My 17-year-old son accompanied me to the fair and concert. It was kind of funny, because the clerk at the motel when we checked in asked if we were going to the David Cook concert. We said yes, and she said that when she saw my son’s braces and high school football t-shirt, she just knew he must be a David Cook fan. After we left the office, he said to me that he had refrained from telling her that I was the real fan! LOL!
The weather turned out to be perfect, even though we had feared it would rain during the concert. There were a few sprinkles right before the show started, but that was it. As David said, the rock and roll gods were apparently smiling on us.
It was wonderful to meet so many other fans/friends, some from DCO and some not. I met debrakay23 before the show, met nevermind when we entered the stadium, waved and said happy birthday to jetcitypink who was sitting in the row in front of us, sat next to cnpenquin25 and her friend during the show, met and chatted with Jeanine (zoo) during the intermission after Crash Kings, and met AngelBabe2000 from the Proverbial Box thread *waves to her*, among others. The comraderie between fans is such a great thing to experience. Just after the show ended, as we exited the theatre, I was approached by a teenage girl who thanked me for standing and dancing during the Crash Kings set. She had been just a couple of rows behind us. There had only been a few people standing for the Crash Kings. I just feel that it is rude to not stand for the opening act. There were people sitting behind me, but they didn’t say anything. If they wanted to see, I felt that they could just stand too! The Crash Kings were only allotted twenty minutes for their set, but they definitely made the most of it. My son became a fan, and we bought him a Crash Kings t-shirt. They didn’t have any CD’s, but were giving away EPs with 2 songs on them. David had snuck onto the stage during the Crash Kings set and sat at Kyle’s drums on the riser behind the Crash Kings drummer. He was wearing a gray sweatshirt with the hood pulled up and the white, heart-shaped sunglasses. I didn’t even notice him at first, and I don’t think many other people noticed either. It was my son who pointed him out to me. He just sat there and bobbed his head to the music, and after they finished, he just got up and walked off the stage.
Of the three different venues I was at, the state fair was the best. I went to the concerts at Yakima and Seattle, too. Each venue had its own special aspects. In Yakima we were close to the stage in front of Neal, and I gained a new appreciation for his talent. In Seattle the band was really playing off the energy of the crowd, and the music was fantastic, but I didn’t really like the venue type. We had been standing all day, standing the whole time we were inside (no seats unless you went into the lounge, and my daughter who was with me is only 19), and tall people kept pushing in front of us, so it just wasn’t the most pleasant of places. I am claustrophobic, so the open-air venue at the fair was perfect for me. We had good seats and a good view of the stage.
My son was totally amazed at Kyle’s talent on the drums, and asked me what his name was. We were sitting next to the cell caster, and although I had said that I would try not to scream, I just had to make noise when David asked us to, but I did try to direct my voice away from the cell phone.
Banter included band introductions, David telling us about riding on the slingshot with TC and TC almost throwing up on him, and David jumping down off the stage to talk to three little girls in the front row.
I got my “pony”, which was We’re Only Honest When We’re Sleeping. I like when Neal does the backup vocals on that one. Lie was beautiful. The crowd started to make noise when David stepped back from the mic, but David made the “sh” sign, motioned for quiet and waited for everyone to quiet down and it was absolutely silent for his unplugged, a cappella part. His voice just resonated out over the theatre. So beautiful!
H4T was incredible, and I got to raise my hand when he asked if there were any teachers/educational personnel in the audience! Such fun!
I Did It For You was just fantastic! My son was amazed that Kyle was singing the back up vocals on it. You can even hear him saying to me “the drummer was doing the back up vocals” at the end of my video. He just totally loved Kyle.
Tony, the lead singer for the Crash Kings, came out on the stage during the encore songs, dressed in David’s previous incognito disguise. He sat on the riser in front of the drums during I Did It For You. When David jumped off the stage to talk to the little girls, he had trouble getting back up, and asked Tony to come over and give him a hand up, which he did. Then Tony played the keyboard for Light On.
After the show we went back to the merch table and Tony from Crash Kings was there. My son got his EP signed and got a picture with him.
We hung out with cnpenquin25 and her friend, nevermind and others in hopes that David and some of the band might come out to sign. I talked to Alex, the girl who thanked me for standing for the Crash Kings. She had given David a bag of cookies during the show. I’m not sure, but she may have given them to a security guard or someone to hand to him. David took them in his teeth and carried them over to put them on top of the amplifiers. Here is where he took Alex's bag of cookies in his teeth at the end of WOHWWS: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_u1ZEuhcLg&feature=channel_page
Her parents let her wait for awhile, but they wanted to be on the road, so she had to leave, and asked me to tell David “hi, from the cookie girl” if he came out. He never did come out, so if you are out there, Alex “Cookie Girl”, I did not get to give him your message, but it was very nice meeting you!
There were maybe 40 people hanging around near the buses waiting. There were covered fences surrounding the bus area, so we couldn’t see inside. At one point, the security guards opened the gates to let the Crash Kings van out. Tony was driving and we could see the other Crash Kings guys and their merch guy in the front half of the van. We couldn’t see in the back of the van because of the tinted windows, and someone afterwards suggested that David and the band could have been in the back. I think that is quite likely, especially after seeing Andy’s twitpic of the fire pit. Someone probably knew someone in the area and they all went and hung out there. There’s nothing better than hanging out with friends around a bonfire, so I’m happy for them that they got to do that.
Now I’ll probably have to wait for the next round of concerts after they get the second album out to see David Cook and the Anthemic again. Collective Soul is going to be in Seattle on September 21st, and I would love to go to that, but I promised a friend I would go with her to see Michael Johns and Brooke White in Portland on that date.