MANILA, Philippines—As early as 4 p.m. lines had formed at the entrances to the concert venue. At show time, promoters said the crowd had swelled to 60,000. That was how Pinoy fans gave David Cook and David Archuleta a Goliath reception at their back-to-back gig Saturday night at the Mall of Asia open-air grounds.

Archuleta, who first took the stage, was bursting with energy. Bouncing along to solid rhythms provided by a live backup, the 18-year-old “American Idol” Season 7 runner-up was like a one-man boy band who sang earnestly about teenybopper concerns.

Melancholic tenor

The fans screamed each time he belted out in his melancholic tenor, which glided into a falsetto on the high notes.

He also played a few tracks on keyboards.

All but two of the 15 songs he rendered were originals from his debut album. Most of them had generic, catchy melodies. The songwriting seemed deliberately formulaic, although his fine vocals made up for the drawbacks.

A couple of hits, “A Little Too Not Over You” and “Crush,” demonstrated how an audience would always fall for pop hooks.

But Archuleta’s version of a 1961 soul classic, Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me,” was the best of the lot and proved something that night—young stars need to hear old songs in order to appreciate their worth.

Which was also the case with Cook, whose covers of Mariah Carey’s “Always Be My Baby” and Fleetwood Mac’s “Little Lies” illustrated his awesome ability to breathe new life to precious old tunes.

At 26, the “Idol” Season 7 champ performed like a veteran rocker, his husky, growling vocals—partly reminiscent of Bob Seger and Eddie Vedder—leading the band with high-voltage power while playing electric rhythm guitar. It was a voice that packed much emotion without going over the top.

Loud, scorching music

If some people felt alienated because they hardly recognized Cook’s repertoire—mostly tracks from his debut solo album not heard yet on radio and at least one from his pre-“Idol” days—there were others who were blown away by the loud, scorching blast of his music.

At some point, the concert audience—many of whom came as a family from ages 8 to 58—could’ve been disoriented from hearing Backstreet Boys-style pop followed by Pearl Jam-sounding rock ‘n’ roll.