7/27 Pittsburgh: steam + Pop-Tarts = crazy delicious

(Bucky signing autographs after the Pittsburgh concert; photo by me, oddly enough...)

Pittsburgh was a hot, steamy mess Thursday--but even the rain and heat couldn't ruin what turned out to be a fabulous time at the Mellon Arena. (It ruined a lot of hairdos, though, including mine. If the look of the crowd was any indication, the 70s-style Afro is a major trend this year...)

Bucky's hair--and his performance--was terrific, of course. There was a somewhat different vibe at the Pittsburgh show than at the Cleveland concert earlier this month; he seemed more relaxed (relaxed enough to get a little ahead of the music during an extended version of "Superstition"--he smiled to himself as he caught it and got back on track) and a bit less tired. With that sweet homecoming show just a few days away and today's White House visit on the horizon, that sunny smile from the stage looked absolutely radiant. (And yes, we got a nice long Bucky Slide, to many cheers.)

I've had a little change of heart about "Drift Away", too--there's something about an affable performer like Bucky singing a song that everyone knows the words to--and singing it so well--that makes this a truly sweet part of the show. The sing-along segment definitely works; it bonds him with the audience in a subtle but solid way. And the adjusting of the cowboy hat inspired some well-placed high-pitched screams last night. (Guess I'm not the only one who likes The Hat.) I still would have loved something along the lines of "Real Good Man" for this tour, but hey--I didn't get that pony when I was eleven either, so...

Anyway, it works. Bucky's performances on this tour--both the two I've seen and the ones we've read about in the many recaps posted online--seem to be earning him new fans and some well-deserved respect. It's fun to hear people sitting nearby express delight and surprise (and occasionally something a bit livelier from the girly contingent) when he takes his bows after the duet. And it's a safe bet that those same folks will gladly buy a ticket when he hits the road on his own--especially after his debut "country with an edge" CD takes off.

Quick second impressions of the others:

Mandisa looked lovely in her satin blouse and glittery makeup, and sounded just wonderful. If anything, this crowd was even more into her performance than the Cleveland audience, and she gave that energy back double--she was on fire. Ace Young was a little more subdued than in Cleveland--the rumors of a flu bug on the guys' bus must be true--but no less charming, and the crowd was crazy about him. (The Terrible Towel was a clever touch, too--he signed it "Nice Catch!" before tossing it into the crowd, according to the boards.) Paris Bennett and Lisa Tucker were both as cute as can be, and their "Waterfalls" duet was a much bigger hit here--the "best buddies" chemistry between them is very real and a whole lot of fun. Kellie Pickler (with hair extensions tonight) still seemed a little tired, but was in excellent voice and won over the crowd by singing "Happy Birthday" to a delighted young girl named Paige--a very sweet moment, indeed.

Chris Daughtry was a major hit with this crowd--Pittsburgh loves them some rockers--and his "singalong" encouragement during "Wanted Dead or Alive" ended up being a reminder of why he got so far in the contest and we...um, didn't. Elliott Yamin...oh, heck. I guess I have a little crush on Elliott now, so my raves about his stunningly wonderful performance of "Never Too Much" will probably be seen as less than objective. But it was stunningly wonderful--really. I'd love to hear him do a whole soulful set on a solo tour. Taylor Hicks--even with the lingering fever he's rumored to be fighting--rocked the house fiercely, and while I missed "Don't Let Me Down", he is just an all-out powerhouse on that stage. I'll say it again--I can't wait to see what he'll be like away from the Idol/Pop-Tarts trappings and into his own thing. He's one of the most fascinating performers I've ever seen.

(I was offline all day and didn't know that Katharine McPhee wouldn't be there until I saw the little sign taped to the doors of Mellon Arena that night.)

But I'll bet you want to know about that picture...

So, here's the deal. As a terrifically shy person who's also a tiny bit skittish about crowds, I'm not really one to hang out after a concert--my usual feeling is that the performers have come to put on a great show, I've paid for a ticket, and once they're off the stage, they've held up their part of the bargain--anything else is a bonus. (Exceptions are a structured fan-friendly event like Fan Fair or the Bucky Bash earlier this year--I don't feel like I'm imposing when the meeting-and-greeting thing is what the performer's there for.) But in Pittsburgh, I happened to leave the show at the exit closest to the fence near the buses, where a crowd had already gathered, and my curiosity grew...

Yepper. Did the fence thing.

We waited. It rained a little. Mandisa came out first, waved and smiled and went into the bus. A tall, thirty-something man behind me raved about Lisa...a lot. "If only she were about sixteen years older!" he said, in a voice deeply, and alarmingly, tinged with regret. Two or three beglittered Chris Daughtry fans stood beside and in front of me--one checked out my slightly-modified BSTees Bucky shirt (yeah, I wore it), and smirked. A street vendor was arrested behind us. Finally, most of the guys came out, waved at the crowd, and disappeared into the buses for a bit. (Taylor smiled and came back with his camera to take pictures of the cheering mob.)

By then, I was tired and crowded-out...but just as I began to leave, Chris Daughtry and Taylor Hicks dashed out to sign some autographs--and the crowd became one screaming, pink-tentacled entity with papers waving and bobbing all over the place. I'm tallish, but not the tallest person in that crowd by far, and so I didn't quite see when Bucky and Ace first came to the fences. But all of a sudden, Ace was right in front of our section of chain link, eye to eye with an mesmerized little girl who was too overwhelmed to speak--she burst into tears.

"Is everything okay?" he asked her, very softly--and incredibly, the whole group of fans around him went quiet for a moment. "You're crying...is everything all right? Did you have a nice time at the show?" By then she was able to nod at least, and he smiled. "Is there anything you'd like me to sign for you?" Gently, he took her little souvenir, signed it, handed it back, said something like "take care and be happy", and moved down the fence, leaving forty or so newly minted hardcore fans in his wake. (A lady standing near me noted that she wasn't crazy about Ace during the show but she was fond of him as of now---that was just about the sweetest thing she'd ever seen...)

I spotted Lisa through a break in the crowd, too--tiny and beautiful, with luminous skin--but by then I think her admirer might have given up and gone home. Paris (very pretty, still wearing a bit of stage makeup) signed a few autographs near me; one young girl asked her "Where's Katharine", and her answer was something along the lines of I honestly couldn't say. (At the time, I didn't know about Kat's flight delay--the signs at the arena were the usual "illness" notice--so her answer was literally correct, if airline history is any indication.)

Bucky, Chris and Taylor were efficient autographing machines--you'd think they'd been doing the celebrity thing for years, rather than a few months. Bucky was friendly, polite and a bit reserved with the crowd from what I could tell--he was also quite popular, so I only got close enough to take a few photos, and to hear him say "just a few more, and then we really do have to go..." (In other unsurprising news, he's also very nice looking. But y'all knew that.)

I'm not sure if I'd ever do the fence thing again, but it was an eye-opener. American Idol's whole premise is the taking of talented, deserving people-next-door, and their eventual rise to stardom as determined by you, the viewers. And while the show does a very careful job of making them seem like the people-next-door--knowable, approachable people to whom you can relate--by the time they're playing sold-out arenas and meeting the President, the undeniable fact is that they're genuine celebrities, full stop. Their lives, their worlds, and their way of relating to other people have necessarily changed, probably forever. And nothing underscores that more than a chain-link fence with tour buses, bodyguards and nine attractive young singers on one side, and a large crowd of photo-and-Sharpie waving, screaming fans on the other.


Two days away means a lot of catching up to do! News post coming up next...