Declarations in Phoenix

Just so everyone knows, I’m writing this immediately following the Phoenix show on David Cook’s Declaration tour with The Anthemic. While things might not exactly be in the order it actually happened, I’m more or less just writing it as I remember it while it‘s fresh on my mind!!

I figured I’d better update my blog at long last. 6 months. What a wait! But it was worth it.
While Del Mar’s disappointment still hung fresh in my mind this morning, I went in to today with some low expectations. Lucky for me, everything worked out in my favor. Even me showing up at the last minute to see David Cook perform an acoustic set of 3 songs. It gets better..but first let me start at the beginning.

Last week, a contest launched on a local radio station to meet David Cook and see him perform live in the studio. I was completely obsessed with winning this upon hearing about it.
I only remained obsessed with it for about 24 hours as the very next day, I called in and won! My sister and I both called the station at once, and she was the lucky one who got through and immediately handed her phone off to me as I gave them my details and they added me to their list of exclusive winners. After panicking up until yesterday (after winning last Wednesday) that they never told me what time to be at the station, I called and finally spoke to the promotions manager, and she apologized deeply and gave me all the info I needed. I woke early, having not slept much at all last night. I got all dressed up for David, keeping squarely in my mind that I WAS going to get my picture with him at long last, come hell or high water. We left at 11AM and headed to the fair. Immediately we ran into problems. My sister and I hit a financial bump having arrived to the fair at noon to find that they would not stamp our hands for re-entry later that evening after everyone told me prior that they would. I left the fair frustrated and now with only about 45 minutes to get down to the radio station to meet David. We flew back across town, went home, and I scoured the house for some extra cash to get us in the fair. We hopped in my car, filled up the tank just enough for today, and jumped on the freeway. Strike two. As soon as I was on the access road to enter, major construction was happening. They were re-paving the freeway on ramp. Traffic was backed up a mile and crammed in to a single line of cars. I waited another 20 mins, now we were down to just 25 mins to make it from one side of town to the other. The tags on my car are expired and I decided then that if fate were truly against me today, I’d get pulled over at some point for either A- Speeding to make it on time or B- having tags that were 20 days expired, or C- get the double whammy combo ticket. Throwing any inhibitions I had about getting a hefty fine aside, as soon as the freeway cleared up, I sped like a bat out of hell to make the station on time. I managed to get there with a minute to spare. I won’t tell you what speed or the amount of stunt driving I did. Think of the movie Speed. Except going faster and not in a bus. We got out of my car and ran inside. There was a line of people cluttering the first floor. Someone told us to go check in at the desk in front of the elevators. We did. They checked my ID and crossed my sister and I off a list and handed us passes on lanyards to wear during the duration of our visit to the station. Just after, a man came down and said we could go up in to the studio. My sister and I were first on the elevators up having strode in late and just checked in!! We went up and were ushered in to a conference room, and the station provided us with pizza and drinks. After about another 15 mins, we were asked to form in a single file line and be led in to the green room to see David. Since my sister and I were close to the door, we managed to be in the front of the line, which again paid off BIG. We headed in the green room, which was set up with 2 mics, and David and Neal’s acoustic guitars. The station ushered people to the back of the room and my sister and I immediately jumped at the chance to sit directly in front of the mics, as the front of the room was open. They never said we couldn’t!! As everyone filled the room, they had the DJ come in and talk to us a moment before letting David and Neal join us. Once they were seated in front of us was when I honestly thought I was dreaming. Here was David Cook, in front of me yet again, and closer than I’d ever even been to the guy. I honestly could have reached out my arm and touched him I was so close. (for those that were wondering, he was wearing his signature red cowboy boots, a ‘Sunny in Philadelphia’ shirt- his favorite show, and tight blue jeans, which I kinda accidentally felt up…but we’ll get to that.) The DJ asked them how they were, welcomed them to Phoenix, and David talked to us a bit before launching in to the first song, Heroes. Great start to the small set Neal and David preformed and a good kick off to the day! After Heroes was over, the DJ and David bantered a bit about how ‘A Ficus Flows Between Us’ received a lot of flack from MTV.com and if David would do another one. He said probably not just because of the response it got from MTV. He also talked about Pork Beans and if the ‘Green Man’ would make a return to the last leg of the tour. David said that many antics were planned, but he didn’t want to give away any secrets. David talked about how he thought nobody would recognize him as Green Man, but his fans immediately recognized him from just seeing his body in lycra. He joked that there was no other time when he felt he needed to diet so badly in his life.

They transitioned to their next song, Mr Sensitive. Upon hearing the first few bars, the lady sitting next to me let out a very audible gasp in excitement. Everyone in the room burst in to laughter.

(the station muted the part where the lady next to me and that’s why David starts laughing)

He looked at me and asked, “Who was that?” and I pointed to the lady next to me. He said to her, ok- just so you know…we’re gonna try this again. You know, just so everyone‘s prepared. He had Neal re-start the song and again had to turn away from the mic and just laughed. It took him and the rest of us another moment to regain composure and then for the third time, he launched in to Mr Sensitive. You know, David has a lot more of himself to show when he sings acoustically. He sings a lot softer, which in turn, shows off just how much control he has over his lower register. It’s rare when he does it, and finally incorporated that in to his show at the state fair tonight, which again, I’ll get to later. They opened the floor to questions from the audience. He was asked about the new album. David said they had started writing, but there’s been no real time to start any honest work on it. He said it wouldn’t officially start until February next year. He was taking December off to ‘be a bro’ to his little brother Andrew, who was graduating college. He also said he was doing Idol Gives Back, and that he had just gotten done taping his performances for Carrie Underwood’s holiday special that airs later this year. He said he had ideas for the new record, but he wants to focus on finishing the tour first.

David and Neal then preformed Lie. Which if you heard David sing acoustically and literally two feet in front of you, you might have some sort of coronary as it’s the one song that just pulls at your heartstrings.

This was then I noticed how blue David’s eyes were up close. I’ve seen him enough times in pictures and videos, but the guy is seriously handsome in person. Everything about him screams at you in an, “i’m-a-sex-symbol-but-I-don’t-even-have-to-try” sort of way. If you ever get the chance to do it up close, check the man out. Bucket list it if you must because I recommend it. Strongly. I don’t exactly know what it is about him, the lips? The eyes? The arms? Who knows. He’s pretty much perfect as himself without being so over glammed it’s disgusting like the rest of Hollywood. After my tedious 3 minute daydream about possible ways to corner the guy, they re-opened the floor to more questions. Someone asked about “One Second to Change Your Life” David confirmed that no it was not his next single, but didn’t hint at it not being released as a possible B-side. So we may still see it pop up in the near future.

Since the guys had to head over to the fair and do their sound check, they drew the questions to a close and the radio people cleared them out and moved the guitars and mics. I rose to leave, and one employee at the station said, just wait a moment, we’re bringing David back to take pictures with everyone!! And guess who was first?! ME! Finally, the station brought David back in and they were like, OK go ahead!! And my sister and I went up and got our pictures taken with David. My sis then stepped aside and asked (as I was in a complete stupor now from having touched the man) if I could just have my picture with him. David was like yea, sure! Go ahead, but it’s not up to me… and pointed over to the photog. The guy behind the camera was like: OK! And I went back and got my picture taken with David on my own. This is when the awkward ass grab took place. As I removed my hand from David’s back, I kinda did an un-intentional ass graze. I stood there like OMG WTF do I say? And David just smiled and said it was nice to meet me. I said, you too finally! And thanked him for taking a pic with me. I forgot to mention when we first went up there, David and I had another awkward moment. My sis and I went up, and David was greeting us all politely like he does with everyone, and goes to shake my hand and then he decides to just hug me, so I was sticking my hand out to shake hands and then switched to hug, to which David saw and giggled at and also shook my hand after the hug. I think David does a serious moisturizer and I need to know his secret!! That guy has some abnormally soft skin…and a nice ass. I swear it was entirely accidental that I did a David Cook ass graze!!! For those that want to know…yes. It was firm.

The show here in my hometown later in the evening was absolutely amazing!! The seats were great (and thanks again to Mary aka CoolShades over on DCO for hooking me up, you‘re amazing!!), the opening act was brilliant! (I’m pretty sure I love the lead singer of The Script now, Irish and cute. Win Win.) David and the guys were better than Del Mar by a long shot. Everyone was on their A game. It was nice to be in an indoor venue and see their set complete. Big venue, loud. Everything was just awesome. I got a Cook shirt to add to my ever growing Cook memorabilia. (Guitar Pick, Bracelet, Jacket, Pass, and now Shirt) It’s the tan one on the site, in case you were wondering. And yes, I AM enjoying the fact that David’s face is on my chest. I’m a fan girl, sue me. The Script took the stage at 6.30 and man those guys are energetic!! It was their first show on their US tour, and it definitely showed. Their energy was infectious! They had us all up out of our seats jamming with them even though most everyone wasn’t exactly familiar with their material. If there’s a band out there to make you feel good about life, it’s definitely these guys. They had a solid half hour set and I was sad to see them leave, but I was more than ready to see David again!! I think a collab between the Script and Anthemic is in order somewhere along this last leg of the Declaration tour. When it happens, someone needs to record it for me!! The roadies came out and started tearing down The Script’s set, switching gears for The Anthemic. My sister wasn’t feeling well, and so she was seated for about 75% of the entire show. She had me extremely worried as she said she was feeling hot and dizzy. I went to get her some more water during the break and had her remain in her seat in case I needed to go get some medical help. She normally doesn’t ever get dizzy for no reason, and figured maybe it had to do something with the heat, but she had drank two large bottles of water and they didn’t seem to help. I gave her candy, thinking it was blood sugar, that didn’t help either. So I was really worried. We come to find out, she’d just started to feel under the weather with flu (and NO not ’H1N1’) because my mom had been out of work for 3 days with the same illness already. (and now that I am continuing to write this a day later, I’m now feeling the same effects as her and I’m pounding on the Gatorade as I type!!) I came back after about 15 mins (having had been sent on a goose chase to find the merch table and cold water for my sis), and made sure my sister wasn’t going to pass out on me. She rested her head a moment and closed her eyes and just as she did so, the house lights went down and David & Co. came up stage left and were ready to rock. I felt bad for being so excited to see David again when my sister was feeling so crappy and I kept asking her through the duration of the show if she was okay, I think she might have gotten annoyed with me, but like I said, I was concerned. Though long story short, she made it out okay. I think she just wanted me to enjoy the show knowing how much I was infatuated with David Cook. I got a load of pictures, albeit most turning out blurry despite my statuesque poses in a desperation to capture as much of the show as possible. I had about 45 mins of recording time on the camera, but I decided to not numb my limbs and miss out on a damn good show. What was funny was I was seated at the end of a row, and security was telling everyone not to use flash or record the show. I blatantly whipped out my camera (which does a weird auto setting that doesn’t require flash) and recorded a couple of songs and one from The Script. One of the security guys actually came up next to me while I recorded and watched me do it through my camera, and had people walk around that might have bumped in to me, ruining the shot I was getting. I guess he knew I was intent on capturing it. But hey, I had my own camera police! So thanks for letting me get some decent recordings, security guy! I hope you see them on you tube!!

As the show went on, it was clear David was happy to be back out on the road and finishing his tour. He said he wanted to give 175%

Some major highlights from the show, I would definitely say Lie was #1 on the list of the evening. David brought some serious new life to the song as he sang a few paces away from the mic during the hook leading in to the chorus. He quieted the few thousand in attendance as he just let loose and let his voice create the entire song. It was an incredibly raw, candid moment, and as he sang, my heart broke for him. There’s a lot of pain behind those lyrics and he was showing everyone just how vulnerable and hurt he was. You wouldn’t be able to tell earlier with his sunny demeanor, though. Even though there were so many people there to see him, the moment felt entirely intimate. Almost more so than seeing him sing the song earlier at the radio station.

Another great moment during the show was Declaration. I can’t stress enough how much I love this song. I would love to see it as a potential single in the near future. It’s such an uplifting song, you can’t not like it! There was so much energy in that live performance, everyone was up out of their seats. Overall, the show was just plain fun. The set was a decent hour-long set, a major improvement from the 45 minute set in Del Mar.

I’m still searching for my picture I took with David on the radio station’s website, and as soon as I find it, I’m sure you’ll see it pop up. I posted over 100 pictures from the day over on my Facebook page, feel free to add me and search my albums to see them. http://www.facebook.com/kyranistos Over all, the whole day was a complete 180 improvement over my first experience. Meanwhile, my dirty guitar pick sits nicely amongst the album memorabilia I have at home. I just hope that my next meeting with David Cook comes sooner than later!!

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