Pictures by Denise Bernadette
This was my third out of four concerts to attend and was at the Crawford County Fair in Meadville, Pennsylvania. Meadville has a population of about 14,000 and is the seat of Crawford County. A very nice small town. I absolutely loved the fair. It is just the way county fairs should be. Lots of animals, crafts for sale, judging of canned goods, quilts, and the animals, and lots and lots of yummy food. I chose cotton candy and a drink, and I could not believe the prices! I believe they were each about 50 cents! It would cost four times that much at the big Texas State Fair. Yep, small town fairs are really awesome. Oh, and another reason this one was so awesome in 2005....Clay Aiken performed!!
PERFORMANCES
Clay fans, as always, were very vocal in showing their love for Clay. And, as always, its hard to pick out the best of his performances. He nails them all!
CocaColaDragon from the Clayboard said that "I think one of the song highlights from last night has to be "I Can't Make You Love Me"..he always seems so emotional and passionate during that song, but tonight it seemed...to me at least...to be much more emotional/passionate.". I agree with her. I cried during that song at every show I went to. Then as if that wasn't enough, Quiana came out and sang and I cried some more!
For me, Clay's new songs were great. "1000 Days" is even better to go back and listen to now that I have heard Clay sing a new version of it. And, of course, everyone loved "Back For More". I don't think we've heard the last of that song.
Clay was on fire during LLVL! Part of me wants to laugh with him when I see him do this because on the one hand it seems so unlike what we've known of him all these years. Yet part of me knows I can't laugh because I'm too busy having to pick myself up off the floor after having a heavy-duty THUD!! He has the moves down perfectly. C'mon, Clay, yes you CAN dance!!
Clay not only sings and dances, but he totally entertains everyone in the audience. He has us laughing and crying and melting and sighing....the women, anyway. And admit it or not, I think the men enjoy it too!
Stump The Band
Meadville's "Stump The Band" was the best one of the tour, no doubt about it. It took Clay a while to finally get a song that he and the band could do. Once again, he refused to do Bohemian Rhapsody. Finally, someone requested "When A Man Loves A Woman"! Clay told the audience, "Entertain yourselves for a second and we'll see if we can figure it out." So they practiced for a little bit. Then someone produced a copy of the lyrics on a piece of paper, and Clay ran over there and grabbed that up! What a lifesaver!! Everyone was clapping and cheering, and then it happened. The music got louder and louder, and Clay turned around and belted out, " When a man loves a wo--man!!" The crowd went absolutely wild! I remember everyone cheering and screaming. Chills went up and down my spine. I mean, what a song to show off Clay's voice!! He sang it like he'd been singing it all his life. Then he said, "That's the end of the song...there you go...Now let's stump her. Name a song and see if she has the lyrics to it!...Put your hands down. That wore me out!" Don't you just love it! He is so quick witted. Like I said earlier, he doesn't just entertain us with the golden voice, he has us rolling in the aisles with his snarky humor.
The Fans
There is always something interesting going on with the fans at a Clay concert. CocaColaDragon said, "My dad said he got a lil teary during Suspicious Minds, because that's one of his all time favorite songs and he really enjoyed hearing Clay singing it. Whoot for that. Yes my dad was one of those males forced into coming heh." Hmmmm, looks like even if her dad was forced into going to the concert, he found out that it is enjoyable to listen to Clay and even brought back old memories for him.
Angelty said, "I was more than pleased with the size of the crowd. It looked to be about half full even though the numbers don't reflect that. They were loud and on their feet. Clay was happy and interactive and the show was long, nearly 3 hours!" There's nothing better than a longer than expected Clay show! Three hours isn't even long enough!!
And during the 70's banter, when Clay asks everyone for something that happened in the 70's, I had brought a book I bought for the year 1978 (Clay's birthday year) that lists all sorts of things that happen in 1978. So when he asked us for 70's events, I held the book up and waved it at him. He finally looked at me and said, "She came prepared, not like the other night, not like the other night when you didn’t do your sign until you got to the show." Then he continued to ask people for their ideas, and someone finally said, "The Pittsburgh Steelers won 4 Super Bowls" in the 1970's. So I yelled out that the Dallas Cowboys won the Super Bowl in the 70's too. Clay said, "She's fighting, she says the Dallas Cowboys won the Super Bowl in the 70’s" Whoops, I shouldn't have said that because there was this big bunch of boo's...I had forgotten that I was in Steeler country! Clay said, You might not want to sit there when you get out of here maam." And of course, the most important thing about the 70's was...."I was born!" And we're glad you were, Clay!!
Classic Clay Moments
Our Classic Clay moment for Meadville is the guy that Clay got out of the audience to dance during "Car Wash". Clay picked out a sign that a girl was holding that said, "You mean this isn't a heavy metal concert?" And then he went to town with that one. Quick and witty Clay strikes again!! Clay told him (Jason), "You are a sucker aren't you. Who exactly did you think you were going to see. He's got an Iron Maiden t-shirt on...did she tell you that? She's got that much power over you and you're admitting it to this entire audience? That's a crying shame." Clay also said that maybe they would do some Iron Maiden later (snark).
Apparently whoever handed the sign to Clay got real excited and Clay had fun with that one. He said that he had not touched her, just the sign, and he passed it around for everyone to touch. When he handed it back to her, he said that she might just pass out now that everyone had touched it!
Once Jason and his girlfriend came up on stage, Clay had to tell him, "Come on over, sir, don't be shy. I'm not gonna bite!" I love it! I could listen to Clay and his snarky humor all day long!!
Angelty from the Clayboard wrote some about her son and his girlfriend going onstage:
When I heard him reading my son's gf's sign that said "You mean this isn't a heavy metal concert?", I couldn't believe it. They were in first row also, but down the row a ways. He had a heavy metal shirt on. He is 32 and has always been a heavy metal fan. He does like Clay somewhat, but agrees to going to multiple shows more for his gf and for me. He is a little shy though and claims he can't dance, so he was really nervous. Christy got to go up on stage with him and I was thrilled. Her comment...well, I do have a boyfriend, but omg, those eyes.
After intermission, Jason was on stage and head banging. He lost his nervousness and did a great job. Jason said he had little interaction backstage with Clay, but he did thank him for being a good sport and agreed that a little head banging would be funny as part of the act. On the eye discussion, Jason said that from a male perspective, Clay's eye contact was very impressive. He thought being backstage was hugely professional, and was surprised that being onstage was so much different than how things feel from the audience. He said that when the music plays, you can't hear anything from the audience. And even when it's not playing the voice volume is difficult to adjust to.
He thoroughly enjoyed the experience and all the males surrounding our circle of friends were pleasantly entertained. I was soooo proud of him.
He also signed their sign which had made the round of touches onstage by all the crew. A funny bit of banter. One side says Christy, Use your voice, Clay Aiken. The other side says Sorry to disappoint, Jason, Clay Aiken,in reference to it not being a heavy metal concert.
One more thing that was funny had to do with all the people that were holding up signs that said "Touch". Of course, everyone knows that Clay won't sign Touch. Clay's comment was:
I see a lot of signs out there that say “TOUCH” but there ain’t near enough for me to sing it. Oh there are more. If every single person had one, maybe….I wonder how long you can hold your arms up like that. Let’s see how long they can go, anyone have a watch?....Yours is upside down. See if you had held yours right side up I would’ve sang it. You can blame it on her."
As you can see, and as is always the case, there is just nothing like going to a Clay concert. Meadville proved to be no different. Awesome songs, lots of funny banter, and Clay fans from all over the country to celebrate a beautiful man named Clay. Bring on the next show!
Technorati tags: Clay Aiken, A Thousand Different Ways, American Idol, Invisible
ClaysButtercup99 from The Clayboard has made available some incredible higher quality snippet clips of the 14 songs from Clay's CD. I've downloaded and listened to these, and IMO, it is as though he is singing in the same room as me, which is very nice!!
