This was my ninth and final show of this tour. Not too much exciting happened, but I'm going to do my best to make it *sound* exciting. LOL

My parents and I left for the fair at 10 AM. It was smooth sailing the entire way, and we got to the fair right when they opened at noon. Admission was free from noon to 1 PM, which was awesome. We parked at a restaurant across the street recommended to me by azangel84 (*waves*), which had the cheapest parking. My mom wanted to see the Budweiser Clydesdales, so we made a beeline over there before getting some food. I was too nervous to eat, but did manage to share a piece of frybread with my mom and drink a giant sprite. After that we walked through a building looking at all the stuff for sale. I bought a few pieces of beef jerky which I have yet to eat, and chatted with some nice folks from the Republican Party. I think they were shocked to meet a person my age who was Republican. Can't say I blame them. LOL.

Anywho, next we made our way to the venue, which had a bunch of exhibits set up in the lobby...mostly 4-H stuff that the kids had made. I guess the walk over there was a bit much for me in the heat, though, because I started to feel sick. There were some rocking chairs set up in the building...I think for a show of some sort. But everyone was using them to just sit and relax. We sat there for awhile, and I decided to go ahead and TM some friends and let them know where I was and that they could come meet up with me if they wanted to. This was at about 2:30 or so. I had planned to start bus-stalking at 3 PM, but had no idea where the buses were going to be. So periodically, I would get up and go to every entrance looking for the buses.

At around 3:20 or so, I could faintly hear some music coming from the interior of the venue. My father had mentioned about an hour before that he heard music coming from there, but when I went to check it out, I didn't hear anything. This time I did hear something, though, so I decided to get up and go see what was up. As I was walking, I realized I was hearing IDIFY. So I started running, and managed to find a spot with just a garage-style door (rather than a wall) separating me from the interior. So I could *really* hear well. My mom must have sensed that something was up, because she came up behind me and stood and listened as I tweeted like mad. First it was IDIFY, ADAM (which got me *really* excited), then Lie. The door was behind a big blue curtain, and I was standing behind the curtain to block out other noises. I felt like the Wizard of Oz. "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!"

I guess people walking by heard the music and saw my feet sticking out from under the curtain, and they began coming up asking my mom what was going on. I'm proud of my mom, because she was pimping the concert to all of them, telling them who it was and that they could get in for free with fair admission. Interestingly enough, pretty much all of them knew who David was and was excited that he was there.

After Lie, the soundcheck turned into a bunch of noodling around. I swear I heard the opening bars of "Owner of a Lonely Heart." Someone was having fun. LOL. I also heard David laugh a few times, which put a huge smile on my face. I love his laugh. Eventually, they launched into a song that I SWEAR TO GOD I had never heard before. They soundchecked it at least three times. As I was litening to it, Archucookie and Kyoat found me, and we all agreed that the song was definitely not a cover. We also felt that it sounded like a song David would write. I think it was one of the snippets, but NOT "One Second to Change Your Life." I would have recognized that song. Unfortunately, I haven't listened to the snippets so there was no way I could make a positive identification. And even if I listened now, I still may not be able to say with certainty if it was one of them. All I know is that it was a song I had never heard before. And I hope they perform it, because it sounded really good. I honestly didn't expect them to premiere it at the AZ show. I think that if they want to premiere a new song, it's best to do so at a smaller venue where there are more hardcore fans in the crowd. They'd appreciate it more. Wouldn't surprise me if they do it in El Paso.

After we were satisfied that soundcheck was basically over, Archucookie, Kyoat, and I decided to try to find the buses. My parents had gone looking for the buses while I was listening to soundcheck (which I thought was very nice of them), and they reported that they found the buses in a secure area backstage. Archucookie and Kyoat, on the other hand, claimed they saw the buses in a different place. I snuck back to where my dad said he saw the buses (and was quite worried I'd get caught and yelled at), and they did indeed look like the right buses. But Archucookie and Kyoat were insistent that the buses they saw were the right ones. So I decided to go with them to check it out and make a final decision. LOL. We arrived at the other spot, where we encountered mobile homes for sale.

Sorry dad. I shouldn't have doubted you.

So anywho...next order of business was to try to figure out if fans could even access the area where the buses were. We tried going outside and around the back, where we encountered security dudes in red shirts. So we tried going around from the opposite direction, where we managed to see the area where the buses were and realized there was no way possible for fans to get any access. So that was when I resigned myself to the fact that I would not be seeing any of the guys before *or* after the show.

At some point along the way, we met up with Sky. She had an extra ticket to the show that she was trying to give away. My mom had been begging my dad to go to the show (since it was free with fair admission), but he wasn't interested in sitting in the nosebleed seats. So I asked him if he would go in to the show if he took Sky's ticket. He said YES! Miracle of miracles. Many many thanks to Sky for having that extra ticket. Otherwise he likely wouldn't have gone to the show.

We noticed that Mix 96.9 was setting up a tent outside the venue, so Kyoat and I meandered over there to ask about the odd tweet that they had sent out after David's acoustic performance. The guy was very surprised that the tweet was sent, and said no one from his station would have done that. He had nothing but good things to say about David. So methinks that something funky was going on with their twitter page. Probably some idiot DJ that had access to the twitter page decide to hate on David. I doubt he spoke for the entire station.

Sky hadn't eaten all day, so she and I went to the bar inside the venue to grab a bite to eat. I think my realization that I wasn't going to see the guys before the show calmed my nerves enough for me to be able to eat. I managed to get down four chicken fingers and a glass of water. While we were there, Archucookie and Kyoat joined us, and then a really nice gal named Debbie (who was all the way from Edmonton!) joined us as well. Then my parents showed up right as Archucookie and Kyoat had to leave to meet family, so my parents took their seat at the table. I think this was the first time my father had ever met any of the folks I know from online, and he said they were all nice folks. So maybe now he won't rag on my for having internet friends. One can only hope. lol

At around 6:15, my parents and I decided to head into the venue. My mom and I made a beeline for our front row seats, and I was bummed to discover that there was a massive gap between the barricade and the stage. Even though I was front row, I was farther away from the stage than I've been at shows where I was second or third row. But I was as close as I could possibly get. That's what I kept telling myself.

At about 6:25, Janesixtytwo managed to find me and say hi. She had just about enough time to give me a hug before security came over and told her and her friend that they had to go back to their seats because they didn't have front row tickets. She was like: I'm just here to say hi to my friend! And they told her that as soon as the lights went down she needed to go. I *think* she said something about the lights not going down for awhile, and that's when he said: Oh no, the opening act is at 6:30 and David Cook is 7:20 to 8:30.

WHAT???

Jane turned to me and was like: You'd better tweet that! So I tweeted it in all caps so everyone would see it. I was very concerned that some folks would miss part of the show because figured they'd skip The Script and show up for David at 8 PM. I was also worried that the word wouldn't get out in time for people to get to the cellcast by 7:20. I noticed that a lot of people retweeted my alert, though, so I hope most everyone was able to make it in time.

The Script was just OK. My mom thought their lead singer was a cross between Adam Lambert and Bono. LOL. They were only on stage for 20 or 25 minutes, which wasn't long at all. Apparently this is their first large US tour, and they seemed very appreciative of the response we gave them, even though it wasn't really all that massive. I definitely like Ryan Star waaaay better than The Script, but at least it wasn't Thee Male Nurse. Ha!

After The Script ended, I immediately stood up and staked my spot at the rail. I chatted with a security dude who was concerned about people trying to take video. I told him they had their work cut out for them, because lots of folks like to take video at David Cook shows. He told me that David didn't like people taking videos of his shows. That's a load of crap, of course. I told him this was my ninth David Cook show, and he mentioned that David really likes to go out and get close to the audience, so they had been forewarned that he might try to leave the stage. LOL. I don't think they were going to *stop* him from doing so, but they wanted to make sure he had plenty of security if and when he did.

I noticed one of the crew guys tape some lyrics down for David. And I have no idea what song they could have been for. I mean, none of the songs they did were new. I'm still perplexed by that. I also managed to catch a peek at the setlist as they were getting ready to lay it down, and caught Mr. Sensitive and Heroes as the first two songs. So at least I got a bit of the setlist out to y'all. lol

The last few minutes before the start of the show were excruciating. I was shaking and saying: "Come onnnnnnn." My mom looked at me like I was nuts. But finally, the show started. Yayness.

I'm going to just give a basic rundown of the show itself and then go into "deeper" thoughts afterwards...

Mr. S. is a pretty decent opener. And come to think of it, this may have been the first time I heard it as the opening song. Could be wrong on that, though. I noticed at the beginning that Neal was having guitar issues. His tech had to come out and fix something. My mom thinks it may have been a dead battery somewhere.

David must have had guitar problems himself during Heroes, because half-way through the song, he just took off the guitar and held it at his side until a tech came and took it from him. I don't know if it was out of tune or he broke a string or what. To be honest, at first I thought maybe he just decided to stop using the guitar. lol. Not many folks were yelling out the "your still standing." I think I was one of the only folks in the front row that was doing it. I happened to have a red frisbee with me (don't ask why), and I was using it to clap and stuff. It made a pretty cool noise, actually. Separated me from the other folks who were just using their hands. Ha!

Next was Honest, which is always good. Kyle's solo was awesome. I made it a point to watch him during that part of the song, even though David was over on my side of the stage at the time. Kyle needs love, too! I *think* David may have mentioned the band before the song, and how much he liked being able to have them on tour with him. He didn't formally introduce them, though, which was kind of a bummer. I was really hoping for a good chance to scream and holler for Andy. Oh well....

Next was IDIFY. I *will* say here that he seemed to indicate before the song that IDIFY was written for the fans. He said he used music to tell us how much he appreciates us...or something to that effect. I hope someone got video of that so you can hear exactly what he said. I had never heard the newer version of IDIFY, since when he did it in Wichita they hadn't really tweaked it yet. My position was such that Monty was right in front of me during the group line-up, and that was cool. My mom commented afterwards that she really liked the line-up.

Next was *supposed* to be KOTN. I saw another fan recap that said it appeared that David simply skipped it accidentally, but I'm not sure that was the case. When I procured a setlist after the show (which I'll discuss in more detail later. lol), KOTN was crossed-off. I don't recall seeing anyone crossing off songs during the show. So it had to have been before the show. I think that they realized they weren't going to have enough time to do every song before 8:30, so they were forced to cut something.

So anyway, the next song was Bar Ba Sol. David told us to stand up and not be afraid to touch the person next to us. lol. Andy was perplexed by that request, because I saw him shrugging and gesturing to some folks to my left with a look on his face like: I don't know why he's asking that. Y'all are already up! LOL. David also told us to help with the countdown, but again, I don't seem to recall many folks doing it. Even the front row didn't seem all that knowledgeable on what to do during David Cook concerts. Ha! No guitar sex with Neal. They just went to opposite sides of the stage.

Oh! Before I forget, I should mention that during one of the earlier songs, Neal played Monty's bass. And I mean *played* it. He did it for at least 10 seconds. He was playing guitar with one hand while playing the bass with the other. It was nuts! I hope someone got it on video.

Next up was Lie. David mentioned that he had done the Carrie special and that she liked Lie. He pimped her record and told us all to buy it so they would stay friends. LOL. He said he liked how someone of her caliber (not his exact words, but the gist of it), was willing to listen to his music. He's such a humble guy. But y'all already knew that. When David got to the a cappella part, he actually told us "this is the one time I want you guys to be quiet," or something to that effect. I think he thought that was the only way to get a crowd that size to shush. And we listened quite well. No one made a peep during the entire thing. This was the first time I had a chance to hear a cappella Lie, and it was awesome. I heard someone say something like "wow" or "awesome" after it ended. That part of the song never fails to astonish people, it seems.

Declaration was next, and poor David couldn't remember if it was the first song on the album. He was like: This next song is the first song on the record. And then stopped himself and says: Wait...is it? I think it is" and looked at the band for confirmation. In the meantime, I was screaming: DECLARATION! DECLARATION! Hoping he'd hear me and thank me for confirming it for him. But alas, he didn't hear me. LOL. When it first started, David went over to the rest of the band (who had gathered at the drumkit), and I think they had a good laugh over that.

Next was *supposed* to be HFT (as seen on my setlist), but for some reason David decided not to do it. He just told us that he thought he should change it. I figured at the time that it was a song like Avalanche or TWIK. Something really slow. We were pretty pumped up (he commented on our loudness several times, saying we were "right up there" with the best crowds), so I thought he must have felt he needed to continue with the really fast, fun songs. But HFT *is* one of those songs, so I'm really perplexed as to why he decided to replace it with Yo Arms. I'm not *upset* about it, though, because I MUCH prefer Yo Arms to HFT. I love singing along with it. When David did the sing along, he came *right* in front of me, and I just looked at him and belted it out at the top of my lungs. I really had fun with the sing a longs. My mom was surprised at how much I was singing, because I typically hate to sing.

Best part of Yo Arms was the Neal/Andy guitar sex, which I never saw before. It was over on Neal's side of the stage, so I didn't get a good view of the actual moment. But knowing it was going on over there made me happy. haha.

Next up was CBTM. I'm thinking this crowd was mostly made up of casual fans, because the place ERUPTED when the song started. It was a song they all knew and recognized! lol. He had us sing the second verse, which surprised me, because I didn't feel the crowd was doing that well with the sing a longs. I admit that I do *not* have CBTM completely memorized, so I struggled slightly with the second part. But since I was so close to David, I was able to follow him as he mouthed the words. He seemed to approve of our singing, as he patted his heart with his hand as he often does. Andy/Kyle glory note was awesome as always. I really don't know how they hold that note for so long. I can *never* do it. *stomps foot and pouts.*

I knew when CBTM started that it would be the last song before the encore. During the break, I whipped out my iPod so I could use my Light On lighter application during LO. I had it all set up and ready to go by the time the song started. I waved it during the whole song, but I'm not sure if David noticed it. Apparently he did *not* approve of our singing during this particular song. When it ended, he started singing the chorus a cappella, and then mumbled the last part and was like: "That's what you guys sounded like." LOL. I yelled out: Hey! Some of us knew the words! But I don't think he heard me.

Finally, we got ADAM. I was so happy, because I think it's the perfect closing song for larger crowds. He went into the crowd during the song, which caused security to spring into action to protect him from fans desperate to touch him. Security had been pretty heavy all night, but as I said over in DWoP, they weren't as bad as they could have been. The interesting thing about David going out into the crowd during ADAM is that it was hard to know when to start the arm-waving and what direction to wave your arms. I always look to him for guidance on that stuff, but he wasn't there! And I couldn't see where he was at out in the crowd. I actually took that opportunity to watch the rest of the band.

My father had spent the entire show sitting down, because he's 6'5" and was concerned that he'd block the view of the folks behind him. But he noticed all the commotion when David went out into the crowd, and stood up to investigate. So he did stand up for one song. LOL. He told us afterwards that when he stood up he noticed that he was way taller than everyone around him, so he figured staying seated was probably a good move. Apparently there was a large jumbotron above my head, and he just watched that for the whole show.

So yeah, in order to do the arm-waving properly, I had to look at the folks behind me, who had stood up on their chairs to see David. I just waved my arms the same way they did. Ha! Finally he came back on stage for the last, a cappella part. And that was that.

Now I'll relate some more random banter. He mentioned the fact that Glendale was the first stop on the Idol tour and told us how much he appreciated us coming out and continuing to support live music even when The Record had been out for nearly a year. He even told us how many days were left till The Record's birthday: 15. LOL.

Apparently David had a new pair of pants, and he seemed concerned that they were too flashy. They may have looked flashy to him under the light, but they looked fine to me. They appeared to be silver in color, or maybe gray. He said something at one point about "guys in crazy pants," causing Andy to look at his own pants and then at everyone else's. David was like: I wasn't talking about your pants, Andy. What would be crazy about black pants? Then he made some other comment that included the hissing noise he made when he said "this" during the "can't compete with this" line at Carborro. Hopefully someone got it on video, because I couldn't make it out.

The only other banter moment I can remember is when he told us that they had been on a two week break and that he wanted us to make sure they gave 175%. He prefaced it by saying "I hope you don't hold this against us," but I'm not entirely sure what he meant by that. Why would we hold a two-week break against him? lol

So anywho, the show ended, and I wanted my setlist, gosh darn it! As I watched everyone go walking off the stage, I saw Kyle come out from behind his drumkit and head toward the front of the stage with four pieces of drumstick in his hand. I looked at him and started yelling his name and reaching out to him. In all honesty, I think the fact that I was yelling his name was what got his attention. He looked right at me and tossed me the first stick. It ended up flying by me, though, and landed right in my seat. A gal in the second row tried to grab it, but I had followed it's trajectory as it flew by me, and nabbed it right up out of the seat. And that's the way it should have been, because as I said, it's not like he was just randomly tossing it to the crowd. He tossed it to *me.* The gal in the second row asked me if I would split it in two and give it to the young girl with her, and I was like: WTF? I said: "Um...no. It's already split in two, and I'm not splitting it again." lol.

After I had my drumstick securely in hand, I went back to trying for a setlist. First two went to some gals next to me. I think the dude decided not to give it to me because he saw I already had a drumstick. Then I saw a guy to my right pick up a couple setlists off the floor, and he folded one in half and tossed it to my mom and me. We weren't able to reach it before it fluttered to the floor in front of us, and we asked the security dude to pick it up for us. At that same time, a person to my mom's right started trying to get him to give it to her instead. I told the security guy in a very firm voice (lol): He gave it to ME. I don't think he believed me, but he gave it to us anyway. First thing I did when I got it was look to see what song had been replaced by Yo Arms. Then I tweeted it.

At that point security started rushing us out, and they didn't let my poor dad come up to Section A to meet with us. So he had to wait outside Section A for us to come out. Not sure what was up with that, since the show was over. My parents really wanted to head home ASAP, which bothered me a lot, because I got two text messages from folks asking me where I was and wanting to meet up. I told my parents to give me a few minutes, but they REALLY wanted to leave. I still feel awful about it.

We stopped at In-N-Out Burger on the way home, and then it was smooth sailing the rest of the way. We got home at 11:30 or so, and I went right to bed. I was much more tired than I expected to be. I think I started crashing right after the show ended, perhaps because this was my final show.

Ok so that's the main recap. Now I'm going to go in to some deeper stuff that's not 100% positive. If you don't like hearing things about David Cook shows that aren't all butterflies and magic rainbows, I suggest you stop reading now.

I'm going to start with observations from my parents. My mom is a casual David fan, my dad isn't really a fan at all. He doesn't *dislike* David, but he isn't a fan either. My dad liked David's band more than The Script, because he said they were more polished. But he felt that David's set didn't include enough slower songs. He said there should have been some songs to cut the hard-rockingness (is that a word? lol) of the show. I mentioned Lie, but he said even that wasn't good enough. He probably would have liked to have heard a song like Avalanche, Andoyne, or TWIK. Interestingly, he felt that the songs were more heavy metal than rock, and weren't melodic enough. I haven't had a chance to ask him what he thought of Neal, but I probably should. My dad is a very good guitar player, and played lead guitar in a band in the 60's. So he'd be a good person to judge how good Neal really is. lol

My mom really enjoyed the show, but she was surprised at the number of older women in the crowd. Both my parents were perplexed that so many older women would travel long distances to see a an artist half their age. She felt that David probably didn't like seeing so many older women in the crowd. I told her that David seems to appreciate all his fans, regardless of their age, but she insisted that he probably *doesn't* like it and would rather have younger fans.

I *will* admit that it seemed like there were a lot more older women in this crowd than I've seen at previous shows. I saw very few men in the first few rows, and I may have been the youngest person in the first row by at least 10 or 15 years. My dad did say, though, that there were a good number of men in his area. But he estimated that the crowd was about 80% women, mostly older women. I really hope that David is able to gain some more young fans, and some more male fans. I do think he'll do it, but it'll take some time. Young people (and particularly young males, it seems), are kind of particular about their music, and lots wouldn't be caught dead listening to someone from American Idol.

And now we're going to come to my final comment, which may come as a surprise to some. I've been to nine shows now. I'd probably rank this show #8. Only reason it wasn't #9 is because I was front row. There wasn't anything wrong with the show itself, of course. I think I had just set my expectations too high. Coming off of a break, I thought sure we'd get something new and/or interesting. But instead, it was a typical 11-song set. So while I enjoyed the show immensely, there was nothing about it that set it apart from other shows and made me say: "I'm so glad I went to THIS show." And that's one reason why it ranks low for me.

But the biggest reason why this show does not top my list has nothing to do with the songs, and has nothing to do with David. You guys may have noticed that the majority of my recap was about David. And that's not normal for this particular fan. But I spent the majority of the show watching David, and not Andy. And here's why:

As is my custom, I looked at Andy when the show started. Immediately (and I do mean immediately), this very bad vibe hit me like a ton of bricks. Not a bad vibe as in "evil," but bad as in "not happy." Now I know you guys probably think I'm out of my freaking mind. And that's fine. I understand. But I'm telling you: I've loved and obsessed over Andy Skib for over a year now. I've seen him live 10 times. I was closer in proximity to him than any other Skib fan in the room. Something was off. I mean, I have *never* had a problem focusing the majority of my attention on him. Ever. But I literally could *not* do it this time. Because every time I looked over at him, that vibe hit me again. He rarely looked out into the audience, and when he did, he didn't look happy.

At prior shows, Andy would look out into the audience sometimes and make eye contact with you. And sometimes he'd even smile when he did it. lol. But this time, he never smiled and almost made it a point not to make eye contact with folks. I may have managed eye contact *one* time. He seemed to just be going through the motions. Even my mom mentioned that she got a very negative vibe from him...that he just didn't care. His tweets made it sound like he was excited to be getting back out on tour, though, so I'm really perplexed.
So yeah. As much as I enjoyed this show, I just can't shake that vibe I got from Andy. It's going to bother me for a long, long time.

And so concludes my final show recap. Sorry I'm so long-winded. I should probably work on that. Hopefully my next recap will be of an MWK show. *crosses fingers*

Thanks for reading, folks!