Just to Be Close to You!

Nampa, ID
October 4, 2001

I took my Jade elephant out of my pocket and put it into my purse before we left for the show! We were wearing our DLF shirts so we were easy for Howard to spot! :o)

The Best Day of My Life continues on…

I will warn you ahead of time this is pretty much a one-sided concert review! Kevin, Nick, Alex and Brian may have done some funny stuff but the night belonged to Howard from where I stood! :o)

First, let me say the Idaho Center is VERY SMALL. From the floor plan I saw, I expected it to be bigger than the Sun Dome. It might be taller but as far as floor space goes, it is WAY smaller! There was no second stage at this show. I actually liked that and you will see why in a minute! :o) Second, when it says NO CAMERAS ALLOWED on their tickets they mean NO CAMERAS ALLOWED! We took ours back to the car. The people behind me tried to use theirs and quickly had them taken away from them. They had DISPOSABLE CAMERAS and the security people still took them away from them! They tried to tell us the "no cameras" was by request of the boys! That is B.S.! The guys always stop and POSE when they see someone with a camera! I know they were wondering why no one was taking pictures of them!

Krystal did a really good job opening for the boys. There weren't very many people in the arena when she was on so the response to her was pretty dismal. She sounded much better than she did in Tacoma earlier this year but not quite as on as she did in Vancouver. We headed to where she was going to be signing autographs as soon as she announced the location. There were still at least 100 people in front of us. We found a review the next day that estimated she had signed close to 3,000 autographs the night before! We were standing in line and Cathy goes "look how stiff her hair is! I want to touch it!" When we got up to her Cathy asked if she could touch her hair! Krystal kind of laughed and snorted like she did on the Disney promos for Princess Diaries and said "Sure! Go ahead!" She bent her head down and Cathy touched her hair! It was really cute! Dana asked to touch it too. Krystal just laughed and bowed her head again! I didn't ask to touch her hair… 2 weirdos in a row was enough! :o)

Thankfully, we missed most of Sisqo's performance. I am sorry but to me when Shaggy was unable to make the remainder of the tour then they should have just stuck with Krystal and called it good or maybe gotten a lesser known act to go first (personally, I would have loved to have seen Pollyanna!) and let Krystal go second. The only words I could make out during Sisqo's entire performance in Vancouver and what I saw in Boise were "EVERYBODY SCREAM!" I barely even recognized the words to the Thong Song and I have it memorized! Also, I don't feel he is a good performer. He plays to the cameras and not to the audience the majority of the time. There is a reason the people reviewing the shows rarely mention him.

Now…onto the main event…I had 3rd row almost dead center seats! I spent the first 2 acts sitting with Cathy and Dana in the 2nd row but then the people who actually had the seat I was sitting in showed up so I had to move to my seat. I had to smile though because they were not a young couple! They were a man and wife and according to Dana who sat next to the man, even the guy knew the words to the songs! Color me impressed! This was before the boys went on. I sat down and I thought I heard somebody call my name so I looked around and there was a person from one of my messages boards right behind me! We talked for a couple of minutes. I filled her in on the events of the afternoon. The girls sitting beside her were amazed! They kept asking me for details and more details and we talked about previous shows. They were really nice!

Idaho Center might care about cameras but they didn't care about the signs I made! Probably because they were so small and because I didn't make them until I got to the show! :o) I think I can say in all honesty the guys LOVED my signs! I am not bragging, I am stating a fact. They all stopped and read what I held up but Howard especially liked them! OK…maybe that was because the majority of them had his name on them…In Vancouver, he stayed on the side of the left hand side of the stage and hardly ever came near the center or to the right. I felt kind of slighted. Boise DEFINITELY made up for that! He stayed close to the center of the stage for 90% of the show and even when he did go to the sides, he still faced the center. He winked at me at least 23 times not that I was counting…He blew me kisses and wait until I get to Time!

I started out the show with a sign saying "HOWARD! I Y YOU!" He read it, smiled at me and gave me the first wink!

Next I held up a sign saying "Brian! Leighanne is the sweetest!" He saw it, smiled and said "Thank You!"

I thought the guys sounded pretty good on Everyone but when they started talking, I thought the sounded very high pitched-Kevin does not have a high pitched voice! I think their hand held mics were a little off. Overall, they sounded great and their dancing was really tight! Nick did a few of his patented He should patented them if he hasn't already! "ass shaking" moves and drove the crowd into a frenzy each time. Brian did his adorable little boy looks and made everyone smile with his antics. Kevin…OH BABY! You could count his eyelashes from where I was sitting! I have said before the man has stunning eyes but even from 20 feet away they are still stunning! He was full of energy but not as much as in Vancouver! In Vancouver he pretty much stayed right in the center of the stage and worked the crowd from there. He jumped around a lot and really gave an explosive performance. Keri & I had TONS of eye contact with Kevin and Brian that night. I thought he was little more sedate in Boise though and he played the whole stage, not just the center. Alex…the stage is his world! He is so in his element when he performs. He worked the entire stage left to right, back to front, the wings. He was everywhere!

Back to my Howard concert… :o)…These are not in order. They are off the top of my head!

I had a sign that said "HOWARD! LET'S SEE SOME HIP ACTION!" He read it, put his hands out to his sides and shimmied back and forth! Then he kissed his fingers and made a peace sign to me! :o)

Another sign said "I LIKE THINGS HOT & SPICY!" He read it, wrinkled his nose and laughed in that way that always makes me melt when I see him do it, then blew me another kiss!

If you have been to a show or you watched the webcast then you know Alex asks the audience if they like the outfits they guys are wearing and Nick tries to get the guys to change clothes on the stage, while the other guys protest. I knew this was coming so I made a sign that said "TAKE IT ALL OFF!" Brian was the first to spot it. His eyes got huge and his mouth dropped open. HE WAS ADORABLE! He walked over to Alex and he pointed at me. I had lowered the sign by then so he goes "NO! Put the sign back up!" So I did and as Alex was trying to read it (I don't think he was wearing his contacts…) the camera panned to me so the sign was up on all of the screens! Brian said "She wants us to take it all off!" and the crowd started cheering! Needless to say they didn't take me up on my idea and changed clothes below the stage as usual! :o)

Around this point, Krystal, Leighanne and Sarah came out and sat down in front of me behind the security guards. They cheered and sang along with everyone else. I thought it was cool to see them down there. I think Krystal comes out every night because she did in Vancouver as well. She and Carlos were really cute in Vancouver. She was standing up on a box, clapping and singing when Carlos walked by. He walked back by about 5 minutes later, stopped in front of her and tilted his cheek toward her. She leaned down and kissed his cheek then he smiled and kept walking! Leighanne didn't come out in Vancouver and Sarah wasn't in Vancouver as far as I know.

While the guys were introducing the band in Vancouver, I remembered Nick and Alex doing a spoof of Bootylicious but it didn't occur to me until Boise that the other song they spoofed was Bye, Bye, Bye! The girls sitting behind Cathy and Dana brought a Joey doll and tossed it on stage while Nick & Alex were goofing off. Nick took the doll and started dancing with it and then I think he tossed it into the audience! They were both laughing their asses off! Nick came to the edge of the stage, still laughing and said "Its all good!"

While Howard and Brian were singing How Did I Fall In Love With You I made a sign that said "HOWARD. YOU WRITE BEAUTIFUL MUSIC!" I didn't hold it up while he was singing because I was so mesmerized by his performance! He sang with his eyes closed and the emotion on his face was spell binding! He was…BEAUTIFUL! Normally they do this song on the second stage so I had never been that close to him while he was singing it. OH MAN! I am still speechless!

After they finished the song, they all squeezed together and sat down on the edge of the stage right in the center to perform Time. Here is where the most magical part of my night took place. While they were getting situated, I held up my sign. Howard read it, kissed his fingers and made another peace sign for me. Are you sensing a pattern? He looked straight at me and didn't break eye contact the entire song until Nick grabbed his head and bent it down so he could kiss him! THANKS A LOT NICK! :o)

America the Beautiful was INCREDIBLE! Brian has the PERFECT voice for that song! Nick…I think maybe he and Alex or he and Howard should have switched parts because his range is lower than his part called for!

You are probably getting bored of this review; such as it is so I will wrap it up with 2 more incidents! Howard throws DLF Bears into the audience at 2 points in the show. The first time he did it he held the bear up, looked at me and then pointed to the bear! He kissed it and tossed right at me! It landed in the lap of the guy behind me who had evidently brought his girlfriend and her mother to the show. He looked at it and handed it to his girlfriend! I turned back around and Howard scrunched up his face and said "Sorry!" Can you imagine what I would have been like had I actually gotten that bear? The lady next to me goes "That is not right! He threw that to you and that guy should have given it to you!" :o) C'est la vie I suppose!

Lastly, during Drowning I made a sign using the lyrics Howard sings. He had trouble seeing it for the smoke and I could tell so I took it down. When the smoke cleared he motioned for me to raise it back up! He read it, put his hand over his heart, kissed his fingers, made a peace sign and then the American Sign Language sign "I Love You" and winked at me!

So there is my review…does this even count as a review? LOL!

While we were waiting to get out of the parking lot, we saw the coolest thing happen. Five buses, in a straight line, escorted by police cars front, back and to the side, heading for the highway and Salt Lake City. It was an awesome sight!

Leaving Boise Friday morning was like leaving summer camp. I knew the guys were gone and the arena was empty but there was still magic in the air. I wanted to stay but I knew there was no reason to. Does that make sense?