Adventures: The American Idol LIVE! Concert in Portland

Hello World. As I'm sure you already know, my mom and I traveled from Colorado to Portland, Oregon, JUST to see the American Idol concert. I've already published a few posts about this topic, like with the awesome shirt I made based off of Paul's rhinestone cowboy suit.

Why yes, it is an awesome shirt.

Let's get onto the real story, though. You need a review of the American Idol concert (in my typical style) and the after party.

The Concert (these lovely pictures were taken by my mom)

So, my mom purchased Row Nine tickets for us (after already purchasing row 17 tickets, which we sold to the girl who cut my hair who originally had row 300 tickets, but that's another story), and we were so super close to the stage, it was ridiculous. We sat next to this girl, Madeline, and her mom who were just fabulous. Madeline was super pretty and had won the Miss Oregon Pre-Teen natural pageant. She got to meet and interview Lauren Alaina and Scotty the Body, Flute Extraordinaire before the concert because she came wearing her crown and sash (I'll post a video of that interview at the end). Also because she was wearing the crown and sash, some lady gave her and her mom Row Nine tickets when they were originally in row 100 with her dad and brother. (This is a crazy coincidence that she sat there, stay tuned, you'll see.)

So, the show opened with the girls singing "Born This Way," and then Perfect Pia sang and I tried not to fall asleep during her boring ballad and stand dancing.

Check out my stand dancing.

This is the best part of the concert....Paul McDonald sang fourth. My mom and I decided to stand up during his performance, and we were pretty much the only ones to do this. At one point I lifted my hands up in the air in the shape of a heart (this sounds stupid, but...) and he pointed at me! Straight at me. He pointed at me again later in the song and gave me the OK sign. Here is photographic proof of the point.

Rachel, you're awesome.

Stefano also performed at some point during the show. He was very dramatic onstage and just ridiculous. He also lifted up his shirt at one point, and also took off his shirt. For the ladies.

Before the intermission, Casey Abrams performed. He was so awesome! I also stood up during his song (again, one of the few), and so did these ladies on the other side of us, and Cabrams gave us a thumbs up! It was so awesome, and the ladies next to us freaked out during this and the PMcD point.

It was also funny watching Paul trying to do the choreographed dancing during the group performance of "Forget You." He hated it, and he looked ridiculous trying to dance. It was rather amusing.

After the intermission, Lauren Alaina performed (during her song "Like My Sister/Mom Does" my mom and I looked through the hilarious pictures she had taken of me earlier that day), and so did Jacob "I Gyrate for Jesus" Lusk. After those boring performers, James Durbin took to the stage!! He entered from the back of the stadium and came through the crowd on the floor, it was so cool. Also, everyone was on their feet for both of James' song, and he garnered more cheers from the audience than anyone, including Scotty.

Haley performed very well, she sang "House of the Rising Sun" and "Bennie and the Jets." After her came Scotty the Body, and he did relatively well, too. The only disappointment is that he didn't hold his microphone like a flute (they've broken him).

Now, here comes the best part of the story. When Scotty began performing "Gone," the song right before the finale, Madeline and her mom asked my mom and I if we wanted to come with them to the tour buses. Lauren told Madeline during her interview that they'll all be coming out to greet the fans at the tour buses after the show is over. Without hesitation, I said yes!

Me and one of my new besties, Madeline! (How cute is she?)

I know it looks like I have no hair...but I just got it cut really short, just a few hours after we arrived in Portland. Thank you for noticing.

Post-Concert: Meeting the Idols

So we got to the tour buses at the perfect time, right before a hundred people flooded the area. We waited for quite awhile, probably a little under an hour or something, for the Idols to make their appearance. (In the meantime, I flirted with the cute security-type guy who was watching us at the fence, he was an excellent listener. Haha.) Then, the Idols made their appearance. Let's break it down.

Stefano came out first, and lifted his shirt up for the screeching girls (he did this onstage once or twice too). He stayed out until it was time for them all to leave, which was really cool that he stayed out that long. Funny story: This one girl really wanted a picture with Stefano, and so I told her I'd help her get him back over to our area. He was just about to walk away when I yelled out, "Stefano! Stefano! Lorenzo!" (This is what my mom called him all season for some reason.) So he came over to me and this girl and said, "Why are you calling me Lorenzo?" It was classic. But we got the picture, and now that girl has a great story behind it!

Naima came out and she looked beautiful! She is even prettier in person. In concert she sang "On the Floor," by JLo, and when she signed my paper I said, "You sang that song better than Jennifer did." And Naima laughed and said, "I'll take that!"

Haley and Thia also gave me their autographs, so that was nifty. I saw PMcD come out of the tour bus at some point, but he went to the other side. Then after a few minutes he went back into the tour bus and held up one finger as if to say, "One minute," so I figured he'd come back out.

Lauren Alaina came out and greeted everyone, went around a few times, just to make sure she signed everything. This was so awesome, especially because she was limping. Apparently, before she was going to perform, she fell down some stairs (yes, again) and twisted her ankle. But Lauren was a trooper and went around and signed everything. Major props to that girl.

James Durbin came out and made sure he signed every little thing that his fans wanted, it was awesome. He even took someone's poster and sat down on the ground to sign it correctly and awesomely for her. This guy is so dedicated to his fans, it's amazing. There is no one better to be a fan of than Twitch because he really cares about his fans. When he came around and signed my ticket, I told him, "James, you did great tonight. And also, I think you should have won. Seriously." James got all humble and said, "Oh, thank you." I think he knew he should have won, but he was still humble about it. Then I got a picture with him and with Madeline's brother (he was also a huge fan)!

James looks awesome, Madeline's brother looks excited, I look a bit ridiculous. (It was from joy.)

Casey Abrams also came around. Fun fact about Cabrams: He went to University of Colorado which is in Boulder (this is important to our conversation). He was signing somebody's thing near me, and here's how our conversation went.

CA: "You can touch my hair." (He said this to somebody else, but I jumped in anyway.)

Me: "Can I have a lock of your hair?" (joking)

CA: "Yeah, totally, if you scissors." (joking)

Me: "Darn it, I don't have any scissors." (joking)

Crazy Lady Near Us: "I had scissors in my purse, but I took them out. I shouldn't have done that..." (not joking)

Me: "Hey Casey, I'm from near Boulder." (When he came over to sign my paper)

CA: "Really, you are? Where?"

Me: "Just outside of Denver."

CA: "Where?"

Me: "The city I live in." (I don't want the blogosphere to know what city I live in.)

CA: "Oh, I've heard of that place."

Me: "Yeah, it's really nice. So, I flew all the way out here just to see you and Paul."

CA: "You did?"

Me: "Yes! And look at my shirt!" (I show him blingified shirt.)

CA: "Whoa!"

Me: "Yeah, I made this. I put on every rhinestone."

CA: "No way, that is so cool. I gotta get a picture of that." (He pulls out his cell phone.)

Me: "Oh, okay!" (I pose, and Casey literally took a picture of me in my shirt with his cell phone. I swear to Mumford & His Sons that this happened.)

My Mom: "You should text that to Paul and tell him to come out here!"

Me: "Oh yeah, can I get a picture with you too?"

CA: "Yeah, of course!"

Me: "Thanks, Casey!

CA: "Did you want to touch my hair or my beard?"

Me: "Can I do both?"

CA: "Of course!" (So I touched his hair and his beard.)

Me: "Wow, thank you for that."

CA: "No problem," (Then he started signing someone right next to me.)

Me: "Wait, Casey, do you like Mumford & Sons?"

CA: "Yeah, I love them!"

Me: "Sweet! I thought so." (Because of the whole stand up bass comradery thing.)

Obviously, me and Casey are like besties now. Don't believe me? Check out this picture of me and my new Idol Best Friend.

Me and my new bestie, Casey!

So there you have it, folks. I had a full-on conversation with Casey Abrams, and I got picture with him and James Durbin. It was overall a successful night.

But PMcD never came back out of the tour bus (I'm convinced he was talking to his skank Nikki Reed, that's what I told my mom). I was disappointed that I didn't get my shirt signed, but I was more disappointed that he didn't come out to greet his fans. We pushed him through the season when so many people didn't like him. Paul has lost me as a fan of him, but I'll still like his music. Sorry PMcD, you just lost your former biggest fan. If you had just come out to greet us, then I would have been your fan.

Scotty never came out either, but he was recording something.

Overall, this was a fantabulous night! I can't even describe the awesomeness that was July 9th in Portland. My mom and I were greeting the Idols until about midnight, and we had dinner at 1:30ish. It was so much fun, and if anybody gets a chance to go to the concert, GO! And find out where the tour buses are and miss the last two songs to get there, because it was so worth it.

PS: More pics coming tomorrow! Check back for that.

Here is the video of my new friend Madeline interviewing Lauren Alaina and Scotty McCreery (this country radio station liked her so much, they're making her a new correspondent! How cool is that?):

Preparing for the American Idol LIVE! Concert

First of all, I felt really stupid typing that LIVE! part of the title. But hey, at least I know that all of the contestants are alive.
Secondly, (I'm sure) everyone here knows about the crush I used to have the fabulous Paul McDonald. He was in line to be my Future Fiance until he proposed to that slut Nikki Reed (just kidding, she's not a slut...completely), so I've moved onto Winston Marshall of Mumford & Sons. That's all beside the point. I'm still a huge fan of Paul McDonald and his awesome band The Grand Magnolias. Being the huge fan I am, I decided to bling-ify a shirt I got that is a replica of Paul's rhinestone cowboy suit. It took over 530 rhinestones and quite a few hours of hard, hard work (which was eased by the humor from How I Met Your Mother). But the results made it all worth it.

Here is Paul's original Rhinestone Cowboy Suit:

Next comes my replica of the shirt. I have before and after pictures.
BEFORE the blingification. There are black dots where I put the rhinestones. Front, back, detail.

So those are the before shots. Still a totally awesome shirt, but not as cool as....

AFTER the blingification. Front, back, detail.

How totally rad is that?! I think my shirt is so super awesome.

Mine and my mom's original plan was to (try to) find Paul McDonald in Portland and my shiny shirt would catch his attention. I may or may not continue with this semi-stalker plan, as long as I don't get arrested for it.

Here is a video to remind you all of PMcD's awesomeness.

I'll do a post on the concert when I return! Until then, enjoy my pre-planned posts through Wednesday.

Toodle-oo!

Adventures: Mumford & Sons Concert

As promised, I'm back with the recap of the Mumford & Sons concert/sermon. It was truly magical, people. Truly.

Let's start with some of the crazy stories. My mom nearly passed out when the first opener performed and had to be taken to the ambulance. It was pretty intense (but she's okay now).
So (to understand the next part), my mom and I were about 4 people away from the stage (behind the gate) when we entered The Fillmore. Then, a bunch of people kept trying to cut in front of us, and I was getting super annoyed. My semi mean-ness caused a few people to leave (thankfully). Then, there was this one larger girl in front of me who kept dancing (even during the slower songs)! I kept trying to put my hands up to keep her away from me, when she flipped. She turned around and yelled, "Lay off!" She was frickin' nuts. She and my mom almost got into a fight, it was crazy (but they didn't).

Now onto the music part!
There were two, awesome opening bands. Matthew and the Atlas (British) and Nathaniel Ratecliff (from Denver, according to the cute guy next to us). These bands were pretty great, so you should definitely check them out.
Marcus Mumford even busted out a ukulele to join Nathaniel onstage! It was rad.

Then, Mumford & His Sons took the stage. They opened with "Sigh No More," to a ridiculously large, screaming crowd.
Then they moved on to my personal favorite, "Roll Away Your Stone." (This was also the time the people next to me start smoking pot. It smelled so disgusting, so no one has to worry about me doing drugs.)
I won't do the whole set list in order (mostly because I forgot, it might be because of that second hand marijuana smoke), but they did perform every song on the album, except for "I Gave You All" and "After the Storm." Also, they performed about 6 new songs. One was finished 3-4 days ago, and one was finished the day before. All of the new songs were beautiful (and it makes me super excited for their next album).
My FAVORITE performance of the night was "Sister." Somehow, Mumford & Sons got everyone in the Fillmore to stay silent (at least for a time) while they sang an unplugged version of this song. I wanted to cry, that's how amazing it was. The video is below.

For the encore, they said, "Denver, would we be testing your patience if we played another new song?" We all cheered, so they played us another new song. Then, they performed a great rendition of "The Cave" for the final encore. It was amazing.

Also, before some videos from the night, I should add that I realized I find Country Winston super attractive. Despite the beard, semi-mullet, and wife beater t-shirt, his banjo playing was super attractive.
And he's funny! Marcus said, "Usually we have a few jokes, but not much tonight. We're just so f***ing funny!" Then Country Winston told us a joke, "Why is it rubbish being an egg? Because you only get smashed once, laid once, and the only person that sits on your face is your mother." Too funny. Then Marcus said, "We need new jokes." Hilarious.
Then, before the performance of "Sister," Marus and Winston told us to be quiet. Winston said that if someone talks to thump them, silently. How amusing.

Anywhoo, here are some of last night's performances (taken by the lovely concert-goers).

"Sister"

(I wish I was this close, but I was kind of this close. I was in general admission, about 7 people away from the stage, to the side. It was amazing.)

"The Cave"

 (This was the final encore. Beautiful.)

"Little Lion Man"

(sorry that most of the rest of these aren't the best quality)

"Below My Feet"

(New song, my favorite. Again, sorry about the quality.)

"Hopeless Wanderer"

(new song)

"Sigh No More"

(opening song, not the best quality, again sorry)

The moral of this blog post is: if you ever get the chance to see Mumford & His Sons in concert, do it! My mom and I bought tickets on Monday (for three times the price...), and it was so worth it.
They're recording a new album, to be, in the words of Marcus Mumford, "a real band, we want to be real boys!!" Oh, Marcus.

I think I'm love with him...and Country Winston (I clearly have a type, a musician with a beard).

Enjoy!

PS: Pictures coming tomorrow. There might be daily posts of Mumford coming your way for the next few days (or possibly weeks).