My experience was good - mostly good! The concert was amazing, and all the idols were terrific!

We had some trouble - first the willcall department had trouble finding our tickets. It took them about 15 minutes to find them - they kept saying that there were none there - I kept saying, "Well, you managed to charge my credit card for them!" I was about to have a total meltdown, and then they found them. They had them under my maiden name, which is listed as my middle name on my credit card. URRRGGG!!! My friend that I went with is in a wheelchair. Well, we went inside and found that we could not get to the handicapped section from the entrance we came in, and there was no elevator, but if we went outside, then we couldn't get back in, because they had already scanned our tickets, so an usher took us all the way around the building, and got us in the correct entrance, along with two other folks in wheelchairs who had also been shown the wrong entrance.

We had INCREDIBLE seats, as is so often the case with the handicapped section.

Mandisa was first, looking absolutely gorgeous and sounding incredible. I love her! She's not letting herself be defined by her size, or by society's view on weight, but is sexy and womenly and she was amazing!! She started out with "I'm Every Woman", and then she did her shoutout to Ruben and sang "If I was your woman", dedicated to him. Then Ace came out, and he and Mandisa sang "I'm your angel" together. It was a very, very good duet, and Ace is absolutely beautiful in person. He took his jacket off for "Father Figure" His arms are :drool: My friend leaned over and said "Damn, baby!" Yep, ladies, he looks really, really, really, good!!! REALLY GOOD! Did I mention that Ace looked really good??

Then Lisa came out, and sang "Signed, Sealed, Delivered". She followed that with Elton John's "Someone Saved My Life tonight", which she accompanied herself on the electric piano. Then Paris came out - all the other women wore high heels, but Paris was wearing sneakers, and she looked so lovely and was completely adorable. She and Lisa sang "Don't Go Chasing Waterfalls" and then Lisa took her leave, and Paris did "Midnight Train to Georgia". Afterwards she danced and sang to a Beyonce song, and she really worked the crowd. She is such an amazing performer - she was my favorite of the women.

Then they brought out Bucky, who sang "Supersticious". He was not my favorite, and vocally he was outclassed by the others, but he looked very cute and I enjoyed him. Kelly joined him next and they did "You're the one that I want" from Grease, and then Kelly sang something, I think it was "You're the only one".

After this, there was a break, and then Chris came out - he did "Wanted Dead or Alive" and "Renegade". All this time, I'd been taking lots of pictures, and I knew that doing that uses up alot of battery juice, so I had an extra set of batteries in my bag. Well, just as Chris starts on "Save Me", and I KNOW that Elliott is coming out, the battery dies!!! The irony, the agony of it......you can hear me on the video say, "This is it ....!!!" and it dies. Well, it was dark in there, and I had this big bag of stuff, and I'm frantically digging through trying to find these two little batteries, and I finally decided that I was missing it. So as hard as it was to not have it saved for posterity, I decided that Mr. Yamin is going to have a long and successful career, and I will have other chances to hear him in concert, but for now, just enjoy the moment. So I sat back and listened to him sing. And sing he did. He brought tears to my eyes. After "Save Me" - he sang of course, Moody's Mood for Love, and "Trouble". It ended too soon!! The quartet of "Patience", with Elliott, Bucky, Chris and Ace was very, very good. That was my girlfriend's favorite number. The thing is, she looks over at me, and says, "That's your man, aren't you going to take any pictures of him?" I told her about my batteries and she makes it her mission - she digs through the bag until she finds them.....just in time for Kat to come out. Sigh! So I'm sorry, guys, I have NO pictures whatsoever of Elliott in Birmingham. I suck! :poke: Don't kick me off the train, please!!

I took one picture of Katherine for my 19 year old son, just because I'd promised him that I would. She sang only two songs, "Over the Rainbow" and "Black Horse and Cherry Tree" She was wearing a full length black dress, and she lifted it up to reveal her cast - she broke her foot!!

I took pictures and videos of Taylor, tho, with my newly batteried camera - he came through the crowd and passed right by us. He is really good-looking and very charismatic!! A terrific performer, and I was really happy for him - he was obviously overjoyed to be performing for his hometown. He did all the usual - Jailhouse Rock, Hollywood Nights, Takin it to the Streets, Do I make you proud?

Then all the idols came out - they sang "Living In America" and "We are the Champions" Elliott never brought his round little ass to my side of the stage, so again, not one photo op!!! :(

I never saw the banner for Elliott, so I didn't get to sign it. Another oh well!!

One interesting note - some of the idols were throwing something into the crowd, and at one point Chris came right over there by us and threw whatever it was and it bounced off my leg. These there were two teenaged girls, one with what looked like cerebal palsy were right down from us, came and asked if I'd caught it, and I said no, that it had bounced off my leg, so I helped them look for it - we never found it, and it was so dark when it happened, plus, I was checking out Chris, so I had no idea where it had gone. I would have let them have it. Later, after the concert, my friend and I went to dinner, and she says, what's this in my purse? She holds up an American Idol keychain. I shouted "OMG, that must be what Chris was throwing - it landed in your purse!!!" She gave it to my 15 year old daughter, who was THRILLED!!!

Here's the link to my photos and videos.
http://s115.photobucket.com/albums/n289/Rittlady/

haha great recap! and what fantastic pics you got! :D hehe like the part about the keychain...oh Chris. I thought they were throwing guitar picks...wow what do I know? :P

Rittlady, What a hoot you are! You had me laughing through that whole recap. :rotfl:

Fabulous photos and I'm glad you just sat back and enjoyed our man singing to you. :serenade:

Thanks Rittlady for the great recap, I love it that you found the keychain in your purse, that was too funny! :D

that was an awesome recap! Thanks so much for sharing!

Thanks so much for sharing your story, pics, and videos with us. I'm sorry to hear about your batteries. :( That sounds like something that would happen to me. I didn't even realize that I could have taken video of some of the performances, until I accidentally took like 10 seconds of Elliott when I thought I was taking a picture. I was like :blink:, and then I wished that I had brought more batteries, and taken videos of some of the performances. Live and learn, I guess. :( I wish I could go to another AI concert this year.

Thanks for sharing your concert experiences!!!!!!!!

Great review Rittlady! I'm still laughing about the Ace comments. Did I mention that Realitymom and you could drool together about Ace? haha

No pictures of Elliott hmmmm? Sounds like something I'd do (worn out batteries).

That's too funny about the keychain :lol:

Drool over ACE? Who me gypsy? DARN TOOTIN!!!! :thud: :drool:

Rittlady...LOVED the recap!! Ace is a sexy specimen aint he? :thud: Ya know, the removing of the jacket thing? He does that for me...since I couldn't be his tour groupie, he created a message to show me how much he misses me during the show. He gives the peace sign in individual photos to let me know he is ok....& the big smiles..weellllll, yet another sign for me, but I can't tell ya bout that one! :eyebrows:

:rotfl:

Seriously tho, soooo glad ya had FUN! And the keychain, well that was fate for sure! :rocker:

This is too bizarre! My husband and I were at that same concert and we were also in the handicapped section because her uses a wheelchair, too! And--my last roll of 35 mm zoom film got overexposed so I missed pictures on the whole second half of the concert--just like you! Also i was disappointed that Elliott didn't make it over to our side of the stage! As you said, oh, well!!!! We were lucky enough, though that we were at WorkPlay the night before and got a few pictures of E there. You can see some of my pictures over at yaminmachine--Hubby and I were ENN reporters! :yes:

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

RM you are too funny!

Great recap!!Despite the minor setbacks, it sounds like you had a great time.
btw, didn't Elliott sing Never Too Much?






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