So come on Davey, sing me something that I know
Okay, so that was pretty much the most amazing fangirl experience ever! Yay!
So, since I'd seen the show up in NY, I was really laid-back about trying to go in DC. If I could great seats, great; if not, no big deal. I DID want to do what I could to "meet" the idols before the show, though, since I missed that part of the experience the first time 'round. My office is six blocks from the venue, so I figured I'd walk over in the afternoon, hang out for a while, grab some last-minute seats at the box office, then go back to work until the show. Of course, as soon as I got to work yesterday, I started dicking around on ticketmaster -- they were releasing good seats, but I'd heard that some stuff wouldn't open up until later in the afternoon, and that plus the INSANE $17 IN FEES made me decide to stick with the original plan.
For anyone who is still considering going to the tour and doesn't have tickets and/or doesn't mind eating the cost of their original seats to upgrade, check the box office in the 3:00 hour the day of the show. Really.
Anyway, the Verizon Center is in the middle of downtown and doesn't have a parking lot, so they'd set up barricades near where the buses drove underground. I got there a little before 2:00 -- from everything I'd been hearing the last few stops, as well as our near-miss on Long Island, I figured they'd come out between 2:30 and 3:30. I kind of hang out under a tree near the middle of the line -- which is in front of a set of doors, but not the only set of doors -- and the buses roll up right around 2:15? I still figured we'd have a long wait, but I still moved over to stand behind a nice (but tall!) girl and her mother (?) and promised not to push/touch them if they didn't mind my standing there. (Turns out the girl is a mod at david-cook.org -- I know this because she told DC, and he goes, "Great! Keep up that ... moderating.")
But! Very close to 2:30, DC comes out! First! In a super-fly suit (it's a charcoal grey with a subtle stripe), white shirt, grey tie, and nicely polished dress shoes.
He heads immediately down to one end of the line. A few minutes later Syesha and DA come out and head down to the other end. (All the other idols except Chikezie made it out at some point, although Castro never got down to our half of the line.) I am short, so I really couldn't see much until he'd gotten close, but I did see the baby that he'd held being passed around and he was ADORABLE. (As an aside, while there was a SURPRISING amount of whiskey-tango action happening in the line, all the fans that I saw were incredibly well-behaved and polite -- this is in direct contrast to the line of people pre-show on Long Island, which I literally could not sit in for more than half an hour without escaping to get a beer.)
After my complete lack of preparation in NY, I had printed out a copy of [ Bill Simmons' blog about the Star-Spangled Banner at the NBA finals ] to have DC sign here at home. (This is my second tip when meeting DC: have a prop! Props are good. When I was prop-less I was also completely hapless, and sounded like a dipshit. Give yourself something to talk about! I was way more comfortable. Anyway.) I had folded it over and sort of stuck the edge under the cover of a paperback copy of Chuck Klosterman's Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs so he'd have something to sign on.
So he gets to our place in line, and I hand it to him, and our exchange goes something like this (my memory is SO BAD, y'all, I need to go stalk the people on TWoP who said they were behind me as it took place):
me: Have you seen that? It's Bill Simmons' blog after your Star-Spangled Banner.
DC: I have not seen this. Uh-oh. I have to read this.
me: [sort of talking over him] No! It's good, don't worry. Uh, do you know who Bill Simmons is? Sorry if that's insulting.
DC: Yeah, ESPN, right?
me: Yes!
DC: [stops to read it to himself, laughs his ass off] I have to read this part. "Really, only one thing stood out: David Cook singing the national anthem with "I love being famous, I am getting laid nonstop" vigor." O-kay!
Then he says something else that I can't remember, and starts walking off down the line with the article and the book.
me, dorkily: Um, or you could sign it and give it back, if that's okay?
DC: Oh! I'm sorry, of course. [signs paper and hands it back, pulling it out of the book]
me: You can keep the book.
girl in front of me: What book is it?
DC: [holds up book]
girl in front of me: Oh, that's a great book!
me: ikr? The Billy Joel essay is brilliant.
DC: [reading the cover] Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs. Sounds interesting. Tell you what: I'll pick up a copy later; why don't you keep this one?
me: No, no. Please take it.
DC: Are you sure?
me: Yes.
DC: Are you sure?
me: Yes.
DC: Thank you so much!
Aaaaand scene. HE IS THE NICEST MAN ON THE PLANET I'M SORRY BUT HE IS.
Then David Archuleta crosses past him sort of near us, and I love him the most, sometimes. What a doll. He was right before us in the line when he asked the whole crowd the time, and gets freaked out by the answer (I think he had to be back inside at 3, maybe?). So he starts speeding up and, like, apologizing to everyone he signs something for, saying, "I'm sorry, I had to shorten [my signature]." I didn't have anything for him to sign but I did tell him congratulations on his single and he said, "Oh, thank you very much!"
[LOL! DA very alarmed at the time!]
I feel like Michael Johns didn't come out until Archie went in? But he was a riot as always. I'm sure you've all seen the "dance-off" vid already, and the picture with DC's head on his shoulder (although the latter must have happened after I had to leave). He signed something for a young girl near me wearing a Jonas Brothers tee shirt, and goes, all disgusted, "Jonas Brothers. Who are they?" He also stopped for a picture with Girl In Front Of Me, although I think they weren't supposed to, and said, "You're going to make everyone hate me," and she's all, "Oh, well!" LOL. You go, girl.
Even though DC was still out, I really did have to get back to work, so I slipped by the box office to see what kind of seats had opened up. Aaaand score! The 5th seat in row C of the front floor section, stage right (in other words, the MJ/DC dance shenanigans side). I was jazzed.
I was even more jazzed when I got to the arena and found my seat, and it turned out to be front row.
(To be continued!)
So, since I'd seen the show up in NY, I was really laid-back about trying to go in DC. If I could great seats, great; if not, no big deal. I DID want to do what I could to "meet" the idols before the show, though, since I missed that part of the experience the first time 'round. My office is six blocks from the venue, so I figured I'd walk over in the afternoon, hang out for a while, grab some last-minute seats at the box office, then go back to work until the show. Of course, as soon as I got to work yesterday, I started dicking around on ticketmaster -- they were releasing good seats, but I'd heard that some stuff wouldn't open up until later in the afternoon, and that plus the INSANE $17 IN FEES made me decide to stick with the original plan.
For anyone who is still considering going to the tour and doesn't have tickets and/or doesn't mind eating the cost of their original seats to upgrade, check the box office in the 3:00 hour the day of the show. Really.
Anyway, the Verizon Center is in the middle of downtown and doesn't have a parking lot, so they'd set up barricades near where the buses drove underground. I got there a little before 2:00 -- from everything I'd been hearing the last few stops, as well as our near-miss on Long Island, I figured they'd come out between 2:30 and 3:30. I kind of hang out under a tree near the middle of the line -- which is in front of a set of doors, but not the only set of doors -- and the buses roll up right around 2:15? I still figured we'd have a long wait, but I still moved over to stand behind a nice (but tall!) girl and her mother (?) and promised not to push/touch them if they didn't mind my standing there. (Turns out the girl is a mod at david-cook.org -- I know this because she told DC, and he goes, "Great! Keep up that ... moderating.")
But! Very close to 2:30, DC comes out! First! In a super-fly suit (it's a charcoal grey with a subtle stripe), white shirt, grey tie, and nicely polished dress shoes.
He heads immediately down to one end of the line. A few minutes later Syesha and DA come out and head down to the other end. (All the other idols except Chikezie made it out at some point, although Castro never got down to our half of the line.) I am short, so I really couldn't see much until he'd gotten close, but I did see the baby that he'd held being passed around and he was ADORABLE. (As an aside, while there was a SURPRISING amount of whiskey-tango action happening in the line, all the fans that I saw were incredibly well-behaved and polite -- this is in direct contrast to the line of people pre-show on Long Island, which I literally could not sit in for more than half an hour without escaping to get a beer.)
After my complete lack of preparation in NY, I had printed out a copy of [ Bill Simmons' blog about the Star-Spangled Banner at the NBA finals ] to have DC sign here at home. (This is my second tip when meeting DC: have a prop! Props are good. When I was prop-less I was also completely hapless, and sounded like a dipshit. Give yourself something to talk about! I was way more comfortable. Anyway.) I had folded it over and sort of stuck the edge under the cover of a paperback copy of Chuck Klosterman's Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs so he'd have something to sign on.
So he gets to our place in line, and I hand it to him, and our exchange goes something like this (my memory is SO BAD, y'all, I need to go stalk the people on TWoP who said they were behind me as it took place):
me: Have you seen that? It's Bill Simmons' blog after your Star-Spangled Banner.
DC: I have not seen this. Uh-oh. I have to read this.
me: [sort of talking over him] No! It's good, don't worry. Uh, do you know who Bill Simmons is? Sorry if that's insulting.
DC: Yeah, ESPN, right?
me: Yes!
DC: [stops to read it to himself, laughs his ass off] I have to read this part. "Really, only one thing stood out: David Cook singing the national anthem with "I love being famous, I am getting laid nonstop" vigor." O-kay!
Then he says something else that I can't remember, and starts walking off down the line with the article and the book.
me, dorkily: Um, or you could sign it and give it back, if that's okay?
DC: Oh! I'm sorry, of course. [signs paper and hands it back, pulling it out of the book]
me: You can keep the book.
girl in front of me: What book is it?
DC: [holds up book]
girl in front of me: Oh, that's a great book!
me: ikr? The Billy Joel essay is brilliant.
DC: [reading the cover] Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs. Sounds interesting. Tell you what: I'll pick up a copy later; why don't you keep this one?
me: No, no. Please take it.
DC: Are you sure?
me: Yes.
DC: Are you sure?
me: Yes.
DC: Thank you so much!
Aaaaand scene. HE IS THE NICEST MAN ON THE PLANET I'M SORRY BUT HE IS.
Then David Archuleta crosses past him sort of near us, and I love him the most, sometimes. What a doll. He was right before us in the line when he asked the whole crowd the time, and gets freaked out by the answer (I think he had to be back inside at 3, maybe?). So he starts speeding up and, like, apologizing to everyone he signs something for, saying, "I'm sorry, I had to shorten [my signature]." I didn't have anything for him to sign but I did tell him congratulations on his single and he said, "Oh, thank you very much!"
[LOL! DA very alarmed at the time!]
I feel like Michael Johns didn't come out until Archie went in? But he was a riot as always. I'm sure you've all seen the "dance-off" vid already, and the picture with DC's head on his shoulder (although the latter must have happened after I had to leave). He signed something for a young girl near me wearing a Jonas Brothers tee shirt, and goes, all disgusted, "Jonas Brothers. Who are they?" He also stopped for a picture with Girl In Front Of Me, although I think they weren't supposed to, and said, "You're going to make everyone hate me," and she's all, "Oh, well!" LOL. You go, girl.
Even though DC was still out, I really did have to get back to work, so I slipped by the box office to see what kind of seats had opened up. Aaaand score! The 5th seat in row C of the front floor section, stage right (in other words, the MJ/DC dance shenanigans side). I was jazzed.
I was even more jazzed when I got to the arena and found my seat, and it turned out to be front row.
(To be continued!)