OHMANOHMANOHMAN!!! I would have to write every single thing in caps for you to even begin to understand what you're in for at your own live concerts!! I will try to cut down on the !!!!s, but there aren't enough in the world to express my effing awe!! (ncc for the win with her effing rainbow question, wow! Home town girl!)

Okay. . .I attended with our own delightful Victoriah, and we drove there from KC.

Our first sight of David was when we were standing in line. There he was, just up a little hill, walking from auditorium to bus. Black cap, black t-shirt, black jeans, same outfit he wore to sing. I recogized him by the cap and, honestly, the arms. Even at a distance. Partly, it was the pale skin that drew my attention; mostly it was the arms. Security guards walked with him. Eventually he went into the bus where, I heard later, there was a band meeting. Victoriah had walked back to her car about that time and when she walked back to the auditorium, she glanced at the guy who was walking next to her, talking intensely on his cell phone, and realized it was David! She was about an arm's length away, walking parallel to him. She didn't want to interrupt him, so she just walked quietly along beside him for the few moments while they were going the same way. We saw him several more times by the bus, but we never tried to approach him. Shortly before they let us into the building, I spotted his family going in. Beth, her husband, Andrew, and a few others. Even at that distance, Beth looked elegant and beautiful, and she would turn out to look even more so up close.

As we were going in, who should appear to video the crowd but Andrew. He looked so handsome! His hair is very black, styled in a Cookie Neutron, which looks good on him, but then I'm a fan of the Cookie Neutron. (The hair-do from Top Two night.) He seems to have contact lenses now. He went down the line, filming, and now and then asking, "why are you here to see David Cook?"

Inside, we got great seats, though closer would have allowed us to see his face better. Still, very good seats on the aisle on Neal's side.

Andrew was Mr. Hospitality. He was everywhere, lol. Walking up and down the aisle, stopping for photos with people, talking, smiling, obviously in his element. The family sat in the college section down front, right in the middle of everybody, and they made no effort to separate themselves, but mixed right in. Beth has a gorgeous new hair color, kind of strawberry blond, and a beautiful cut (the same length as before), and she looked absolutely glowing. She walked up our aisle and back down, with a pretty little girl, probably a relative. Beth looked just as pretty and nice, happy and proud, as you'd expect her to look. One of my favorite moments in the whole concert was when David, after rocking out on a couple of songs, looked down at her in the audience, grinned, and said, "Hi, Mom."

The auditorium was perfect, I thought. Intimate, decent acoustics for a rock show. The college kids who got in free got 8 reserved rows up front and were allowed to go stand in front of the stage for David, and the rest of us got to stand at our seats, too. Everybody remained seated until David appeared. There were TWO acts before him. One was a young woman with a guitar, and she was charming. My favorite part of her act was at the end of her first song, when she changed the last line of her lyrics to, "I'm a fool. . .in love with. . .David Cook." The audience laughed warmly with her, not at her, as if they totally understood. Later, she asked us if we were excited to see David Cook. . .CHEERS!. . .and she said something like, "I am, too!" Ryan was next, and he was charming, too, and he called David "a great guy."

BTW, I had no idea the "introducer guy" was David until I read it here! It's so funny, because I couldn't stand him, lol. I hated when he got Ryan's name wrong, and David's name wrong. He fooled me completely, except that there were a couple of moments when I thought he had on David's plaid shirt. Fooled me completely.

When David came on stage with the band, everything changed. Everybody stood up and never sat down again. Then noise level zoomed up. Excitement multiplied.

It was total rock star! He was wearing the same clothes he'd been wearing when V saw him by the bus when, she said, he looked like a regular guy, but now he was transformed into gorgeous rock star. I could not take my eyes off him. I kept telling myself, "Check out Neal, look at the other guys," but all I could manage was a few swift glances, then my eyeballs zoomed back to David. He is riveting.

This was a rock performance from the git-go. No ballads, unless you count Permanent, which was awesome. The show was an incredibly high energy, awesomely tight set. I just couldn't believe how good they've become together. Man, oh, man, they are all soooo soooo good. They built a perfect set, imo. Started with KOTN!! Talk about a high-energy start! Heroes was fabulous--the best I've ever heard it. Every song was wonderful, he was charming in between them, the crowd loved loved loved him. When he asked us how many had the album, I'd have sworn every single person there yelled that they had it. I thought the crowd was great, and LOVED him, but Victoria and I both observed that nobody moved much. The kids up front didn't sway, jump up and down,etc. I think it was bling trance. But in spite of that, it was obvious they were having a great time.

When David came on, he said it was the venue's first sell-out in its history. (Sorry for repeating stuff you've probably already read, but I just had to repeat that nice bit of info.)

There were guys there! Yes, actual persons with testosterone. They weren't nearly as numerous as the girls/women, but they were there, esp. among the college-age kids down front. I saw three guy-friends seated together who cracked me up during Adam. When it came time for the Unison Arm Waving led by David, our choir master, two of those guys raised one arm each and waved it, while the third refused to wave even one. Guys! Too cute to shoot.

The encore was AWESOME!!! Three songs, instead of just two. Many many thanks to the person here who got him to do HfTT in exchange for a box of Cheetos, lol! I LOVE HFtT, possibly because I was never all that familiar with the song or with Van Halen, and David Cook makes all things hawt. The encore started with a drum solo with Kyle on the glow-in the-dark sticks! Then came those first notes of Barbasol, wow, then came HFtT, and finally Adam. The moment when we all sang it acapella back to him was just as lovely as you've probably heard, and we were on the right side to see his "isn't this cool!" grin back at Neal. This wasn't a Soggy Dave night, as far as I could tell; it was a Rock Star Sing Your Balls Off Night. Andy was rocking out tonight! At least he was in the brief glimpses I had of the band when I could drag my eyes away from their boss.

One thing I loved about David's performance was how close to the edge of the stage he was, just about as close to us as he could get. Now and then he'd boogie back toward Kyle, and one time--I can't remember which song--he dropped to his knees as if going into a backbend, but instead popped right back up with his Thighs of Steel.

You probably already know he wore the cap. I love the cap, or the hair, so it looked great to me.

The Triscuit lights are way cool and effective.

Ohohoh!! I nearly forgot, Straight Ahead was terrific!! I would say awesome, but the word loses its punch after a while, lol. (AWESOME!)

I'll think of more later, no doubt. Oh! We were in line with people who'd come from the following places: Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City, Columbia, Mo., Mexico, Mo.

Did I even say good morning?