Thought I'd get this ready for you, Jay... ;)

Went early but not early enough. We're back home now, it's 4:45 my time. We're going to eat and head to the concert. I'm beside myself. All I can say for now is

OMG OMG OMG!!!!

More later .......

Have fun! :carly:

Good Luck Jay!
:hug:
I know you'll come back with a great story!

Oh, Jay! I'm so excited for you! :w00t: :hug:

Ok. Here we go. First of all we didn't get there early enough because my lovely wife not only wanted to go to church, but voluntered to do some stuff at church after services. And that's all I'm going to say about THAT.

Grab your favorite beverage and sit down. This will be quite long. So long in fact that I'm going to split it up into three parts: meeting the idols, pics, and the concert itself. Just know that it was all very exciting. Very.

Meeting the idols (well, sort of):
So we're winding our way through the streets of downtown Houston, making our way to the venue, around 1:45 ish. My wife is driving. We make a left, and see one of the buses ahead of us, making a left at the next street! We pulled up to the corner and saw about a dozen fans, all girls, standing on the sidewalk to our left next to some guardrails. So I jump out of our Highlander and ran up to them, but the bus had already gone down in the tunnel (which was right there). One of the girls turned to me as I ran up, and noticing my shirt, she said "We saw Carly. She waved at us!" I said "Aww crap, if I had only been 30 seconds sooner". I watched the bus pull down the tunnel and disappear.

So I stepped back to the car, and the wife said she would find a place to park, and meet me there. My daughter got out and joined me. So I chatted with some of the girls there, and one of them has been a member at AI for 5 years and has 9000 posts. She told me her screen name, and I've seen some of her posts. Very cool. She said that this is where the idols had come out before. I asked the lone security guard if the idols would come out here (just to be sure). He said he could not answer (meaning that he wouldn't). I bribed him with money (jokingly) but he just laughed. Btw, all the security guards were very friendly and helpful, except this guy (well he was nice, just not helpful).

So my wife shows up and we just hang around. Around 2:00 ish, another guard walks up the tunnel and says "The idols are not coming out here. They are coming out on the Jackson street entrance". That was two blocks away, so the wife said she would go down there and I could stay here, and we would call each other if something happened. Maybe 15 minutes later, she called me and said "Does this answer your question?" I could here the roar of fans over the phone. I hung up, yelled "This way people!" and took off.

I turned left around the corner where they were. Let me paint this picture. The idols came out of the venue itself. There was a low barricade set up all the way across in front of the doors, 100-ish feet long. Fans were up against the barricades, several rows deep. When I rounded the corner, Jason was at my end, signing autographs. I managed to get a quick picture. Realize that it was hard for me to see anything through all the people. About midway down the barricades I saw her ...... I saw Carly!!!!!!!!!!!! :heart: :heart:

At this point things just became a blur (I wonder why), but I'll try to recall it. I ran down to where Carly was and managed to get a pic. I passed up a picture for her to sign. Then I saw David Cook farther down. So I got 2 pics of him. Then I remembered I had a wristband to give Carly ........

So I ran back to where Carly was, pulled out the wristband, squeezed my way as close as I could, and kind of shouted "I have something for Carly" and held it up. I don't think Carly heard me, so I asked the fans in front of me if they would pass the wirstband up to Carly, and they did. Realize that people are just passing stuff up, and the idols don't necessarily know what belongs to who. Anyway, Carly looked at it and said "Aww" without looking up. I said "Carly it's just a little something for you". I don't know how she knew it was from me, cause she didn't look up at first, but then she looked right at me through the many fans and said "Thank you sir". I died. :heart: :heart: :heart: :heart: :heart:

At this point I just wanted to plow my way through people and ask Carly for a hug, but that would have been rude and crude. But I was tempted. Really tempted.

Then I passed up my UH cd and she signed that for me. So I got two autographs from Carly. Syesha, Michael Johns, Ramiele, and Chikezie did not come out. I got autographs from all the rest, and pics too, except somehow I didn't get a pic of Brooke. Also my daughter passed up her shirt for DC to sign, so we got two autographs from him. My wife was really disappointed that Michael didn't come out. I felt bad for her. MJ was the main reason she came.

All of the idols were friendly, but none of them spent a lot of time with any particular fan that I could tell. Archie probably spent the most time out there because he appeared to have the most fans. I wanted an autograph from all of them, fan or not. Anyway they just made their way down the line, signing stuff, and if you were right up front you could get a hug and/or get a pic with them.

One thing I found a bit odd, I saw no gifts being given except one fan brought a bag of snacks for each idol. I met a few pretty cool fans. All ages were represented, but it was mostly young girls or young adult girls.

So in summary, two autographs from DC, two from Carly, one from Archie, Jason, Brooke, and Kristy. And pics of all those except Brooke. Of course the best part by far was when Carly spoke to me.

One last thing. We've all seen countless pics of Carly. We all know how gorgeous she is. But words simply can't describe how she looks in person. Breathtaking comes to mind. She's just unreal. Prepare yourselves when you see her. I'm serious.

That's all for now. I'll post pics and the concert review tomorrow. It's late, I'm tired, and still reeling from it all.


Wow this ended up a lot longer that I thought. Sorry :blush:

Ok now the pics.

This is where we first pulled up when I jumped out of the car. No that's not our car, but that's where we pulled up. The tunnel is on the right side.



This is where the idols came out. This gives you an idea how things looked from my perspective.



Archie




David Cook



Another shot of David Cook. That's a security guard to the left. He was really cool. Some girl said to him "I have a question". And he said "Yes, I'm single". LOL.



This is a young fan I met, he's 9 years old. DC signed his guitar. He was part of the half-time show (the kid, not DC :) )



Jason Castro



A really good shot of Kristy Lee Cook. Wow is she ever pretty. TV or pics just don't do any of them justice.



Side shot of Kristy Lee Cook



Ok now I'm having trouble getting the rest of the pics to show up. I will try to post them in the next post. They are all pics of Carly.

That's great that you got to see and (sort of) meet Carly. When you finish your concert review, are you planning to also post it on the AI website under the Houston thread? I know you are putting it here, but I love to see good Carly reviews on that website too so fans can see how much we all love Carly and how great we think she is on the tour.

I didn't get as many pics of Carly as I had hoped. Again, it was just really hard to even get a pic with all the fans in the way. And THAT is why I wanted be there really early to get in the front. Ahh well, I was happy. Just seeing her from 6-8 feet away was worth it.






















And she goes in.

I haven't really thought about that. I probably will.

Btw, I got to bed at 2:00 AM last night, woke up at 4:30 and couldn't go back to sleep. My brain wanted to get up but my body didn't. I laid there for a while just remembering the before. I just couldn't get Carly outta my head. So I got up. I'm running on sheer Carly energy right now.

I know how you feel. We got back from the Charlotte concert at 3:30 a.m. and I couldn't sleep because I was still excited from meeting Carly. Your pictures are good-even from so far away. I like the blue shirt she's wearing (nice to see her in something besides black), and she does look gorgeous as usual. I just noticed something in your picture of her picking up something on the way in-is that a small tatoo on the bottom of her back? Anyways, can't wait for your concert review.

Yes that's a tattoo. At one point the entire tattoo was exposed, but I wasn't quick enough with the camera.

Concert review coming later. I'll start writing it up now. I'm glad I took off work today.

One thing that I did realize after seeing her in person, that it makes you like her even more. She was so sweet to her fans and she looked lovely-it was so cool to actually see someone in person that you've admired all this time. I hope you feel the same way after your meeting.

I'll admit I was star-struck. Then I would snap and say to myself "pics stupid. take pics". You really have to ... how do I say this ..... contain your emotions. Like I said before, you just want to rush up there and hug her. Seeing her up close was really an overwhelming experience, short as it was.

Awh I'm glad you got her autograph and got to see her, I love reading people's reviews :carly:

I didn't get to hug her (I never thought to ask for one-I'm not a touchy feely type of person), but I did get to take two pictures with her and talk to her for a couple of minutes. She was really sweet and seemed to appreciate her fans. She was so much shorter and prettier in person than I thought she would be and I was star struck too (plus I loved hearing her accent up close). I still can't believe how well composed I kept myself during it. The only thing I forgot to tell her was how much I love her incredible voice and how well she did in the concert.

Ok here's my concert review. It may not the best written but I'm outta gas. I wanted to do this while it was still fresh on my mind. You'll forgive me if I don't mention all the songs by name.

Btw, our seats weren't as good as I thought. We were pretty far back, straight out from center stage well behind the floor. It's a big venue.
-----------------------------------------------
Concert Review

Chikezie: This guy really surprised me. He was better than on the show. He really enjoys entertaining the crowd. He's one big ball of energy.
I enjoyed his set.

Ramiele: I've read several reviews where people said that she seemed overwhelmed, or just not into it or whatever. That's not what I saw.
She was energetic and seemed confident. She looked really cute (I love her outfit) and sang really well. I thought she was great.

Michael: The noise level rose a few notches when he came on. Fans were standing on their feet and singing during his Queen
medley. He was great, even better than on the show. I was expecting a great performance and he exceeded it. Loved it.

Kristy: Kristy did surprise me. She looked great and the crowd stood and sang with God Bless the USA, which she dedicated
to our troops. Her voice was really really good. I loved her set. At one point she said that Houston was the best crowd yet, but
I think she was just being sweet. She threw a couple T shirts into the crowd. She was great. At half time my wife even said
that she enjoyed Kristy (and coming from her, that's a big compliment).

Carly: Do I need to say it? She was amazing!! The crowd reaction was pretty loud when she came up through the stage and
started BMTL. OMG that song was off the charts. At one point she said that she had "the whole Texas experience" ..... she got a hat,
sat on a bull, and learned the two-step. I love the way she starts Crazy on You, kneeling down for a bit, then standing up with a leg kick
and starts rocking out. During IDAN the crowd stood and sang along and clapped to the beat. She got one of the best crowd reactions.
She. Was. Awesome. She sang her :heart: out. So much power. So much control. I loved loved loved every second of it. I soaked it in. She was the
highlight of the night for me.

Brooke: Another surprise. Whatever confidence problems she had on the show are gone. She was very good. She eluded to the
"bigger and better in Texas" thing, and said she went to a "ginormous mall". I loved her set. She sounded really strong and looked great.
She too was better than on the show.

Jason: The thing that surprised me about Jason was, his voice sounded much stronger and better than on the show. He hit some really
high notes. He got a really good crowd reaction. I didn't care for one of his song choices, but overall I enjoyed his set.

Syesha: I don't know. I was never into Syesha, and she did nothing to change that. Big voice, but seems to oversing. She was just ok for me.

David Archuleta: First things first. This boy can sing. I was never a fan of his, but his voice is truly amazing. As with many of the others,
he just sounded better than on TV. I didn't care for his song choices though. He seems to have matured some. Needless to say
the crowd noise was probably at it's highest.

David Cook: Wow, just wow. He was awesome. His set was longer than I expected, but that's ok! Occassionally he would toss
a guitar pick or a water bottle (which he had drank from) into the crowd. He is a master of the stage, and rocked out hard. Billie Jean
was just amazing. He mentioned that he was born in Houston. I loved his whole performance. The crowd reaction was right up there
with Archie. I was expecting an awesome performance, and believe me, he delivered it.

Final words: Overall the concert exceeded my expectations. All the idols were as least as good and most were better than on the show.
And they looked even better, all of them. It was well worth the price. I really enjoyed the whole experience.

I think you did a great job with your review (I especially loved the Carly part). I know I've already asked you this, but please post this on the AI website too-under the tour reviews Houston thread. Most of the reviews on there are from non Carly fans (like Archie or Jason), so we really need one to tell how great you thought she was and show them our Carly love.

Ok I will do that later. I am seriously out of gas. I need to rest a while. Thanks for the nice comments.

I think you can just copy and paste it over there so you don't need to retype the whole thing. Get some rest and I'm glad your Carly exprience was so good.

Great review so far - will definitely be looking out for the rest.
I don't mean to set off on a tangent but could you tell what the tattoo was of?

I think the tats are awesome so I couldn't help but be interested..

I wasn't close enough to identify the tattoo, but it's supposed to be a cross.

Oh I forgot something. After all the idols went back in, we hung out for a while just hoping that Michael and the others would show. The crowd eventually thinned out. I took a pic of a girl's David Cook poster. I'm not going to tell you what it said, but the guard said that Cook turned red when he saw it.
:rolfl:

Aw, Jay, I am so happy for you! :hug: I can't wait to give her your present now! (And mine too, of course! I will post pictures of what I'm giving her after my shows.)

The tattoo on her lower back is a cross. She is having it removed, though, so don't get too attached to it... :haha:

Great review, Jay! I'm so excited for my shows! Carly's in the Midwest! :w00t:

I know alot of people don't like her tatoos but I think they look cool on her. They make her unique. Now I'm not fond of needles so I don't have any myself, but I think her arm tatoo is pretty with all the bright colors (esp. the orange). I did notice the other day while out shopping that a lot of women had them on their arms, but none of them are as pretty and cool looking as Carly's. She wouldn't be the same without them and that's one of the reasons we all love her.

I've deleted one of Carly's pics. It might have been inappropriate. I apologize. That was not my intention. I guess I wasn't thinking. I had my camera on her as she was walking in, and she stopped to bend over so I had my chance for a pic and took it.
:blush:

I noticed that someone made a joke about it on the AI website, but I didn't think anything bad about the picture. I thought it was cool that we could see one of her hidden tatoos, but oh well.

^^ Oh no, not already. Where is this post? I'm gonna crawl into a hole now.

Here are the Carly parts of a review from the Houston Chronicle (it's all good, which is great since those reporters are always so picky about Idol concerts) :

I was only on Carly's forum (and you already replied to them)-I think it was BigCarlyFan, so don't worry about it. You're fine.

Oh THAT post. Whew! you had me worried there.
I deleted the pic over there too. I just never thought of the pic that way :wall:

Sorry to scare you like that. I didn't take it that way (and I don't think anyone else did either), so you are fine.

Hey I found this on an Archie website about Carly's rodeo experience in Texas that Lstn2Me alluded to earlier, but I though I would share.

Also, for the record I didn't that photo to be inappropriate at all.

Oh yeah the bull's name was HEATSTROKE!

More Carly trivia!

Oh, Jay! :haha: I did think about it and got a good giggle out of it... but I knew you didn't mean it like that. If you want to post it here, please feel free to do so. I don't want people to feel like they have to censor themselves here. If I thought it was "inappropriate," I would have told you so. :)

Here's a great review from a big Carly fan (CrazyonCarly40) on the AI website :

I didn't find it inappropriate, I actually though it was quite funny :haha:

I did too-I liked seeing her hidden tatoo that we've all heard about but have never seen. I thought it was cute.

maybe I over-reacted? :blush: does everyone want me to re-post it?

Sure, go ahead. By the way, I noticed that the AI website mods removed your pics and put a note in red about them being too big and you needed to resize and repost them. I wasn't sure if you had seen that.

yeah I saw that and took care of it. I've reposted the picture here, but nowhere else.