Context: Visited daughter who lives near Oakmont Golf Course in Pittsburgh after ‘encouraging’ her to go with me to the AI concert. I’m 61; daughter 31. Eclectic musical tastes: I’m a big Aerosmith fan, but the last concert I can remember going to was Tina Turner and Glenn Frye opened. (I don’t get out much).
Saw David Cook sing Billie Jean last year’â€my first iTune purchase, but didn’t really watch each week until this year, when unlike Slezak but like his mother, I was an early adopter’â€Adam had me at ‘Satisfaction.’ Never voted, never posted, never cyber-stalked until this year. Was in heaven when I discovered MJ’s (in July) and the variety of passionate opinions offered here.
Pre-Concert: Daughter (hereafter referred to as T) went to Pitt for Ph.D. in speech pathology, met her teddy bear husband there and so I get to enjoy a 6 to 7 hr drive to see them, since I’m living in Indy right now. Went to Squirrel Hill to pick up a watch that I left for repair the last time I was in Pittsburgh when T and I decided to go to AI. Ate at a great deli, and cruised the 5 miles down to the arena area’â€Mellon is where the Penguins (hockey) currently play’â€new arena going up next store. Driving in Pittsburgh is an ‘up and down’ experience (HILLY)and after a Pittsburgh left car maneuver, we got into a parking lot right across from Mellon arena, walked across street dodging very friendly crowd peeps’â€many of whom remarked positively about my PEACE LOVE ADAM LAMBERT t-shirt ; I had purchased shirt online plus a ‘GLAMBERT’ sticker for T and a ‘Glam is the New Black’ sticker for me.
Lots of three generation ‘girls night out’ groups. Also many moms brought their young sons with them’â€a couple admitted to me their son was a total excuse to come themselves. There were about 20 to 25% men in the audience’â€many with families; many men who wore out binoculars viewing Megan and Lil (and Anoop and Adam). Lots of hand held glittery posters. One woman tried to start an Adam chant waving an orange poster around, and this one woman near us had a poster that said ____insert name, ‘I want me some of THAT!!!. She had Noop, Matt, Danny, Adam, and Kris printed out and slid the appropriate name at the top of the larger poster. I twittered, that woman juggled her poster. We were sitting right above the ‘penalty box’ in an ‘igloo’ section’â€like ‘pod’ seats some of you have referred to. Right before show, the lighting guys climbed up ladders like acrobats to get into the light rigging. I hadn’t seen that before.
Concert: Since I don’t have the expertise of FifthHouseSun or the quick research fingers of Q and Sunn, or the photo ability of MJ and because I didn’t want CherylM and Anthrogeek to go nuts with twitpic temptations , I’m going to give impressions’â€plus my tweets last night indicated the crowd reactions.
To recap my tweets’â€Sarver got the crowd going right away; the floor stood up for most of the concert; people were in a great mood (even though they were missing a Steelers’ televised pre-season game to be there); Noop got lots of screams and luv which was nice since his parents were there; Matt G brought the house down’â€people really dug Hard to Handle, Georgia, and even the Fray song; both Megan and Lil had straight hair; Megan back in gladiator sandals and tottered around the stage sort of flailing her arms; TONS of Gokey love, but bandzilla overpowered him and he shouted his way through his songs’â€as I tweeted Pittsburgh loved the Goke Speak Speech, etc. In other words, the crowd gave everyone a lot of cheers and energy and the Idols seemed to thrive on it. (Megan said, ‘Wow, ‘ like applause and shouts were totally unexpected.’
Allison was a little disappointing; her face and eyes looked exhausted and her hair looked as if it needs its extensions renewed (unless it was the humidity). T loved her So What and I loved her Barracuda and both of us danced and rocked to Slow Ride when her voice sounded best. Different little twist on SR: Adam leaned back over Allison’s back before she leaned back onto his back’â€hadn’t seen them do that before. I didn’t see anything thrown on stage.
The crescendo of noise that sent Gokey off the stage and the anticipation for Adam was actually palpable in the arena. People didn’t know whether to scream, shout, or hold their breath waiting for HBIC to ascend the stage. Entire arena (even nosebleeds) got up and danced and rocked and stayed up through entire set. What looked like a purplish-pink shoulder-type scarf got thrown up on the stage during Fame, Adam picked it up and put it on his shoulder, but it slipped off and then he threw it into the crowd. I thought I saw something tiny and white thrown at him while he was back with the back-up singers, and he kind of jumped, but everyone ignored it, whatever it was’â€sorry luvadamlambert’â€no type of ___gate in Pittsburgh. I think I have watched every venue’s Adam videos, but he still was breathtaking’â€entertaining and that voice. I loved Starlight and Life on Mars the best’â€no helium. Others had yellow Terrible Towels (Steeler waving towels), but Adam had a black one. (What else?) He just used his to mop his brow rather than stir the fans into another frenzy’â€the frenzy level was already at max, so no need to wave towel.
Kris was wonderful. I really liked his set, especially the Killers song. Just a few people left after Adam; many of the people who appeared to be leaving were the ones who rushed the stage to get Adam pix; stayed to get Kris pix during Heartless and then melted back into the crowd. Most of floor stayed standing for Kris, and some of the igloo people did, but people really just settled in to listen. From Hey Jude to the end of DSB, the entire arena sang, danced, waved glowsticks, cheered, and sent waves and waves of appreciation up to the Idols. (Kradam dance the normal one). T and I had a great time. I don’t remember screaming so much, but I was totally hoarse and felt as if I’d run a marathon when concert ended. T and I ‘slippery’ hugged each other’â€we were both a tad sweaty and joined the excited and very pleased throngs of fans as they headed to cars. Lots of oohing and aahing and wasn’t that wonderful heard on the way out of Mellon. I’m going to have floor seats (8th row, center aisle) in Indy on 9-5 and I’ll let you know how it compares. I’ll tweet’â€yes, the heretofore anonymous LJSMACK will tweet again.
