By a strange coincidence, after having been to only one previous show (Morgantown), I wound up going to both Musikfest and Mr. Small's in Millvale (sorta Pittsburgh, more on that later). My reflections are quite similar to those posted elsewhere, but here there are, for what it's worth.

Musikfest...

When I first got tickets for this show, I was convinced that I would probably die of heat stroke ("dog days" of summer and all that). As the time grew closer, however, this changed to a very real fear that I might drown! As one of the other folks mentioned, the rain on Sunday was of Biblical proportions. We saw a picture on TV of NY City and the newscaster compared it to Armageddon films and he wasn't far off! But Monday turned out to be a beautiful sunny days and the evening was spectacular. I went with a friend who had liked David on Idol, but I am afraid that I failed at my attempt a cookification. She didn't really get the rock vibe at all...too loud, too many flashing lights, too much standing up (a legitimate concern for her as she has diabetic neuropathy in her feet). Sigh! She enjoyed having the time to spend with me, but I don't think she'll be at any more David Cook shows. She said something to me on the way home that kind of made me ponder...sort of along the lines of the PB thread here at DCO. She said that she could understand teenagers standing and screaming and waving their arms around, but not adults. So I decided that this must be my inner teenager coming out. And if I want to go to rock concerts and scream and sing along, I'm going to do so, and if my friends and my mother think I'm crazy, I don't really care. You all do understand this, right?

However, this doesn't mean that I don't enjoy lots of other music too, so the first thing that we did upon arriving at the Musikfest venue was attend a concert in the Moravian church by the Colorado Quartet. They played Hayden's Quartet in F Major, Op. 77 No. 2 and Mendelssohn's Quartet in f minor, Op. 80. Really excellent...go hear them if you ever get a chance.

Some of you may have heard that the "flavor" of musikfest was fried! We did need food, though, so we had some fish and chips, which we ate in a tent with a very loud polka band, and then some funnel cake. If you've never had funnel cake, do yourself and favor and go find some...yummy stuff! While we were eating, I saw some cute little girls with home made "I love David Cook" shirts. Young fans in the making!

Then we headed on down to the concert venue which was on a small island in the middle of the river. As we were walking along we passed the truck of one of the local radio stations and they were playing CBTM...and I saw a GUY who was singing along. Yeah for guy fans!

We got to our seats just in time for the beginning of GRO. Like some others, I thought that they would start at 8:30, which was the time on the ticket, but they started at 7:15. I really enjoyed their set and went and met them and bought their CD. They're really sweet guys and very anxious to please. They mentioned both at this show and at Mr. Small's how well they have been treated by David's road crew and his fans. They were certainly selling a lot of CD's and T shirts. The merch line was enormous, though I suppose most of it was for David's stuff.

This was a tough crowd even for David and poor GRO had it even worse. They kept trying to get people to stand up or clap or yell or "just feel something" and it just wasn't happening. The only way they got a reaction was by invoking David's name. I figured the crowd must have OD'd on funnel cakes and other fried stuff! Maybe beer!

But this whole experience (the two different shows) for me was a study in contrasts. With Morgantown as my only experience, I was not quite prepared for the difference the huge venue made. I didn't know how many tickets had been sold, but I just read that it was around 4,000. We did have seats, folding chairs set up on the lawn, for which I was grateful. Our seats were in the third row of the reserved section (behind the VIP section), Andy's side. Not that that mattered, because I could barely see Andy at all. The stage was huge, but the performers looked very tiny. They did, of course, project pictures onto large screens. But that meant one could only see what they chose to show, which was usually close-ups of the gorgeous Mr. Cook. And he WAS looking quite gorgeous. Sometimes they showed Andy or Neal and I must say they were looking mighty fine too. But you couldn't see the whole band interacting. One time when I stood on tiptoe, I saw Neal playing the guitar behind his back, but they didn't show it on the big screen.

But here's what was really weird. Almost no one else around me was singing along or yelling or clapping their hands (except to applaud at the end of a song). I felt very alone. There was one little girl in the row ahead of me and she knew all the words to the DCTR songs and was having a super time with her mom, but that was it. On the other hand, everyone except my friend was standing and looked like they were enjoying the music. And a lot of them went and bought T shirts, so I hope there were some new fans made and I guess that is the idea. He needs more than just us to keep this thing going. Hopefully they will buy CD's and learn to words and then they too can all sing along. I assume that all the die hard fans were in the front sections, since other people have reported quite different impressions from mine, but own experience was just odd.

The good news was that I got several ponies: TWIK (love that song), WOHWWS, and Straight Ahead. So that made me extremely happy. The No. 1 pony, Anodyne, still awaits me, but that's OK. Reason to go to more shows. I'm sure everyone has heard by now about the guitar problems with TWIK. That was a bit frustrating, but he sang it in the end and it was beautiful. I personally thought his voice sounded a little hoarse, especially on the a cappella Lie, but it may have been the speakers or he may have been trying too hard for the large crowd. (He sounded fine last night.) My biggest surprise was Little Lies. I was just OK with it before, but this time it was superb...Neal was totally shredding.

Boyfriend was working really hard though. Even for him, this was a tough crowd. It was very much hard working David. And he WAS working hard, giving his usual 110%. He flirted with the crowd a bit, commented on the weird mugs (they were filled with flashing lights), told us he loved us, and talked about the interview with the middle school girl friend. He's still amazed that people are coming out to shows and buying his CD.

As we were leaving, we could see the buses behind a mesh fence and people were calling out to the guys, so I assume they were back there, but there was no way to get to them. I guess security issues must be looming larger or maybe they just wanted to get on the road to Pittsburgh.

Mr. Small's theater in Millvale, PA...

What a difference a day makes! I have to tell you just how lucky we are, those of us who have been able to see David at these small venues. Not that Monday night wasn't fun...it was. But this was the kind of David Cook experience I will always treasure when he has gone on to become really big. I hope that somehow he will still be able to figure out a way to do this kind of show from time to time, because I think it makes him really happy. If Monday night was hard working David, this was definitely happy David.

But first...Mr. Small's. I don't know if this was an intentional play on words or not, but Mr. Small's is very, well...small. It's a very cool venue, made in an old church. Not that this was a religious experience (or maybe it was), but that fact seemed, to me anyway, to add something to the vibe. And I think it did for David too, beccause he actually commented on it and said it had one of the coolest vibes of all the places they had played. The stage was absolutely tiny. They didn't move around a whole lot, because I'm sure there were wires up there and they would have tripped. Sometimes David or Neal or Andy would go back and stand in front of Kyle, but they didn't go side to side, except, of course, for David's now legendary balance beam performance. I never did get up to the front, so I didn't see what he was walking on, but I knew there was something that people could get onto which got them closer to the audience, because Josh of GRO did it a couple of times. But he only stood on it, he didn't try to walk. David walked all the way from one end to the other! Over the stage, in what had been an apse in the old church, was a circle of lights, rather like a halo. Other than that, they had only the four triscuits, and I have to say I like it better that way. The flashing lights of Musikfest were somewaht distracting (I'll agree with my friend there). Shoot off fireworks, if you want to (outdoors only please), but keep those spotlights out of my eyes!

For those of you who have never been to Pittsburgh, let me explain a little about it. Apart from the downtown, which sits at the point between two of the famed three rivers, it is made up of what we call neighborhoods. These are technically within the city, but each has its own distinctive character and flavor. Millvale is one such neighborhood and its character is suggested by its name...it's an old residential area for the steel mill workers. Of course, most of the steel mills aren't there anymore, but the neighborhood still has that feel, even though it was less than 10 minutes from my down town hotel. So if the guys were expecting "big city," this was not it. Furthermore, we have hills. It's not quite San Francisco, but some of these babies are pretty steep. And on one such hill were parked the equipment buses! One of the big silver ones was on the street right out front...Millvale was not designed for David Cook and Co.! But, alas, the bus that David and friends ride on was parked elsewhere (I think out behind the building somewhere) and they would not let us go up there (up being the operative word). About forty people hung around for well over an hour after the show, but the roadies kept telling us he wasn't coming out and I guess they were right, unless he showed up way late. I was OK with it; I have my autographed CD and my one hug. But I met one woman who had been to eight shows with still no meet. It's sad, but I'm afraid this is the future.

I showed up about 15 minutes before they were to open the doors and the line was down the church steps and down the block. Once the doors were opened it was slow getting in because the corridor was very narrow. Plus they were checking ID's because there was a bar inside. This meant a more orderly entry rather than a mob scene. When I got inside the crowd was about five deep in front of the stage, but I didn't join in. There was a beautiful old wooden bar extending across the venue a little more than half way back and I grabbed a spot right in front of that and stayed there. It was wonderful! I could lean against it and lean on it to get a bit higher and I could put my cell phone on it for the cell cast. But best of all I could breathe, because people left a small passage way in front of it for those trying to get to the other side and the merch table. There was air conditioning in the place which kept it pretty comfortable for a while until all the hotness on stage and the crowd reaction finally warmed it up. You've all heard about the fainting fan...David was really sweet about that, very concerned, but annoyed I think that security was slow on the uptake when he called for them.

I was so much happier in this crowd...real David fans, singing, squeeing, clapping. I was not alone! Standing room only is hard on the body, but with my handy bar this was manageable and I'd rather have that than the vastness of Musikfest. It took no time at all for GRO to notice the difference and comment on it, comparing it to the night before. They were feeling the love and relaxed considerably and really rocked out. (Later they were selling CD's on the steps and completely sold out of what they had brought.)

THE BLACK SHIRTS...OMG! But enough about that! Everyone was looking good, though Monty is kind of outclassed in this group. I'm sure he is a fine bass player, but I gotta say I miss Joey and what he brought to the band. David and the boys were really on fire and the crowd responded. One of the funniest bits of banter was when one guy called out "I love you." David was actually a bit flummoxed by that for a minute, but then commented that he didn't get much of that and then said, in a very low voice, "Love you too, bro'." There was a lot of interaction with the fans in the front (alas, there was at least one sign). He said that he had played golf (probably at Oakmont, a well known golf course about half an hour away) and then joked that Michelle, who apparently comes from the Pittsburgh area, keeps harping on the Steelers and Penguins. Someone threw him a "terrible towel" which he joked around with and eventually threw back. At one point he went and got a blue baseball hat and put it on for a minute. (I thought it was a Royals hat, but someone elsewhere said Yankees.)

I'm sure you've seen the set list. Largely the same as Monday, but without Straight Ahead and TWIK and with the addition of IDIFY. But he sounded sooooo good; the voice was just soaring. Not to mention an extremely protracted moan in KOTN. Lie, of course, was beautiful as always and AdaM was perfect. No guitar sex (at least I didn't see any, but I've heard there was some), but lots of co-ordinated head banging from Andy and Neal. Andy was definitely having a good time up there. I noticed for the first time how Neal is always keeping an eye on everything happening on stage, even as he is doing his own thing.

I guess that's about it. I have no further shows on the horizon and I'm quite sure I'll never go back to back again, but what an experience. Two days of David..whoo-hoo!
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