JACKSONVILLE: Recaps

Clack
ClackUnlimited.com

From the CB's 2005lovesclay:

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG

no words can describe what has happen tonight... so many highs and lows... i got to meet up with shireen from the board (:wave hey shireen)my sister and i had pretty good seats, not close, but good... we were dead center but about 30-35 rows back... but still AMAZING!!! the symphony was amazing and really nice to watch! clay came out though in the second half and he looked gorgeous! no tie, no stubble, and the black pants of perfection:thud his voice was amazing, and was on. he was cracking jokes with the audience left and right.... bethie and my favorite... "if i fall asleep on stage tonight, and then ya'll fall asleep... you can say you all slept with clay aiken" or the story about how the miad at the hotel accidentally let raliegh and durham out of the hotel room...OMG he was great... there are no words honestly... MDYK was amazing and OCOCE:thud , all the songs though were pnenomenal... when he got to his soapbox for the night... i knew it was coming to the end... DSIAFCD was amazing... the glory note was kinda rusty... and we could tell he struggled a little bit... then he left... with a great bow... then jessy left... the orchestra remained seated, they looked confused, then they left to... NO AIW:waa :bluesniff so upsetting... i was really looking forward to it... we have no idea why.... they were no flashes until the end of DSIAFCD.... but clay also had said that he had a headache during the concert.... so we have no idea... my sister and i went out to the bus to get a shake... jerome came out and made us all line up single file around the building... after a 45 minute wait mr. aiken came out.... he was so BEAUTIFUL!!! hoodie, PJ bottons, and sneakers, said "merry christmas, thank you soooo much for coming... merry christmas"... he is just amazing, so generous he is... so my one and only concert for JNaT is now over...

i took no pictures... security was everywhere, told several to put away their camera's and cellphones...

i am :pray for clack!

oh and PS... if anyone in the Jacksonville/ North Flordia area can tape the local FOX news tomorrow... they were there video taping clay was he shook hands... thanks

From the CB's DancingDigits:

Hi, guys! Thanks for using my info about Jax at the top of the page.

Fans were waiting at the bus when I left. I had a friend who had come to pick me up and was stopped at the curb near the bus, so I had to go. It was starting to sprinkle then...rained some on the way home.

Anyway: He was wearing a gray pin-striped suit, eggplant shirt, no tie, no glasses, no stubble. His boots looked black to me. His hair appeared to be a light-to-medium brown with some highlights. Very healthy and shaped. He ran his fingers through it at one point. :thud He never took his jacket off, although he did unbutton it for a bit. He mentioned sleeping and the maid came in and inadvertently let the dogs out...and it was a while getting them back because he wasn't going to get out of bed. :laugh

He was in top form with the banter. He zeroed in on a lady with twinkling lights in her hair and in her boa. Her friend also had the boa with lights, so they both stood. He said it was tacky--in his snarky, joking way. :grin

Clay gave many accolades to the orchestra and to the children's choir (which really was excellent.) He said he was glad to be back in the South. :)

He talked about what a big city Jacksonville is in area. (It's the largest city in the USA landwise.) He said he went to eat at a very good restaurant, but it took them 45 min. to get there. Wouldn't give the name of the restaurant because "you'll stalk me." (I'm thinking he may have gone to the beach.) He did say that he had stayed at the Omni.

There were quite a few men there and many, many audience members of both sexes who had never been to a Clay concert. I was listening to the comments of a couple in back of me, and they started out not understanding what the big deal was (the Claymates gave OMC a standing O for the longest time, when he first came on.) Later, that same couple said what a good voice he had and how funny he was. I heard them both laughing. They also said he is a good entertainer. :thumbup

One of our major Clack suppliers was in the row in front of me, but I didn't see her taking video or pics. I saw no flashes at all, but I didn't turn around and was up front. There were 5 rows of pit seats that weren't offered online, and I was told that they released a bunch today. I saw some of the NE FL Clay fans there, as well as CH members. I was in Row B Center, on the aisle, which I thought would be 2nd row--but with the pit seats, it turned out to be 7th row. Still a good view, but I used my binoculars to see those great expressions as he sang and talked.

On DSIAFCD, I thought his voice sounded a little rough and nearly cracked on one note. Nevertheless, I was expecting the AIW encore, but he didn't do an encore. I guess he felt it was best not to attempt it. I'm sure he is also anxious to get back to NC and finish this tour.

An usher knelt down beside me (I was on the center aisle) and told someone in the row in back of me that she would not tell her again--NO PICS! Any Clack that comes out of this concert was taken VERY surreptiously. I took binoculars, but no camera.

I wonder if all the talking he does (which we do love) affects his voice. My favorites of the night were Grown Up Christmas List and Mary, Did You Know. Winter Wonderland was fun.

I'm glad I was able to go, and hope we won't have to wait too long for a regular tour. :lubdub

From the CB's amyrrhielle:

Since I get so good reviews from all the people here at CDB and someone gave me the opportunity to let me go to a Clay Aiken show from the Claynation, I thought it was my duty to give everybody a review last night.

I was seated at the balcony. Way up high, but I had my handy dandy binoculars. A friend of mine told me that Clay looked cute up close from those things.

Of course the show was started with the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra playing some songs and then there was also special music from the Jacksonville Children's Chorus which made my spine tingle 'cause I remember what it was like back home for me and being in the chorus as a child and thinking that these children are so lucky 'cause they got to perform before Clay Aiken starts the show.

As for the population of the audience, I think there were about 2,500. The capacity of the Moran Theater is 3,000 and there were some empty seats on the right side of the balcony. It was full on the orchestra section, I think. On the left side where I was seated, it was pretty full. Sadly, I got to sit with people who were a little stiff (who probably came for the symphony orchestra 'cause some of them were trying to look at their watches and some of them were grumbling and I wanted to tell them, "Hello, he's got a great voice and he's entertaining people!" Of course, I didn't do that. As usual I became my silent self in a crowd).

I was on cellcert, too. I called my friend who bought me the ticket. I hope she heard pretty well but everything sounded good even up in the balcony so I'm sure she could hear. When Clay went out to the stage, I could describe it as being surreal. I'm a new Claymate and well, I've never been to a concert before and this is my Clay Aiken show and I usually don't get to see big stars. So when he walked out, I actually realized that I was in the same room with Clay. Maybe I'm over a hundred feet from him, but he was in the same room as me. He is actual a real person.

So there, he came and he sang The Christmas Waltz and then The First Noel. Then he said, "Thank You Jacksonville." And he started talking about how the city was big. And then some people from the front argues about whether it was Jacksonville and Miami and he said, "Well, argue later. As for now, I'm gonna go with Jacksonville 'cause I am here and not in Miami." That got us laughing. Oh yeah he was wearing a brown suit, brown shirt, no tie, no contacts. So handsome, I thought I was going to fall off my seat. I kept holding my mom's hand just to know that I'm still awake and not dreaming. He was talking about going to a restaurant that was 45 minutes across the city that's why he thought it was so big. Someone asked him where and he said that he won't tell her 'cause they'll be stalking him and then he talked about staying right across the street at Omni Hotel (I wanted to stay there but well, I couldn't afford it and I had to go home to Gainesville immediately) and the housekeeper let Raleigh and Durham out for 15 minutes and she couldn't catch them and he wouldn't get out of bed. And he said that if he was going to fall asleep at the concert then we could all sleep here and we could actually say that we slept with clay aiken and then that would be in the tabloids again. We were hooting with laughter. And he mentioned that he was always a target of scandals and tabloids and that he should cover his mouth more often (and he covers his mouth). More laughs from us!

Then, he notices these two ladies who wore green feather boas which were really tacky. He said they'd do anything or wear anything so that he could notice them. There were also some ladies who wore some sort of halo hats. He asked them whose idea it was to wear them?

He sang MCWL and then WW. Oh yeah he talked about his shirt being wrinkled so that why his suit was buttoned. In the end, he took off the button or maybe it just came off. He kept on introducing Jessie Vargas due to the fact that he forgot to introduce him at Grand Rapids. He asked about how many guys were there and that he wouldn't tell anybody that they were in a Clay Aiken show. Then about binoculars 'cause there was this lady from the second row who had binoculars and she has no on in front of her and then he came up to our side of the balcony and asked us how much we paid for those tickets and we shouted, "Too much. We want to be down there!" He made three women from some rows transfer to the three seats on the front row. Everybody laughed 'cause after they moved, three others moved into their seat. It was so crazy. Then he asked who wanted to move to the seats on the 8th row. People from the balcony shouted, "Us, us!"

There were some people from the back who shouted, "Clay, we're from Raleigh." They kept shouting 'cause he was talking to this couple up in front who were at their first Clay show. He got his stool and he kept on hearing the shouting and then he said, "Lord, I'll see you when I get home!" Then he proceeded to talk to that couple and he sang the Christmas song but I guess he got too preoccupied with talking that he started to sing HYMLC. He got around the second stanza. When he sang HYMLC, he actually emphasized the first words to tell everyone that he got it right. After he sang that, he went right into Sleigh Ride and he was having fun with the giddy-up. You could hear him laughing as he sang 'cause he encouraged people from the front to giddy-up and then he made someone do a giddy-up and it wasn't the giddy-up part of the song. You could actually hear him say, "Ha!" in between the lyrics of the song.

Then the word of the day and he mentioned that he wasn't really classy and into those Italian words...that music notes were foreign to him. He was saying those words crescendo, descrendo, karaoke...and we all laughed then he let Jamie in with the word of the day. Saltando. He asked several people. The first was from a lady on my back wearing red. Her name was Barbara by the way. He couldn't hear 'cause we were so far away. he asked her and she didn't know the meaning. Then there were others, even a music teacher whom he made her sit down 'cause she would definitely know. No one could answer the question he asked the guy who was the first viola (he was cute, by the way, but Clay's more my type). he said it meant jumpy and then he proceeded to give a demonstration. He was pretty good.

Then he sang Hark the Herald/O Come all ye faithful...Then he asked who were at their first Clay show. I raised my hand of course and I think it was around 50% of the people. Some of them were season ticket holders of the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra I think. And then he asked those who have been to other Clay show and he was with his usual banter about them asking our home phone number, home address, etc and then we'll be at the computer 25 hours a day (which I am actually doing already).

Then he talked about Angela and Quiana (who sang MGUCL during the JNT for the past two years and gave him a sort of break during the concert). He said to listen very carefully to the words of the song 'cause it described what America is like right now or something. Then he sang and I swooned because I loved that song.

He said something about mentioning Christmas Jesus Mary and etc and he'll be ok it would be a christmas show anyhow. and then he talked about o come, o come emmanuel and how they sang it at church, "Turn your hymnals to page 294, O come , o come emmanuel." He said that it was sang in a minor key so it was a little bit and not very Christmassy. And then Steve Curtis Chapman rearranged it and it's become one of his favorite songs to hear and to sing to and he sang that and it was wonderful.

And then he started talking about the charities that he's so passionate of BAF and Unicef and he was encouraging people to support if not his charities, other charities in the community. And then he sang DSIAFCD...And once again, I swooned. He nailed the glory note! I loved it and I love him...

Too bad he couldn't go back to do AIW because it was already late and there was a time constraint, but I just loved the whole concert. I'm going back to another one someday soon...Whee!