VEGAS, MIKEY & ME!!!!

I thought about naming this post “Cross Country Insanity, Part II” but that seemed to wordy….and boring. VEGAS, MIKEY & ME seems so much more appropriate. It’s concise, descriptive and way more fun. Yes, Ladies and Gents, I flew back to the west coast for one last Michael Buble concert….or more precisely the David Foster & Friends concert in Vegas where Michael was just one of many incredible performers.

Kenny G, Andrea Bocelli, Josh Groban, MICHAEL BUBLE, Michael Johns, William Joseph, Katherine McPhee, Boz Scaggs, Peter Cetara, Blake Shelton, CHERICE, Sheryl Lynn, Brian McNight, Baby Face and his brother, Eric Bonet and Renee Olmstead….I may have forgot one or two, Sorry! It was all so amazing; I was and still am completely overwhelmed.

I admit it! I flew all those miles and spent all that money to get to see Mikey one last time before he leaves the US for the international leg of his “Call me Irresponsible” Tour. What I got for the money was SOOOOOO much more than that though. I was lucky enough to be joined by three of my closest friends and made a couple more while I was there. There was a total of 7 of us, 9 if you include the Martini in the Morning ticket winners, Two came from KY, one from MA, one from UT, two from CA, my best friend and I are from OH, and the truly amazing part, one came all the way from Nottingham England. Being able to spend this time with some of the nicest, craziest women you could hope to meet made the weekend for me….well that and I got to dance (kinda) with Mikey, but I will get to that part in a bit.

I won’t waste time on how we got our hands on so many tickets or how hard it was to find butts to put in all the seats, what I will say is that it was worth every penny and every headache and hurdle, not to mention the jet lag. Thank goodness I didn’t have to plan this on my own…one of the lovely ladies I mentioned earlier was the driving force behind most of it. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

David Foster is an extremely charismatic performer. He was funny, engaging, TALENTED, and naughty. Hmmm, that reminds me of someone! I wonder who? He was the ring master of this circus and except for one intermission and one performance spent the entire 4 -4 ½ hours onstage keeping us all enthralled. Oh, and I forgot to mention, this whole event was being filmed for PBS to be aired in December 2008.

The show started with a montage of clips all revolving around the amazing career of David Foster. I thought I was pretty knowledgeable about his body of work, but as the montage played I realized how little I knew about the incredible influence he has had on the soundtrack of my life. They played snippets of so many song that I knew. Ones I danced too, loved, cried, and dreamed too. My best friend was sitting next to me and she was even more astonished that I was…..we decided right then that we need to pull together a “David Foster” playlist. How many songs do we own that he sang, wrote, and or produced? There is no telling….but we’ll find out!

There is no way for me to recall all the songs that all the performers sang, but I can say that there was not a single bad note the whole night. There wasn’t a single performer who didn’t give it their all. And I seriously doubt there was anyone in the audience who wasn’t moved. How about I give you the highlights?

The first performer who caught my attention was Michael Johns. Now, I don’t watch American Idol, so I had never heard of this kid before but WOW! The boy knows how to sing 80’s rock and roll. I would like to hear him play his type of music, whatever that is…knowing what I know about David Foster I bet I will enjoy it quite a lot.

Andrea Bocelli, this man is probably the best vocalist in the world and when he opens his mouth to sing, even when it’s not in English, I just have to shut up and listen. I will be completely honest and say that while I’ve always enjoyed his music it doesn’t tend to capture me. If I don’t know the words I can’t get into the song…..however, LIVE, his voice is absolutely stunning. English or not it doesn’t matter. He did a duet with Katherine McPhee, also from American Idol fame, and it was beautiful. They sang “The Prayer”. Andrea originally sang it with Celine Dion and I believe another of David’s prodigies (Josh Groban) did it as well. In my opinion, this was the best version I have ever heard.

I will have to do another entire post someday about my fascination with Men who play Piano, but I will leave that for another day. I first heard of William Joseph from Jim Brickman’s website. Jim Brickman is a pianist and the only other performer who I like enough to join their fan club. On his site he likes to put up blurbs about new music he has found and that he thinks we might enjoy. He was spot on with William Joseph; this guy knows how to wail on the piano, as he proved Friday night playing a very hot Led Zeppelin song (Kashmir). David Foster told us all to go out the next day and buy William Joseph’s new album (came out last Tuesday…I had bought it off iTunes by 8am that same day) from amazon.com…and he would check…”he knows people.” Here is an album preview with William Joseph and David Foster.

Josh Groban ended the concert with his “You Raise Me Up” backed by a choir and it was very touching. I have enjoyed all of Josh’s albums but like Andrea I prefer his music when it’s in English.

The show stealer of the evening was a young woman (16) from the Philippians named Charice. Apparently Oprah found her off of a YouTube video, called David up and suggested that Charice be asked to perform during this show. The neat thing about it is that the first time David sees and hears this incredible girl she is singing one of his songs from “Dreamgirls” Well, smart guy that he is, he said yes…according to him you don’t turn down “O” when she calls. Please take a moment to watch this YouTube clip of Charice on Ellen. She sings two songs, both written and or produced by David. Don’t worry; I’ll wait for you.

The best part for me, even if he was still sick, was, and this can’t surprise anyone who knows me, Michael Buble. When he came on stage all of us (myself and the 4 other Buble fanatics I was sitting with) got up and started whooping and hollering….While I kept my eyes on my fella, I could hear other pockets of crazed fans around the arena doing the same thing. He started his set with “Feeling Good”. Damn that man is sexy!

Then he started joking with David Foster and I don’t know who taught who, but they have the SAME stage presence…laughing, joking, interacting with the audience, the slightly off colour humour…..He did a snippet of “Me so Horny” and tried to sing his number on single “Home” with a country twang. David Foster stopped him and invited Blake Shelton out to sing it as a duet. It was lovely. He also sang “Cry” at David’s request, and a little birdie told me that it might be on his next album. I truly hope so!

The best part was this….Michael says to the audience, “I need you to do me a favor….” I hear an OMG next to me and I realize (HOPE FERVENTLY) what is about to happen….”you’ve been sitting on your butts for the last 4 hours”…Unlike all the Michael Buble concerts I have attended the audience didn’t jump right to their feet. We (all five of us) on the other hand were trying to get up and to the aisle….I didn’t see it, but I heard from a couple of people that when he said “Come on ladies, Get up and dance!” that he was pointing to me and the ladies I was with. (I probably shouldn’t use quotation marks, the words might not be completely accurate, but they are to the best of my recollection) We made our way up to the front but stopped parallel with the front row…don’t know why, but no one was actually approaching the stage. I was dancing, the song was “Save the Last Dance For Me” Michael looked at me (He recognized me!…That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it!) did the “come here” gesture…I danced my way to the stage, he reached down for my hand and held it for several bars…I kept dancing, he kept dancing….I know it was probably seconds that he held my hand and we danced but it felt like forever. It was FANTABULOUS!!!!! I hope I don’t get edited out of the aired edition, but if I do, at least I have the wonderful memory.

After the show ended both he and David Foster came off the stage and took pictures with the fans and signed autographs. I didn’t get there soon enough but the lovely lady from the UK got one. If someone had asked me before the concert to pick only one of us to have her picture taken I would have picked her…..so all in all the night was perfect.

Cross Country Insanity!

I know I said I would be better at writing more often and that I have failed miserabley but I hope you will all forgive me when I tell you about following one of my obsessions across the country. Crazy? Me? Absolutely!

In my last post I told you I was lucky enough to find tickets to Michael Buble concerts in Indianapolis and Cincinatti...well I also managed to snag tickets for Cleveland, San Jose and Fresno. The last two being on the opposite coast from where I live.

My first show in Columbus was in the cheap seats, my next show in Cincinnati was 3rd row, and I have to say it made all the difference. I have now sat in 1st row twice, 2nd row once, 3rd row once, and 5th row once.....I will never be able to sit in the cheap seats again, and not just for a Michael Buble concert but any concert. All of the concerts were amazing and rather than go over each in detail I will give you a few highlights...

Cincinnati: I went to the concert with another obsessed fan and we had a blast...3rd row was fantastic and we made it to the stage toward the end of the concert. Michael is amazing at making eye contact and it felt like he was singing just to us. He was his usual funny, charming, sexy self. This time I stayed til the very last note was sung and was moved to tears by "Song for you".

Indianapolis: This time I went to the show with my best friend and the other author of this blog. She's a huge fan as well, but not quite as crazy as I am....Thank God! Once of us has to stay sane.

Poor Mikey was under the weather and unlike the previous shows didn't come out into the crowd. While the show was slower paced it was still AMAZING!!!! I couldn't believe I had seen him three times.

The highlight of this show was actually his opening act...Naturally 7... a couple of days before there had been a earth quake that scared a lot of people....they decided it was a sign to add a special touch to thier show. They did an incredible version of Amazing Grace.

Amazing Grace is my favorite hymn and I don't like it when people mess with the arrangement. Having said that, Naturally 7's version is the most powerful, inspiring, heaven sent version I have ever heard.

The funny thing is, other than that one song I don't remember thier act that night at all...I was too busy watching Michael read a thank you note I gave his bodyguard Steve. I had hoped he would read it, I never expected to WATCH him read it. I thought my heart was going to explode.

Cleveland: BEST NIGHT EVER! I got to meet Michael Buble....Yes, the concert was amazing, the people I met were great, the drinking afterwards with my MB obsessed concert buddy and coherts was a blast, but it boils down to I GOT TO MEET MICHAEL BUBLE. I even got a hug and a kiss from him. What more is there to say?

I thought this would be my last concert this tour and felt a little blue about it for a couple of days after the show....then my concert buddy and I started looking for good seats at some of the other shows, and what do you know, she found us 1st row seats to the San Jose CA show....the plan...fly in the night of the concert and fly home the next day.....Yes! Fly from the east coast, stay 19 hours and fly home. I told you I was crazy!

I managed to find 2nd row seats to the Fresno show and I figured what the hey? I was going to be in CA already, might as well stay a couple of days.

San Jose: Before the show I ran into Steve, Michaels bodyguard....apparently I have reached groupie status because I see Steve and he's like "I haven't seen you for a few concerts, where have you been?" As for the concert Mikey was definately feeling better, the energy at this concert blew all the other concerts I have ever been to out of the water. It was also the home of one of his band member and that added something special to the night. I watched Michael sing a couple of lines from his hit "Everything" straight into my friends eyes, from maybe a foot away. He was close enough to grab but I restrained myself. It was an incredible moment and made both of us melt!

I almost forgot....silly me...I also got a kiss from Michael when he came down into the crowd. YIPEE!!!

Unfortunately the night had to end and my concert buddy couldn't stay. I was left alone in CA, with an extra ticket to a Michael Buble concert...Whatever is a girl to do?

Well this girl decided to offer the extra ticket to her absolute favorite broadcast team. If you haven't heard of Martini in the Morning let me give you a quick education.... It is a internet radio show that plays all the great standards from the 50's and 60's as well as contemporary artists covering the Great American Songbook....such as Michael Buble.....yes, all roads lead back to Buble!

I have been listening to Brad Chambers and Michelle Briddell at http://www.martiniinthemorning.com/ for a couple of months now and I have to say they are the greatest. The show is 100% listener supported and they had mentioned on air how they weren't able to go to any of Michaels shows this tour....I had an extra ticket and a couple of days to kill, so I called them up and asked them to join me and if I could come by thier studio for a visit.

They said yes to the visit, but wasn't sure they could make the concert on such short notice and with having to be back in the studio at 4:30 the following morning. They thought I was crazy for driving from Fresno to North Hollywood but I didn't mind. We all know I am crazy! Anticipating talking them into coming with me I put a bid on a 2nd pair of tickets on ebay...that way Michelle, Brad and his wife could join me.

I spent 5 hours with them at thier studio and it was a blast, 2nd best part of my trip for sure. (Sorry guys, Mikey wins 1st place) They talked about me on air, made fun of me on air and were in general very very sweet to me. I offered to leave as I didn't want to out stay my welcome but they kept saying to stay. I got to hear alot of great stories about Mel Torme, Michael Buble, Kevin Spacey, Peter Cencotti and many others.

Here is a YouTube video from when Michael was in thier studio.

Unfortunately neither Brad or Michelle were able to make it work out for the concert so I gave them the extra pair of tickets to give away on thier show. For my extra seat in the second row...I had a plan....

The night of the show as the arena was filling up I walked up into the nosebleed seats and started shouting out for a person there on thier own.....I had numerous wives and girlfriends offer to ditch thier fellas and friends but I couldn't find a single person there to save my life.....a group of kids followed me into the next section and begged me to give one of their friends the ticket....She was turning 18 the next day and was at this concert as a birthday gift to herself. I caved and went to find her....She was so excite that she couldn't get her name out...it was cute. I think I may have ruined the poor girl for life..it was her first concert ever and she made it all the way to the front...Michael even grabbed her hand while singing. HAPPY BIRTHDAY HEIDI!!!

In between Naturally 7 and Michael's set, I got up and congradulated the Martini in the Morning winner, who by sheer chance was also a member of Michael's fanclub. She had joined the day before and read my post about the ticket giveaway on the boards. She said she managed to get her entry in about 30 minutes before the contest closed....I figure it was meant to be.

The concert had even more energy than the last one and watching it with someone who has never seen live before added a whole new vibe to the night. Since I was 2nd row center I didn't have easy access to the aisle to run up to the stage at the appropriate time, so without a care for my dignity I climbed over first row making sure Heidi followed me. Hope Mikey wasn't watching!
Well thats all for now, I have run out of steam. I am sure I missed several things, but I will try to blog again as soon as I think of them. Thanks for letting me ramble!