Rockstar

**Today is 2 years since Cinco de Masters...aka graduating from UConn with my Masters. Two years of not being a student...weird**

Okay, okay I couldn't wait to post about my David Cook concert, you will have to wait to hear about my weekend tomorrow. Now, I warn you now this is a long and detailed post- mainly because I want to remember every single second of it. Enjoy!

I knew my 3 hour trip to the show was going to be awesome because as soon as I got in my car Come back to me came on, on the radio...the first time I’ve heard it on the radio... was dying. Yesterday was exactly 8 months since the last time I saw David at the AI tour/my birthday and as much as I did enjoy that concert I would have preferred a smaller venue, more David, more songs and luckily I got just that!

The trip to Athens seemed to fly by because I was so excited to get there, I played all my 85+ David Cook songs for Michelle to familiarize her a bit more. Got to the Venue that had a big marquee that had "David Cook" on it (don’t worry I took pics and will post them all soon as well - well my friend Michelle took pics with my camera because I am terrible at taking pics at concerts - thanks Michelle!). The venue was TINY...like small club with a tiny "pit" a back bar and a balcony. There were lots of people in grey ribbons.I wore a grey shirt to show some support. We got there a few minutes before Ryan Star took the stage - I managed to get in about 10 people away from the stage to the left of center (great spot). Ryan Star was waaay more Rock/Screamo than I expected. He dedicated his song "Breathe" to David Cook - Check out the song- touching lyrics. Ryan also said that he was going to donate all proceeds from tonight’s record sales to Adam’s charity. Ryan all around rockin’ guy.

So then the next 20 minutes after Ryan were getting the stage ready and the Club played music over the speakers.well about 5 minutes before David took stage Foo Fighters "Hero" came on...I started to tear up - I felt like it was serendipitous or something to be played since David played and dedicated that song to Adam during the AI tour. So finally the lights go down and Madonna’s "Like a Virgin" plays and all the guys take the TINY stage. David comes out in a VEST (I love him in a vest) and his black knit cap he’s worn on stage before. Luckily when he takes the stage the audience goes WILD - I was screaming my head off - the audience has whole was vocal, but they didn’t seem to be having as much fun as I was having.

As David was strapping on his guitar (His beloved white AC guitar that I was hoping he’d play since he didn’t use it when I saw him on the Idol tour) David kind of took a moment to himself to look toward heaven and like put his hand to his mouth to collect himself and to send some love up to Adam. David and his band (I’m not gonna lie - I was SOOO focused on David I barely paid attention to the other guys) ripped into Heroes and David sang most of the song looking up to the heavens and probably collecting himself...luckily the audience was showing him a lot of love. During one part of the song the lyrics say "I'm exactly where i want to be with you and you alone" he showed the audience some major love right back.

Immediately after Heroes they ripped into "Your Only Honest When Your Sleeping" - I was super excited to hear such a gem (it's a song he wrote a few years ago, but never released). I knew the chorus, but I wished I knew more of the song well. During YUHWYS David took off his hat and exposed his yummy locks for the rest of the night. BTW it was about 1000 degrees in there and David even made mention about how sweaty he was later in the set.

So after YOHWYS David finally stopped to address the crowd- except for the fact that we were going insane- claps, screams, whistles etc. He just stood on stage soaking it all in...it literally went on for like 2 minutes. He finally had motion for all of us to settle down (I have a pic of it). He said that if we kept up the energy than “"we were going to have a great time tonight" David then took time to thank all of us for our support and he said he didn’t mean concert tickets and cd sales. David never directly mentioned Adam or why he chose to not cancel dates (I read his DCO blog when I got home at 3am).

Then they launched into Mr. Sensitive - it’s a song I like, not love - but for whatever reason I teared up. His vocals were ridiculous all night...he had such a growl about him last night...so sexy. Then David bantered about how so much of the crowd had glow sticks and he hoped we had a synchronized routine we were going to do. David also said that Joey and some crew members were saying filthy inappropriate things in their monitors about the glow sticks (I can only imagine).

David then said he was playing a song that didn’t make it to the record and I just about died from joy right then and there. He launched into "Souvenir" and I really lost it. That song has quickly become one of my favorites (esp thanks to the youtube video wear he yanks his shirt to show his tat). Well I was one of about a handful of people there that knew ALL THE WORDS! I was the only one in my vicinity and I SWEAR TO GOD HE SANG THE LAST FEW LINES RIGHT TO ME - LIKE FULL ON EYE CONTACT - to the point where other people said something about it to me after. Magic...Magic. The concert could have ended right there, but instead he wanted to play another favorite of mine to make me melt completely.

David they asked who in the audience was in a couple and people cheered and he said "well this song isn’t for you." He asked who was single and people cheered and dedicated this song to us. Then they unleashed and HARD ROCKIN ’version of Kiss on the Neck. David growled through it and the first time he go to saying "Kiss on the neck" he like rubbed his neck - SO HOT. Well right before the end of the song they continued playing KOTN instrumentally sorta and David told us they were fooling around with a little mash up type thing on the bus that they wanted to try...so then David goes into a verse from "Hotel California" HOLY GOD!!.HOT, HOT, HOOOOT. Apparently Andy was supposed to come in with vocals and didn’t so David like laughed and we all cheered before they went back into finishing KOTH.

David looked like he was tired and a bit drained - but still as good looking as I hoped. He said mentioned his race yesterday and everyone cheered. He said he’d only gotten bout 6 hours of sleep in 2 days and Joey cheered and David looked at him like WTF- okay let’s cheer for being sleep deprived haha.

Next was Declaration and again David looked up towards to the heavens a few times. Despite the fact that he obviously was thinking of Adam, he really connected with the audience as well. He worked the stage...pointed to people’s signs. Made sure everyone was up and clapping. He also took some one’s camera and took some video/pics of Neil during. Also might I mention that his new Eagle tattoo is YUM - I saw both the Eagle and the AC tats a few times. I didn’t get a good view of the eye on his wrist tat.

They next did "Lie" which is also a favorite and David got like superior lighting for this song. He sang a few bits of the song with no music all, just him making love to the mic. His talent is breath-taking and his MOUTH is beautiful.I’ve always loved his mouth and just seeing it up close in action- wowz.

David then said we seemed like a hard rock crowd and how they were debating on the bus when they were making their set list if they were going to play Man in a Box or Little Lies and he said we seemed like a Man in a Box kind of group and we all went crazy. David is like there’s one guy in the back who I’m sure is like "Darn, I wanted to little Lies" (and David did it is a slightly gay type voice that was hilarious) and David is like that guy by the way is (insert name) our sound guy - who then David gave a thumbs up to and the sound guy gave one back. Hot damn Man in a Box was yummy - I love that David and band decided to ROCK tonight. I think it was good for David’s morale...I’m sure it was cathartic for him, but at the same time he did look like he was happy and where he needed to be - surrounded by loving fans singing his face off...seriously that boy SANG HIS FACE OFF...I think he sang my face off as well haha.

Come back to me was next and David was saying how he dropped 2 singles last month and this was one of them and he mentioned the video and how he got to kiss the girl from Disturbia and laughed. Then went on to say something about having a "long and fruitful relationship with his fans" but at first his said fued-ful and he was like "I didn’t mean fued-ful I meant fruitful, fruitful." Come back to me was also really strong - he just seemed so on his game tonight which is so hard to believe considering the circumstances and not having seem his family in a few days. He is such a professional and a class act...but I already knew that.

After CBTM they left the stage and obviously we were all chanting for an encore and they came back out and ripped into Light On. Again during LO David looked up to heaven - esp during some of the more poignant lyrics. I not and huge LO fan, but again David just OWNED it and the band really rocked out.

Someone threw a shirt on stage and David looked at it and told us it said Rock (but he said Rock is such a funny like heavy metal way). David again thanked us all for coming out and said this was their 2nd new single and to all call the rock stations and request it. Their final song was an intense growly/throaty version of Bar-Ba-Sol that had me squealing like a school girl. I loved all the youtube videos of David’s live version of bar-ba-sol, but this was out of control. They were rockstars in that moment...I hope David does a more "ROCK" album next go round because they all really seemed to enjoy themselves tonight playing such a ROCK show. As the song wrapped David threw a ton of pics into the audience and lingered an extra minute on stage just to soak in all of our love before heading off stage.

I did go to the buses and there weren’t a ton of people...the guys were already on the bus and we saw joey get off and go back in the venue, but after 25ish minutes and waiting and seeing food get brought onto the bus I decided it wasn’t meant to be and I still had a 3 hour drive home. So I don’t know if the boys came out or not and I kind of like to think they didn’t and that David got to recharge his batteries after giving so much of himself to us on stage.

I made it back at 2:30am central/3:30 eastern - I was back and forth btwn time zones. Despite being INSANELY tired I still found the energy to look through my pics and check out DCO last nite. So I am at work and running off about 3.5 hours of sleep, but I would do it again in a heartbeat. Amazing show, amazing night, amazing guy.

He is just so yummy and there are already a ton of videos from last nite on youtube...I'm loving it!