David Archuleta - Archey Report - Philadelphia, PA - 08/13/08

(Here's the Archey Report from Violet4Ever from Philadelphia! Woohoo! She e-mailed this to me early in the morning...)

I just got back from the Philly concert. It was my first concert in about 10 years and I had club box seats between the 1st and 2nd levels and about 1/2 way back. So my view was a bit distant and there was one partially obstructed video board I could see if I looked sideways. And the audio was incredibly loud and reverby where I was, and a bit strident treble ranges.

We got lost repeatedly getting to the Wachovia Center because we followed some instructions that wanted us to get off an exit early and take other roads that didn't work. So we missed Chikezie's set and half of Ramiels's. Everybody sounded good especially Michael Johns (who got a pretty good crowd reaction), Carly, and Brooke. Then the group number and the intermission. After intermission Jason was fun, Syesha really got into her songs.

Then a big roar for Archie and the piano came up with Archie playing Angels. There was colored fog, and Angels sounded wonderful! I tried to take a couple of photos but my little camera gave me impressionistic blurs of color so I gave up on photos. Apologize was great - by now I am getting extremely irked by the people behind me who are chatting loudly through Archie's performance - apparently about Archie, arguing whether his eyes are open or closed and other stuff. It was hard to tell from above, but it looked like there was at least one excellent hunkerdown (though even small ones got screams). At some point I think David said something about how loud the crowd was. Stand By Me was super and he touched people's hands at the ends of the stage. When You Say You Love Me was beautiful. And after that, before Archie announced Cook, I believe he thanked the fans for making Crush #1 and may have said he couldn't believe it. It was hard for me to understand exactly what he was saying because of the reverb where I was, but it elicited more cheers from the crowd. I hope lots of people got good videos because it all went by too fast, way too fast. It was like I was stunned it all went by in fast forward. I want to see his performances again.

The crowd seemed to roar louder for Cook when Archie announced him, but maybe less during/between Cook's performances than between Archie's. Cook was good but didn't do anything extreme - no soaking himself with water, no playing on his knees or backbends. He sounded good though. The the final group number - Michael Johns did some funny stuff throughout the number, but I do not think Cook participated in any funny dances. To be honest I could not even spot where the Brodance was supposed to happen - Cook and Johns never seemed to be together in the front. Archie was wearing his white shirt and tie. It was fun, then it was over.

Afterwards, I asked the employee at the club box where the Idols would be signing after the concert. I figured it would be someplace hard to get to and my fiance would balk, but amazingly it was going to be in the VIP lot where we were parked, actually on our way to our car. When we got out there it was already mobbed - there were barriers for the entire length of the lot and the fans were already 3 deep in the least crowed areas and worse everywhere else. I spotted one small 2-deep spot and we got behind them. We were closer to the far end of the barrier than the end where any Idol would come out. I couldn't see much, but Kristy came out and ran to the far end, then Brooke did the same maybe 15 minutes later. There were so many fans they couldn't really chat - just sign stuff as fast as they could - everything from programs to tickets to people's celphones and even a dollar bill. I got their initials on a group photo, and I saw Brooke do one photo - the only one she was doing - with a young mongoloid boy next to us. It was very sweet and he was thrilled. I think Michael Johns and Syesha came out but must have started signing at the beginning of the barrier.

A guard told everybody David Cook would not be coming out. That caused the woman in front of me to leave, and and now I was behind just one row of fans. Then Archie came out and ran past us to the far end (the end closer to us). He was wearing a white T-shirt and his skin looked so nice against white. He made his way along the barrier signing signing signing and I felt bad because he was rushing so much - no time to smile or even look at anyone. I could only see him a bit between the people in front of me - he looked so perfect. Perfect but intent on just one thing. He was just spotting all of the things waving in front of him for autographs and initialing them with a quick DA scribble as fast as he could. His hand brushed against mine as he took my photo - his hand was warm. Very very warm. Then my fiance asked if I was ready to go, and I was. So we extracted ourselves from the crush of fans, the sunburnt girl next to me, the person behind me who repeatedly pushed her sharp-cornered camera bag into my back, whoever was using my shoulder as camera rest, and all of the others, and found our way home