Check out Anthea’s photos from the concert HERE.
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Hey everyone! It’s Anthea, back with another recap for Mjsblog! I did a recap for the American Idol’s Live Tour last year. Link is right here if you would like to read it :) http://mjsbigblog.com/antheas-american-idols-tour-greensboro-recap.htm
I have watched the Idol Concert tours of Season 7 and 8. This year was my 3rd concert tour of Idol’s to watch.
So I am a 14 year old girl who loved Lee this year. He was absolutely amazing and seemed very humble on TV. My other favorites I liked were Didi and Andrew (I also liked Alex Lambert but he didn’t make it into the Top 10. Props for him on being on “”If I Can Dream” though. I signed his petition to be back on the Idol show numerous times :) But after the show I found some new found favorites to root for too. So it was a 4 hour drive to Virginia Beach, VA (I live in NC) and I drove to the concert with my friends Allie (A Tim fan), Heather (A Lee fan), and my mom (A no fan. Haha. She liked last year better and loved Adam) We left the house at around 6am to try to see if we could get to the venue early. I had no idea how meeting the idols this year would work out. We got to Virginia Beach at around 10am, went to eat, then went to check out the venue. When we got to the venue around 12pm we find out NO ONE’s THERE! We find the barricades, but there was absolutely no one there at the venue except for some people trying to buy last minute tickets and the arena folks. I was confused! I wanted to try to wait near the barricades, but my parents and friends thought I was crazy! (Mind you it was really hot at the time) I didn’t want to miss the idols, but I reluctantly had to leave against my will. So after that we freshen up at the hotel for an hour and try again to go to the venue to see if ANY fans were there yet!(It was around 2pm by then) Still NO ONE. Seriously. What the heck??
So again we had to leave. While in the car I checked my twitter on my cell to see if the idols tweeted any news about coming to meet the fans soon and then I see the tweet from Katie’s brother Ryan (@RyanJStevens At the cheesecake factory) and I told my mom “Oh my gosh the idols are at the Cheesecake Factory right now!” So we find the address and head to the Cheesecake Factory around 2:40ish. Heather, Allie, and I try to act cool and collected as we head through the doors of the Cheesecake Factory and the first thing we saw were tons of security. (We couldn’t see the idols though because apparently they were hiding behind the tall booths)We also saw some idol fans too. The waitress led us to a booth far away from the idols, but after my mom bribed her to let us sit closer we got a better seat and were in view point of where the idols were sitting. (Still couldn’t see them though because of the tall booths) We order the new Reese’s cheesecake the idols unveiled that day, and start to eat when all of a sudden I spot Tim get up and meet the idol fans we saw. I immediately point out Tim to Allie and we both started freaking out. Heather, Allie, and I try to go to Tim, but got stopped by security. Later on we found out that the only reason why those idol fans were able to meet the idols were because they stayed outside the cheesecake factory way before it opened. So we watch from afar (Mom kept on asking waitress to see if we could get pics and she was very nice to ask the idols manager if we could, but said that we weren’t allowed to take pics with them. Only if they were walking around since they were still eating.) So after Tim, we continue eating when all of a sudden we see Lee get up from the booth and look STRAIGHT at us!! You don’t know how much we started freaking out. I probably had this really stupid look on my face while Lee was still looking at me. Haha! Then after a couple seconds of locked eyes with Lee he heads over to the fans. We try again to see if we can get past security but to no luck. So we just watched Lee interact with the fans. After seeing Tim and Lee the rest of the idols made themselves known by popping their heads up above the booth. We were busy idol watching and Allie and Heather start making googly eyes at Aaron. Seeing him in person made us realize he was a very good looking teen. Haha. Also, at one point my friend Heather was laughing at something my dad was doing and Casey looked at her. I didn’t see it though since my attention was still on Lee. Lol. It was maybe about 40 minutes in the cheesecake factory before the idols started to leave through the kitchen to the backdoor. I managed to say hi to Lee before he left. He was leaving through the kitchen area (Our booth was right beside the kitchen area) and I said a loud “Hi Lee!” and gave him a really enthusiastic wave. He replied by giving a shy “Hi” and a smile then left. Then I saw Siobhan and said “Hi Siobhan” and waved and she replied by saying a quiet “Hi” and smiled. Last person I managed to say hi to was Aaron! Ok so I said “Hi Aaron!” and waved to him as he was about to leave and he spotted me and my friends. He waved to us and said hi and actually started to move closer to us in an attempt to talk to us, but he only took one step then remembered to ask security if he could, but then found out he wasn’t allowed to so he waved goodbye to us, smiled, and then left. We were irritated at security for not allowing Aaron to come talk to us, but hey. At least he wanted to talk to us. We were practically the only teen fans there. :) Haha. I think after seeing him at the cheesecake factory all three of us had hopped on the Aaron Kelly bandwagon. :)
So after all the idols had already left we pay, leave, and go outside to head to the car and freshen up again at the hotel before the concert.
(And just in case you wanted to know, all the Idols were at the Cheesecake Factory with the exception of Crystal)
~Skip to 5pm~
It’s an hour before we leave for the concert venue (My family friend Jana had finally joined us. She didn’t have a favorite but was just going for the experience) and what the heck! In less than 3 hours it had managed to rain, thunder, and lightning. There were also flash floods and tornado warnings on the hotel TV. Why was that happening on our day of the concert?? Seriously? Who gets that in one day?? Us apparently.
~6pm~
After buying rain ponchos at Walmart we were finally at the venue! Hurray! We waited in a long line to get in (Thankfully the line was moving fast). (Remember this venue was an outdoor venue so everyone was soaking wet by the time we got under the roof of the concert area.) Me, Allie, and Heather sit together in our 5th row center stage seats while my mom and Jana sit in the seats I won from Mjsblog which were another section back. They were still pretty good seats though! Thanks again MJ! :) As we wait for the concert to start we do the Idol texting contest to try to win the Meet and Greet stuff but sadly didn’t win. After that the show finally begins…. The intro video of the idols pop up on the screen and Lee’s face on the video got the most screams. Of course. :) Now it’s show time!!
Didi: She was absolutely gorgeous! Her first song “Lay It On Me” was pretty good. I thought it was a good song to start the show. Not the BEST song, but not the worst either. I wanted to get up to cheer her on, but it would’ve been sort of awkward to get up when everyone else was still sitting down so I sat in my seat. :( I absolutely loved her cover of “Terrified” though. It was beautiful. I sang along :)
Andrew: When Andrew’s intro video came on the crowd came alive! You could tell that the energy level turned up. When he came onstage to sing his first song “Straight Up”(Loved his cover on Idol) it was pretty chill. Fans were singing along and people were finally standing up. The thing I didn’t like about Andrew singing “Straight Up” though was he didn’t come close to the audience. But when he started to sing his second song “Sunday Morning” he finally came close to the crowd. I got out my 3D glasses and Heather started waving it around in the air to see if he would see it and we kept on pointing at it. Haha don’t ask why we did it. :P Overall the crowd loved him!
Katie: Katie comes onstage and she had some really cool graphics going on behind her. She was also very gorgeous too! She gave us a really energized performance of “Here We Go Again.” It was really good! Mid song a guy threw her (I think it was a rose?) onstage and she got it then started singing to him. Cute! She was really into the song and moved around the stage a lot. Good stage presence. For “Fighter” she strutted onstage like it was nobody’s business. She was powerful!
Tim: Girls went crazy when Tim came onstage. Lots of loud teen screams all around me! Possibly including me. :) And also let me just say this. Tim has some nice hair! His first song “Better Days” was beautiful. I loved it! After that he sang “Viva La Vida.” I also noticed that a lot of his fans give him the love sign when he’s onstage and he would return the sign back. Me, Heather, and Allie did the love sign to him to and he saw us and returned the love sign back to us! :) It was awesome!
Siobhan: Yes, I do have to admit her intro was sort of creepy. The black and purple swirls and creepy music reminded me of some kind Halloween stuff. But the crowd liked her and cheered her on when she came onstage. Lots of people were standing. Siobhan wasn’t really one of my favorites on the show so I sat down during most of her set. She sang “Paint It Black” and that girl can SING! AND SCREAM! At the end she screamed for the longest time. Heather claimed that her ears were aching. Her second song “Spiderwebs” was mine, Heather, and Allie’s favorite out of her set. It…was…so….catchy!! (It’s still stuck in my head! I love her version of the song!) She jumped up and down during the song and head banged a lot. I think this song was the only one I stood up for. It made me want to jump up and down too! I didn’t want to obstruct the view for the people behind me though. ;P After that she sang “Stockholm Syndrome.” I don’t really remember much of that song, so I’m guessing it wasn’t my favorite. Lol
Aaron: Aaron!! Me, Heather, and Allie screamed really loud for him! After seeing him at the Cheesecake Factory our opinion of him had changed. He was good as gold in our eyes. ;) I loved his first song of “Somebody Like You.” My parents had that song as their wedding song when they renewed their vows so hearing Aaron singing it made me happy. It was my favorite from his set. Aaron’s second song of “Walking In Memphis” showed more of his Southern twang. This was also the song where he started to thrust his hips around. Wow! That boy can move them hips! He was a true performer though. He had a lot of confidence and shined better onstage in concert than on the Idol stage just like Katie. His last song was “Fast Cars And Freedom” don’t remember much from that song. Sorry! But overall I really liked his set!
Group Song: The Idols made the song “The Climb” better than I thought they would. It was way better than the original. Hey, anything is better than Miley Cyrus’s singing. Bleh! ;P
Intermission: Did the second texting contest thing. Didn’t win. Went to the merchandise stand to buy some overpriced tour stuff! :D I bought an Idol Program and a Lee headshot (was also debating about buying an Aaron headshot to then decided not to) Heather bought an Idol Program and a Lee headshot like me, and Allie bought an Idol Program, Concert T-shirt with the Top 10 on it, and a glowstick. After that we asked security how to get to the barricades from where we were, and then sat back in our seats to enjoy the second half of the concert. By this time the rain, thunder, and lightning crap was finally over and the skies were calm so we were able to be rid of the ugly clear plastic ponchos we were wearing. Yay!! Also before i forget, the size of the crowd of the concert was pretty good. There weren’t as many people as there was last year but it was still a good amount!
Big Mike: This man is very muscular! He totally lives up to his name! His first song “Woman’s Work” was pretty. Not a very energizing song to start your set with, but i don’t know. If singing slow songs at the beginning of your set is your thing then I respect that. Next song was “Ready For Love”. Sorry guys! Don’t remember much from this song either! His last one though, was my FAVORITE! It was the song “My Love”. Heather and Allie really liked his version of the song too. I totally wish they could release the songs they do on tour on iTunes or on a cd. If they did I would totally buy Big Mike’s version of “My Love” and Siobhan’s version of “Spiderwebs”. :) The only thing we didn’t like when he sang this song was his falsetto. It didn’t really work for him. But the rapping was good! Also, during the small break time when the idols talk to the audience and have their quick water break, Big Mike was drinking his water and the whole crowd was quiet, and Allie screamed “I LOVE YOU BIG MIKE!!”. Everyone’s eyes trailed to her. Allie was like “That was loud!” The lady in front of us, I think was drunk, and she said “No! It wasn’t loud enough! It needs to be louder!” :)
Casey: Lots of people cheered for Casey! Casey’s cover of “I Got Mine” brought the crowd on their feet. Especially when he started guitar dueling with the Idol electric guitarist. Casey can sure play!! I don’t remember much of Casey’s next song “Don’t” other than he switched his electric guitar for an acoustic this time. His third song was with Big Mike. It was “Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman”. Lots of cheers erupted from the crowd! It was nice to see both of them play the guitar together. His last song was “Its All Over Now” which was pretty good. I think he also changed his acoustic for another electric guitar? He had a helper help him change. I wish I could play as good as him!
Crystal: Ah, Crystal. I loved her intro video. Very bright and sunshiny. The giant picture of a sunflower gave her set a very happy vibe. When Crystal came onstage the crowd went crazy! She’s a very simple woman so she had a very feel good vibe when she was onstage. Her first song “What’s Up” was a good song to start her set. Her second song was “Come To My Window”. I think this was one of the songs I most remembered from her set. For this song she played her harmonica AND played her guitar. Now that’s what I call a very talented individual! Before she sang this song though she talked a little bit to the audience and she told us that one of the (Backstage helpers?) named Jim would always put a note in her harmonica headset. That night he wrote a note on the headset that said “Your fly is open”. Crystal told us and the whole crowd started laughing. And then she was like “It’s not.” :) “Up To The Mountain” was I think the song that she dedicated to her son. Aww. It was very emotional and sweet. When she finished the song she said “That made me feel sad. I need to get angry now!” She chuckled and said “Just kidding” or something along those lines. And with that she started her last song “Piece Of My Heart”!
Lee: OH MY GOSH!! When Lee’s intro video went on the whole concert arena went absolutely CRAZY! I started screaming my lungs out! When he finally stepped onto the stage I could not stop staring at him. To see him in his element was amazing! He first sang “Beautiful Day”! I loved it! Whenever he would reach the chorus the stage lights would turn very bright and zoom on the crowd to make it look like it was really “A Beautiful Day”. The lights were very bright and it made it feel like the sun was up in the air and you didn’t have a care in the world. I also noticed Lee’s ADORABLE side mouth when he sings, similar to Kris Allen’s when he would sings too. It was so cute! His second song was “Rocket Man”. I had never heard the song until Lee sang it. It was pretty cool! His third song was “Hallelujah”. It was very good! After this song we had to leave for the barricades. I felt really guilty about leaving Lee in the middle of his set since he was my favorite, but I knew that it would take awhile before we reached the barricades. I had to make a choice. Stay for Lee’s whole set and then hurriedly try to find the barricades while worriedly wondering how many people were there already, or leaving Lee’s set early, still being able to hear him while at the barricades when we found it, and being in the absolute front so we were guaranteed to meet him. I was nervous about finding the barricades in the dark, but we eventually found it with a lot of walking and following a path that our new friend Bob (SHOUTOUT TO BOB! YOU’RE AWESOME! He was head of security and told us where to go and which spot at the barricades you should be in to get more time with the idols. When we got to the barricades he taught us some special things to do to get the idols attention. Won’t tell you though. It’s a secret! ;)
So we were at the front of the barricades with a couple other people and we can still hear Lee singing. By the time we were there he was almost done with “Treat Her Like A Lady”. Last solo song we heard Lee sing was “Use Somebody”. It was totally his type of song to sing. (I also heard during this song his guitar strap broke?) After that it was the group song with “It’s My Life” and “My Life Would Suck Without You”. Everyone at the barricades was bobbing their heads. :)
~Concert Is Over And We Are Waiting At The Barricades For Maybe 30 Minutes?~
Concert’s done and there is a medium sized crowd of people slowly growing within the passing time at the barricades. Heather, Allie, and I are still waiting (Mom and Jana finally joined us after the concert) and talking to some other Idol fans when we see a golf cart carrying Katie’s brother Ryan (I didn’t really know if it was him at the time. I only heard of Ryan but never actually saw what his face looked like. I only knew that he toured with Katie), Katie, and Didi(I think that was all for now).
Katie and Didi started on our side of the barricades. As we were waiting for Katie to reach us I’m looking at this young man that’s right in front of us that was looking at Katie signing. I was thinking and then it came into my mind that this must be Katie’s brother! So I shouted at him really loud “Aren’t you Katie’s brother!!??” In which he replied giving a thumbs up and a smile. Katie heard me while she was still signing and looked at me and said “Follow him on twitter!” and grinned. I told her “I already did!” So with that I asked Ryan for a pic and he happily accepted. He was so cool! After that Katie finally reached us and I told her she was really pretty. She grinned and said “Thank you so much. You’re so sweet.” She signed my booklet and I got a picture with her. When she reached Heather who was right beside me Heather said to her “I like your dress” and Katie replied saying “H&M, $15”. Lol (Day after concert we went to H&M at the Virginia Beach mall to see if they did have the dress and we found it! It was $17 there though. Maybe the Idols get a discount??) :) (Also Katie was very short. I heard she was 5’3 and I’m the same height as her. I was wearing heels the day of the concert so I was probably 2 inches taller than her? Without the heels though, we would’ve been face to face)
After we all got pictures with Katie and had her sign our booklets, Didi reached us. She was so pretty in person. I told her that and she said “Thank You” and smiled. I got a picture with her and her autograph. She seemed tired though. I give all the idols props for coming out to sign autographs and take pictures with fans even though their probably really exhausted.
After Didi, I think another golf cart came around. This one had Big Mike, Aaron, and Siobhan. Again, they all started on our side of the barricades. Big Mike was the first one to reach us. He was very nice. VERY muscular when you see him up close! He spent quite some time with our group since we took tons of pics with him. It was cute because when we asked for pics and autographs he would call us “Baby”. Like “Sure thing Baby.” and “You’re welcome Baby”. :) And when he would take a pic with you he would basically pull you into a big half hug and rub your arm. After pics and autographs, before he left to greet some other fans I asked him “Is there going to be a Late Night Pecs video tonight?” and he replied “No, not tonight. There is going to be a Late Night Sandwich video tonight though.” Yay! (Day after I checked his twitter and found the Late Night Sandwich video “Cheesecake Factory edition” like he said. Apparently while the Idols were sneaking out of the back door in the kitchen they were pre filming their LNS video)
After Big Mike left another golf cart came and this is when it started getting confusing. The new idols that came were Andrew and Lee I think? They started opposite side of the barricades from us and the crowd went crazy for them!
So after the commotion of Andrew and Lee arriving Aaron came to us! He was so cute! And he smelled really good. Does that sound weird? When he came he reached Allie first who was to the right side of me and she asked him if he remembered us from the cheesecake factory. Aaron said “Did I get to you guys?” We replied saying “No.” Then he was like “Oh! You guys were the ones I didn’t get to!” Haha. After that I got to get him to sign my booklet and get a picture. I had to take 3 pics with him. First time he wasn’t looking. Second time he was talking to me telling me that his cell vibrated in his pocket (Random much? :) And third time was better. Even though he had one eye closed and the other one half opened. Lol! After that my mom asked for a hug because “He’s to cute!”and I hugged him too! After the hug ended my mom told me that she kissed him on the cheek and that she just wanted to “Adopt him.” Also before Aaron moved on to the next group Aaron signed Allie’s phone case and he told her that it was “Soft.” Aaron, you’re so random. But I love you!
I think this was around the time that I started to panic. Lee and Andrew were basically like overlapping each other and I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to get a pic with both of them. I got a pic of Andrew(turned out slightly blurry though) and his autograph. Sadly didn’t get to talk to him though as much as I would’ve liked too. After meeting me and Allie he went to Heather (who was to the left of me) and she got a pic and a hug with him.(Lucky!) I didn’t get to get a hug. Lol. Day after concert she told me that she was slightly rubbing his back with her thumb as they were taking the picture and Andrew thanked her for that? Haha??What??
After Andrew guess who I got to see?? LEE!! He came on Heather’s side first. Heather said “Lee” in a dreamy like voice and Lee was like “So how ya feeling?” Lee was so hot in person! Ahh! My mom took a group shot of all of us after that. When the pic was done I gave him a present I bought for him which consisted of some gag stuff like different Stick On Mustaches from Spencers, Noisy Putty, and Water Balloons (Since on twitter the girls keep on talking about wanting to water balloon the boys. So why don’t the boys do the same? :)
He replied by saying “Aww thanks!” I didn’t expect him to open it right then but he reached into the bag and pulled out the Stick On Mustaches! HAHA! You should have seen his face! It was priceless!! The Stick On Mustaches had different “Mustache personalities” I told him it was “Really Random!!”and Lee was reading them and was like ” The Rogue, The Party Boy, I like this kind of stuff.” I then asked him for a picture and he was like “Let’s do it.”My mom was trying to group us all together to take another group pic and I was like “I want a pic alone with Lee!!” really loud. I can’t believe I said that! But hey I got the pic and I LOVE IT!! He wanted to spend some more time with us but sadly Ray (The head Idol security guard had to usher him on to the next group). We told Lee thank you though and he gave us a really cute “Your welcome.”
(I got him opening the present and us talking to him on video) :)
After the “OMG squealing of getting excited by meeting Lee” Siobhan came by. We all got pics with her and got her to sign our booklets. She was pretty cool and I told her that and she said “Thank you.” She was sort of quiet like everyone has been saying though. But she was still cool. :)
After Siobhan, this was around the time when Tim and Casey got dropped off by another golf cart. They started on our side of the barricades. Tim reached us first. Allie got a pic and autograph with him because he was her favorite. When Tim reached me I asked him “Hey Tim! Are you still doing kisses on the cheek?” He replied saying ” I don’t know I have to check the rules. Why don’t you ask Casey?”(Casey was also near us at that time) Allie goes “But we didn’t ask Casey. We asked YOU.” So he agreed. Yay! He kissed me on the cheek first and was like “This is gonna look pretty funny.” His lips were REALLY soft! After me he kissed Allie TWICE! First time he pulled away since he thought the pic was already captured but then he heard us saying “We didn’t get the pic.” And he came back to us to give Allie another “Kiss on the cheek” picture retake. It was really sweet! For Heather, she just wanted a “Normal” pic.
After that Allie was pretty much on cloud nine. :P
Next was Casey. We got pics with him. I didn’t get to get his autograph though because my group was mainly taking pics so I didn’t get the chance to get his autograph, but oh well. Pictures are better! He actually wasn’t as tall as I expected. Maybe because he bent down when he took his pic with me. Heather asked him for a hug and she said he smelled REALLY GOOD! And that his smell of cologne was the strongest. (Day after when we went to the mall we searched in the cologne and perfume department and I think we found the smell! Heather said it smelled just like Big Mike and Casey. If the cologne we found really is the cologne they used then they smelled pretty dang good! Only Idol I smelled a whiff of was Aaron. )
After that all the idols were starting to leave. I think the only idols that were still outside were Aaron, Tim, and Casey. We waited a bit to see if Crystal would come out but she never did. So we were about to head off when all of a sudden Heather was like “Hold on! I didn’t get a picture with Aaron!” Since she probably forgot to ask him. So Heather rushes to an empty spot in the barricades just when Aaron was about to hop on the golf cart and yelled out his name. Aaron heard her and before he left they got a quick picture together. He was so sweet. So after we leave the venue when we were sure Crystal wasn’t coming, we left to go to the hotel. It was around midnight around that time. Everyone was all tired from the excitement. Overall the concert was AMAZING! Even if in the beginning there was really bad weather. The show and meeting the idols afterwards was all worth it. I wish I could go to another Idol concert of theirs but I guess one great concert of the idols this year is enough for me. They have all earned my respect after that night and I would be willing to buy their debut albums. Hopefully when each of them goes on their own tour I might be able to see them again. :) Thank you guys for reading my recap! I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing about my experience!! I’ll see you guys in hopefully another recap for next year’s idols!! :D
