Chris57's Columbia SC Recap

On Tues. night I discovered the friend who was going with me to the concert was not going to show up and had no intention of telling me. Fortunately, I have 2 friends. My other friend was thrilled to go! I took off work early, rested up and picked my friend, Linda, up at work at 4:00. I was going to find a parking space 2 blocks from the (almost brand) new Colonial Center, eat dinner and then walk to the center. Columbia is infamous for building venues with about 20 parking spaces! During dinner, Linda said she had never been to a concert! Boy, was she in for a great evening. We left about 6:15 and walked the 2 blocks to the center. Linda kept saying, “But this is the Strom Thurmond Fitness Center”. I didn’t feel quite so dumb when other Columbians showed up. We were at the wrong building and I had no idea where the center was! We ended up walking 6 blocks (heat index 115 degrees) past a HUGE parking facility that didn’t even seem to charge! We got there!

Our seats were center floor, 9th row right in the middle. GREAT SEATS! We could see sitting down even if the folks in front stood up. (We are old and this was a blessing!) At 7:00, Linda leaned over and said, “It’s time for the show to start”. I laughed. Columbians are notorious for being late to concerts. About half of the center was full. The show didn’t start until around 7:30. The place was packed!

The Colonial Center is HUGE and beautiful! Holds about 16,000 and the only not-for-sale seats were directly behind the stage. While waiting, the text messages were really entertaining. Lots for Chris with huge applause. “This is my mom’s first concert—please scream”, “I am in the nosebleed section—help! I can’t breathe”, etc.

Right before the concert started, there was much commotion behind us. Bucky’s (identical twin) brother came in and folks started rushing him. Cute. Linda leaned over and said, “We got better seats than Buckys’ brother!” She was impressed.

Many in the group were obviously exhausted, especially our errant boys who snuck out and met up with LiMBO but they all seemed to really appreciate the huge crowd. Kept doing things to make us yell—and then yell louder!

MANDISA: Wow, what a giant! She was by far the strongest vocalist of the night. The band was a little louder than Mandisa, so I had to really concentrate to hear her. Great set!

ACE: I have really grown to like this young man tremendously. He is a natural diplomat and consummate peacemaker. After Idol when the group was all together, if an Idol made a testy comment or a dumb response, Ace immediately stilled the waters without hurting feelings and leaving all parties feeling good. This world could use a whole lot more Aces! His “chest roll” was kind of creepy for me but his “Father Figure” was brilliant!
I really enjoyed his set. In person, I finally realized who he reminded me of—John Travolta. There was a John T. movie on TV last night and the resemblance is uncanny.

LISA: Very pretty girl and good entertainer. Loved her “piano” work and enjoyed her set.

PARIS: What an energy package! She really worked the stage and gave a great performance! Was not “pushy” at all (they do learn, don’t they?).

KELLIE: Everything I’ve heard proved true with “CUTE” Kellie! She really doesn’t appear to be interested in singing at all. She just sang the notes, never interjecting a punch or passion to the songs. And she is absolutely gorgeous! I could not take my eyes off of her! (No wonder Simon made a total jerk out of himself on the show. He is such a loser!) Her monologue was not funny but actually quite serious. She discussed where she was a year ago adverse where she is today. She thanked all of us in the audience for our votes, adding that all of the Idols were just so appreciative of the support from the fans. Seemed to be very sincere and it was touching.

BUCKY: I love Bucky. He is so kind, cute (great smile) and has a great sense of humor. I also think he has a fine voice—very unique. Really enjoyed his set. Nice to see he now sings “Superstition” and not “Superstitions”! He only spoke once at the end when he flipped the mic, lost it, leaned over to pick it up, missed and said “This happens sometimes” and just kept right on.

CHRIS: I had great expectations from Chris. During the season, I felt he did what he did great. Reading of the previous reviews, I was prepared for greatness. Completely underwhelmed. Everything he sang sounded exactly the same. Couldn’t tell when one song ended and the next one started. I was disappointed. He kept turning and leaning over the steps and apologizing to the audience for the technical difficulties. Linda and I never could figure out what the difficulties were. One unfortunate incident: Chris puts his mike stand up really high, mic pointing straight down and sings with his head tilted back. For some reason, the videographer kept the camera right up on his face pretty much the entire time he performed his first 2 songs. I kept being drawn to this huge face instead of Chris the body. I never noticed Chris has really huge nostrils! When he sings, they kind of flare out. Well….his left nostril had this enormous bugger in it! (Oh, HEAVE!!)  I kept thinking it was the lighting but nope, it was a booger! After the second song, Chris again leaned over the steps and mumbles something about, “Boy when things go wrong, it seems everything goes wrong”! Perhaps someone told him about the booger in this nose because it was gone when he turned around—poor Chris!

ELLIOTT: I was really psyched about the Chris/Elliott duet. It was not good. Kind of raggedy and rough. When Elliott started his set, the reason was clear. Elliott was not good. Hit several strings of notes that were just really off. He looked very tired. His stage presence however was really good. He appeared relaxed, calm and seemed be having a wonderful time. I love Elliott and we all know he has a great, great voice!

KAT: Ahhhhhh Katherine! Sorry but I just do not like this girl. The more we learn the more I don’t like her. My bar for her set was pretty low and she not only met—but exceeded—my expectations. We start on the knees of course (sorry, but this is just plain dumb to me). She is not wearing the infamous white dress but a black one. Her hair is also black—and I mean b-l-a-c-k. Evokes thoughts of Morticia from the Munsters. I don’t like. Now pay attention…she struts around the stage just like she did on the show—NO DIFFERENCE! She comes down to the first platform—no problems. She finishes BHCT and we get “the speech”.  “You know, I missed the first 3 weeks of the tour” (DUH!) “I had laryngitis and you know…” (DUH!) “I was supposed to be gradually adding songs but I just can’t get a break. Here, I’ll show you why”. With that she unceremoniously grabs the hem of her dress, hikes it up and lifts her left leg waist high. And there we have the knee to toe walking cast—in black, of course. Linda and I turned to each other at exactly the same time and said, “She can’t sing another song because her foot is hurt???” Must be some sort of  “hoof and mouth” deal! Peesha, your child really needs help. It is just so pitiful. She just has this “Center of Attention” need and it is really quite pitiful. You don’t fracture our foot one day and then stomp around on it the next day—don’t happen. I will say that on TV she appears to have a “big face”. In person when she looked straight on, she actually has very petit features. She sang SOTR—I did not listen—don’t like song—too slow and just does not go with the heartbeat of the show.

 …then HE comes in from the back like all the other shows. We can hear him but we can’t find him! Finally have to look at the monitors! He weaves all over the floor but never down either one of our aisles (poo!). Finally gets to the stage—Oh my! Unlike EVERYONE ELSE, I think he looks exactly like he does on TV—GORGEOUS! He does look much younger in person. “Hollywood Nights” was stunning—one of his best performances for me. He dedicated DIMYP to the troops as usual—the ones overseas and the ones in Columbia. (We have a military base here—this guy is just sharp!) He added that without our soldiers the Idols would not be on the stage doing this show. Agree, agree! He was weak on this number. Just seemed really tired—his voice, not body movements. TITTS was just – I can’t think of a word worthy of this performance. Everytime he played the harmonica, guitar, swung his arms in a circle—any “Taylor” move—the sound from the crowd was simply thunderous! No offense to any of the other Idols, but Taylor is like going from grade school to a PhD! What a performer!

Livin’ in America: One quick story here. When the Idols came down the ramp from the top stage, Kat was in front of Tay. She hiked up her dress, put her left leg in the air and “hopped” down the ramp. Taylor followed right after. He grabbed the top of his jeans, lifted his left leg in the air, and hopped down after Kat. That was worth a million words! The guy is quick and really funny! The Idols exited off the sides of the stage and Taylor turned around to go through “his” doorway on the bottom stage. There stood Kat with her hand out which Taylor politely took and escorted her through the door.

I did not sleep even 30 seconds last night. I finally saw Taylor Hicks in the flesh and I can now die happy!