When I told people I was driving all the way from Toronto to West Viriginia for a concert I was told I was crazy, well call me whatever you want but it was totally worth driving through pitch black mountain roads at 3 a.m. to see these guys play.

I took a leap of faith and went to this show by myself (had an extra ticket that I was more than happy to give to a fellow concert goer in need), prepared for the concert by listening to MWK and DCTR for the 7 hour drive and yes Dave, I sang at the top of my lungs for the entire drive there and back.

The day of concert was gorgeous, warm and sunny and it was a shame to stay inside; however, due to the ticket restrictions (all tickets were will call) it could not be avoided. I met some wonderful people in line (luv ya Jess and the other ladies, you guys are made of steel).

All tickets will call- major win as it avoided any outrageous scalper situations; however; all tickets will call- major fail as everyone not only had to wait in the will call line for 3 hours, we then had to make a made dash upstairs to form a new line to get into the ballroom. Here anxiety started to creep back in, strategies were made, and success was had as my new best friends and I were able to secure front row spots; I was directly in front of NFT's mike (as my pictures will attest).

So the concert...

EPIC!!! there was the water spout, ass shakin, band hugs all around, backwards/behind the head guitar, Joey the kangaroo, impromptu Hot 4 Teacher; climbing amps for the Barbasex, and Andy left his pocket and travelled to the Dr's domain (awesome). However, I must admit that being in front was a little overwhelming; there was just too much goodness to comprehend. Dave to my left and the Dr. right in front of me, it was hard to decide who to watch and can I say totally not fair that during Bar-Ba-Sol we were made to chose whether to watch Dave all the way over on the other side's amps or watch Neal shred his guitar right in front of us!

You've all seen the videos, so you know the guys were on fire. Andy spoke (alot!), NFT played the theme's to both Top Gun and Super Mario Brothers, Kyle had malfunctioning drum sticks and still managed to kick ass on his solo before the encore; and Joey had a mike! (which didn't work). And .... dammit Joey, you need to stand still for like 30 seconds because its damn near impossible to get a decent shot of him (this made me think of kangaroos, which yougins are called Joeys, which made me think of Roo from Winnie the Pooh, which then made me think Joey is more of a Tigger because of the RockStar jumps, so of course now I have to assign the rest of the guys- Kyle shall be Roo because he's the youngin' and so little, Andy is eyeore just cuz', Dave shall be pooh (the tummeh' and everything is named after him) and Neal, well I couldn't come up with one for him ... Christopher Robbin maybe (the leader, red hair?).. and this ladies and gents is totally off topic...

David Cook is just amazing; the voice, the presence, the vest!! (I missed the vest and the arms), everything was there and he left it on the stage. He was very impressed with the amount of men in the audience (and there seemed to be a good number, alot of college aged guys too).

Began the show with Heroes, got the energy up right away, then WOHWWS (needs to be on an album now). Funny tidbit about this, Neal sings backup on this one and there was a debate about what he was singing, concensus was that it was "honest, la la la" (really Dave??) which we thought was hilarious so when it came to that point in the song, our entire group sang the la-la-la back (fun times, and confirmation from the Dr later is that it is actuall, honest, la da da, converse amongst yourself whether this is better or not).

You've heard about Straight Ahead and the faining, he was truly converned about the poor woman but a complete professional in getting the crowd focused on something else until the commotion was over (enter Neal playing random 1980's pop culture riffs).

Hot 4 Teacher, well if Dave wanted to sing that entire song backwards I wouldn't be mad at him, I'm just sayin.

More banter, Dave asked us where the after party was going to be, but it took the audience a good 5 seconds to figure out what he said so there was this weird delayed reaction and then a huge roar of teh crowd once we got it, he was amused.

Light On, the entire crowd was in on this one and when it came our time to sing, we SANG, it was awesome.

Barbasol, I died. Dave prancing the stage, climbing on amps, Neal right in front of me for the solos; Andy, Neal and Joey having a thresome behind Dave with back backbends gallore, just totally epic.

ADAM, beautiful. The only problem is that its really hard to sway your arms, sing along and try to take pretty pictures at the same time. I find this song so bittersweet because its the ultimate fan interaction, the culmination of this give and take relationship where we can show Dave how much his music means to us, yet selfishly, hearing this song means the endm that our special moment is concluding. I wish I could have turned around to look at the crowd but I could not take my eyes off Dave during this performance because he was everything.

SO the lights come up, the guys exit stage right (our left, see Joey its not really that confusing now is it, oh by the way the death star made was in attendance for tonight's show, I believe LA reignighted the force in the young-ones) and we move our ass's outside to the bus. Now, this is the first concert I've gone to on the tour but I had been to the Idol shows and the crowd here was to almost the level of this summer. This was apparently one of the biggest crowd's yet and because of that, one on one time with Dave was not going to happen. He was very tired, as were all the guys as they had come straight from the airport to the venue. He had time for autographs and hugs but not pics. I got neither, but our group talked to the rest of the guys for about an hour which was amazing. They are truly the best. My being a Canadian in West Virginia was a focal point of conversation, refernces to the South Park movie were made at my expense to my great amusement.

By this point, it was headed for 2:00 and we all bid the guys goodnight. However, Jess and I decided to head out to one of the local bars since we were still buzzed from the show and it just so happens that we ended up in the same joint as the guys and their crew. Engaged in further conversation with Neal and Andy, and finally said goodnight to the guys around 3. Now I haven't had the pleasure of a good Dave hug, but I can say Neal give's great hugs (the extra squishy kind) and Joey gives good drunk hugs.

Finally, I got to my hotel at 5 a.m. and was back on the road at 10 for my 7 hour drive back to Toronto, of which I was still a little tipsy from the bar or just high on DC and EEB's either way, it was a fun drive home.

So three days, a little over 9 hours sleep between them and one amazing experience later I am exhausted, exuberant and eagerly awaiting the Seneca Casino show on Friday (only a 90 minute drive this time and assigned seats!).

If you're still reading, thanks for sticking in there, here are my pics (downfall of being so close its hard to capture everything and you deal with the stupid stage lighting in every picture but some came out pretty good)

http://s526.photobucket.com/albums/cc347/shaunayork0904/wvu/dc%20wvu/?al...

Shauna