David Archuleta - Archey Report #3 - Tacoma, WA

(Here's the Archey Report from KE from Tacoma, WA! Yay!)

My sister and I drove over to Seattle from Spokane on Friday. The weather was beautiful. There are few places lovelier than Seattle during a good summer. Holy Cow! I was pumped for Saturday and the opportunity to see David perform at the Tacoma Dome.

We headed for Tacoma early because I wanted to be there for the Shout Out at 12:30 pm. Saw Phil E and got in the video and yelled a shout out to David to encourage him in his career. He doesn’t need it coz destiny is calling David, but I still wanted him to know that support him 200% or more!

I met some other uber-fans like myself! Liz and Kristen who had attended concerts in San Diego and LA, cute little Maleah who posts tons on AmericanIdol.com, Mia from Seattle, Maria from Tacoma, Charley, and a bunch of other nice fans from Canada. They were all great, and I loved being around people who love David like I do. No chance of boring THEM with repeated commentary about David A! Spent a lot of the day with them but didn’t get to do what they did later that night which I will always regret. (More later on that.)

Fans lined the sidewalk across from our Shout Out, standing in the shade waiting for the buses to arrive. I’d heard that the buses have been arriving on time so we were holding our breath at 1:00 pm. Were turning blue by the time they showed up at 1:50 pm. Idols dribbled out here and there pulling their suitcase into the Dome. Chikeze right away, Ramiele, then David Cook. Cook stood outside for probably 15 minutes throwing the football with unknown receivers that I couldn’t see from my angle. The rest of the Idols exited the buses. David went by (sigh). Not long later, some of them came out to sign autographs.

Of course, for me, there is only one Idol so I was fixated on the Archulator. Some fans had mashed up close to the top of the hurricane fence that separated the bus area from the street area, and I decided to go up there in the hopes of getting a glimpse of you-know-who and I did! David came out and he was as cute and friendly and accommodating as we’ve ever known him to be. He was on vocal rest, however, so there wasn’t any conversation, but I got to stare at him and he signed a shirt and my phone for me. Yeah! (Hey, Jason has gotten so much press about being ‘pretty’. Gotta tell ya. He’s got nothing on David who is so far past cute, he’s pretty. It caught me by surprise, I must say.) Finally, they pulled him away and I took off with my newfound friends. Hopping in Mia’s car later, I was thrilled to hear...David Archuleta singing! That’s never happened to me before. I’m the one driving my family to distraction because they’re tired of the incredible Mr. Archuleta. Me tire of him?? Never happen! At that point, I knew I was among kindred spirits.

While we were at the earlier autograph signing, Maleah had given David’s dad a hat. Jeff recognized Liz and Kristen from the San Diego and LA concerts. He was really surprised and had a whispered conference with Liz. Later, I found out that he had offered her tickets to the back stage party. Since I had only met and talked them for a bit that day, Liz didn’t recall my name and I didn’t get on the list. Maria wasn’t shy like me and frantically encouraged Liz to call Jeff for another back stage pass. I didn’t really push it which I will always regret. They later spent two hours at the after concert party in David’s company and had the time of their lives. David is really shy but he faces his fear and ACTS which is what I often fail to do. It’s hard to imagine how wonderful it must have been just joshing around with David like friends do. I hope this experience is a wake-up call for me. So sad here. I really do need to be as one guy put it—MLD (more like David). I’m really gonna try! This may be a blessing in disguise if it gets me to change. Hard lesson, though!

Back to the topic at hand! The concert was great. Since for me there is only one Idol, that’s where the majority of my focus lay. My sister helped by contributing some of her impressions about the other performers. Here’s what we thought of the Idols:

Chikeze—The perfect guy to open the concert. Very energetic and animated. Really worked the stage, danced. Sang well.

Ramiele—Sounded better than we expected. Not bad. Upbeat and cute. High stepping in her tall, shiny boots. My sister thought her hair was weird.

Michael Johns—The crowd loved him! He rocked it! Sounded good and looked fantastic. He had some really vocal fans there.

Kristy Lee—Gorgeous. Okay vocals. My sister, the country fanatic, thought she was the weakest of the lot. Didn’t seem engaged. When not facing the audience, on the big screen her expression was flat.

Carly—Prettier in person than on TV. Her voice was strong and good most of the time. For me, she sometimes gets screechy which is a turn off. Definitely the best female thus far, though.

Brooke—Very pretty girl, has a really sweet aura about her. I liked her songs. She sang and played well, but my sister wanted her out from behind the piano where she could get a better read on her voice. My favorite of the girls.

Jason—I really liked him, and he can sing better than I thought and does play that ukulele and guitar well. Very vocal fans and as good looking as you thought. No stage banter, though, which was unfortunate.

Syesha—Big voice, sang well. Didn’t really care for her song selections. Pretty girl. Was a little turned off to her after hearing earlier that she’d thought that she would be in the finale with Cook instead of David. As my sister put it, “Talk about delusional!”

David—Wow! What can I say??! The kid can sing! His voice was full and rich and just filled the Dome. I love how he personalized each song. His voice was many times better than those who had preceded him. No contest. Not even close. He was charming and cute and danced and worked the stage. And that voice! Oh, my gosh! The crowd was loud!! There were lots of families in the audience and people of all ages and not primarily teenagers, so it wasn’t as thunderous as at other venues, but it was loud and enthusiastic. He did wonderfully well. I loved it. My unenthusiastic sister thought he was clearly the best. Uh, no kidding?!

Cook—Was obviously a seasoned performer. Sang a lot better than I expected. He was actually good, and I can now see him having a successful career. He worked the crowd, and they loved him. They were very vocal. Since he’s so good to David, I’ve gotten to like him lots better. He was my second favorite, surprisingly enough, neck and neck with Brooke.

After the show, I went out by where the buses came in. There were lots more people. I heard an estimate of five hundred but that seems a little high to me. All the Idols came out for a while. Cook and Michael Johns got particularly loud welcomes. Other people loved Carly and Brooke. They all were gracious, but where was David? For one thing, he was in the after concert party being chatted up by Liz and Maleah, etc. and maybe hesitant to come out and face the huge crowd after a long day, but he finally did.

They brought him out the back way and a scream went up so loud when people realized that he’d come out, that it woke my sister out of a sound sleep in my car parked better than a block away. He signed as fast as he could, took pictures which they weren’t supposed to do coz it slowed things down, was as sweet and fgracious as a human being could get. I waded through people four deep to get another autograph and to catch a few more glimpses of his sweet face and see his charming fan interaction before I finally bailed and headed back to Seattle.

Overall, it was a great experience seeing David and hearing him sing. It was even interesting seeing the others in concert and getting close to them during the autograph signing. I think they’re all nice people and quite talented, some obviously more so than others—like the remarkably talented sweetheart named David Archuleta. Not that I’m biased or anything.