OKAY...so I'm awake now and have a few more details to share!
If you want the detailed meet and greet review, see my post under CU Live over on the official fan club!!
All in all-an AMAZING show. The drive out there is a bit harrowing, as you actually leave the highway and still have another 30 miles of some very strange roads to conquer before you actually get into Reading. And along the way, you are in AMISH country!! Pretty and all, but since I was running late, I was not at all entertained by the scenery or the 30 mph speed limits!! And whoever mentioned it below-you hit the nail right on the head. There are at least a couple of horse and buggy drivers that will be happy NOT to see my yellow NJ tags zipping past them again!
This was a big concert for me, as it was my 35th time seeing Carrie live and the first time that I actually won a meet and greet (not my first time meeting Carrie, as I've actually met her a ton of times now, but the first time I actually won an official m and g). The meet and greets, particularly for the Fan Club members, are amazing. They didn't rush anyone along at all. Some people actually spent several minutes chatting with Carrie. I wish I had some exciting details to share about my encounter, but as usual, my shyness prevailed and not much came out of my mouth at all.
What I can say is this though: Carrie is honestly one of the most humble and down to earth people that you'd ever want to meet. I know you've heard that before, but REALLY-it's so true. She looks you in the eye when she talks and though she is shy, she really makes and effort to talk to everyone. I really think that she is so thankful to her fans and is just a genuinely nice person.
Keith and Matt were both very nice-both saying "Hi Heather-so nice to see you!" (it had been a while since I'd seen them or Carrie for that matter). In a funny moment during the meet and greet, I had handed her a pic to sign. I don't say anything-just handed it to her and she says it's "M-I-C-H-E...". I must have had a confused look on my face cause she's says "Oh MY GOD...BRAIN FART...You're NOT Michelle-you're Heather....Total BRAIN FART!" I'm laughing and say it's okay-Michelle is here too, lol.
After the m and g, we met up with our friends and ended up chatting our way through Jason Michael Carroll. We finally got to our seats and were SOOOO impressed-we scored 8th row seats by the catwalk. Really-the perfect location.
Carrie was on fire tonight. The crowd was GREAT-the whole floor section was on their feet for the entire show. With the seats that are blocked off, the venue held about 6,000. According to the staff there it wasn't a sell-out, but as there were only a few scattered empty seats in the back, it was pretty darn close. I actually really liked this venue as there were a ton of restrooms (yes, this is important to me) and all kinds of creative vendors. It looked like a Chesney show, as they even had a Parrot Bay sort of stand that sold margs and various other mixed drinks! Even the staff were friendly, including the guard who was next to us the whole night. He got so into it that when Carrie was strolling looking for Prince Charming and we were pointing out the cutest little boy next to us, the security guard starting pointing at the boy too!
Carrie was chatty and had some pretty funny comments between songs (which I'll allow Michelle to elaborate more on tomorrow). A definite highlight was when she walked down the catwalk and asked where the girl she knew was. The "little girl" was 13. Basically the story was this: Carrie was doing her usual strolling up and down the catwalk. I guess one of the times she did that, she noticed this girl, who at a prior concert (maybe at a meet and greet-dunno??), had given her a dress. So later on between songs, she goes to the area where the girl was and says that she KNOWS she saw a familiar face there. Now of course, Renee/Captain is standing right near this girl, so Renee says something like "I'm here", lol. Carrie says something like "not YOUUUU...", lol. And then she sees the girl and tells the crowd that the she met the girl before and she made her a beautiful dress, which she isn't wearing because it's home in her closet in Nashville.
She says your name is "Karie" (I think that's what she called her...someone correct me if I'm wrong)...girl nods no just as Carrie is saying "no, your name is Kara". Girl nods no and Carrie asks her name and she says "Karissa". Carrie had actually been VERY close to what this girl's name was. Then she said you're "11....12" and the girl says she's 13.
Then Carrie tells us to remember this girl's face. As she's about to start the song, she takes out her earpiece, pulls away her mike, and bends down and has a little private convo with the girl. She then dedicated AAG to the girl.
It really was too sweet. Hopefully someone got it on vid, to provide the exact dialog. The girl must have been over the moon.
Another highlight for us, as usual, was the band. They really are just the nicest group of people. As Ed was strolling down the catwalk, he was slapping people's hands. He gets to me and stops dead and does sort of one of the old school 'gimme some skin" slaps. I didn't feel it, but he had slipped me a pick, which I, of course, dropped. I managed to rescue it and as he made his way back down, I handed him a bag of M & M's. As they say in Dances Like Wolves, "good trade", haha.
Before DFTRM, Carrie had a LOT to say. I actually didn't catch all of it, but remember her commenting about how much she was talking and said "WELL-I have the microphone" (as in...you just try to stop me from talking, haha). She also went into a speech about Checotah Public School system and said "well-they did the best they could for me" and then said she'd better stop as she was offending people now.
Before the start of one song, she said that during sound check she noticed the cool house-like thing in the arena (which was a funny super suite in the back corner). She said it would be cooler if someone actually lived there. "Like hey..I live here in the arena". She said that it would be cool to have a dog and take it walking...in the venue.
No surprises with the set, but everything sounded GREAT. Noone on the floor sat down at all, which seemed to give Carrie a lot of energy. The crew has a "newer" addition-the video guy-who took a liking to Michelle and Renee, who appeared on the big screen a couple of times each. Michelle and I were both actually in the shots, but since I'm a foot taller, it's Michelle's face and my shoulders, hahahaha. We actually met the video guy at a bar after the show when he was killing time waiting for the crew to finish breaking down. He's doing all the shows until June, then will be back for the LBT tour in September. Real nice guy if you ever get the chance to meet him!
We had a fun time hanging with some of our regular concert buddies-glad that we were FINALLY able to execute a plan to hang out after the show. It was a long, tiring drive home, but well worth it!!
One of the big highlights of the evening, which I forgot to mention previously, was as we were walking out of the venue. We had waited a while to leave, to let the crowds clear out. As we were walking out-a guy came up trying to sell us the bootleg Carrie t-shirts for $5. Out of nowhere comes Amy, Carrie's Merch manager, who proceeded to chase-LITERALLY CHASE-this guy away. If you've met Amy, you know that she's a pretty small gal-to see her chasing this rather large man away (and to see him running for his life) was one of the funniest things I think I've ever seen. I actually had tears in my eyes from laughing so hard. Rule of thumb to all you aspiring bootleggers: don't f**k with Amy!
That's all I can think of for now...Michelle....help me out!!
awesome review!! love the bit with ed and the m&m's. ((: and, your m&g was awesome.
