Dun! Dun! Dun!

5 Taylor Hicks Concert Tickets - $195
Getting Taylor Hicks South Park Pictures Printed - $12.86
Batteries for Camera - $18.56
Seeing Taylor get stuck between a sign and his bus - Priceless

Driving 2 and 1/2 hours, getting "modified" pictures printed, flipping off the Car Rental Lady, and listening to Taylor Hicks all weekend didn't ready me enough for what I was about to experience... obviously.

Arriving
After dinner and checking in at the hotel, Brandon, Kirstie, Vanessa and I all headed off to the show. It had yet to hit me that I was actually going to see my hero, live. Until... we turned a corner, and there were the Tour Buses. I screamed and made Brandon drive around the block again so I could take a picture. Which didn't turn out so good, ah well.

After we parked, we were walking down the little parking lot ramp and you could lean over the edge and see down into the alley where the buses were. So, we sat there for a few mintues, in hopes of seeing Taylor. Eventually a guy walked by... I can't be 100% sure that it was him, but it did look like him. We left there eventually and headed into the Theatre.

Right when I walked in, I bought a t-shirt, a sweater and his two other CD's. They were selling a Harmonica that he signed and PLAYED as well... I asked about it, and got to see it... it was $300. Sucks, huh? Well, we headed to our seats and waited for the man of the hour. :)


The Show
Michael Warren did an amazing job with his performance, and he's not short at all. He's actually quite tall. I'm a definant fan of his now though. Anyways, the introduction of Taylor took my breath away. Not that it was THAT amazing... it was just seeing him, LIVE AND IN PERSON. I've never screamed that loud in my entire life, no joke. I had the people in front of me turning around and giving me the "WTF?" look. The entire show was just amazing! I think the coolest part was that he kept looking over in my general direction, (maybe it's me over exaggerating things), but I think if something did catch his eye, it was my bright Green light coming from my camera, lol.

The only thing that got me upset during the concert was the fans, almost no one would stand up. There were people in the front standing up of course, but everyone else just sat there. I wanted to stand up, but everytime I would, the lady behind us would tell us to sit down, she even tapped me on my shoulder! So I eventually got the idea to sneak down in front and stand there for as long as possible. Kirstie and I headed down there and we got some pictures up close, but they were with a disposable camera that won't be developed for about a week or so. We were told to head back to our seats after about 5 minutes, but I was ok, I was having a blast! At the end of the show, he shouted "Thank You Sioux City! You guys have been the best crowd yet!" I laughed and said, "If that's true, we have failed as fans... His tour must suck! No wonder he's been in such a pissy mood!"

The Show went a lot quicker than I thought, it got over with in 2 hours, but they were the best 2 hours of my life, lol. The man can put on a hell of show! He even did a rendition of "Let's Get It On" - my favorite song ever!

The Aftermath
After the show we all RAN outside and around the theatre into the back alley where the buses were. We sat there for a few minutes waiting for Taylor to come out. They actually closed the gate on us! So... me being the cool person, I shouted that there was another side that we could all get in on, and that they don't have a gate on that side to close. So my friends and I all ran to the other side, where we met a couple other girls. I handed my friends some pictures for them to have signed by Taylor, I had my South Park picture, the RED SHIRT picture (yes the naughty one to the right), and the black and white one that has his head tilted back with his mouth open. I had a couple of copies, and one of the girls didn't have anything for him to sign, so I gave her a copy of the Red Shirt, she loved it! WHO WOULDN'T?! LOL.

Taylor eventually came out, but while we were waiting his dinner delivery showed up. He was having Famous Dave's, (which I had the night before!). By the time Taylor came out, the crowd had gotten a bit bigger, there were about 20 people instead of us 6. I moved over to this pole and sat there and waited for him to get to the crowd of people, he came up and stood right next to me! Someone took a picture, and I guess he was looking right into the camera, because he stopped and said, "Woah! That was a bright light!" He held up his hands like he couldn't see and sat there for a minute, lol. At some point, someone asked him to shout out Soul Patrol.. he didn't say anything, just went on signing stuff, and then everyone got into bugging him about it, and then he said "soulpatrol" very quiet, and very fast. A few of us laughed at that and then he started laughing and said "SOUL PATROL!" This time loud and at normal speed, lol.

He signed a few pictures and tickets before he got to mine, but I had him sign the Black & White picture first. He sat there and studied it for awhile, showed it to his friend, and said "That's probably the coolest picture I've seen yet." I told him that I didn't take it, and I'd give all credit to whoever it was, if I knew them. He smiled, handed it back, and went and signed other autographs.My friends gave there pictures and tickets to sign as well, and then I gave him my South Park picture, the first time he signed it, he didn't really look at it. I had to have him sign another one (for E!!!), and this time, right before he handed it back, he stopped and said, "Wait..." he looked at it for a second, lifted his eyebrows, looks at me, and smiles "Gassy Taylor? Cute." I got all red I guess, and said "Yeah, I was kinda bored." He chuckled and said, "I bet, it's cool though, I like it." (he was looking at me the whole time he was talking to me!) He smiled again and handed it back.

After getting him to sign all this stuff, I had to get a picture of him... so I took Kirstie's disposable camera, because Brandon had mine. I warned him about the flash, and then snapped it. I didn't get a smile in the picture, I don't think. (I love how I remember everything he said to me!) But afterwords he said, "Thanks for the warning." When he had to go, he said "Good Night Everyone!" Then he looked at me, shook my hand, and said "Have a good night." He obviously went on to do the same thing to a few other people in the front, but that moment was just absolutely amazing! And then he walked back towards the back of the bus.

THE MOST AMAZING, HYSTERICAL, NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN MOMENT
Brandon had pulled the car up to the side of the wall about 10 feet down from the bus. So we were heading in the same direction as him, just about 15ft out from the buses, while he walked next to them.

Well.... (haha, thinking about this just cracks me up). There was this street sign right next to the bus, with a wall behind it. It had about an 8in gap, between it and the bus, and it was at about waste level. Well, Taylor had to do some squeezing to get through. I'm walking off to the side, watching him struggle. And I shout to Kirstie to toss me her camera. I take it, and at the same time realising that it wasn't his stomach, or his waist that was preventing him from getting through... it was ROGER. He started laughing and tried bending the sign, which wasn't working. His friend started to cry I think he was laughing so hard. So, at this point of course, he had to reach down and "adjust." He had his head cocked back and was laughing, and he also had a constipated look on his face, (probably from the pain, lol.) I snapped the picture right at that moment, he then really started laughing and took off behind the wall and rushed into the bus before anything else could happen.

I feel bad about what happened, I know that had to be embarassing. It was wrong to take a picture... but come on, I couldn't pass that up! He laugh about it later on, he has too. Only problem with this picture, it was taken on the disposable camera that won't be developed for awhile.

Overall
!!!THE NIGHT WAS UNFORGETTABLE!!!