Here's my recap. and sorry it's so long. I met up with Etrainers onlyforelliott and loveelliott. Very nice ladies I might add. The doors opened at 6, we got there a little after 5:30 and the line was already snaking around the side of the club. So me an my daugher are standing in line and someone goes, there's Elliott. He came out of nowhere! I turn around and Elliott walks up to the side door and knocks and just stands there. lol He's soon joined by a bodyguard, also appearing out of nowhere (they must have got out of a car or something) they're standing there talking. My daughter and I and a few fans inch down the side walk to get a closer look. Elliott is truly even cuter in person. He just standing there smiling at us as people whip out camera phones and cameras and snap away. Soon the door opens and the body guard hustles him inside. Elliott apologizes and says he'll see us inside. Such a sweetheart.

Once inside we ended up standing third row from the stage. The other Etrainers sat upstairs. I would have too, but you had to be 21 and I had my daughter with me.

Josh's set was very nice. He has a decent voice and can hold some notes an incredibly long time. We all know he's very engaging and hilarious. He told quite a few gay jokes about him and Elliott. He said that the tour has been going on for a few weeks and he and Elliott have been dating the whole time. Then he said, he forgot Elliott didn't want him talking about that, but Elliott is a good kisser. lol He had the place cracking up. He said the next song is a song about Elliott called End of the Road. The he said, he's just kidding, we're still together. He talked about how nice it was being on tour with Elliott and how he loved him. He then said the song isn't about Elliott, but about the pretty girls he saw at a bikini contest in Pittsburgh last night (Saturday).

Now for Elliott. I don't have to tell you guys how vocally brilliant the man is. He came out wearing I think what's called a fedora. He looked absolutely adorable. I believe the hat came off by the third song. After singing Alright, he said this venue was very in your face with the fans, very up close and personal. It actually was, there was no space in between the end of the stage and the standing area, and the balcony that circled the club was very close to the stage. We showed Elliott tons of love, lots of screaming. Elliott said so far Pittsburgh was the loudest. According to the box office person, there were just under 600 people there. It's a small club and was jammed packed. I saw Monet jamming on the staircase next to the stage to both Josh's and Elliott's sets.

Before E's set a stage hand came out and taped two sheets of lyrics to the speaker or whatever that black box was on the floor in front of Eliott. I noticed Elliott removed the first sheet of lyrics in the middle of his set. He only seemed to forget some of the lyrics to I'm the Man. It was good, all good. Elliott is such a performer now and it seems like he's been doing this for years. He seemed so happy up there. Josh came out for their duet of Livin in the City. (Elliott added Pittsburgh into this song.) After Josh finished singing his part, he smacked Elliott on the butt before leaving the stage. My daughter got this on video and it'll be up soon. :rotfl:

Everytime the crowd erupted in screams he had his huge smile on his face. Elliott performs like he's been doing it for years. He is truly a legend in the making. Before he sang Movin' On he said he felt like dancinga and started wiggling and shaking his butt. Very cute. As Song For You was INCREDIBLE. My daughter's camera ran out of memory and I hope someone video taped this.

When it was over, we waited out front hoping to meet Elliott. The tour bus was parked directly across the street. The street was very narrow, so the bus was spitting distance. lol We waited about an hour and all the sudden I see two police officers sneaking Elliott across the street to the bus. They had come out of side door! All I could think of was, no they didn't! lol My heart truly sunk though. Monet came back across the street and into the club; most likely to tie up some business stuff. I decided I would catch her as she came out. Once she did, it took me a few minutes to work up the nerve to approach her. She hung out front for quite a while, talking to security about this and that. Finally I asked her, if she was Monet. She immediately smiled and said yes. She's actually very friendly and very pretty. I asked her if she thought Elliott would sign a few things for some Etrainers. She said she would ask him, but if he came out for me, he would have to sign stuff for everyone. She told me there were tons of people on the other side of the tour bus and Elliott would end of stuck for an hour. She offered to take my cd and ticket stub to him. I kinda pouted a bit. She said that Elliott was at the point where he was THROUGH and she didnt' want to push him. I must have looked devastated because she was holding my arms as if to comfort me. lol She was really sweet about it. She said she hoped I understood. Of course I did. He had put on an absolutely AMAZING and very energetic. I later heard that he was laying down on the bus so I hope he was ok. Anyway, I gave her a slip of paper with my name so he would spell it right and my cd and ticket stub. A few other people saw me chatting with her and handed her stuff to sign also. She came back with our stuff about 30 minutes later. They also had a few pizzas delivered to the bus. When we left the bus was still there. I better not hear that Elliott got a second wind and decided to come out afterall. lol

Anyway, amazing show. If Elliott's second leg of the tour takes him anywhere near Pennsylvania, I'm there.

awesome review! Thanks for sharing! Too bad he was so tired! But there is always next time ;)

Hi Loveelliott here. Was at the show in Pittsburgh and yes he is so cute in person and what a voice. He has an incredible voice. He could get a party going anywhere and I'm amazed how he seems right at home on that stage. and to think the poor boy would ask them to turn down the lights when he did kareoke(sp) back in Richmond. I think he is over that now. His stage presence is better than ever. He was having a great time. He was well received by the fans. He thanked the crowd 2 or 3 times for coming out. I think he looked as though he may have had his hair trimmed. He was looking mighty hot (meaning drop dead gorgeous). I dragged my sister along-she likes Elliott too, but she isn't a big fan like me- and she really enjoyed it and said his voice is fantastic. I live in Ohio but only 1hr and 20 minutes from Pittsburgh, andI wasn't gonna miss this for anything. Yaminilita got Monet to get stome things autographed and I got my ticket signed by him. He is the best-he should've won Idol!! Met Yaminilita and Onlyforelliott there. Nice to put faces to the screen names. Very nice people.

My friend Mindy & I got lost once we hit Pittsburgh, stopped for directions at a CVS(thanks guys!) & then found the Diesel right away. There was no parking so we circled for a while & finally parked. Walking up the street to the club,Mindy said there's Elliott freakin' Yamin standing on the sidewalk. I said no way 'cos she has a tendency to exaggerate. It was him w/ some of his band members but they looked so young! He had on jeans, T-shirt & a ball cap & was gnawng on a toothpick. I was too stunned to say anything to him. So we went into the club about halfway thru Josh's set. It was a small venue & it was packed & hot. But there was quite an assortment of fans in there, couples, youngsters, middle-aged, a few teens. I had a perfect view straight to the stage. Elliott was AMAZING!! He sounded just like his CD, which doesn't always happen w/ live performances. He looked to be having a great time & put on an excellent show! Well worth the 5 hr drive! The majority of the crowd left after the show, but we hung around a little. And once again E passed right by us & we couldn't speak. I pulled out my CD & decided to go over to have him sign it. He was so nice & thankful of all his fans. I told him I was old enough to be his mother but I still loved him! As a matter of fact I told him I loved him several times! I even asked to touch his hair & I did & it was so soft! He said God Bless You & I left, floating on a cloud. Mindy got pics & I have a signed CD & the memory of a very happy, appreciative, handsome Elliott Yamin. :awe:

Great reviews from Pittsburgh. Thank you. I can't wait to see him in Seattle!
2 weeks and counting. :elliottcap:

Yaminilita and I must have been posting our recaps at the same times in the wee hours of this morning. Hers is so much better than mine, so I edited my post and am pasting my first reactions into her thread. My pictures are pitiful but I'll be posting a few of them on my web page and will hopefully get some reinforcements from others who were there. Here's what I wrote soon after I returned from the concert:

It's after 1 AM and I'm too hyper to sleep and yet too tired to write coherently so I'll just ramble for a bit and then post in more detail tomorrow.
The venue was mostly stand-up unless you went to the 2nd floor and were able to seize an ottoman and pull it close to the railing. I was disappointed with the red lighting and I got mostly terribe pictures but I'll sort through them tomorrow.
Elliott looked adorable in a derby which only managed to stay on his head for the first two songs or so. He was so adorably cute and full of energy and the crowd of just a few less than 600(a figure I got from the venue personnel) loved him and reminded him of it more than once. I got a big chuckle thinking of David Foster when he sang "A Song for You." He didn't just sing "Remember, remember," he sang remember, remember, remember, remember, remember, remember when we we together. I loved it.
It was a great night. Yaminilita, loveelliott and I got to visit while waiting after the concert but we didn't get to meet him. All the more reason to plan to attend another concert.
More either tomorrow or after I get back home on Tuesday.

two Internet sources list Diesel as only having a 300-person capacity, so did they break fire code for more guests? Interesting!

Looks liike a nice, modern upscale club, with an A+ sound system.
I should have went there instead of the RibFest! LOL. (nah, love my ribsfest!) Someone even offered me a ticket....sigh.....


ETA: looks like they just got refurbished last year, and their capacity is now 600; so nice to know Elliott almost sold out the place! :-)

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_485257.html

almost 600? See OG if you would have went it would have been a sell out lol.

Thanks so much for these recaps. I'm loving every minute. Aren't these small venues so up close and personal? And it's all about Elliott! I'm going to cherish every moment, with my 2 concerts and everyone's wonderful recaps. Soon, it won't be... he's getting bigger as I speak.

Onlyforelliott: how do we get our recaps and pictures to you?

I would say that it was a technical sellout. I had 4 extra tickets and was able to sell 3 of them as soon as we got there. A little later a lady drove by in a car offering to sell her tickets for $10 and even a little later a man was offering to give away his free ticket. I just kept the extra ticket and may have been able to find someone who needed one, but once we got inside there was no way I was going to venture back outside.

I could only manage to sleep for a few hours this morning, so I got up and did a rough draft of my web page. I will be back home on Tuesday afternoon with a "real" computer and a cable connection and will start to work in earnest on my web site. Here is my first installment of what I hope will develop into a nice web site promoting Elliott:

http://www.fanencounters.com

Just click on the Pittsburgh link on the side.

Itslate and anyone else who might be interested in making a contribution:

The format I have for the Pittsburgh page is the general format I would like to have for all of the pages. I will be gone most of the day today and I have a very early morning flight on Tuesday. If you click on the Submissions link on the home page, I have some general guidelines but once I get back home and fully operational I might be revising those. I envision making a web scrapbook of Elliott's tour and possibly printing it and presenting it to him at the end of the tour.

For those of you (and me) in the South. Monet said (she is SOOO nice) that Elliott will be doing shows in NC, FL, GA and other southern station starting in August. I specifically asked about New Orleans and she said that it hasn't been announced yet, but that New Orleans is on the schedule. :cheerleader1: :cheerleader1:

Thanks for taking the time to write such great recaps! Sure wish I could be at every concert!

Great recaps! I do hope people will understand that there will be times when Elliott just cannot come out of the bus. :grouphug:

Yeah, I'm glad Monet is protecting Elliott - even from himself if necessary. There's just so much energy to go around and he's so hyper and gives 150% on stage - he's got to crash sometime or he's going to burn out completely. Having too many fans that want a piece of him is a good problem to have :-)

she was very protective at Cleveland; she accompanied him everywhere. I saw her at the side of the stage dancing while he sang, so she's into it! She looks like a strong-willed woman, so I wouldn't want to tangle with her!

LOL - OG - I have heard that she is VERY strong willed and you DON'T want to tangle with her! :rotfl:

Thanks for taking the time to write these enjoyable recaps. Everyone is writing about how amazing he sounds live and I can't wait to see him.
It was lucky that yellforel! was standing in the right place at the right time.

I am glad there is someone looking out for him...After seeing how all out he went in NJ and NYC with his performance and then all the fan stuff before and after the show I was very concerened that he might over do it. I am sure he is sensible enough to take care of himself when he needs to but he also strikes me as someone who might try and go that extra mile for his fans. At the Sayreville show he took something off his hip, look ed at it, did something to it and then put it back. Then you could see a blueish light under his t-shirt. I was standing off to the side by one of the bars so don't know if others noticed from other angles. Don't know if it was his insulin pump or a mic of some kind, but I remember getting nervous for him. I mean when you see him perform live, he goes ALL OUT. The energy, the passion...it fills the whole place.

Wow, you're so lucky you got him to sign it in person. I guess I should have hung around inside instead of outside. : )

Also, I believe I'm wrong on the type of hat Elliott was wearing. I called it a fedora, onlyforelliott calls it a derby in her recap and I think she's right. Anyway, he looked adorable in it.

I think it was a fedora. I think of a derby as being more bowl-shaped, roundish. Anyway it looked like a hat my dad would have worn if you turned up the brim & stuck a few cheesy feathers in the side. LOL! But sorry to say Elliott's hair was much more plentiful than my dad's. And I should know 'cos I gotta touch it!!!!

Don't really know what a fedora looks like, but a derby it is not - I do know what that looks like. I think we know what style of cap you are talking about - it's like the one he is wearing on the Idols CD from last year, right? I have heard others call it a driving cap?

Who is Monet? I must have missed something - this is the first I've heard her talked about. Obviously she is part of his entourage, but what exactly is her role? Just curious.

ETA - well now that I've seen Yellfore's post, maybe it's not the cap I'm talking about. Anyway, still would like to know who Monet is.

It's definitely a driving cap...he started the show in sayreville wearing one...plus I have always worn them, that's how I know...I even have one on in my picture with Elliott and he has on the Orioles cap.

Ohioguy, when I checked out the Diesel Club on line some time ago when the venue changed from the boat, the capacity was 750, but there was a crowd there of about 600. It was packed but now overly crowded. Was a good receptive crowd to Elliott and he was fantastic. Unfortunately, I didn't get to meet him.

Monet is Elliott's day to day manager. She's not always with him - but has been around for a few shows lately.

Fedora

Derby (also known as Bowler

Driving Cap or Flat Cap

yellforel, was it crowded inside when you got your autograph? I figured he would either get mobbed inside or security would hustle straight through without stopping inside.

About the hat, I never heard of a driving cap before. lol

To the person who asked about Monet, I think she's one of his managers. Someone correct if I'm wrong. She's really nice though.

About the video we took. We took one Alright and one of Livin in the city, where Josh smacks Elliott on the butt before leaving the stage. The problem is the sound quality is absolute crap and the pic quality is nothing to write home about. I should have rented a better camera for the night. I saw quite a few people taking video, so I'm hoping some turn up on youtube soon.

I saw everything from 300 to that 750, though several articles insisited it was the 600-range. I saw some VIP rooms, so they may have separated the general section from the VIPs in those "600 capacity" articles. So he probably did anywhere from 80-90% sale, and that's VERY, VERY good.

It looks like a GREAT club!

Elliott wears a flat cap.

what?? no Orioles cap????

Wow,, thanks, Poorme! Maybe someday the "Driving Cap" will have as part of its description the fact that "its popularity was enhanced in the early 2000's by popular singing star, Elliott Yamin".

The two shows I saw he alternated between the driving cap (like the one he wore on the AI tour) and the O's cap. On for the first song and a half - then off for the rest of the show.

Thanks for the recaps sounds like you all had a great time! :elliottcap:

This is a picture of Elliott at Pittsburg in the hat :)

New style - that is a fedora - maybe one of Josh's hats - he wears a hat like this a lot.

He looks great in a Fedora, too

well, that's not a flat cap...not a bowler...
what the hell kind of hat is that, anyway?

Ooooooooooh! I like it! :thud:

Yaminilita-it was not crowded at all inside when I got to speak w/ Elliott. I'd say only about 50 or so people. We kinda moved off to the side to let people get where they were going & lo and behold security led Elliott right by us, wearing the afore-mentioned hat. Everyone kinda got in line at the table to get autographs, pictures, etc. It all went smoothly & everyone moved on when they were done. The funny thing is I was so psyched about seeing him, touching him, speaking w/ him I pushed my friend Mindy into the wall & the bouncers musta thought we were drunk & escorted us out. Drunk only from the Elliott experience!!

Is she a well built blond, longish hair, pretty? I think she was with him in Delaware. She said hello to me as I was getting in line, and was standing by the radio station's table.

It's a fedora, yep... my Dad wore the same. His was more like this one with feathers :)



Notice the smaller brim... still a fedora

I think it's really important to consider that the time between when Elliott walks on the stage and when Elliott walks off the stage is the time that we have with him. The time before that and the time after that is his own personal time. If he needs rest he should get rest because what really matters is that he's happy, healthy and making music for the long haul. Sorry, but his latest blog entry starts with: "Current mood: exhausted" and that's making me concerned.

"I think it's really important to consider that the time between when Elliott walks on the stage and when Elliott walks off the stage is the time that we have with him. The time before that and the time after that is his own personal time. If he needs rest he should get rest because what really matters is that he's happy, healthy and making music for the long haul. Sorry, but his latest blog entry starts with: "Current mood: exhausted" and that's making me concerned."
This is a true statement - thanks for that. I know meeting and greeting fans along the way is also a part of the job and Elliott knows that and is happy to do it - but that's just OUR "icing on the cake" when he is able. We pay for a concert and that should be our expectation - when we are fortunate enough to get a chance to say hello personally, we are the lucky ones.

Over time Elliott will have to figure out where to set his boundaries, but in the meantime - it will be good that someone else helps him do that. His nature seems to be that of a pleaser - one reason we love him so - but if we want him around for a long time, he's got to pace himself.

Lindagt & Gerryd, very well said. I'll see his show next month and I have very mixed feelings about whether to attempt to approach him or not if the opportunity arises.

I truly hope he takes care of his health first and foremost. It appears that Monet as well as his band may be taking care of him the best they can. For that I am so thankful.