American Idol champ Phillip Phillips serenaded the audiences of the Keith Albee Performing Arts Center with opener Texas rock band Saints of Vallory, Monday in an evening packed with music.

Phillip Phillips, winner of the 11th season of the acclaimed TV series and singing competition American Idol, brought his talent to the historic Keith Albee stage on his world tour.

Phillips and his band entered the stage with thunderous applause from the crowd, which stood up with his song “Get Up, Get Down.” The performance opened with an intense light show that filled the theater with many colors.

Phillips showed off his skill with both an electric guitar and an acoustic guitar playing songs such as “Raging Fire,” “Lead On” and “Unpack Your Heart.”

Phillips also played a song he said was a lot like a lullaby to him, “Tell Me A Story.”

As the tune of the hit “Gone, Gone, Gone” came in, the crowd rose from its seats in applause and began to sing along with the American Idol victor.

Then Phillips’ cellist brought the song “Thicket” in with a dark cello intro filling the theater with an eerie sound.

Phillips later mixed it up with a rock mash-up of popular R&B songs including “Lollipop,” “Lose Yourself” and “All I Do Is Win.”

After the R&B remix, Phillips and his band left the stage and returned when the crowd began shouting “Encore!”

When the band returned, it once again began playing a mash-up of songs, this time “Superfreak” and “Let’s Get It On” before teasing the crowd with the intro of Phillips’ hit single “Home.”

The show ended with an energetic uproar that filled the Keith Albee as Phillips and his band left the stage.

According to his website Phillips’ major success came with the hit single “Home” as the coronation song of his victory on American Idol in May of 2012. His hit single “Home” marked the most successful coronation song of any winner of American Idol ever and was certified five times platinum.

Saints of Vallory, a four-piece rock outfit from Austin, Texas, opened for Phillips. According to Billboard, Saints of Vallory was one of the top unsigned bands of 2012 and signed with F Stop/ Atlantic Records in 2013. The band then went on to record its debut album with the Joe Chiccarelli, producer of music by The Strokes, My Morning Jacket and Young The Giant according to MTV.

Anthony Davis can be contacted at davis669@ marshall. edu.