My friend Terri & I drove to Tulsa from KC, a now familiar trip, Thursday morning. We arrived in Tulsa around 1:00 and checked into the hotel. Then it was off to pick up our tickets at Cain’s. We ran into @Poniente23 and @Angleangiekc, went off to grab a bite to eat, then headed back to the VIP line.
After checking in we found @Curious_JG & her DH and waited with them. @Lobsters1 came over and then @MBenz. I saw @just_a_fan come in & waved. It was like old home week for twitter peeps, and there were still twitter peeps I missed meeting. It looked like there were about 70 or 80 people in the group.
Wade, the VIP coordinator/photographer told us the rules – no video, only one thing signed, no kissing the band. He said he couldn’t control any kissing done by the band. He said Dave was under the weather which might shorten the sound check. We filed into the venue and over to Andy’s side (Terri is an Andy fangirl).
I caught up to Wade & asked him about password protecting the VIP pictures because of hate sites that link to the pictures & mock the fans. He made a note & said he’d look into it. I was really impressed with the way the VIP package was run.
It was very cool to be a part of the backstage goings on. It must have felt like being on display to the guys. It’s not like being “on” for a performance. They’re tuning & checking sound settings and other technical stuff while we gawk at them.
Dave definitely looked under the weather. He looked tired and kept rubbing his eyes & hugging himself like he was cold. He was wearing a hoody over a t-shirt. He apologized and confirmed they’d be cutting the sound check short. He looked tired and acted like he was cold. And yet, when he smiled he looked perfectly, well, perfect. The twinkle was still in his eyes.
He said they’d be doing two songs. First was Circadian, then Fade Into Me. He didn’t talk a lot but he mentioned that he had vocal cord inflammation & that it sounded worse than it was. He said he’d gotten a shot in the butt but that if we mentioned it, he would deny it. Re reiterated his appreciation that we were shelling out money to see him when the economy was bad.
We thought we were finished at that point but then he said he wanted to try something. He went to the piano and started playing. A ripple went through the group – Dancing in the Dark! He had someone put his computer up on top of the piano so he could read the lyrics. I loved the slowed down, piano only, take on DITD. He said it wasn’t ready. I can’t wait until it is ready and gets played in concert.
We filed back into the other room for the M&G. We were standing about halfway back with @Curious_JG & her DH. I was afraid they’d cut the M&G short but they promised they’d stay there until everyone got their chance to talk to the guys & get their picture taken.
We had a better backdrop for pictures than previous tour stops, the brick wall of Cain’s. From our place in line we could watch people interacting with the band. Dave appeared to be mum, but miming. At one point he disappeared back into the venue & came back with Kyle’s drumsticks. There was a lot of hugging going on.
While we were standing there @Curious_JG pointed out some graffiti on the bench – MWK Are Sexy Bitches. LOL! If anyone was confused by the corndog tweets later in the evening, this is where the whole corndog meme got started. Terri thought she heard corndog when we were talking about margaritas and chips. More on that later….
I’d been mulling over what I wanted to say to the band for days. I wanted to ask about Sunlight being swapped out for Let Me Fall For You for @Gigglesmo3 & that was a safe choice (as long as I could keep from calling it Sunshine like I usually do). I would sound semi-musically literate. Mostly I wanted to not look or sound like an idiot and I wanted to remember to make eye contact.
I have been extremely fortunate to have met David and the band previously. You’d think I wouldn’t be nervous but I was. At least my hair wasn’t plastered to my head & my face wasn’t beet red from the heat like it usually is when I’ve met them. Most of the pictures I have with David make me cringe.
I was also trying to decide what I wanted for the picture opportunity. I figured my best option was silly. I thought about a Dancing with the Stars waltz with the guys dancing with each other or just everyone doing rabbit ears behind each other’s heads. I just wanted it to not be creepy, lol.
We got to the front of the line & I took pictures of @Curious_JG & her DH as they interacted with the guys. She was so nervous about meeting them for the first time. My pictures show a very, very happy @Curious_JG. And then I was up…
The guys were arranged Devin, Andy, David, Monty, and Kyle. I started with Kyle & told him his new baby was beautiful & thanked him for sharing her with us. That sounds stupid in retrospect but it was all I could think of, lol.
I told Monty I was sorry to hear about the golf game (Dave had beat him the previous day) and I asked if he’d let David win. “I never let anyone win. I’m getting worse & he’s getting better”. I looked at David and asked him if Tom Watson (famous golfer from KC) had anything to worry about. He shook his head then stepped away from the group. Monty said one of the guys from Carolina Liar is a great golfer & hard to beat.
Dave came back & I asked him why Sunlight had been replaced by LMFFY – he rubbed his fingers together in the universal sign of money & looked at Andy. I completely forgot to ask if we’d ever hear it (sorry @Gigglesmo3!). I also asked him to confirm that LMFFY was a demo. At first he looked confused & I said it had a different producer, and he then mimed yeah, yeah and nodded.
I told Andy that I’d heard that the MWK EP was being held up because of a problem getting the artwork done and that someone on twitter suggested that they just ship them out blank with a Sharpie and let us do the artwork. David was nodding in agreement and pointing at Andy, lol. Told Andy we could twitpic our artwork to him for future use. He couldn’t say when they might tour.
I asked Dave to please tell me that we’d get a KC concert date at some point & he nodded vigorously. I think it was at this point that they took the picture. He asked serious or silly & I said silly, smiled at the camera and had no clue what they had done. Later in the evening when they posted the pics my phone started blowing up with people telling me they loved the picture. I couldn’t see it on my phone so I had to wait till I got back to the hotel. Brainz!
I told David that I had made so many friends, including some I hadn’t even met yet, because of him & I couldn’t thank him enough for that and he reached out and hugged me, totally taking me by surprise. I started to move away & realized I hadn’t had him sign my VIP pass.
I asked him to draw a cat face, and he started to draw it on his own face, but I wouldn’t let him, lol. He moved it to the bottom of the pass & he had no idea where he was putting it. I looked up at Andy and said I was a cat vet but I liked dogs, too. Devin then said “I like cats” and I told him “you’re my favorite now”. I told him that I was enjoying his playing & asked him if they guys were being treating him well. He said everyone but Monty - he was mean to him. Andy said Monty’s mean to everyone, lol.
Devin later tweeted a picture of his cats saying they weren’t happy about the tour schedule. I totally take credit for that.
It was a completely fabulous M&G.
We got the rest of our VIP stuff & wandered down to the Mexican restaurant. By the time we finished our Horny Margaritas (seriously, that’s what they were called) we were in possession of a corn dog & Tulsa will be forever linked to corndog humor for the four of us. If you ever get the chance to meet @Curious_JG and her funny husband you will not be sorry. She is truly one of my favorite peeps and they are both a complete riot to hang with. They make me corndog happy.
As we were waiting in line to get into the venue (we got to go in first – that $75 was so worth everything we got) we met up again with @Poniente23 & ran into @Nic_Leigh and her DH. I saw a couple of other tweet peeps but didn’t get a chance to say hi. And before we knew it we were being let in. Before taking up position Skib side(second row!) we got our merch bundle. For $45 you get a t-shirt (either David’s or Gavin’s), a CD (again, either David’s or Gavin’s), a poster and a wristband that entitles you to meet David & Gavin after the show –it’s a deal! Not wanting to lug around a poster all night, I gave mine to the girl behind me.
I’d seen Carolina Liar open for Rob Thomas but I was further back for that show & if I’d realized how loud they were I’d have brought ear plugs. They’re good but they are loud and Chad kept asking for the crowd to scream. I think that contributed and holy moley, he was constantly trying to rev the crowd up. We were positioned in front of the Adam Levine look alike guitarist (sorry, don’t know all the band member names). He was having a good time & it’s so much fun to see that. He had a wicked smile.
Gavin puts on a good show – he’s quite the dancer! I am not familiar with all of his tunes but I did get his newest album so that should be rectified soon. He had the crowd worked up, too, and the screaming in my ears was starting to make me worry about even being able to hear when Dave came on.
Cain’s has a wooden dance floor and during Gavin’s set the whole floor was bouncing. It was wild. Cain’s is a really cool venue with a lot of history, decorated with huge portraits of old time music stars, mostly country - Bob Wills, Gene Autry, Tex Ritter, Tennessee Ernie Ford. Random fact – Cain’s is known as the Carnegie Hall of Western Swing.
By the time Gavin’s set was finished my feet were barking. As they were changing out equipment a blonde girl started edging her way into our group. When confronted she indicated that we was trying to get to the front row. She told us that we were there for Gavin but she was there for David and that she wanted up front because she loves David. We set her straight but she persisted, finally pushing though behind us and working her way to the center stage. Seriously, if I’d known that a love for the performer was all it took to get a front row spot I wouldn’t have wasted all that time waiting in line over the years.
We got kind of excited when we saw DITD taped to the piano. Maybe it was going to happen after all! Alas, it did not, but I promise you, when it happens it’s going to be epic.
When David came on the crowd went wild. You couldn’t tell he was under the weather. He sounded fantastic. He was so happy to be in Tulsa. I was fortunately still able to hear, although I had some trouble hearing his banter. I’ll have to check YT, lol.
Andy sounded great and he was really rocking out, more so than I remember from the Declaration Tour. I couldn’t see much of David, just a floating head mostly, because every single person on the front row was taller than me, and I mean significantly taller. I had a good view of Andy & Monty but not so much of Devin. I took no video (the sound would have been distorted) and only a few pictures. David didn’t move around the stage much so our plan of raising our corndog in salute, like a lighter, to see his reaction didn’t happen. Probably just as well – sounded like a good plan during the margaritas though.
Right before GTTG I started feeling clammy & light headed. Damn, that’s what happened at the MWK show at the Flytrap. I was afraid of passing out so I fought my way out of the crowd, got some water & watched the rest of the show from the soundboard. It was just as fabulous back there. And REM was amazing with the lights. It’s a great show closer.
After the show we picked our way over the flotsam of detritus, showed our wristbands to the same guy no less than 4 times and waited for the post show M&G.
They let us back into the area where the original M&G was a few at a time. We could see Beth (David’s mom) sitting with Michelle, his manager. There were no professional photos with this one. They took the pictures but with our cameras. It moved faster than the original.
In my excitement of the VIP M&G I had forgotten to give David a letter that my friend @DCMakeBelieve from Argentina had e-mailed me to give him. This time I had it out, determined not to forget again. I handed it to him, told him where it was from, and David literally started jumping up and down saying to Michelle that they just HAD to go to South America.
I’d pretty much said everything I could think of when I met David earlier so I shook his hand and told him that I’d met him several times but had never introduced myself. He seemed to hold onto my hand for a long time (or maybe it just seemed that way, lol). I told him, “not that you’ll remember” and he said he tries to remember everyone’s name. I told him there would be a quiz, and moved on to Gavin.
I told him I’d enjoyed his show very much and was happy to meet him. He called me Miss Diana and thanked me for coming. He’s very sweet, genuinely warm. They snapped my picture and that was that. Best. Day. Ever.
Postscript. I learned later that David had asked my friend if something was wrong during the VIP M&G. She told him her dog was very ill & might have cancer. He told her he was sorry & hoped that the concert would take her mind off the sadness, then reached out and hugged her. At the after show M&G he remembered her and asked how her dog was. It made her night. As it turns out her dog does have inoperable cancer but is home, feeling pretty good & eating well for now.
One more reason, and there are so many, why I love this guy.
