largely as posted on RedHotTopic (RHT) by elfe350

Concert Recap
I'm back from the concert at Hutch, in the hotel. Another great performance (as usual). Some thoughts:

Ben Jelen
I saw Ben in his first concert with Clay last week in Pueblo. He has improved since then! I think he was really nervous for the show in Colorado. Tonight he was more relaxed. They had turned the piano to face the crowd whereas last week it was at right angles and you couldn't see Ben as well. He was more animated while playing piano, getting out of his seat a number of times. And others around me commented that he made more of an effort to keep his long hair out of his eyes. He has a pretty face, so why not show it? (I kept thinking, Ben, you need some barrettes!) He played a new song tonight and eliminated his last song from before, the celtic sounding one where he plays violin. The celtic one was my favorite. Oh, well. He also seemed to have more souvenirs available for purchase at his merchandise table than he did at Pueblo.

The crowd and venue
No catwalk. Two big jumbotron screens off to the sides in addition to the small video screens on stage. The venue is a long grandstand in front of the stage, and extends a long ways off to the sides. I would say the 5 central sections were about 95% full all the way to the back (I think there were 33 rows, not including the box seats in the front). Then there are an additional 2 sections on each side that were almost completely empty. These would have been extremely far from the stage and the people in them would have to watch almost exclusively on the jumbotrons. So that makes a total of about 9 sections with 5 completely full, so I would estimate attendance at about 60% or so, which would be 6000 since the venue holds 10,000. But from Clay's point of view, I would think the place looked pretty much completely full since he is looking straight out and not miles off to the sides. So a very good house!

I met so many people there who had never been to a Clay concert, who knew him just from American Idol and were very excited he was in little old Hutchinson, Kansas to play their Fair. The lady next to me was typical--she drove 2.5 hours from Dodge, Kansas and dragged her husband along. She had been a huge supporter of Clay on AI, didn't like Ruben's current style of music, and owns MOAM and the S'wingle. She knew all about the upcoming Christmas album but didn't know about Clay message boards at all. It was so cool that there were tons of people there who had never seen Clay in concert. He is gaining lots of fans wherever he goes.

Cameras
They were VERY lenient compared to many venues. They allowed digitals, just no camcorders. So hopefully there will be some good Clack. I was sitting in row 5 one section removed from center. I filmed several songs but they will not be ultra close up. The songs I got were from Ben, Revolution (partial), and from Clay, I Will Carry You, You've Got a Friend, Still the One, and Chain of Fools. Yes, we got Chain of Fools again! I had been expecting Signed, Sealed, and Delivered, but was happy to get COF, because that is my favorite of the three duets. I will post my Clack to the download sites once I return home from Kansas.

The Clay Show
I was so much more relaxed at this concert than Pueblo (my first Not-a-tour concert) since I knew what all was coming and wasn't so freaked out and emotional.

Clay introduced the When You Say You Love Me dance contest as a competition between Iowa and Kansas. The lady chosen, Abby, really rocked out.

Jacob was not wearing his dark glasses, and Clay mentioned he had his eye back tonight.

I watched the singers audition for Jerome in front of the venue right before the concert. I have some photos of that. There were some good singers! The lady chosen to sing Without You with Clay on stage was from Oklahoma, was 61 years old, and said she used to sing in a Christian rock band. Clay asked her what she did and she said she was a loan officer and a fulltime Clay Aiken fan. Everyone cheered for her! Clay asked her if she could help Quiana get a loan since Quiana wanted to buy a house, and the lady agreed to help. Clay said Quiana would be seeing her after the show. Back to the song--this lady sang great! Her voice was strong, she sang on pitch with feeling, and she knew how to use her mic. Clay harmonized nicely with her. Great choice, Jerome!

Clay mentioned that they went to P.F. Chang's restaurant in Wichita the night before, and Quiana tried to play a trick on him. She told the waiter it was Clay's birthday and tried to get the staff to sing happy birthday to him. But it didn't work. Then they showed the video from Six Flags in Texas, and Clay gabbed a lot about how Quiana is afraid to go on those scary rides. He enjoyed ribbing her and challenged her to go on a bungee ride at the Kansas State Fair that was in full view of the Grandstand. He pointed over to it, but she certainly made no promises. He also showed a still shot of Quiana on the screens showing her Texas "big hair." It was a wild photo with her hair standing up all over as she belts out a note, wide-mouthed and eyes closed. (Quiana is so pretty.)

Jacob again sang the very high harmonic note on his last note of Fire and Rain. Some people have commented they don't like that note, but I think it sounds fantastic. He was right on with that note tonight.

During You've Got a Friend, when Quiana and Jacob walk down the stairs to join Clay and Angela on the front stage, Clay didn't actually see Quiana until she was standing right next to him. He turned to look at her and then just cracked up and couldn't sing anymore! Quiana's hair was standing straight up due to wind or something, and she looked hilarious. Clay tried to smooth her hair down with his hand, then Jacob tried also, then Quiana put her hand on top of Clay's head to smash his hair down. It went back and forth for a bit. You can see all that in my video of YGAF. Angela won the note holding contest at the end of YGAF. Jacob gave up first (I couldn't see Quiana), then Clay, leaving Angela to win. (Added later: after I watched the video I took of YGAF, I saw that Clay actually won the note holding contest, not Angela.)

At one point Clay mentioned Dallas and several people cheered. So he started mentioning other cities to see if people would cheer. First he said "Denver, Colorado" and lots of people cheered. Then he said "Seattle, Washington" and people cheered again. You can bet I was shrieking loudly because I traveled to Kansas from Seattle to see Clay. I met 3 other people from Seattle at the Fair for the concert too. Then Clay said "Detroit, Michigan" and again got a lot of cheers. Then he said all I have to do is mention a city and they cheer. What's another city? And Angela said "California." Well, that brought the house down and Clay teased her mercilessly about thinking California was a city. I bet he will bring that one up again at other concerts; perhaps it will replace the "Quiana thought you needed a passport to get into NM" schtick. So when he introduced the band, he kept referring back to that, "this is Angela, from the lovely city of California. This is Danny on guitar, from the city of Israel." And so on. Not much goes by him. He would make a good stand-up comic!

Clay again mentioned the message boards tonight. Said he knows some of us go to 20 or 70 shows. And he knows we all go onto the message boards after the concert and report everything he said. "You know who you are," he said. And yucked it up and gave a very delightful smirk.

At Houston, they sang Chain of Fools, in Grand Prairie they sang I Knew You Were Waiting for Me, so we thought we would get Signed, Sealed, and Delivered tonight. But we got Chain of Fools. Hooray! I love that song. Clay growled in that way he has and the crowd roared. While Quiana was singing the part with Jacob over on the other side of the stage, Clay and Angela danced and shimmied right on down to the floor (they did the same thing in Colorado).

You Were There is my favorite song of the concert. I just feel it is ideally suited to his voice and style, and he sings it with such passion and conviction. Tonight the song was marred a little for me because a guy about 10 rows in back of me and closer to center (I was not in his sightline) yelled several times at the top of his lungs, "Sit down in front, I can't see. If you sit down, we can all see, etc." Maybe 3 or 4 times he yelled this. Grrrrr. I just wanted him to be quiet. It is a rock concert, after all, and people do stand up! Anyway, he did quiet down and I could turn full attention to Clay and this beautiful song. I was able to watch the accompanying video a little more this time. I noticed they showed an open book several times, presumably the bible, and the letters "Anno" kept flashing by, superimposed on the book. Does anyone know the significance of "Anno"? (Added later: someone told me "Anno" means "year" in latin, as in "Anno Domini" or A.D., meaning "in the year of our Lord.")

I Survived You--very hot version. I watched on the jumbotron so I could see all of Clay's little expressions. The angst, the slightly evil chuckle, the arms. What a great song.

Clay thanked his fans for making all of "this" possible. He said he had the best fans in the world and he would fight anyone who didn't agree. That made me want to both smile and cry. I love that guy. We are so lucky to have him.

Clay left immediately on his bus, which pulled right behind the stage just before Invisible.

That's all I can remember. Fantastic performance, as usual. Clay's voice was full, rich, strong. Crowd loved him. Fun to see him perform outdoors. Goodnight.

last updated 9/15/04