a long history at 6th@Penn.

"So I brought it over for her to read.... She liked it and immediately offered to direct, free of charge. She immediately sold 6th@Penn owner Dale Morris on it and -- bam -- without even blinking, I'm workshopping my first drama production."

Though he scripted the show, Boucharde says, "I definitely didn't write it; it came through me. My name's at the top of the page, but it's no more mine than any of my songs, and this even less so; it was more like vomiting than writing."

RELATED ARTICLE:

"Adam Lambert Jumped Onstage With Prince on Saturday?!" -- http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/jam-session/2011/may/09/adam-lambert-jumped-onstage-with-prince-on-saturda/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXGBWQdHsyQ

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“I had American Idol's Adam Lambert show up to my dinky little weekly Sunday night gig at the Turf Supper Club this last weekend,” local singer/songwriter J.D. Boucharde tells the Reader. “He got up and did a song with me, and brought the friggin' house down.”

(Lambert's surprise local jam with Boucharde and Tim Flack)

Boucharde says Lambert went all but unnoticed. “Not one person that I saw before he got up to sing even recognized him. I asked him if he wanted to get up and sing ‘Mad World,’ which, apparently, he sang on the show when he was competing. I only know because, after he did, I started getting all sorts of requests then to cover that song, which I'd been covering for years.”

After getting an “Okay” from Lambert, “I got back to the piano and I introduced him. I look out, and everybody's looking around like they're in a dream. Adam Lambert's here? HERE? And the place went crazy!”

"They [patrons] were stunned. I said his name, and the place got quiet, like they thought I was putting them on. He walked up, and men and women alike were standing there with their mouths hanging open, like they still couldn't believe what they were seeing. I started playing 'Mad World' and, taking the mic, he said: 'Slow it down a little bit.' I did. 'A little more.' And he friggin' NAILED it: every high note right on the money. Finished, and the place erupted like it was U2 at the Coliseum."

“I guess I sort of assumed that, at least in the public's eye, which can no longer hold its beloved gaze on anything longer than a few minutes, he had sort of come and gone. And, since I don't watch TV, how the hell would I know, anyway? But he's still this household word. People simply love the guy.”

"Adam was warm, friendly, open, and presented such a loving presence about him. No ego, just an all-around great guy. When I asked him if he wanted to sing, I sorta figured he'd probably say no: like singing at a little podunk bar was not as cool as what he was used to. And I totally would've understood."

Once the impromptu performance wrapped up, “I was getting texts and e-mails from friends the next day: why the hell didn't you CALL me?”

"He's a class guy, and I wish him the deepest blessings in his future creative endeavors. Just know there's one more Adam fan in the world tonight."

Lambert's Dad Eber tweeted of the outing. "Surprise Fathers Day visit from Adam. Listened to demos, hit Turf Club to see piano bar friend JD, scotch & 3-way philosophical debate til 2.”

Boucharde originally went to college with the intention of becoming a Lutheran minister.

His four-album project Contra Mundum (Latin for "against the world") is a biographical odyssey about his experiences with addiction, abuse, and depression. He specializes in telling stories, though not all are based on true life. He sometimes tells audiences that he was only three days old when he gave his first piano recital in the lobby of the hospital where he was born, playing a tune he'd heard playing over the hospital PA ("Do You Know the Way to San Jose?") with "hands the size of teaspoons." As such, it's no surprise that, when asked to describe his music, he spins another chimerical yarn.

"In 2002, just after finishing the Up album, Peter Gabriel stops by Calvin and Hobbes's house to borrow their cardboard-box time machine. Peter puts on the goggles, climbs in the box, and flies back to 1994, picking up Kevin Gilbert. Together, Peter and Kevin travel to 1983, picking up Roger Waters from Pink Floyd, and six more years back to get Randy Newman from 1977. The four of them scoop up Elton John from 1973 and Brian Wilson from 1960 and they all arrive in 1956 at Sam Phillips's Sun Studios in Memphis. There, they order out for ribs, buy several cases of beer, and write 147 songs, recording 23 of them in one extended four-day weekend. They fly the time machine home, exhausted, each to their respective eras, but promising to write each other."

Boucharde's one-man musical Happy Songs about the War -- co-created with local theater maven Leigh Scarritt -- debuted in 2008 at 6th@Penn in Hillcrest.

"It started as a concept album about the war in Iraq that I rewrote as a stage show," says Boucharde. "Then, my wife and I bought a house, and our new next-door neighbor was Leigh Scarritt.... This name meant nothing to us, but everyone we spoke to seemed to go ga-ga when we mentioned her."

Scarritt is a Tony Award-nominated actor, playwright, director, composer, and choreographer with a long history at 6th@Penn.

"So I brought it over for her to read.... She liked it and immediately offered to direct, free of charge. She immediately sold 6th@Penn owner Dale Morris on it and -- bam -- without even blinking, I'm workshopping my first drama production."

Though he scripted the show, Boucharde says, "I definitely didn't write it; it came through me. My name's at the top of the page, but it's no more mine than any of my songs, and this even less so; it was more like vomiting than writing."

RELATED ARTICLE:

"Adam Lambert Jumped Onstage With Prince on Saturday?!" -- http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/jam-session/2011/may/09/adam-lambert-jumped-onstage-with-prince-on-saturda/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXGBWQdHsyQ

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