It was wonderful to meet so many friends from DCO! Hubby and I met Sky... and her daughter for an early dinner at Olive Garden, which was just across the street from the venue. While waiting for our table, I heard a group of women and girls talking about the David Cook concert, so I asked if they were on the website. They looked at me and asked "What website?". I said DCO, David's official website, and received blank stares. The woman nearest me said she didn't know there was a website. A couple of minutes later, she turned back to me and asked what the website was again, so she might be checking it out.

After dinner Hubby took off on his own, as he was not going to attend the concert. Sky..., her daughter and I went over to line up in front of the venue about 5:00. There were maybe 100 people in front of us. We agreed to try for front row balcony seats, as it was general admission. Then a woman came down the line and told us there were two entrance doors they would be opening and a second line was forming. We switched lines and ended up with about 20 people in front of us. We then decided to get as close to the stage as possible. We met ksmom and trishabunny from DCO. hadME@HELLO (@haldzigner) twittered me and asked if we needed anything, as they were just finishing up with dinner in their camper. She sent her husband over with a bottle of water and plastic cups, as we were getting dehydrated. He was such a sweetheart. A little bit later hadME@HELLO joined us in line. They are a great couple and very nice.

The time flew by with the great conversation in line and the doors opened at 7:00 The first rows filled up fast and we ended up 4th row, Neal side. They were great seats, although the teenage girls in front of us had a large sign which they kept blocking Sky's view with.

Crash Kings were very good and had great energy. They covered a Black Sabbath song and did an awesome rocking job of it. After Crash King's set it took the crew about half an hour to set up for David Cook and the Anthemic. Stage toys were put in place: Parmesana and a smaller version of her, and a cow similar in size and shape to Parm, which Andy would later use during Dave's banter.

We got Rick Rolled as the guys came out on stage and they moved right into KOTN. I won't recap all the songs, because you all know the songs and can watch them on YouTube. I recorded quite a bit, but my camera kept shutting off before the end of the songs, so my clips are a little choppy. I did get most of the banter. I will have to upload later, as daughter and I are headed north to Seattle for Showbox!

Epic fail on my part! There was a teen girl front row who had a large red rose for David during one of the songs. She was right in front of us. Many of you have stated how hyper-aware David is of everything and everyone in the audience and you are so right. I had had my camera up through much of the concert, but had decided to not record everything. This was one of the moments when I wasn't recording. Aargh! Dave moved to the side of the stage, scanned the audience, looked right at me and moved to take the rose in his teeth. He even hesitated to give me time to turn the camera on, but for some reason I couldn't get it to start recording. I feel bad, as I had the perfect shot right behind her and I'm sure she would have loved seeing it on YouTube. I know others probably recorded it, but not with as good an angle. I feel like I let Dave down.

Seeing this band live on stage right in front of me really drove home how young these guys are. They all (except for Monty!) could really be my kids, because I have kids near their age. I've been guilty of wading in the shallow end now and then online, but I'm not sure I can do that anymore. We'll see.

One strong impression I had was just how truly professional this group of musicians is. They are all mad talented! Although I had been hoping to sit Andy side, as I'm a huge Andy fan, I was more than pleased to sit in front of Neal. I was hugely impressed by him. Neal is the consummate professional, and while these guys perform with passion and heart, it is obvious that every move Neal makes is 100% deliberate. He is fascinating to watch. I also noticed that Neal is exceptionally good looking live and in person. I never got that impression from online pictures.

When David introduced the band members and then announced the band name, there were only a few shouts from the audience and he said "great, about 12 people cared". It kind of brings home how isolated we are on this website. General fans and concert goers don't have a clue about the band or band name.

The band left the stage after LO and we all screamed ourselves hoarse to bring them back out for the encore. We got IJDIYAT. Neal got up on the speaker in front of us to play his solo part. I couldn't unzoom my camera, so when you watch the video, you can't really tell where he is, but it was really cool to have him playing right up there above us. Last night was the first time, that I'm aware of, that they did CBTM as the final encore song and it was amazing. Andy's glory note was beautiful, as always. David had mentioned during the banter that allergies were bothering him, but it didn't seem to affect his singing at all. He sounded amazing!

After they left the stage, we moved up to see what souvenirs we might obtain. Sky... managed to get one of David's guitar picks. I tried to get one of Andy's, but stage crew were studiously ignoring the crowd. Oh well. We then went outside and headed down the alley by the venue to go to the buses, which were in back of the venue. Neal had come out the side door to have a smoke and there was a small cluster of young women in front of him. He very graciously took pics with all of them who wanted and started to head back inside, but stood in the doorway awhile longer. That gave me an opportunity to ask him to sign the jacket to my DCTR CD, which he did. Neal is super sweet in person and he has gained a new fan in me.

About fifty people gathered in the area by the buses to wait. After awhile one of the guys from the venue came through and said David was already gone, so we might as well leave. Everyone ignored him. He came out a little bit later and said the same thing. No one left. It was a mellow group though. Finally about an hour after the show they made us move over to one side of the alleyway. Tour manager, Michelle, came by first and went straight to the bus. Andy walked by with an escort and went straight to the bus. Next came Neal. He smiled and waved and went straight to the bus. Monty came by and Sky... complimented his "new shoes", which were black sneakers. He went straight to the bus. A few minutes later David came out. He said he was a little sick and would only sign, no pictures. He did make a point to get to everyone and the crowd was calm and organized. Kyle was standing by the bus with his wife and holding his little boy. He was in a conversation with one of the crew though, and I didn't want to interrupt to ask for a signature. It has to be rough to be on the road when he has a young family that he can't spend much time with. His son is adorable and was clinging to his dad.

After the bus took off and we all waved goodbye to the guys, we went to meet up with Sky's daughter who had gone to a nearby Sports Bar. We joined up with another DCOer, laverne, and had a great conversation for the next couple of hours before we all walked back to our hotel which was only a couple of blocks away. Hubby was waiting up for me, dozing off and on. It was a great show and I'm looking foward to the Showbox tonight with my 19 year old daughter!