David Cook - Cookey Report #1 - Tampa, FL - 08/21/08
(Here's the Cookey Report from Ali in Tampa, FL! Thanks!)
Pre-Concert:
We left work at 3:30. Had to run a few errands, so we were finally on the road 4:30. Stopped with some other co-workers to eat. Longest. Meal. Ever. Left the restaurant at around 6:00. Had roughly about 20 exits plus traffic to go before Tampa and I had to get there before 7:00 to pick up my after party passes.
I'm not going to lie; it probably should have taken longer than the 25-30 minutes to drive there! Finally got there and got my passes. The woman at Will Call just like, rolled her eyes and was generally rude to me. But whatever! I had my passes
I knew for sure I was getting 1 pass, but the girl who was getting them for me said she was going to try to get me 2. So I told a friend of mine that she could have my extra. We had talked about that the day before via e-mail the day before, but I wasn't 100% sure it was going to happen, so she seemed really surprised when I handed her my extra pass.
We talked for a minute and made plans on where to meet up after the show to wait for the after party. She went to her seat and my boss and I waited for show time.
Actual Concert:
Chikezie: Not a huge fan of his style of music (he is VERY nice though!). I really did enjoy his set though. Caught up was my favorite of his set.
Ramiele: I'm not going to lie.I couldn't have cared less about her or her set. But to be nice.she has a nice voice and the last song she sang (the Maroon 5 one that I can't remember the name of now) didn't totally suck out loud.
Michael: Quite possibly one of the best performances of the night. How he got voted off so early is totally beyond me. His set was the first that really got the crowd on its feet and involved in the show. Very high energy. Then he got to It's All Wrong.never in my life have I wanted to be a microphone stand so much. Holy mother of cheese. Yes. That's really all I have to say about that. Dream on was made of pure awesome.
Kristy-Lee: I missed about two-thirds of her set. I figured this was as good as any other time to use the bathroom and buy stuff. From what I heard, it wasn't bad.just not great either. Again, not my style of music.
Carly: Carly wasn't my favorite girl during the season, but at the show, she was one of the best performances of the night. She was way better than she sounded on the show. Loved her version of Bring Me to Life.
Brooke: Loved her set. Not too fond of 1, 2, 3, 4 but Brooke made it tolerable. Yellow was made of win. Loved it.
Pride (In The Name of Love): Not bad, but not my favorite part of the night.
Intermission: We spent most of the intermission making fun of the giant pop tart guy randomly walking around. Damn that was funny.
Jason: I actually think I liked him more on the show than live. His set was good.but I dunno. Loved Somewhere Over the Rainbow, but the rest of the set went down hill for me.
Syesha: I took this time to use the restroom again. I was also starting to get really nervous about the after party. Her last song, Listen, was good though. Not a lot of crowd reaction, which surprised me since she was from the area and all.
Archie: I actually liked his set more than I thought I would. He talked a lot in between the songs. I do have to admit that I laughed every time he laughed or said 'ha ha'. Loved Stand By Me/Beautiful Girls.
Cook: Easily the best set of the night. (Well, maybe he and MJ may tie.) I don't even know where to begin. Hello was made of win. I honestly just love listening to him sing that song. I honestly can't remember what he said after that song. But I'm sure he said something. During Time of My Life he stopped to let the crowd sing and it was amazingly loud. After, he said it was one of the loudest sing-alongs ever. Then he did his film the crowd thing. He said "I want to film you", then paused and said "that sounded weird". While filming he had his back to one side-they got quiet. He turned back and said "Just because my back is to you, doesn't mean you can get quiet."
After he finished, he said he saw a sign that said "Marry me Jason Castro" and joked that he wasn't aware that they looked alike.
At one point in I Don't Want to Miss A Thing, he stopped singing and listened to the crowd sing. You should have seen his face. Kid on Christmas, I'm telling ya.
Then he mentioned that Lindsey-Rose was at the show and explained how he met her dad and found out about her battle with leukemia and the bracelet, all that stuff. He went on to say that it was because of her that he was standing up there on the stage. He then dedicated My Hero to her and his brother Adam.
Billie Jean was as awesome as it always is.
Please Don't Stop the Music: FTW. I actually almost forgot to watch for the Mavid dance because I'm a doofus! At first I had no idea wtf David was doing with his karate moves until I saw MJ pull out wood (from where I don't know.and really, I'm not sure I want to know!)
I immediately sent another friend a text because.yes. I'm just really happy that it was something I could easily describe LOL.
After Party:
So, after the show my friend and I met up and waited for them to take us to the after party. We met a mom and her daughter who seemed pretty cool. We were told it was going to be a bit rushed because they were flying out that night to beat the storm and all that jazz. So we came up with our plan of action on who we wanted to see, and the order we wanted to see 'em in. Obviously first we were going to find Michael since I had to see him and thank him for the passes that my friend got from him to give me.
So he was pretty much the first person we saw and I told him who I was and he was like "Oh my God" and gave me the most awesome hug in, really, ever! My friend said I kinda had the deer caught in headlights look as he was going for the hug. This doesn't really surprise me LOL.
He is a very good hugger and actually, I stopped hugging before he did. He told us he didn't have a whole lot of time, but we were more than welcome to stay with him the whole time. I said that wouldn't be fair to everyone else.
Walked around for a bit then saw Chikezie by himself.I felt bad for him so I introduced myself and got a pic with him. Met Jason next and totally have to agree with everyone.he's super nice and really laid back lol! Met Brooke and got my picture with her too. Walked around a bit more but it was pretty obvious Cook and Carly weren't coming out. But in all honesty, I'm really okay with that.
Come to find out, MJ was just getting over food poisoning - not that you would have been able to tell since he seemed pretty happy and energetic. I hung around for a bit longer then decided I needed to get going.
The entire night was full on amazing. Considering that only two weeks ago, I'd totally resigned myself to the fact that I would not be meeting any of them since I couldn't get there before the show 'cause of work. Then with the past week, with the storm.I wasn't sure there was even going to BE a show, so I'm pretty beyond thrilled with how everything about the night turned out!