I wish pickle wasn't off doing her own thing this week; I'd have her ghostwrite this for me. wheeziev gave a most amazing recap of our night. There really is no way I could put into any better words the awesomeness that was our concert. But, strangely, I'll give it a go.

So, I'll start at the very beginning, waiting in line at 5:30. It was damn cold! There was a couple behind us with a girl of about 12 or 13. Her mom had purchased tickets on ebay (our tickets were $15; I know she paid WAY more than that) as a surprise for her daughter's birthday. She said when they arrived and were walking up to wait in line, the girl spotted the bus and burst into tears when she realized she was going to see DAVID COOK. I felt much the same way.

Security - thank you for making sure none of us were terrorists. After emptying my pockets into the little wicker offering baskets (that's what they looked like), I stepped through the metal detector and had to be wanded because I made it go off. So, being the true Minnesota layering girl that I am, it was not so easy for the guy that was wanding me to find the offending piece of metal around my middle region (and I'm thinking this may be the most jollies he got all night...just sayin') He kept running the wand over my middle region and every time it made quite a noise and he just kept doing it! He asked if I had a belt on - no. So then I started raising my clothing, which was no easy task seeing as how I had on my cuddleduds undershirt, turtleneck, shirt, stretchy little jacket and windproof anorak. I finally just grabbed all of it and raised it up to within an inch of decency and he said, Oh there's a metal button on your jeans. DUH!! Didn't other people have buttons on their jeans? It would have been fun to see a lobby full of people with their clothes raised up to their chins while security was wanding their tummies. My future daughter-in-law, who will henceforth be known as Lisa (since that's her name), was doubled over laughing. So, a good start to the evening.

We were third row mosh pit and that's where the action was. I'm happy we weren't in the seats because (and I can't verify), I don't think those people stood at all and I just can't imagine sitting through our experience. I loved Ryan Star. He stopped after his first song and said, "you are pretty people. Did you know that? You're pretty". And I'm looking around thinking, is he being sarcastic? Anyway, maybe he saw our inner beauty. He mentioned his bassist had the flu and would hopefully not sneeze all over us, to which I shouted (a little more loudly than I meant to), "body fluids!". Maybe you had to be there. As has been noted many times, he brings a lot of energy to his performance and while the instrumentation was a little loud for my taste, his voice seriously rocks. I loved it and will probably buy his record when it comes out.

Wheeziev and I had written down our "wish" setlist earlier in the day, and both of us got to hear quite a few of our songs. My list contained "The Truth". From my lips to the gods ears apparently. You may send me love offerings. But it also may have been the work of jumpnegative/tinygoals or whatever else name she goes by (sorry, those are the only two I know). She was in the first row and had a note for David and she kept discretely waving it at him and he finally told us to "talk amongst ourselves" and he reached down and grabbed it, read it, laughed, walked back to Kyle and called Neal over and showed it to him, whereupon Neal laughed also and shrugged. So whether this was the special guitar playing request, or a request for Neal's head on Dave's shoulder or a request for The Truth, I don't know because I was one of the only people David didn't show the note to. But thank you tinygoals for giving it to him because I think we got some extra awesomeness because of it.

During one of his little talks, he used the word "reciprocal" and after he said it, he paused and said, "yes, it's a real word". Awwww.

David was so sweet to the children in the mosh pit (we had men, women, boys, girls, teens and everything in between there). He gave a darling wave to a little girl in the front row; he fist-pumped with the little boy on the other side of the first row during one of the songs and kind of called him out (that's the little boy to whom he gave a bracelet at the end of the concert).

Neal, Neal, Neal - don't ever let Simon tell you you don't have charisma (oh wait). The man has star power. I was drawn to him when I could tear my eyes away from my boy/man rock god. They have some very special chemistry going on and it was beautiful to watch them perform together. And although I don't want to leave the others out (Andy - crazy vocals with David - love him), it seems they are a backdrop to the David and Neal show. At least that's the way it seemed last night.

I'm not sure whether to include the drama of the evening. But if you were in the mosh pit with us and there was a bit of a dust up and security was starting to get involved, and you saw a short, older woman grab Lisa and get between her and a hmmmm...how shall we say this....a young woman of poor upbringing who was ready to put the smackdown on Lisa, and the short, older woman shouted to security, "No worries, everything's under control", and then later in the concert you heard the drunk mother who was the source of the poor upbringing say to no one in particular but aimed at the short, older woman, "I can't believe a woman of THAT age would be so f**cking rude", then, if you heard or saw all that ::raises hand:: I was the short, older woman. I had my legal counsel with me (wheeziev) and all was good. It was quite exhilarating. I really never expected to go to see a Mr. It's All About the Love concert and get in a fight. whoohooo! I still got it and I never even knew I had it. There's so much more to it, but I just wanted to hit the highlights (lowlights?). Everyone around us knew we were not the instigators.

So between having a short, but meaningful relationship with the wanding security guy, the craziness in the mosh pit, the beauty that is David and the boys, I had a great night. It was greater than great, but great will have to suffice.

We screamed for David and we were screaming for one of our own. His ability to connect to us was indescribable. At the end when our lungs could no longer give breath to his anthem, he thumped on his heart, hard, several times. He's not removed. He's there with us.