David Archuleta - Archey Report #2 - Detroit, MI - 07/24/08
(Here's the Archey Report of archiesangel08! Sherri was one of our cellcasters last night and she had awesome sound on her cellphone!)
On my way to meet the buses I got lost in Detroit (as I do whenever I go to the east side of the state). I stopped at a gas station and a VERY nice lady tried to explain how to get to the venue, saw the bewildered look on my face, and offered to take me there if I followed her, how sweet! So I get there around 12:00 and wait in the 90 degree blazing sun (I have a sunburn on my forehead). There weren’t too many people there, but they kept arriving so by the time idols started coming out I would consider it a medium size crowd. Lots of Cookies, Archies and Dreadheads, with scatters of MJ, Carly, and other fans. This one lady asked to take a picture of my sign, I was so proud! It just said David Archuleta on top, Jason Castro on the bottom, and in the middle it said “Welcome to Michigan”, I hope they saw it when they went by in the buses.
Videos:
The buses pulled in around 1:30 and around 2:00 Brooke came out. She was on vocal rest but she came around to everyone. I had made a sign (on the back of my Archie/Castro sign) with all the Idol girls names on it so she signed by her name and took a pic with me. She is so SKINNY, just a tiny little stick, her and Kristy (who came out shortly after) both have unbelievable figures. The camera really does add weight because they barely exist. Chikezie made a brief appearance and I saw at least one poster for him! I also saw a little girl with a Syesha poster, aw. Then around 2:30 David Archuleta came out and we all freaked out! He made it all the way around and took pictures with everybody, signed everything, got lots of gifts, and basically did whatever anyone asked of him, he was so sweet! He took his time too, he wasn’t too rushed, cuz it was Cook’s turn to do press. I didn’t get “my moment” with him on video because I could barely think straight enough to speak much less film, ah well, it will be in my memory forever! First I gave him a bracelet and he said “Thanks!” then I asked him to sign the T-shirt I had made for him. I said to sign it as big as he wanted cuz he was the only one that was going to sign it. The girl next to me was so super nice enough to take a pic of him signing my shirt as well as of us together after that. Then when he was signing for the next person and they weren’t talking to him I realized in the craziness of my encounter I’m not sure if I even looked at David and I just wanted him to look back at me, ya know. So I asked him “David, is this your first time in Michigan?” He said, “Yeah, it is! The people are so friendly here!” and he looked me right in the eye. That was the best moment of the day, heck the year! I have to emphasize, I have YET to see a picture that captures the beauty of his eyes! I’m not kidding, they like GLOW, they are SO beautiful!!! It doesn’t show up in pictures I swear but I couldn’t stop staring at his gorgeous eyes. I kind of followed him down the line, not bothering him but just taking some pics and video, because there was a lot of room since everyone was only 1 deep at the barricade at this point. I got some video of this: there was one girl who he pointed to and said, “This girl wrote me like every day! It got so my tutor would pick out her letters for me to read.” As you could imagine that girl died, but not til after she got his autograph, and pic and a hug, ha. So after he had gotten to the end of the line and had turned around to head back, there was an empty space at the barricade where people who had already met him had left so I ran up and asked him if I could have a hug real quick. He was a little bit past where I was but he stopped in his tracks, turned, and said “sure” and gave me a hug! Aaaaah! I know that was a little greedy, but I cannot control my spontaneous reactions. Hey, I waited til he was all done with everyone else! Anyway, I proudly join the David-looks-awesome-but I look disgusting (I was smiling so big it looks like my face imploded with happiness) in-our-photo-together club. I swear the kid CANNOT take a bad picture! But the pic of his signing my shirt came out good, because ½ of my face was cut off, ha! Oh yeah, and Cook came out somewhere in the middle of all that and ran through really quickly signing a few autographs here and there but couldn’t take pics cuz he had press to do. He walked right by me as I was filming Archie so he is briefly in some of the videos. On the way back by to go inside Archie slapped everyone’s hand. He is so sweeeeeeet! We waited like ½ hour and finally Michael Johns came out, making the day of the girl next to me with a Team Aussie shirt and sand from Australia to give him! After him we waited about a ½ hour more hoping Jason would come out but no such luck L. People were chanting Jason and Carly at various points but to no avail. Bummer. I’ve never heard of Jason not coming out so I don’t know what’s up with that.
OK, so now my concert review:
I didn’t film much because I just wanted to enjoy watching them with my own eyes instead of through a camera lense and I had awesome seats, 16th row on the floor, which was only like 8 rows back from the platform that comes out in the middle! Chikezie was good, after the first song he put on a Detroit Red Wings jersey, awesome!!! Rami has an awesome voice but was lacking in some enthusiasm I thought (and I didn’t find her skin tight outfits and high heal boots to be flattering). Michael Johns and Kristy were good. Brooke has good stage presence, lots of smiling and that 1234 song is fun, she got the crowd involved throughout her songs. Her last one, can’t remember the name of it, was really pretty. Carly has a great voice, she really belts it out. Of course the crowd was much louder for Jason than it had been for anyone else to this point, he still looks somewhat out of his element in between songs, he didn’t say much, but his beautiful voice was enough. I LOVE the daydream song, and his red shoes are so cute! It felt so short, I didn’t want him to leave!! Syesha did great on her last song, man can she sing. The guy next to me had a Syesha shirt on!! David Archuleta was awesome as usual. He didn’t talk much between songs either. During When You Say You Love Me (yes, I cried) the girl 2 seats down from me reached over and asked, “are you going to be OK?” , I nodded “no” ha ha. I have gone to great lengths not to watch/hear that song on any of the videos of previous concerts so I could hear it first in person and it was gorgeous. By the time Cook came out I wasn’t feeling very well, I had a dehydration headache from not having food from 7am til 5pm and no water from around 3:00 to 5:00. That was probably part of it, but I hate to say my love for the Cook didn’t increase seeing him live (no offense). He did say something about “so this is where they won that cup thing” which was funny and the crowd loved him, I’m just not that into rock music, I like the ballads where you can hear someone’s voice clearly. Anyway, I was too worn out and had an hour long drive home to wait by the buses afterward so I just left. Besides, I figured I should give some people who hadn’t met David that afternoon more of a chance, although I had a beautiful pic of Jason I wanted him to sign and a present for him L. Ah well, I MET DAVID ARCHULETA so I’m a happy camper!!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/v/cbz_gJgdsy4&hl=en&fs=1
http://www.youtube.com/v/c12bWoUztz8&hl=en&fs=1
http://www.youtube.com/v/x2dfaNERY_U&hl=en&fs=1
http://www.youtube.com/v/U79W2_6WTuM&hl=en&fs=1
http://www.youtube.com/v/DUEl4cVtwMs&hl=en&fs=1
Videos on YouTube