FORT WAYNE, IN -EMBASSY THEATRE-03/02/2011

[Marilyn]

Thanks Marilyn for bringing us those great pictures..

I bet Barb really had a good time,am looking forward to her recap.

Dang!! On that last one, he is looking RIGHT AT US!!

[Marilyn]

Scarlett clip from Fort Wayne just uploaded to You Tube:

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdyCSfQIC1s

What a Gorgeous performance.

ETA additional Scarlett Fort Wayne clips added to You Tube recently:

Pre-"Who's Sorry Now" Banter: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9L5hnmTHTak

"Who's Sorry Now" Merengue Style: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGrRHde3POk

Fans are going to love Clay's moves in the Merengue snip.

[Tiffany]

He's gotta be on DWTS one year.  I read that Barb is flying home today. Looking forward to her recap.

Tonibabe's got some great pics too. Yum!

Dang it. The You Tubes aren't working for me. All I see is black when I play it. Am I the only one having this problem? I'll see if I can try from another site.


ETA: Could play them on Facebook.

[Tiffany]

I read this Meet and Greet recap from the OC board. Her name is Laughn.

Just home from Ft Wayne but I wanted to post this M&G recap before other things from the concert came flooding into my brain and I lost some thoughts. My brain can only hold so much you know.

We were the last M&G before the show - the OFC peeps and the auction winners - about 9 of us. We had waited through two PBS M&Gs held before ours and held in a different location. They went right, we headed left with Jerome. They checked photo IDs twice. The venue had checked our IDs when we first arrived and gave us our M&G tags. Jerome asked us for our photo IDs once again before he let us pass. We were led down to the pit area and seated by number in the first row of seats. The floor moved under our feet when we were taking our seats but nothing like it did when Jerome walked off to get Clay or when Clay jumped off the stage and took a step later. Made me laugh during the show that he mentioned the floor being held up by strings, lol. The M&G gal sitting next to me had the seat right behind us for the show that evening. I saw her again after the show and she said the floor didn't didn't feel like it was moving at all then, so the weight of a full pit audience must have anchored it better. It was a weird sensation.

Anyhow, Clay walked out on stage and sat in front of us, all sweatshirt and cut off sweats with his t-shirt hem sticking out in back. Looked like my kid dresses. He seemed totally casual with the loveliest smile ever. His hair looked soft and shinny and I thought already styled for the show. Pretty color.

Some time in that immediate rush of adrenaline when you realize you're talking to Clay Aiken and have no idea if he's even wearing shoes, he asked our names and shook our hands and found out where we were all from. The Great White North was represented on both ends of the row. He teased them later about taking over the M&G questions, but they really were not. We were all pretty gabby. He was just doing the regular Aiken tease with folk. Seemed amused by the gal from Michigan City, IN. Said he assumed that was close to Michigan. lol. Where we were from also lead to one of the M&G questions, "When are you going to come to Lansing." He said he thought he had already been there and seemed up for a argument, abet a light one. He really thought he had performed there. Anyhow, he stated again during that conversation that this tour would be it for a bit. He used a cute phrase for that, (for a short amount of time) but right now I can't remember what it was. Sorry.

canuck actually asked my favorite question. She asked why is was that we sometimes hear him speaking with a horse voice but when he sang his voice was beautiful. He spent a great deal of time explaining the process. He rubbed his hands on his neck and said that was where his talking voice came from. He then took his fingers and rubbed from his nose out, under his eyes and said that was where his singing voice came from. There and the area above his eyes as well. (He rubbed his fingers over that upper sinus area too) He said some low notes come from the throat but mostly he sang from the area from his nose up and that he had to consciously had to throw his voice up there when he's singing - well, I guess up or down depending on the song. He said that was why What Kind of Fool Am I was one of his favorites because the notes from that song are all from nose up. I don't know much about music and singing but I'm sure that makes sense to the folks who do. He also said he has never taken vocal lessons and that most performers think they know their voices better than other folk.

Lovely Canadian gal to my left said she had been at Raleigh PBS taping and the sound in that theater had been so rich and wonderful and asked if he (or they) up on stage could hear the difference like that from other performances. He said no, he couldn't hear any of that. He said every venue was different and the same man who did the sound in Raleigh did the sound for this tour. He said he was told (meaning from the sound guy) that the Ft Wayne theater had some bad spots for sound but apparently the sound guy must have fixed them because Clay praised the way Quiana was sounding up on stage during the show. And in case you didn't know, Clay sounded wonderful to.

Same gal asked about the Jazz medley and the changes in the set since the beginning of the tour. He said it just didn't work or feel right at the beginning and that even now they are still playing with it. He said when people respond to hearing The Way and TITN and MOAM he knows they recognize the song as his. He said he did not get that kind of response from Open Arms and he didn't feel people knew that song as his so much so they just decided to remove it from the set. I guess I was pretty impressed that he was gauging audience reactions so closely and that they were still tweaking this far into the tour.

Someone in the middle of the group asked if he still remembered much of his signing. (ASL) They now do that daily in their profession and they still remember watching Clay sign during concerts. He said he only remember some basic commands and words and stressed repeatedly that they need to keep using it so they would lose it.

I couldn't see who asked, canuck or yaknell, about the power outage in Vancouver that happened shortly before he was going to perform there one concert and he said he wasn't aware. He teased about us knowing more of this stuff than he did.

He was asked who 'Team Clay, ' was. He said he didn't know for sure. He figures it represents everyone in the management office, (Clay named everyone) but it wouldn't be a name he would use.

My question was about Sporcle. I asked if he had a Sporcle app for his phone. He stopped and got this funny look on his face and said he had no idea what I was talking about. I told him it was a website for quizzes. His head sort of went up then, (he was signing our items as he was answering some questions) and he said that sounded interesting. I had heard that he loved taking quizzes and I figured that might be fun for him if he didn't know that site existed. The new director at our art museum suggested the staff visit that site now and then to exercise our brains. I didn't tell Clay that. LOL

We all hopped up then and got into line to have our pictures snapped. (more floor movement ) One gal got her picture snapped out of line so we had to stop for a moment and reorganize. They had to make sure our names and seat numbers matched the picture order so we would all get the correct photos. Clay said he told the folks in Cincinnati the night before that they were the only ones who had gone through the process without getting mixed up, so you Cincy M&Gers give yourselves a pat on the back!! Hee.

That was it. We all said good-bye, Clay jumped back on stage and I wished him a good night, and out we walked.

Odds and ends:

While waiting for the two earlier M&G to finish I watched Ben just looking out the venue door standing in the lobby. He was there for a long time and I wondered what he was thinking.

People in the lobby talked to Jerome a bit. He said they don't look out to see what the weather is while traveling. Not unless the bus swerves. LOL. Said he sleeps in the bunks like everyone else. His is just a bit deeper/taller, but no longer than the others. He golfs, but not nearly as good as Felix. He just sort of drops his ball somewhere near Felix's ball and shoots from there.

The OFC/auction M&G ended around 6:40 so he had just an hour to finish getting ready before he hit the stage. We talked for almost half an hour.

Mary was there and took our pictures.

When we walked in we noticed a uniformed police office near the side door, (off duty security?) and someone in our group suggested that our reputations must have proceeded us if they thought tasers were needed.

That's it. Brain dump. If there's something I've forgotten, I don't know it. LOL

I had a wonderful time and I realize very much how lucky I am.

[Petjen]

Does anyone know how I can get in touch with Wowzers4clay?  She posts' a lot of her videos of Clay on youtube if that helps anyone out at all.  I'd like to send her an email, but have no idea how to reach out to her, so I thought I'd start here.

[Petjen]

He's gotta be on DWTS one year.  I read that Barb is flying home today. Looking forward to her recap.

Amen to that sister.  That's the one and only time I'd watch that show.   

[Tiffany]

Hi Jennie, Thanks. I don't know her e-mail but I see her post the You Tubes on Twitter if you can message her on there.

[Petjen]

Hi Jennie, Thanks. I don't know her e-mail but I see her post the You Tubes on Twitter if you can message her on there.

Is her user name on Twitter the same as it is on Youtube?

[wisconsinmaniac]

HELLO!   I finally am home from Fort Wayne!  Some definite airport delays!

QUICK RECAP!!  His voice was perfect.  He looked amazing.  He looks happy.  He sang the schnitz out of every song.  I sometimes forgot to breathe.

I will post a "recap" tomorrow.

FINAL DECISION:  I will attend as many Clay concerts possible  . . .   for as long as I have a pulse! 

[Tiffany]

Jennie-Yes it is.

Glad you finally made it home Barb. Sorry about the delays. Glad you loved it and had a fun time. I know. His voice on these songs is the best we ever heard. He's still got it!!! LOL I hear ya. Me too. Looking forward to your recap.

[Marilyn]

luckiest1

This recap neeeeeds to come out but I'm supposed to be working.

So yesterday morning, I get up, check my email and the boards, notice some EEEEEEing about the Cincinnati concert, download clack of The Real Me, EEEEEEEEE myself, and email cindilu2 with the subject line 'remind me why we aren't going to Fort Wayne concert tonight???'. She responds with something along the lines of we are poor, we have to work, life sucks, etc. I agree, we commiserate, and then we both head off to work. As I'm leaving the driveway, I get a text message. I stop long enough to read it and it says 'did you mapquest Fort Wayne?'. I replied no, why? I get back 'why not?' And so our crazy, unexpected, insanely spontaneous trip to Indiana started. I ran back in the house to grab my passport and headed to work.

I got to work, and between the two of us we determined:
- it was a 5 1/2 hour drive
- there was no time difference
- the concert started at 7:30, so if we left at noon we could still make it

So the ticket search began. I emailed PBS and got an immediate response that they had two 'pit' seats left if I want them, but I had to act fast as there were others interested. So I called and secured them at will call, and cindilu2 was IMing with people on the board to find another ticket for my daughter (who we still hadn't been able to contact, but we knew she had the day off work). We both made our excuses about having to leave work early (that sounds so much better than 'blatantly lied to our bosses' doesn't it?) Shortly before 10 am and a meeting I was scheduled to attend, it all came together, daughter was on board (as I knew she would be). I tried to look interested in the training session I was attending until they let me go just prior to noon!

We met at cindilu2's place and hit the road, with a quick run through Mickey D's drive through for sustenance. We were all still in the "WTF are we doing, this is insane" mode LOL. We hit some wicked blowing snow between here and the border, but once we got across is was clear sailing, sunshine all the way. TomTom gave us good directions and we arrived at the venue just past 5:30. We hit the box office to pick up our tickets at will call (they were not pit as hoped) and noticed that the M&G people were all milling around. We went outside to wait for LauraQ, who had our last ticket, and we noticed Scarlett running into the M&G a bit behind schedule. Next thing we know, she runs back outside saying "I need one more person!" So we shoved luckiestdaughter at her and told her 'go, go, go!'. I don't think she knew what was happening but she went.

We waited a few more minutes and they trickled out. luckiestdaughter was just beaming, and launched herself at me and we jumped up and down and EEEEEEed for a few minutes. She was over-the-moon because she got an individual picture, which is what she wasn't able to get in Charlotte. No chance for a tatoo autograph, but that was ok. She got one of the b&w venue advertisements signed instead. She said he looked like Christmas, with his green sweat pant shorts, and a red University of Mass. sweater. She described his hair as a mess, kind of like two horns. She doesn't think he looked in the mirror before he came to the M&G, probably just rolled right out of bed LOL. She said he took her hand in both of his when he asked her name, and she was so mesmerized by the red in his scruffy beard that she almost forgot to answer. She was in seventh heaven, y'all.

So we headed down to a restaurant at the corner and had a bite to eat with goldarngirl and her hubby. She mentioned that she might want to switch tickets with us if her seats were 'too close'. We couldn't imagine such a thing, but sure enough, when we got into the theatre, she was good to her word and generously switched her row B pit seats with out row E non-pit seats. luckiestdaughter was behind us in non-pit row B. I noticed Scarlett in our row in the pit so I thanked her for taking luckiestdaughter into the M&G with her. She said the seat beside her was empty, did I know anyone who wanted it? Hee! luckiestdaughter was there in a flash. So we all got to sit in pit row B. Seriously, how did this all happen? Thank you to everyone who made it possible!

The concert was amazing. Clay was in such a good mood and was so loose we almost wondered if he'd had a glass of wine or something before the show. He started on about how last night, a lady in the 2nd row of the pit had had a seizure, and how he though maybe it was because of his 'animal magnetism'. LMAO. He warned all of us in 2nd row to watch out! We were hooting and hollering at him, it was a great energy and he was soaking it up. He got so far into his explanation of the Clay Aiken medley and then, just out of the blue, said he had to take his tie off because it made him look 3 months pregnant, he'd seen the pictures. It was hilarious.

In the intro to the auto tune he made a reference to having sung "I Kissed A Girl" before and he made a funny face about that. The Who's Sorry Now portion was hysterical. He did some deep knee bends and growly notes in the 'old school funk' and he did some great hip shakes in the 'merenge'. Can't wait to get home tonight and watch that clack again. Really, the whole concert was just fantastic, every song, every bit of banter, I was totally and completely mermerized the whole night. He was right.in.front.of.us. I could see his feet. He wore jeans. I want to be able to do that every night for the rest of my life. I swear. Please?

Ok, I do admit we went to this concert with the hope that he might repeat The Real Me. We knew he might not (especially with his 'this song is now retired' quip) but we still had pretty high hopes. I mean, it's cindilu2's favourite song from On My Way Here, and my daughter has the lyrics from it tattoed on her leg (no, I'm not kidding). So it's kind of a big deal for us. After UM, he started talking about spontaneity, and how he'd sung this song last night, and we were almost squeeeeing with excitement. And then we heard the intro for Misty, and we all looked at each other like "WTF?" It's not that we dislike Misty, it's just that it totally wasn't expected at that point in the show. I am sure that the woman who requested it in the M&G was thrilled. But it was just a momentary thing. We wouldn't change a minute of the evening we had. Everything just seemed to fall into place for us and it was one of those special concert experiences that you just can't even begin to describe in words. It's almost hard to believe, in the light of day, that it really happened. I mean, here I sit at work as though nothing special happened last night. LOL.

[Marilyn]

lauraq

In fact, I've enjoyed all the recaps, but I don't often post my appreciation. I never did post a recap from my M&G and concert in Towson last week. Think I'm still in the fog. Someone did ask him a question about any Unicef plans and I think he said that there has been some talk but nothing that he was going to be doing anytime soon. At that point I was trying to figure out how to get a word in edgewise to ask a question (I never did get to ask anything) and I missed what he said.

A sort of interesting little tidbit. Someone asked him if he realized what a big splash he made when he made the appearance on AI5 with the new hair. He said he didn't think he made any big splash and that the whole thing was just "stupid." She also asked if he still had that suit. He said "was it purple?" and she said no she thought it was brown. He said he didn't remember which one it was but he likely didn't have it anymore because it probably wouldn't fit him now. Someone else said that was the best hair ever and he wanted to know why everybody was always talkin' about his hair.

Just as I was about to ask my question, he started reading off the order for the picture taking and I got shut out. Next time (which there probably won't ever be) I'll have to be rude and interrupt in order to be able to actually talk to him.

After the picture I said, "Thank you, Clay" and he said, "no, thank you." Awwwww

My DH attended the concert with me and really enjoyed it. The lighting was an issue, but the bit with the 2 sisters in the spotlight was comedy gold. Unfortunately, the woman who was yelling out during In My Life was sitting in the row behind us. Between her and the 2 young girls chatting it up during "Both Sides Now" I was a bit annoyed. I turned around and gave the girls a "look" and they shut up.

I wish we could have gone to a 2nd show. Probably should have gone to Glenside as it was only about a 2 hour drive, but $$ and time were not on our side for that. So I'll treasure the M&G and the fact I at least got to go to 1 show that was local.

[Marilyn]

More Scarlett clips from Fort Wayne concert uploaded to You Tube tonight.

Opening Banter: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VPrVfiUHPo

It's Only Make Believe: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eNKcMHskQE

Who's Sorry Now (Baroque): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcf_xBZkm74

Who's Sorry Now (Sousa): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jz4ogqfobYQ

Who's Sorry Now (Old School Funk): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6zTl2SOcoI

Scarlett is rendering the others tonight in high-def format which is a much longer process so this *should* be it for the evening.

Links can travel.

[Marilyn]

 couple of new Scarlett clips from Fort Wayne that were uploaded to You Tube late last night and this morning:

There's A Kind Of Hush: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_OVCS1eDV4

Can't Take My Eyes Off You: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4y3JiiIGGA

Links can travel.

[wisconsinmaniac]

FORT WAYNE RECAP:   Where do I begin to tell the story of how great a love can be . . . .

This was my only concert on this tour and it was quite doubtful if I would see Clay this time around.  That made Wednesday evening even more special. 

The Embassy Theater was simply beautiful.  (Clay mentioned that he thought the acoustics were the best ever. )  I thought that his voice was "the best ever".  I loved that the concert started a bit late because by the time the lights were way down and the curtain was still closed . . . . that strong beautiful voice began the song.  I forgot to breathe for a moment.  Then curtains opening and the spotlight on Clay. Nothing else like "his presence".   

He looked simply wonderful.  Shirt, tie, sweater, "very good" jeans and shoes.  The spikey hair . . for whatever reason.  I was surprised that Clay was on the stage for quite awhile before Quianna appeared. I loved how the band members looked.  And they all were smiling (especially Clay) and really looked like they were doing what they do best!!

He looked the crowd over and said he didn't see as many men in the audience as much as usual for this tour.  Lo and behold . . . men were raising their hands to make sure he saw them!   He asked quite a few who they came with . . . and most of them said their wife and one gentleman announced he was there with his wife and daughter.  I looked over at him a few times during the concert and he was applauding like crazy.  Good crowd response!

At some point, Clay mentioned that he had seen some pictures of himself on stage and it looked like he had a round tummy . . . he said "about 3 months" pregnant.  He realized it was because his neck tie was so long that he had to tuck it in under his sweater.  He got great laughs from that, of course.  So, he undid his tie and pulled it off . . . . . I never saw a longer neck tie!  The top button of his shirt was open (maybe two) and he looked mighty fine. 

You've seen many reviews and I don't have any brand new revelations to share.  He seemed very wound up and very happy.  The lighting was such that his eyes, his smile, his profile . . . . found the way to where I was sitting.  I loved when he was doing the different variations of "Who's Sorry Now".  Watch You tube of his Sousa marching interpretation and some unique moves when he did a Latin version. 

The voice, the gift!!   I love what he does to a ballad, but I certainly love when he does the the up tempo songs.  He killed on Buttercup, Suspicious Minds, Unchanged Melody (OK . . . just insert the entire playlist right here)! Oh, and the duet of Crying!  Yowza!

I've been to every concert since the Independent Tour (some multiple times).  I have favorite concerts. Clay brings something special to each tour!  This time, his voice was so strong and beautiful, he was relaxed and happy, and once again . . . he thanked his fans.  I could not ask for more!

I think I mentioned earlier that for as long as I have a pulse . . . . and Clay is on a stage . . . I will get there!