HARTFORD: Recaps

Clack
ClackUnlimited.com

From the CB's PJMain:

Ok, here are some things I learned tonight...

1. Always always spend as much money as possible for the very best seats

2. Always go to more than 1 concert/tour

3. There are MANY Clay fans who are not on the message boards. This one suprised me. Of course, everyone at the pre-concert dinner are on at least 1, but I talked to a lot of people waiting to get into the hall and sitting around me - all were fans, not on the boards. THESE PEOPLE DO NOT KNOW ABOUT ALL IS WELL. Some left before the finale (the house lights came up, it did look like DSIAFCD might be the very last song - luckily no!!)

3a. There were too many flashes! Probably due mostly to the fact that many fans are not on the message boards. I AM SURE THAT CLAYBOARDERS KNOW BETTER THAN TO FLASH. But the venue was so big I hope it didn't bother Clay's eyes

3b. Many people have not heard the same jokes before and laugh appreciatively, in a different way than many of us who have heard them before laugh for CLAY

4. Being in the same room as Clay Aiken is magical...But then, you all knew that, didn't you?

Couple comments from the songs that I'll be interested to see if they hold up when I d/l video (and there should be some good stuff judging by who was in the audience!):

-Seemed like he had to jump into the lyrics "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire" - he talked too much? and orchestra got ahead of him.
-NICE fingers through the hair during this song - Around the lyrics, "By the fireplace was we watch the chestnuts pop"
-Keeps at someone in the audience to do the "giddyups". Hysterical
-Directly points at someone on the last word "together with...YOU!" Hope that's someone filming!

-Not much audience reaction for "Ooh baby that's a fact". Kinda nice, I thought, shake it up a bit - instead of cheering on cue whether its sexy or not (IT WAS!!)
-Glory note at end - Did his voice crack just a bit? Whatever it was, it made for a VERY SEXY seque into the next line...Look for it in DSIAFCD

Beautiful night.

:cloud9
PJ

From the CB's Claymorous:

Wow, what a night. I first want to say that I've read the cellcert thread and the suggestion that Clay "almost" said the F-word. That is not correct. Clay was talking about Angela being out on tour with Jamie Foxx right now and someone cheered about that. He made a face as if he was shocked and asked if that person thought that was cooler than Angela being on tour with a Clay Aiken Show? Apparently she nodded because he then told the audience "Gee, she didn't even hesitate,,,,she said yes". Then he said, "not everyone has an Academy Award"! Further snarking was about to happen, but he stopped and joked that he almost stated an opinion! "Gosh, that's not allowed" He was laughing at himself . AT no time did he "check" his language. He was just being silly. I wanted to clear that up.
The ballroom at the Convention Center is beautiful, and even with a sold out show, it did not feel cramped at all in the area of the table seating. When he came out and started right into song, the accoustics were superb. Every note, syllable and word were perfectly clear and not a bit distorted. He sounded fantastic throughout the show. He was extremely impressed with the orchestra. Said more than once that they were the best he has had the pleasure to work with on this tour so far.
Clay was wearing a dark taupe suit-fitted perfectly,a dark shirt and a brown tie. Very classy. I'm surprised no one has mentioned that he has had a haircut! Well, just a trim, but it looks very classy and neat. Every time he moved around his hair moved. And he kept running his fingers through it. Made us want to drool. And of course, his fabulous glasses.
He was not wearing his ear phones so he could hear all the audience chatter and responses to him. AT one point, a couple of fans yelled out "I love you Clay", followed by another group in another corner of the room yelling out the same. Clay then asked if there were any others, and the whole room called out "I love you Clay". and he then said, "Okay, now that we have that overwith, we'll go right into the next song."!
I'm propping my eyes open here but it's not working, I'll elaborate more if anyone wants me to after I catch a few winks here.

From the CB's Shar8517:

GREAT GREAT CONCERT!!!! Clay was totally ON last night. His voice was PERFECT - No worries there!!! He was hysterically laugh my butt off entertaining last night. He was very snarky and I've never seen anybody think as quickly on their feet like Clay does. You have to pay attention every minute or you'll miss something. Of course I never took my eyes off Clay and I did notice just a tiny bit the POP

During the banter about cheating with the word of the day he said Maybe if I had cheated I would have won AI.

It really touches my heart that he promotes charities like he does - they are so close to his heart - especially BAF and UNICEF!! He talked aout My Friend Mikayla and said to buy the book for all the elementary schools. He said to look up BAF on line and spelled Bubel but said if you don't know how to spell Aiken then 'WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?"


When he asked people to raise their hands if they've been to other concerts and told people who hadn't been to any to look around is when he mentioned Jacksonville. He just said that if people weren't careful Claymates would be driving them to Jacksonville to a concert. Very cute!!!

When he took the young girl's binoculars, some of the decorations fell off and he said he wasn't responsible for that and told her she could go into the restricted area to get it and then ran across the stage as he pretended to be afraid because she was nuts. He asked if it was open bar and made the drinking motion a few times and said Claymates were known to have a few. He was very very funny and people were laughing hard.

There are no words for his voice. The note in DSIAFCD was amazing. He held it forever!! I was afraid that he wouldn't have time to sing AIW since they had given him a 15 min. warning and he rambled on as only Clay can about UNICEF and BAF. Love when Clay rambles on. He said he had to stop talking and sing and a few people booed and he said well I could talk and not sing and some cheered and he said you haven't paid $100 to listen to me run off at the mouth.
When he came out for AIW he had his usual nervous face but no need to be nervous it was absolutely beautiful. We all leaned foreward collectively and you could feel the energy of all of us lifting Clay up and holding him close to our hearts. When it came time for the last note he planted his feet, braced himself and took a breath and let it rip - ABSOLUTE PERFECTION AND HE HELD IT FOREVER!! Then he got this look of thanksgiving on his face and he was gone.

So special to see him in concert again after the long wait. Really really was wonderful and Clay is such a special guy. He LOVES what he is doing and we LOVE what he does so it is all good.

Sorry this is so disjointed, but only had about 2 hours sleep.

From the CB's WhoseLineBabygirl2006:

omg...last nights concert was so amazing he did such a good job! When he first came out onstage everybody gave him a standing ovation and he hadent even started singing yet, as soon as he started singing everybody sat down and got very quiet listening to him. After the song he goes into his banter to see how many men were in the audiance and he looks and counts and hes like "no man in the front row? are they not allowed? However there are 8 guys on the side so are they banished to the side of the room?" He asked the guys to raise there hands to see how many there were a few did but most of the woman pointed to them, and one guy he says "is that bad sir? where your lucky you have a table you can just put your head down and go to sleep we'll try not to disturb ya!" During the beginning of the song TCS he did a little hair flip with his hands and a few people screamed and he gave them a weird look like "what? i just needed to get my hair out of my eyes people!" someone had binoculers on the 3rd row who was like 13-14 years old and he pointed it out and said "ah dont get that! your in the 3rd row and theres people so much further away. How much did you pay for these seats?' and shes says $100 and he says '$100?? That is a rip off!! Ah wouldnt pay that much to see myself!" And he goes into this thing about his hair whether he should keep it long or short and everybody starts shouting out and he goes "well ya dont have to be so mean about it! Cut it!!!" That had me in stitches i about died laughing when he said it and then he said "someone put her hand over her mouth please" and everybody cheered and he had the girl come and hand him the binoculars and she said she was shaking and he says "why you shaking for?" she says something and he pretends to get all fangirly and goes "omg omg!" lol he eventually gives them back to her but not before teasing her about if she can see up his nose with them and seeing birds in Delaware with them. And he goes into the word of the of the day which was Bisbigliando or something to that affect..it was a word i couldnt pronounce even if i tried! Someone shouted out what it meant and it turns out she had a dictionary with her and he says "Gimmie that thing!! This woman is cheating!!" he asked her if she was proud of herself and shes like yup lmao! and he proceeds to quiz her about another word and he has the dictionary so he says "i got your book now whatcha gonna do??? Whatcha gonna do??!!" She says what it means and he says "oh crap she already knew" He then asks what the word of the day meant to the other people in the audiance since we didnt hear what the lady with the dictionary said and someone got it right and he says "What is it with these Connecticut people they know it all!" i was like hell yeah we are!!! And he asks the lady who got it to come up and play it because apparently she knew it because she saw the dress rehearsel and she didnt know how so Clay says "See what happens when you cheat!!!" I know he spotted my friend MixnJude because she was waving her phone at him and he says "Yeah i see ya, You thought i was gonna come to you and call on ya huh? well not tonight!" i didnt know it was Mixxeey he was talking to until she told me after the show was over, i kinda maybe had a hunch it was her because i told him to look for us in the audiance i dont know if he spotted me but he did look in my area a few times so i'm not sure if he saw me or not. He was so last night he had me in stitches laughing like crazy and i applauded so much i thought my arms were gonna fall off! During DSIAFCD at the very last high note he seemed to have held it a little too long because his voice cracked at the end of the note but he pulled it together in time and he got a huge standing ovation after the song was over and he even did the last few verses of the song without the mic which made me thud i was like omg because his voice carried even without the mic!! He brought it home with AIW and he hit the very last note and it was long!! i dont even have words to describe how great of an experiance it was to see him sing that song live and nail the last note!!! it was unbelievable! After the show i heard pretty much everybody giving compliments on how great he was and i was like yeaah Clay you Clayverted many people tonight! So after the concert me and Mixxeey went to go see where the busses were gonna come out and we wait until 1 am and they didnt come out so i'm gonna assume he stayed at the motel but we did have a cute moment while we were waiting because Raliegh and Durham came out and were being walked by Jerome and Jaime they both are soooo cute and Durham is a barker my goodness! He was mainly barking because there was a police cruiser there with a dog himself, so he was all barking at that dog while Raleigh just looked at the dog and didnt do much lol she just wagged her tail! And even after they went to the parking garage you could still hear Durham barking like crazy Raliegh just takes everything in stride now Durham will get to that point to! I had so much fun last night!! and i wanna thank MixnJude for it thank you hon!!!:bighug :bighug :bighug