Forty days have passed since David’s Christmas tour of 2009, and as much as I have enjoyed the break from packing and unpacking my suitcase and traveling from city to city, I miss seeing him in concert and at the Meet and Greets we have so much enjoyed.
The Meet and Greet excitement starts with waiting…waiting for I Love All Access to open the doors, waiting to be tagged with the paper bracelet to ensure that our names are on the list, waiting to get the laminate necklace that tells everyone we are VIPs. Then we enjoy some private time to purchase that much-anticipated concert poster—adding to our collection of 10 or 12 by now—a concert t-shirt that’s a little different than most, and the tote bag with David’s tour dates in which to carry everything home. Oh what a shopper’s delight!
As we wait in line before we are moved to a room when we will see David, we get instructions on how to walk up the stairs or down the hallway or if we are “older” and lucky in some venues, the elevator. Smiling and laughing we go where we are told with the anticipation of shortly meeting David Archuleta. We continue to swap stories with each other on the best Meet and Greets we have been to or brag about how many we have attended. Once we get close to the room we all start to increase our walking speed so we can get that closer space in front of David, only to find out the process has changed and now we meet him when he’s doing sound check. Before we meet David doing sound check we are treated to a simple display of light food snacks including sodas, punch or water. Who can eat? We have butterflies in our stomach and our heart is beating faster than usual. Why? We can now hear David doing sound check across the hall and he sounds fabulous! It’s announced it’s time for us to be taken into sound check where David is on stage and further away than the intimate setting we had been accustomed to previously, so we try to hide our disappointment. Then we listen to more instructions and learn we can possibly sit in the third or fourth rows from the stage. Yipee closer to the stage and David. As we strategize our walk to the sound check with minimal decorum, the excitement starts to build.
David is on stage smiling as usual and says “Hello,” and asks how we all are. Well, we are terrific! We are finally in the same room as David. He wants to know what we would like to hear him sing. He usually has a couple of choices and we shout out suggestions; some say whatever he wants and others are silent, still in awe of his presence. He sings his song choices and too quickly it’s over and we wish there was more. But wait, we have the questions that will be asked. They also go too quickly, but listening to David laugh makes it all worth while. He then tells us it’s time for pictures.
We all scramble out going back to our original room debating whether we should go first in line, in the middle or wait till the end to get our pictures taken. You have only a few minutes to decide as the line starts to fill up. Now, we need to decide what do we say to David when we go up to get our picture taken, something serious, like you are the best ever, no that sounds lame, something funny to get him to laugh, no that may not work either. If David doesn’t laugh we could be standing there with egg on our faces. Oh, I have it! You approach him with this nervous smile wishing you could tell him how much you enjoy his music and how inspiring he is and you so admire him as a person, or that you feel he is one of the most talented singer/songwriters today. Do you say this? No, of course not, you stand there smiling like the actress in the Gleem Toothpaste commercial, hoping your hair looks good in the picture and forgetting everything you wanted to say. You walk away happy though, because you got to stand next to David for a couple of seconds and if lucky got a hug before you left.
In a trance you remain smiling, watching David say thank you for coming and then watch him walk out the door. After a big sigh you think to yourself, when and where is the next concert with a Meet and Greet? Planning ahead like a good fanatic fan, you realize you already scheduled another concert with a Meet and Greet!
While we still are all mesmerized a couple members from David’s band come in to help with the raffle. Great to see them; maybe we can actually talk to them without stuttering. Yes we can, they are really cool! Time for the raffle tickets to be called – No, that one wasn’t my number, no again, no, then you hear your number being called and you can’t believe you won the autograph t-shirt you almost bought when you first got there. Wow! This is great and it’s not over yet, now the best is yet to come—David in concert!
As we walk into the theater to find our VIP seats, we know in just a few minutes we will experience a great concert from a young man who just a short time before was standing next to us for a picture. Meet and Greets are special and give us the opportunity to enjoy David in person, apart from the stage!
Perhaps we can petition David to have Meet and Greets even when he’s not doing a concert tour. As he travels to various cities for songwriting and recording of his album, he could schedule Meet & Greets with his fans. Works for me! I Love his Meet and Greets!
Tags: Autographs · Band Members · Christmas concerts · I Love All Access
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