Concert Reviews
House of Blues, Atlantic City, NJ
June 9, 2007
We arrived at Showboat Casino on Saturday afternoon and went inside to find House of Blues. It is located on the 2nd level so we went up the escalator to check it out. It's very classy-looking (not just House of Blues, but the entire Showboat Casino as well). We had about 3 hours until the show so we weren't expecting to see or hear anything, but to our surprise, we could hear rehearsing inside the doors of the theatre. We went closer to put our ears to the doors, and were pleasantly surprised to hear DAVID HIMSELF singing! I've heard the band practice at different places but never with David. So now we're REALLY excited, we can hear his voice!!! We ended up listening to the entire rehearsal, which was most of the show, so we felt that we were exceptionally lucky because we heard TWO shows LOL!
When the rehearsing ended we went and grabbed some dinner in a coffee shop inside Showboat, and joked about what we would do if we won the dinner contest. Just thinking about that, we had a hard time eating at all! Nerves were setting in, so we decided to wander around until showtime.
We walked right by the Foundation Room where David would be taking his guest to dinner...SIGH..it is very posh, MEMBERS ONLY sign, and a large scary security guard standing outside the door. Just imagine...we floated on by, dreaming of what could be..
Around 8:30 we headed inside the House of Blues. We were all in the front row, it was just wonderful. My seat was right in front of David. It was the best seat in the house. Unfortunately there was a strange little barrier between the front row and the stage. It was only about one foot in front of the stage, what the heck was that for!!?? David could still lean over and touch us, but he had to bend forward a bit, and once again had to say DON'T PULL ME about a million times as people tried to get to him.
When the show started, Matt announced David (and that's when I noticed that Terri wasn't there). Unfortunately Matt's microphone wasn't turned on, so nobody heard him, and David just came out! Everybody screamed. He looked gorgeous. As always. He had a white shirt but it wasn't wrinkly, it was nice. Look at that smiling face, OMG! He's more beautiful every time I see him.
When it came time for David to announce the contest winner, he said that his manager had picked 10 names from the entrants, and then David himself picked 3 out of the 10, just in case someone wasn't there. Which was good, since the first name he picked never showed up. So the 2nd name was the winner, which was a girl named Marina. She came forward looking flustered and in shock, waving to David. He said from the stage "Are you Marina?" and she nodded yes. He told the security guy to "take care of her and get her where she needs to go."
When David called the first girl's name, at first there was no response, then a drunken fool came stumbling up to the front, waving her arms in the air, and Patty nudged me and said "she has no blouse on!" and I looked, and sure enough, she was wearing just a blue bra. She was completely wasted and slurring her speech, and David knew right away she wasn't the one. He said "what's your name" and this drunk girl stammered something, and David said into the microphone "ablahfoopahbee?" mimicking her drunken slurring. It was hilarious!
The barrier was never taken down, and security made us continually sit down during the first half, but suddenly toward the end, about 200 girls crowded to the stage and nobody made them sit down. All of us in the front row got screwed because we were told to sit down and then others immediately took our spots. I didn't understand that part but it sucked. Kinda ruins the thrill of having a front-row seat.
During Echo Valley, David took the phone from Donna, who was absolutely jumping up and down in her seat with excitement. After the song he pretended to be talking to Donna's mom, and as he handed the phone back to her he said "Tell Mom sorry!" Janie had to literally PUSH Donna to take the phone back, because Donna was frozen there, just staring at David and not moving! She was freaking out that David was talking directly to her LOL! Déjà vu..I've seen Donna freeze several times LOL!
David had a few little goofs with the remix songs, but overall it was awesome and David looked absolutely delighted at the end of the night. On certain songs (specifically ITILY and IWUIL), the audience was singing along loudly and jumping and waving their arms, and David looked so pleased. At the end of each of those songs he did a hard high-five to Craig J with a gigantic grin on his face. I love it when he's happy.
I missed the band intro's because of all the gazillion girls standing in front of me, so I didn't hear who the drummer was. Hopefully Terri was just busy this time, and not gone altogether.
I was rather disappointed in the backup singers this show. I thought they were awesome at Mohegan, but they were almost inconspicuous at this show. I barely noticed they were there and during Ain't No Sunshine I thought they did a rather lame job of accompanying David. JMHO.
At one point, and I don't even remember why, David starting talking like an old man. It was quite funny and it really reminded me of the Old Man in Copa. David is such a card.
At the beginning of the show David said something that confused me. He said something about people being intimidated to be at House of Blues. What did that mean, anybody? Did he mean audience or performer?
During "songs on the stool," David played Blackbird, and in the middle of it, said "why did I do this?" but I don't know why he said that because he played it perfectly.
I still am not thrilled with the Remix versions of songs, but it was still an exciting, fun show with a lot of energy and the time just flew. It was over way too soon and no matter what he sings, David is just thrilling to watch and I can never get enough.
Patty and Donna, it was one of the best weekends EVER! Thank you girls, love ya!
Love Carol
