Kari's Concert Collection

Hyper Little Monkey Boy

Entered the grandstand around 6:20. Before finding our seats we checked out the merchandise booth. I bought a Plus One photo and keychain for $5. I asked the girl working the booth about an autograph signing. She said it was right after they performed, and pointed out where it would be. We then went to our seats; 2nd row, just slightly right of center. It was about 10 minutes to 7 pm, which was when Plus One was to take the stage. There was some last minute set up. Nathan came out to do something with his keyboard setup. I noticed there was a laptop plugged into it. Some girls yelled his name and he waved.

7 o'clock came and went. I saw the guys standing backstage. I think they were waiting for the sun to go down more. Finally sometime between 7:10 and 7:15 was their "Grand Entrance," which was them walking on stage and to their spots; nothing fancy. Nate calmly said, "We're Plus One." Some cheering. Gabe repeated it with more excitement and there was more cheering.

First song was "God Is In This Place." It began sounding kind of like the original form, and Nate was just standing behind the mic stand nearly motionless. After maybe two minutes of that the new form kicked in. And Nate began the usual hyper little monkey stuff that I love. There were so many interesting poses to try and get photos of. Mom said it reminded her of the songs you learn when you're little that has the hand motions to go with the words. That's exactly how it was. I can't think of any other way to explain it. It just has to be seen to be understood.

"I Don't Care" and "Camouflage" were then done back to back. Definitely the two rock songs of the set. I noticed Gabe was moving around more than last time. Jumping around in little circles, moving up in front of the mic stand, and even some lovely headbanging. Nate hid behind Gabe, and rolled on the stage with his feet sticking up in the air. After those songs Nate went to put the mic back on it's stand, and it was about 6 inches too high. He made a funny look in his reaction. Next they spent some time "Talking Minnesotan." The next song they said they were performing for only the second time, and apologized if it turned out sounding like rubbish. "Be Love" was the name. I heard a lot about it, so I was excited to finally hear it. Slow tempo; very pretty, especially the piano towards the end.

Next song Nate said had crowd participation. Gabe added, "So if you're a crowd, and would like to participate, stand up." They also said, "If you know the words, sing along. If you don't know the words, sing along anyway." How can someone sing along when they don't know the words? Anyway, the song was "Written on my Heart," probably my favorite to see live. It has such a great beat; you have to pull some sort of a dance move. Nathan did a swaying type move behind the keyboards. Well, swaying is not the greatest definition, but you get the idea. And at the end was the big climax where they stop singing, hold out the microphone, and the entire audience sings along. Yeah, this wasn't exactly a Plus One crowd and you couldn�t really hear the ones that were singing. I began to laugh; that was a priceless moment. I kinda felt bad for laughing after seeing the guy's faces, but I got over it. It was like there was going to be this big beautiful sing along, and instead it was dead silence. Great concert moment.

After that Nate "allowed" us to sit. Before continuing he ran to the drum riser to get a drink of water. It was a funny over-exaggerated run. He talked about "Touched By An Angel" had how they made their acting debut on the show. Then he says, "and that has nothing to do with this next song." Another new one called "Sea of Angels." I hear it's going to be the first single. It's a good song, too. Another Coldplay-ish sounding one. Nathan came out from behind the keyboards to chat for awhile. He asked if anyone saw Mars, sense it's at its closest point to Earth in like 6000 years. Nathan said he hadn't seen it yet 'cause they've been too busy. He was going to say something else and was like, "What was I going to say?" Next song introduced was "The Promise." Nathan�s mic kept cutting in and out, so his solo at the end was choppy. Nate went over and held out his mic, and Nathan used that mic to sing the last note. It was actually quite a cute moment.

Nathan attempted to fix the mic and says into it, "Can you hear me now?" I was expecting to hear after a pause, "...good!" Gabe I think said, "Are you Verizon?" And the reply was, "No, Sprint." There was also something mentioned about a sponsor, but I didn't quite catch it. Nate then asks us to all stand up, and on cue the entire crowd stood. Nate said, "I have control!" kinda evilly sounding. They ended with "Here I Am To Worship." This time the crowd sing along turned out so much better. At the end they did what I call the "Rockstar Leap" when everyone jumps up at the same time. Gabe looked cool with the guitar on. And they said bye and left the stage.

We then headed over to get in line. There were only maybe 10 people in front of us. We had to wait quite a long time, just about the entire Go Fish set. I watched them through the fencing, and they sounded great. I loved the beatboxing that occurred in just about every single song. And they did a cover of the Go Go's song "We Got The Beat." There was a Go Fish sing along right in line. I overheard that there was a backstage meet 'n greet for contest winners with Plus One before the autograph signing. So that's what was taking so long.

It was completely dark when they finally came out. Nathan was talking to someone on his cellphone at first. He did finish and hang up by the time the first person went around to get a picture with them. I must say the line felt very disorganized. Anyway, we were already up front within 2 or 3 minutes. Met Nate first. He read my shirt, laughed, and said he like it. The shirt was homemade with a red guitar on it that said, "Oops! I Went Rock!" He then said, "Oh, you're from that thing." I assumed he meant the Radio Disney thing from last time, but he could have also meant the natecole.net message board that he visits on occasion. It's also where the "Oops! I Went Rock!" thing originated. Either way it's pretty cool.

I attempted to explain the meaning behind the shirt to Gabe. It wasn't a great explanation, but an explanation nonetheless. I'm pretty sure Gabe remembered me as well. At least he acted like it. Not with Nathan, though. That makes sense; Nate and Gabe did talk with us more last time. After saying hello to Nathan I got my picture with the guys. After my sister Kelsey and her friend Michelle went through we got back over to our seats just in time to hear one and half more songs from Go Fish. It was too dark everywhere else to really see the photo, but up there the stage lights made it brighter. I noticed only Nate signed my photo!

We were gonna leave after Go Fish, so on the way out I explained the situation to one of the security people at the autograph line. I had noticed the guys were talking to the other security person and no one in the line was getting autographs at the time. The security lady I was talking to could have easily taken my photo and have the other two sign it without even interrupting the line. But she was basically, "Too bad, so sad." That was quite annoying, and showed just how disorganized the line really was. But, my original plan was to not even get autographs sense I already had one and to just get a picture with them. So I suppose that Nate autograph is just a little bonus. Gotta think positive, right?

Rebecca St. James was just beginning as we left. Outside the grandstand was the FOX news booth, where the weather was about to go down live. We attempted to get our Plus One photos on camera. If the angles were the same that time as all the other times I saw it on TV, they had to have gotten on. I'd say it was a 95% chance, so that's pretty neat.

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