American Idol Concert – Nassau Coliseum, Long Island, NY - 8/24/07 & 8/25/07
8/24 – “I’m still waiting for you, yeah I’m waiting…”
Hey everyone! Well, it’s been a very long couple of days, BUT WORTH IT!!!!! Late Friday morning, my husband, Harry and I first stopped by the Garden City hotel, because the Idol Forums said that the Idols sometimes stay there. I saw one large bus and one long dark limo in the parking lot. We went inside, but it was empty and the people there looked like they were about to shoo us out if we lingered, so we left. We heard that the Idol crew stays at the Marriott next to the venue but decided not to try there because it was getting late.
We arrived at the venue around 12:30 PM. I spent about 4 hours in the hot sun patiently waiting with about 50 other fans (mostly females in Plaid shorts). Now I have a very bad sunburn on my face and arms. About 1:00 PM three buses arrived. We could see Jordin, Melinda and Haley waving from the front of one of the buses. Harry got a video of that. The buses went down the ramp and under the building. At about 2:00 PM, security told us that the Idols were in hair and makeup. They said that if they didn’t come out by 4:00 PM, they wouldn’t be coming out because they had a meet & greet at 4:00 PM. Around 4 PM we went inside the venue to see if we could get meet & greets. We were told no – it was all prearranged for relatives and corporate families (I guess sponsors of American Idol). None of the Idols ever came outside so, we went home and returned a couple of hours later for the show.
I’m not going to go into the content of the show, because we all know what it is from Youtube or have seen it already. The show itself was very fast paced and loud. The sound system was awful. There were a lot of empty seats in this 18,000 seat arena. The row in front of me (row 13) was almost completely empty. I stood and waved my pink glowsticks every time Chris had an appearance on stage. I don’t know if he could see me or not because of the lights in his eyes. I know that Chris had fans there (in the men’s room, Harry said he overheard a father tell his son that he “liked the fat guy with the curly hair”). I was surprised that the audience was more of a sitting audience. This may be because of an interlude of a few seconds of darkness after each act (which induces the audience to sit back down). I expected to have to stand all night. The show ended after 10:00 PM. We waited by the ramp with over 100 other people for the Idols to come out. We were behind barricades. We saw three dark limos and one bus leave. Then around 11:00 PM, Phil comes out and I get his autograph. Ten minutes later, Chris leaves in a van.
At this point, we decide to leave. I hear in the Idol Forums that some of the other Idols did come out after that.
8/25 – “I’m smiling right now”.
Again I arrived at 12:30 PM to wait for the buses. This time they arrive at 2:00 PM. Again, as yesterday the Idols do not come out. They have another meet & greet at 4:00 PM. The same fans from yesterday were here again today, only less of them. I met one family from Boston that follows the Idols around the country. I hopefully turned some of the fans on to this fansite. My sunburn got a bit worse, in spite of the sunscreen and staying in the shade. When I got home, I found a message that Chris had gotten me meet & greet passes for after the show.
This show didn’t seem quite as loud (or maybe I just got used to it.) The audience was made up of many of the same people from the first show. More seats were filled than the previous night and more people stood during the performances. Chris sounded strong as usual. He broke a guitar string during “Life is a Highway”. All of the Idols gave fairly polished performances, considering all the choreography they had to learn. There also were many costume changes. The backup singers were also very good.
After the show, we waited patiently in a section of seats for the meet & greet. We were ushered into a large room with several round tables and chairs. Haley, Phil, Chris Richardson, Melinda, Jordin, Blake and our Sligh were either sitting or standing there. They didn’t all show up at once – only our Chris, Haley and Phil were there initially. The others came in a bit later. We immediately went over to where Chris was sitting. I only got to talk to him for a few minutes (the line of people was growing behind us), but it did confirm that he reads what we write on his blog. I gave him a copy of that Risen Magazine that I commented on on his blog. Chris said that when he was in Nashville someone brought up that magazine and he mentioned that someone on his blog had just brought it up, too. And, no, GDA, I did not get a chance to bring up the subject of Mark Volman. (lol) In fact, I even forgot to get autographs from him. We did get some pics and video, though. Sarah was there, so I got to talk to her for a while. She showed me pics of their dogs, and I talked about my birds. I also got pics with Phil, Melinda & Jordin, and Blake. When l find a place to post them, I’ll let you all know.
