ETA: A couple of decent-quality videos from the concert have surfaced: Permanent and Man in the Box, Light On.
David Cook performs tonight at the House of Blues, Orlando FL as part of the XL 106.7 Acoustic Xmas show. He’ll share the stage with Colbie Caillat, Natasha Bedingfield, and Gavin DeGraw.
SarahW is attending the show tonight and plans to text updates to PJ, so watch the comments sections for dispatches from Orlando.
Update: Sarah’s recap! Thank you, Sarah:
So, I was running late to the concert because I was out of town this weekend visiting family and my plane home arrived at 5:30. It was on schedule (I booked the tix way before I knew details about the show), but I was still rushing, because, well… the doors opened at 6:00 and I flew into an airport north of town, about an hour away from the HOB. So needless to say, I was pretty nervous about missing all of DC, or part of his set, because I was really scared he’d go first. But, thankfully I didn’t, since he went third in the lineup of four. I missed Natasha instead and am pretty bummed about that (I could have totally handled missing Colbie Caillat instead). But oh well.
The show was packed – it was sold out, but I managed to snag a pretty good spot for seeing the stage – right behind the sound boards, without very many people in front of me. I was pretty far back but had a really good view of the stage, mostly of David and Neal, and also sometimes Joey. I didn’t take any pics, because my camera phone takes really crappy pictures, and they weren’t allowing cameras in, so I didn’t even try. Sadness. And I really couldn’t get around without stepping on people. But hey, if new people are being exposed to Cook’s music, it’s all good, right? :)
More recap after the JUMP…
Okay, so onto the real recap. Since what most people reading this recap are most concerned about is DC, I’ll mostly skip over Gavin, except to say that he was amazing, and I. lurve. him. to. pieces. It was just him on stage for his set – no accompanying musicians – and he alternated between playing piano and guitar. He did some of his big hits, but rather curiously did not do the new single “Cheated on Me”, instead throwing in a couple other songs from the new album (which are a couple of my faves – “Young Love” and “I Have You To Thank”), as well as a hilarious rendition of “Silver Bells” because he started playing it but only knew the words to the chorus. So he ad-libbed the entire verse. Totally cracked me up – the guy is absolutely hilarious. He said that he normally tells lots of dirty jokes at his shows, but had to remember that this was an all ages show, so he had to keep it clean – right before he sang the song about needing a couple drinks to fall in love. Hee! Anyway, he was awesome and I’d totally recommend going to see him in concert if you haven’t.
Now, DC. The whole band was there. Andy, Neal, and David were all playing acoustic guitars and Joey and Kyle were on bass and drums, as usual. The only song that was truly acoustic was “Permanent” when Joey and Kyle left the stage and Andy played keyboards, Neal played guitar, and David just sang. So, the acoustic versions were not all slowed down ballady songs, but still pretty much had an acoustic feel. It worked.
Going down the setlist:
“Declaration” – Sounded really good, but it seemed like he was intentionally holding back on some of the glory notes, from my vantage point at least. Love the song, would definitely be able to get behind it being the next single. I love it because whether you’re listening to the album or listening to him live, it does kind of set the stage for the rest of the listener’s experience.
In his lead-in to the next song, he asked who had “the record” and got some cheers. Then he goes, “for those of you who don’t, I believe there’s a Virgin Megastore right across from here, and I think they might have a few copies in stock.” Hee. :) To corroborate his statement – there IS a Virgin Megastore right across from the HOB, and the last time I was there (last weekend), they did have some DCTR’s in stock. :)
“Life on the Moon” – Introduced this as the song that kind of talks about what the last year of his life has been like (of course). I really liked the live, acoustic version of this song. I like it on the album well enough, but it grew on me more by hearing him sing it live.
“Permanent” – Beautiful. Heartbreaking. Would have been perfect if not for the 12 year olds screaming in the middle of it. I wanted to yell, “STFU!!! Do you even know what this song is about?! It’s not a song to scream in the middle of!” /rant. :) However, the big glory note at the end was just that – glorious. He sounded absolutely incredible, and it amazes me that he can actually sing this live. I’d be bawling my eyes out.
As mentioned, Joey and Kyle did not play on “Permanent” – they actually left the stage. And when they came back out, Dave made a joke about how Joey does a really good Bill Cosby and made him demonstrate it to just a smattering of applause. Which then prompted a “well maybe it’s not as good as we thought” reaction from Dave. Well, dear, I must say that it actually was quite decent, but I hate to tell ya that probably about half the kids in that audience have no idea who the hell Bill Cosby is, sadly enough.
“Heroes” – I loved this live. I wasn’t originally crazy about this song when I first heard it on the album, but it’s growing on me… it has a great hook – which there were actually people singing along to tonight. That kinda surprised me, and I guess surprised him too, because he kinda paused to listen while people were singing along and then nodded and said “Nice.” :)
“Mr. Sensitive” – I’ve never been a huge fan of this song, and while he sang it perfectly well tonight, it probably was my least favorite just because it’s one of my least favorite songs. And unlike LOTM and “Heroes”, the live performance didn’t do much to make me like it more. I would have preferred “Bar-Ba-Sol” or “Lie” or “Avalanche” instead.
“Man in the Box” – So awesome. He prefaced this song by saying that they want to prove that they’re a rock band, and since this is a Christmas show, they thought they’d do this song, since THEY think it’s about Christmas presents. LOL. Anyway, he sounded great, and got a great audience response after the song.
So, next – a stagehand brought out Mickey Mouse ears to all the guys, and a Santa Hat with Mickey Mouse ears for DC. He said, “now, I know normally when you see a guy with Mickey Mouse ears on, you say ‘mmmm, sexy.’ But this whole thing was really more for Joey.” DC apparently made him wear them because he’s a Denver Broncos fan (they’re in the same division in the NFL as the Chiefs – yes, I KNOW my football. :)), and that’s “worse” than being a Chiefs fan. And he said that he made everyone else wear them because he pays them enough to. Heh. It was adorable.
So, they played “Light On” wearing Mickey Mouse ears the entire time. It was awesome. Heh. The song itself was fine. Still one of my least faves on the album, but it’s still growing on me, and he had some crowd sing-a-long going on. He also asked us to all get out our cell phones and light up the place. Then after the song was over and they were leaving the stage, most of the guys threw the ears out into the audience. Sadly, I was not close enough to catch any. Heh.
All in all, he was fantastic. Sounded great, looked great, got a great reception from the crowd. But of course, he got a LOT of love from the crowd at the AI tour when it came to Tampa too, so I’m not too surprised. :) I can’t wait for him to come back and do a full show!! Orlando loves them some Cookie!
