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I'm baaaaaaaack, babies!

Temperature in Sacramento yesterday: 110 F, smoky, and hazy due to all the wildfires burning around us. Our part of the state is on fire. Good times.

Our seats were at the side of the stage, about 10 rows up. We had quite a good view. On our right was the stage. On our left was a great view of backstage and the roadies. Lucky for us, the performers entered and exited the stage from our side, so we caught a few glimpses of them as they walked up the stairs to get to the stage, and back down again afterwards. (This didn't apply to the performers who began their sets underneath the arena and rose up like a phoenix like Cook, Archuleta, and Brooke)

As we walked into the arena to find our seats, I suddenly hear the first few bars of "Old Time Rock and Roll" and the few people who were already in their seats start screaming and whistling and pointing at the jumbotron. I look up, and yes, it was Cook in his underwear and socks. What awesome timing. It's like they played it just for me as I walked in. Heh.

They sang in descending order of how they finished on the show. Contestants 10-3 sang three songs apiece, Archuleta four, and Cook five.

Chikezie - He had good energy. He engaged the crowd by telling them that he's a California boy and he's proud, etc. I feel a tad sorry for the man, because he's sort of the odd man out on this tour (in terms of fan base) but he did a good job. When he exited the stage, we saw him give fist bumps to the roadies/backstage crew. Very cool. He also has a huge, very sweet smile.

Ramiele - I can't say much other than she's a teeny tiny girl with a big voice. I'm afraid I didn't pay much attention to her set, because I was busy glancing backstage to see if I could see Michael Johns. And I did. (No disrespect to Ramiele fans, but it's Michael Johns for pete's sake) So she did her thing, engaged the audience a few times, telling them to make some noise, and they did. The end.

Michael Johns - He is a sexy bitch. He was wearing a scarf and a jacket yet didn't really seem to sweat. He is a cool sexy bitch. He began with "We are the Champions" and that got the crowd, men and women, up off their asses - including yours truly - and going nuts. His second song was great. And for his last song, "Dream On", I thought for sure we'd have to call for medics. Because when he hit those high glory notes at the end (any fan of the song knows of what I speak), the over 18 women completely and utterly lost their collective shit. Talk about an arena-wide orgasm. It was awesome. Oh, and he introduced the song as "the song that got me kicked off American Idol." Hee!

Carly Smithson - She was very striking on stage. I mean, your eyes go right to her. The crowd went nuts as soon as the first notes of her first song began to play ("Bring Me to Life"). She sang two Heart songs and got a lot of cheers from the women. I get the feeling that she was their *sentimental* favorite of the night. She engaged the audience pretty well, thanked the band, and introduced the next performer by saying "she's whiter than I am". Hee hee.

Brooke White - She was barefoot throughout her set which was sort of cute. Her first song was "Let It Be" which was pretty good. Her second song was quite cute and Brookish (forgot the name), and her last song was a folksy rendition of "Yellow" by Coldplay and it was really good. She interacted well with the audience by saying that we were the best crowd so far (I'm sure she says that every time, but it still got the expected screaming reaction). She also told us how great it was that, despite the fact that it was hot as fuck outside (well, she didn't use those words), and with all the smoke, the fans were still outside earlier in the day with their Jason Castro signs. At the very mention of that boy's name, the girls went ape shit.

At the end of Brooke's set, she said a few words about Idol Gives Back, whereupon, a slide show of the children began playing on the screens. She snuck around to our side of the stage, slipped on some MAJOR high heels, grinned and waved at our section who was watching her every move, then joined the previous singers on the stage as they did a group number to U2's "In the Name of Love". I love that song, so frankly, I would love it if Elmo fucking sang it, but it was great.

Intermission. They showed the horrendous 70's Guitar Hero clip (I weep for David Cook). They did a couple of Guitar Hero things with the audience. Our section was barely paying attention, as we were gazing to our left to see if Castro was lurking nearby. And he was. I saw his hair before I saw him. He had it pulled back, but there's no mistaking those dreds, yo. So while the Guitar Hero filler was going on, you could hear intermittent shrieking from our section and the rest of the arena had no idea why. Until Castro came on stage…

Castro - The girls. went. crazy. Completely. He was rocking some bright red shoes which were kind of tragic, yet funny. And every time that boy so much as vaguely smiled, the girls lost it. He did a pretty good set, but it was hard to hear over the shrieking, damn it.

Syesha - She was wearing a little gold sparkly dress with a puh-lunging neckline. She looked great, but I hoped she was wearing body tape, because her "girls" were ready to come out and say hello. Her first song was "Umbrella" and it was really fun. It got the audience up on their feet and going crazy and I swear the arena was shaking. Her other two songs were just *okay*. But lord have mercy, that girl has got some vocals. When she was done singing, she began to talk about how appreciative she was and how great the crowd is, and all the while the teeny boppers were stomping their feet, whistling, and screaming. Because Archuleta was up next. Syesha seemed to think it was all for her, because she kept stopping her spiel to say "Wow, thank you so much….wow, thank you." I felt bad for her. Unless she knew who they were screaming for, and she was joking, I don't know. But I felt kind of sorry for her so I stood up and clapped as she left the stage. Yes, I'm lame.

Archuleta - I honestly could not hear one bloody word of any of his four songs, as the banshee children in the audience were shrieking their ever loving brains out. I don't think they cared if he even sang. He could have just stood there and done shadow puppets and they would have been happy. So after his set, he soaks up the audience's reaction, which was rather sweet, because he did look appreciative. However, he dragged it out a little. He would say "thank you so much", let the audience scream, look dumfounded, say thank you again, let them scream, look dumfounded, and this went on for a few minutes. The natives got restless. A lady behind me yelled "Enough! Where's Cook!" She said it jokingly-but-half-serious. Memo to Archuleta: Dear boy, there is a difference between being appreciative, and wasting time. Don't do that when you stop in Tulsa, as you will have a riot on your hands. Finally, he introduces Cook.

There is a few moments of near silence…

There are rumblings as the band begins…

I stand up immediately as do the women around me…

I had a Top Gun moment, in that I told myself "This is not a drill…this is what you have been trained for."

We hear Cook's voice calling "Hello…"

The screaming and footstomping and shit-losing commences. When he appeared on stage with his guitar and tight black laced-up pants and snug t-shirt and guyliner, it took every fiber of strength in my body not to scream like a mental patient. Now, I am not a sap by any stretch, but I got a bit verklempt. He just looked so amazing on that stage. All I could think was, "David Cook, look at you now." Nobody deserves this more than he. Nobody at all.

He sang Hello (too incredible for words), Time of My Life (which I sang along to and much to my horror, I knew every single fucking word), My Hero (dedicated to Adam), and Don't Want to Miss a Thing (made both the men and women go crazy). He disappeared backstage for a minute while the lighting changed and the smoke started to go up, which meant…yes, that's right...Billie Jean. The woman behind me who yelled at Archuleta to get a move on completely lost her shit during the glory note.

Cook worked that stage like no other. I mean, he made that stage his bitch, you guys. It was HOT. He walked back and forth, and up and down the stairs. He owned it. And, I noticed the band seemed the most animated and excited when playing with him, much more so than with the previous singers.

His set was a miniature rock concert. With the other singers, there was a definite American Idol vibe, but with Cook? I felt like I was at a David Cook rock concert. It stood out that much.

There were three particularly awesome moments during his set:

1) In between songs, we saw a crumpled up piece of paper thrown at his feet. He stopped, picked it up, grinned at the girl who threw it (god damn, his grin is hot) and announced "I'm going to read this out loud." The crowd went nuts. He read: "David, I love you, please call me, love Bridget." Then he said, "Maybe I shouldn't have done that…I'm going to get into so much trouble now."

2) A fan threw a decorated t-shirt up to him while he was singing. He grinned at the thrower (again, the grin? Hot), put the t-shirt on the mic stand, then walked over and draped it over the guitarist. Then, David took it back and put it on right over the t-shirt he was already wearing. He laughed and said "A little tight" (Nobody minded) He wore that shirt for the rest of the set.

3) At one point, he pulled out his camera (I think he does this for every concert) and said he wanted to document us as a keepsake. So he counted to three, the crowd went bananas and jumped up and down, and he panned the whole arena with the camera.

Random observations:

1) He must have lost at least 25 pounds since Top 24. The funny thing is, you can see his tummy in some pics, but on stage, his lower half looks taut and fit. He filled out those tight black pants very nicely. A few times, he walked over to our side of the stage and his arms looked damn toned to me. (Is he doing squats and bicep curls but no cardio??)

2) The men in my section - the fathers, the boyfriends, the husbands, young and old - were transfixed by Cook. They paid polite attention to the other performers during their sets, but with Cook, they actually looked interested. I think he has the most diverse fanbase of any contestant on this show.

So he finished his set and went backstage. Then the entire 10 comes out with a wardrobe change and they sing "Please Don't Stop the Music" as the finale. There was one cute moment towards the end of the song as Cook and Archuleta stand at the front of the stage. Cook pointed to Archuleta, let the crowd cheer, and then Archuleta pointed to Cook, grinned, and jumped up and down as if to say "David fucking Cook!". Except, this is Archie we're talking about, so maybe he would have said "David darned Cook!" Anyhoo, it was rather cute.

One final cool moment:

After the finale, the people in my section immediately leaned over the railing to see the performers walk down the backstage stairs. When Cook came by, everyone screamed and said "We love you!", etc. and Cook smiled back, quickly shook his head a little and pointed to the man in front of him, as if to say "Don't cheer for me, cheer for him." That man was a member of the band. It was such a natural, immediate reaction for Cook to give credit to someone else. If I ever needed confirmation that this guy is for real, I received it right then. And the band guy didn't even see him do it, so it's not like Cook was making a big show of thanking him. Very, very cool.

So I walked out of the arena and into the inferno of blazing fire (well, there was no fire around there, but there might as well be) and I considered sticking around to see if I could get a Cook sighting in honor of Lobsters, but two factors defeated me: 1) had to go to work early in the morning 2) it was just too damn hot to stick around. Sorry, Lobbie!

Edited, as Carly's first song was "Bring Me to Life". Duh.

Lobsters - I neglected to mention that I indeed took pics, and not one of the little bastards turned out right. I must be stupid, truly. Or my camera is. In any case, the concert pics that have already been posted in this thread are better than the ones I took. He was wearing the same clothes, sans vest.