David Cook - Cookey Report - Wilkes Barre, PA - 09/08/08
(Here's the Cookey Report from Sharon in Wilkes Barre! Yay!)
This was a tough show, knowing it would be the last time to see our fav’s in person.
Kathy (XtremeCookification) and I planned to meet at the arena. Unfortunately there was a traffic accident and she was stopped dead on the turnpike for over half an hour. Panic set in.
In the meantime, I arrived at the arena in Wilkes-Barre around 2pm. The organizers had done a great job of setting up a Meet & Greet walkway across one of the entrances and down the fence. Clearly that was a signal that we would get to meet some of the idols! Lots of people were lined up, so I wasn’t too late. Whew! I politely went to the end of the line to wait my turn.
The first one to come out was David Cook. I heard the screams and saw the top of his red KC cap. The red cap traveled down the front row. Then it turned the corner and continued down the fence. Shock! He was starting at the end of the line… and that was me! Gulp.
Unfortunately, my camera decided to shut down to conserve power just as a kind soul was going to snap my picture with Cookie. I’m so sad. Maybe next tour. By the way, Dave was wearing crazy shoe covers. All I could think of was hot pink and white clown sneakers. But he did sign my cell phone.
(I’m warning you – here’s the cliché.) Buying three tickets to pick the best possible view in the arena $$$, gas for a 2.5 hour drive $$, having David Cook sign the cell phone I would be cellcasting him on – priceless!
I asked Dave to give a shout out to Kathy who was stuck in traffic and he did. As David hit the final stretch, I saw Kathy run across the parking lot. Just in time to get a big hug from him. Ahhhhhh.
Kristy Lee, David A and Jason were the other idols to do meet and greet. A group of girls had made posters and were standing off to the side waiting for Michael Johns, but he never came out.
After the meet and greet, Kathy and I went to Circuit City. We asked a sales associate if he could turn on Oprah. We were able to see DC singing TOML on an entire wall of high def screens. That was sweet.
After a quick dinner, we headed back to check out our seats. Kathy’s ticket in Row H turned out to be Row 1, center stage! One of my three tickets was dead center in the sixth row, so I chose that one. Then a miracle happened. The woman next to Kathy wanted to sit with her daughter in another row… and she offered her seat to me. Every one of the ten would be singing only a few feet away. I almost cried.
The show didn’t offer any surprises to those of us who know the format. It moved along pretty quickly with minimal banter. The floor sections were going crazy, but I looked around and the rest of the audience was the “polite” type. They sat in their seats and applauded. Darn. We needed that energy to get the performers going. There weren’t many “gifts” tossed on stage tonight, either.
Michael Johns was chatty and he sounded really good. He said two of his biggest fans were in the audience tonight, but didn’t identify them. Carly and Kristy Lee made mention of the tour nearing the end. Understandably they sounded a little sad. If you know about the woman who made a cake for Michael Johns in Toronto, she drove to this concert with a birthday cake for Carly and Carly dedicated a song to her. Can’t wait to see the pictures.
Brooke and Jason went straight through their sets, so there isn’t much to point out. I noticed Jason was wearing shoes with a rainbow finish, like the swirling colors on a soap bubble. Great shoes! Archie was cute and appeared more confident than the in the early shows. His banter flowed easily, with fewer punctuations of laughter. He waved and gave big smiles to the girls hanging on the edges of the stage.
If things are going to happen, it’s usually during Cookie’s set. Someone threw panties on the stage and he scooted around them like he was afraid to touch them. When he saw the poster of a bottle of mustard asking, “Why do you hate me?” he answered slyly, “I have my reasons.” At the end of DC’s set, we saw Timmy standing below the front of the stage, ready to grab DC’s guitar when he jumped, but it never happened.
David told us the Mavid was part 1 of 4. It’s an homage to Zoolander. The scene is called Walkoff. I had to look it up, but now that I’ve seen the movie clip, I get it. Michael did some moves and David just looked at him. At the next concert, David should do exactly what Michael did, but add some extra moves while Michael watches. Let’s see how that goes.
By the way, DC was wearing the new shirt tonight. Black with hot pink foil on the front that looked like flying wings and something about being yourself printed in white on the back. No guyliner, just pure Cook.
It was wonderful to see this group one last time before they all go their own ways. Season 7 was a pretty special year.