Ok. The San Jose Concert is here and I'll be posting live as I go at http://www.splashblog.com/etrainstation

I'll try to get as many pics as I can.

Mike

THANKS, MIKE. LOVE YOUR SIG BY THE WAY. BONO IS SO COOL!!

MC,
Have fun meeting Gogo, Felisha, and Nanab!! And of course, have fun meeting Elliott and the other idols later!! Don't forget to give him that "ETRAIN DRIVER" hat!! I'm soooooooooo excited for all of you!! :cloud9:

That's awesome Mike! I know the San Jose Crew is going to have a blast tonight! I can't wait to see more pics and hear about all the fun you guys are having.

:etrain: :bunny: :bunny: :bunny:

That is very cool. Posting as things are happening. I'll be back later to see more pictures.

WOOOHOOOO mike!! :woohoo:

Hope you HAD A great time...& hope ya met Elliott & the gang!! :thumbsup:

Look foward to the recap!!

Edited cause I am in Ohio & DUH..you are in California, so the show isnt even over! lol Thank you to emjay for remindindg me! :D

:etrain:

Yeay, Mike and company met Elliott and the other Idols!! Brandon Crowe, you rock , dude!! :rocker: I'm glad you hooked Mike up!!

Just got back from San Jose myself, and a big thanks for everything to Mike and Brandon in particular!!!

Sk8888

p.s. Will recap my experience in a separate thread.

Shelley,
I'm very happy you decided to go to the San Jose Concert!! I have to go to bed now...but anxiously waiting to read your recap in the morning!!

Go Mike!!!

Great pictures!!

You and Elliott are in my old college stomping ground tonight...sigh...San Jose State U., had some of the best times of my life there, and you're just blocks from where I was "on the boards" at Hugh Gillis Hall Theatre!!!

I'm very excited to see someone from my "hometown", to the north of San Jose, represent us well. :D

Hope you had a blast!

Rg

I'm back from the concert and it was a great time for all. I got to meet with Elliott_Yamin_Fan4Life aka Felisha, Gogo, Nanab, and SK8888. Our pre-meet was at the Sonoma Chicken Coop about 5 blocks away from HP Pavillion where the concert was held.

After dinner we walked over to the Pavillion to see the show.

I've updated the captions on the photos at my splashblog site for the concert. See http://www.splashblog.com/etrainstation for more info.

I'll recap the concert itself sometime tomorrow as it's after 1am here in California.

It was wonderful though. We had a great time.

Meeting Elliott was totally excellent.

Mike

I second that Mike, it was totally excellent meeting you, your wife, GoGo, PilatesMom, Felisha and her mom.....and of course Elliott.

When's the convention? :D

Sk8888

Great pictures - thanks for posting them. Glad you had such a fantastic time and got to meet Elliott :)

I'm so happy Gogo was able to meet him too and present him with the album.

Great pics! THANK U!!

I was really happy to see the pic. of Gogo with Elliott... She must have been thrilled. She's such a nice person! :glomp:

Cant wait for your report on the concert!

:ilikeit:

CONGRATULATIONS MIKE! So happy for you :)

I'm thrilled to see the pictures! That's so great!

Thanks for the great pics, Mike!! Very exciting! Can't wait for your recap later on. I was so happy you all got to meet Elliott and that everything worked out so well.
I was glad to be able to put faces to some of the names, at last, including yours!
I almost shrieked when I saw the pic of Gogo and Elliott - so happy! And I'm glad Gogo could give Elliott the great album she prepared. It's special!

Thanks Mike and Brandon for everything! You guys ROCK!!!!! :rocker:

Mike, Your pictures are excellent, thanks for sharing, What a wonderful night for the west coast E trainers. looking forward to your recap

So happy for you all, can't wait for the recap. :woohoo: And yes, Brandon Crowe, you do rock. :rocker:

Oh, I have SO enjoyed looking at the pictures of you guys!!!! What a great bunch of people!!! I am thrilled that you got in to the after-party and the Secret Society album got to Elliott.

Brandon, you are the nicest person in the universe! And, Mike you're second! (chuckle)

:thumbsup:

LOOKS LIKE YOU HAD A BLAST. ELLIOTT REALLY LOVES HIS E TRAIN!! I LOVE THAT HAT YOU GAVE HIM, MIKE. SO COOL! I HOPE HE WEARS IT AT THE NEXT CONCERT. :)

VERY cool Mike! Sooooo happy for you that you got to meet our boy!

The hat was GREAT! :) thank you so much for sharing your pictures and experiences, looks like a good time was had by all!

:etrain: ROCKS!!!! :wub:

YEA!!!! All you guys look soooo happy,and why not? I can't wait till I read all the recaps. GOGO and NANAB, I'm going to pester you for DETAILS!!! :glomp:
Mike, I'm so glad you met your guy. You of all people deserves to meet him in person.You're such a faithful fan. :)

great pics! thnx xx

Thanks for sharing your pics, MC! I'm glad you, your wife, Shelley, gogo, nanab and Felisha got to meet the idols. :)

So glad that you all had a great time before, during, and after the concert. Mike, the photos are great. What a great idea for a gift-- loved the hat.
Thanks so much for posting-- it's great to put a face to all our
fellow e-train rydahs.

MC!!!!!!!!!! What a wonderful Happy Belated Birthday gift!!!!!! I am soooo thrilled you and the others got to meet Elliott, cause with all of the hard work, dedication, and love you have shown Elliott and the E-Train and E-Train Station, you DEFINETELY deserved to meet him hon!! If B was responsible in anyway in helping to hook you guys up...B, once again man, you completely RAWK, cause MC so deserved this!! I am thrilled for the rest of the E-Train gang too...just WEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! Loveeeee, the new Avitar Mike, and it is farrrrr sexier than that other one you showed us in chat.....

heheheheeeeeeee!!! CONGRATS!!!!
xxoo
:etrain: :allaboard:

Sheesh, Mike, you and Elliott are soooo cool!

Oh, God, you did not have heart palpitations?

Wonder if you are coming to the East Coast for Elliott's solo concert? I am trying as hell to go there, given my hellish sked, and there is still time.

Ciao!

:etrain: :etrain: :etrain:

I knew you would meet him Mike and it was so deserving that you did! You work so hard for elliott and making sure he is promoted in such a positive light!

You rock! :rocker:

Recap of the San Jose Concert

First of all, I must say that the San Jose folks did their idols proud by their vocal response throughout the show. The show was loud but the audience was just as loud if not more so. Several of the idols commented that we were one of the loudest groups on the tour. Go San Jose!

Like other venues there was a jumbo screen with text messages from the audience. Elliott got his fair share of the messages. I sent "ETrain Station Luvs Elliott" but there were many, many more.

HP Pavillion (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP_Pavilion) is also called the "Shark Tank" because it's the home of the San Jose Sharks NHL Hockey Team. The auditorium seats 16000-20000 in multi-purpose configuration and it was filled to near capacity.

The Idols

[u]Mandisa[/b] opened the show with her signature "I'm Every Woman" song. She was loud and lively and brough cheers from the crowd. Her next number was for the men and dedicated to the band's keyboard player. Rumor: hmmm. She dedicated the next song to "Young People" telling them that "someone upstairs" has a plan for their lives and that they should follow their dreams. As she sang "I'm Your Angel" Ace came out onstage to join her for a duet. It's a powerful song and they did it well.

Ace took his turn and took command of the stage with his signature piece, "Father Figure." As he sang he took his coat off to the screams of the women who like that "X" factor thing :). My wife commented that he looked rather "buff" and had improved a lot since we saw him last on AI season five. He closed out his set with a rock-out tune (I think by Maroon 5) called "Harder to Breathe."

Lisa came out singing a perky rendition of "Sign, Sealed, Delivered." The crowd enjoyed her and as a performer she's matured a lot since the show. For her next two songs she accompanied herself on the keyboards. She performed "Your Song" and "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" by Elton John. Paris came out to join Lisa as they sang "Waterfalls" by TLC in a side-by-side choreography.

Paris continued on with an adrenaline-pumping version of "Midnight Train to Georgia" by Gladys Knight. As she sang she came down to high-five with the front-row and encouraged everyone to pull the chord to toot the train whistle. I don't recall the last song but it did seem to involve a lot of booty-waving :)

Bucky was up next with his ever-popular "Superstitious" by Stevie Wonder. He performed it quite well and did his classic Bucky-slide. His next number was the Dobie Gray classic "Drift Away" which has always been one of my favorite songs.

Kellie came onstage to join Bucky in the Grease duet "You're the One That I Want." She then sang three of her favorites from season five, "You're The Only One," "After Midnight" and "Something to Talk About."

Intermission

Chris opened up the second set giving us every inch of his love with Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love." It was a crowd-pleaser and the reaction was thunderous. Next he sang Bon Jovi's "Dead Or Alive" and Styx's "Renegade." Also very popular and also very loud responses.

Elliott (whom you know is you-know-who's idol) came out to join Chris in singing "Savin' Me" by Nickelback. Everyone loved it as always. "Moody's Mood for Love" brought the blue lights back on as E crooned his signature piece. Finally E rocked the house with "Trouble" to the cheers of the San Jose crowd. He brought the boys out to sing Guns and Roses' "Patience." Wow.

Katherine started her set at the top of the stage on the floor with "Horse and Cherry Tree." I wish I knew what this song was about. Then she admonished the women to tell their men to "Think" and then finished off with "Somewhere Over The Rainbow."

Taylor entered the arena from the rear singing "Jailhouse Rock" and trotted to the stage with a security entourage. Onstage he gyrated through several numbers with a Fender Strat, harmonica and tambourine. These included "What Does It Take," "Livin' For The City," "Do I Make You Proud," and his encore piece "Takin' It To The Streets." Though he mentioned "San Jose" several times, he would have drawn more crowd reaction if he mentioned that San Jose is home to the Doobie Brothers--one of the greatest bands of all time.

The Idols closed out the show with "We Are The Champions" and "Living in America." The crowd goes wild.

After the Show it was time to meet with the Idols. Sadly Chris and Bucky were no-shows but I did get E's autograph and give him the ETrain ball cap. It was a pleasure to speak with him. He's a truly deserving idol. Ace was surprisingly nice and seemed very genuine. I spoke to Paris and Lisa but missed Katherine and Taylor.

Overall it was everything I thought it would be and more. Getting to meet up with Elliott was certainly the highlight of the evening.

WOW! You guys look like you were having a blast. Thanks for the pics. I'm glad you got to hang out with Elliott and the rest of the idols. I wish I could have been there too!

Well, I just made it home. After only four hours of sleep and taking the top layer of skin off of both angle bones from walking so much it was worth it all. I will look at my pics and recap after I've had some rest.

For now I will say I am thoroughly impressed with every Etrainer I met and some Elliott fans in the audience around me.

Thanks for all your support Etrainers. Okay Okay, just one tibit, when Mike called me and told me I had a backstage pass, I said to myself, "okay you're a adult mature woman, I WILL NOT CRY. " :bawl: Tissue I forgot tissue, does anyone have tissue.? :bawl: Sk888 offered Mikes sleeve. :rotfl:

Gogo, about the album?? were you able to give him it? it was so beautiful and touching, great job!!

Woot Woot!! :woohoo: :rocker: Go MC!!

I am UBER excited for you....you MET E!!!! (AND ACE......:yummy:)

GREAT pics...looking foward to the recap! Thanks for sharing with us!

And B...did you & Elliott work that magic again? Bless your heart...I may have to start callin you Dreamweaver!! :P :wub:


:etrain: :allaboard:

Just read the recap....AWESOME! I am sooo glad you ennoyed yourself & were able to meet up with other ETrainer's! LOVE your shirt by the way...veeery niiiiice!! :D

With all you have done for Elliott, ETrain & us goofballs in chat, you deserved this Mike, you truly did! I am soooo excited allll over again!! :woohoo:

:grouphug:

Mike,

First of all, thanks so much for all you do here with the great board features -the chats (gabbly and the regular chat room). the Elliott Station and probably more that I haven't mentioned here.

I'm so glad you got to meet Elliott, take in a concert and meet some of the Etrainers. The splashblog was really cool, and I loved all the pictures!

hi , thanks for the recap and pics. One thing I am wondering, did Elliott not sing the Luther song, or did I miss something? :)

He sang the Luther song but I didn't remember the name ... :)

Congrats Mike. I'm glad that you had such a good time and that you got to meet Elliott , other Idols and fellow E-Trainers. You really deserved that experience since you have done so much for Elliott and for us.

Did you tell Elliott that you were the Mike who does the tech work on the E-Trainstation site and who runs the Elliott radio station or did he already know?

Great pictures. Thanks for sharing your experiences and pictures with us.

Mike,
Thanks so much for the great pictures and the excellent recap. Sounds like all of you had a blast! It's so neat to put pictures with names. It was so very deserving that you got to meet Elliott - WAY TO GO!!!

Thanks again for all you do :woohoo: