Photo by Brian Chilson.

Work-skippers and truant kids flooded the amphitheater. Like to James Brown proportions. Pre-show, for about thirty minutes, the Fox 16 emcees charted his every move this morning and gave a running play-by-play in real-time.

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“He’s across the way on the Arkansas Queen!”

“Let’s see if we can scream loud enough for him to hear us.”

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“I just got a text. From Kris Allen! It said [dramatic pause], ‘I can hear you.'”

“He’s in a superstretch limo.”

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“He’s crossing the river bridge with a police escort.”

“He’s looking out his window”

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And on and on.

He came out, of course, to mass hysteria. Prepubescent girl screeches. Grown woman “oh my Gods.” “WE EAT ICE FOR LUNCH IN ARKANSAS” signs waving. And he said the kind of things you’d expect: “I’m so blown away.” “It’s because of you that I’m here.” “You guys are the best.” And then he sang his three strongest songs, and surely the three that most suggest his artistic direction—”She Works Hard for the Money,” “Falling Slowly” and “Ain’t No Sunshine.” All sounded strong.

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Now he’s off to Conway for a concert at UCA and a parade downtown.

ALSO: Forgot to mention an important note for Idolators. The judges are making Kris sing OneRepublic’s “Apologize” next week. He gets to choose another song, too.

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More pics after the jump.

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