Archey Report – Washington DC – August 14, 2008

The Buses

August 14, 2008 will be a day I’ll never forget – I finally got to hear our Angel David sing live and had the chance to meet him.

My day started out by going to meet the buses around 1 pm at the Verizon Center in Washington DC. There I met kpham54, karidol, archftw/crusherlover, Richard and several Angels from Fans of David, including Mary, Christy, Andrew, Fran, Amy and several other Angels (whom I’m not intentionally leaving out – there were several of us and I can’t remember who else was there!)

We waited for the buses until around 2:15 p.m., which is when they finally came by. David and David were the first Idols to come out around 2:30 p.m. along with yesha. David Archuleta headed to the right all the way down the line and David Cook headed to the left all the way down the line and we were standing in the middle. kpham54 and I decided to go down the line so we could see David up close. He is so gracious, kind and just gorgeous in person. People were talking to him and he kept saying “awww, thank you sooo much!,” smiling as he did so and giving those completely adorable typical David looks. During the time that I was following David, Ramiele, Jason, Carly, Kristy Lee, and Brooke came out, but I barely saw them. Brooke kept apologizing because she had to leave to do press but signed as many autographs as she could.

David Cook got to our end first and stayed out the longest of any of the Idols along with Michael Johns, who came out a little bit after the rest of the Idols. Chikezie was the only one who didn’t make it outside. I didn’t have the chance to speak with David Cook, but he seemed really nice and spent a lot of time talking to people. He told the fans around us that he was wearing a suit because he’d had an important meeting earlier that day and hadn’t had the chance to change. Later during our concert he was still wearing the suit and he explained that he’d met with Senate to talk about cancer awareness and research.

Archey reached us right after David Cook did and I got him to sign two pictures for me (one’s for you luvnugsrarofan!) As he was signing my pictures he asked someone what time it was and he exclaimed “Oh my gosh, I have to go, I have press in 5 minutes!!!” so he handed my pictures back and continued down the line so he could get to as many people as possible before he had to go.

Andrew, who designed the original Archey cartoon, had done one for each of the Idols and handed Michael Johns the one he’d done of him when he came to our part in the line. Michael quipped that he should be making a profit off of them! We also had the opportunity to speak with Jeff, who is one of the nicest people that you will ever meet. He spent a lot of time with our group and you could tell that he really appreciated David’s fans.

We hung around the buses a little bit longer after David left, up until the moment that David Cook and Michael Johns went back inside. It started to pouring rain just a few minutes later, so I left with kpham54 and karidol. kpham54 went back to his hotel and karidol and I headed to her hotel, where we both finally had the chance to meet ml. Her bus had gotten delayed from Canada so she didn’t have the chance to come and meet the Idols at the buses. We got ready for the concert and headed back towards the Verizon Center.

The Concert

Here I finally had the chance to meet Linha (randyisgreat), who gave David the “David is My Hero.” I also met Karla, Richard’s wife and several other Angels (there were about 50 of us!) and we waited for Richard to hand us our tickets to the concert. Richard and Karla are also two of the nicest people you’ll ever meet and David is fortunate to have such wonderful people looking out for him. Before we knew it, it was 7 pm.

I sat with ml and karidol and we were beyond excited for the start of the concert and to finally hear David sing live. I’ll say that I was very impressed with the concert and how great each and every one of the Idols sounded live. They’re all extremely talented and I truly enjoyed each of their sets. The concert went by extremely quickly and karidol, ml and I were counting down the number of songs to go before we got to hear David sing.

David and Angels

Finally, the moment we’d all been waiting for arrived. Smoke rose from the stage, the piano emerged and we saw David – I could barely breathe! The crowd went completely crazy for him. I think I held my breath, jumped up and down, started sweating, screamed my head off and just took in every moment as best I could while attempting to take decent pictures. Hearing David sing live is beyond anything you’ll ever expect – it was just so beautiful and yes, magical. There’s a whole other quality to hearing his voice live that you don’t get from the TV or from recordings. His voice just envelops you and leaves you wanting more. Angels was spectacular – as always, he completely changed up the song and made it sound new and different. I loved how he bounced up and down in his seat as he got into the song!

David and Apologize

I loved hearing David sing Apologize – he totally got into the song, from the facial expressions down to the hunkerdowns and everything in between! David is so emotional when he sings and it was worth it just to watch see his gorgeous eyes and expressions as he sang this song. He sounded fantastic and amazing. It’s David, how could he not?! ;)

David and Stand By Me

I was so happy and literally “stoked and pumped!” to get to hear Stand By Me live. David worked the stage and the crowd was pumped! Again, it sounded like a completely new song. I especially loved the “And all you beautiful girls” part. David started dancing and really getting into it at this point and it put the biggest smile on my face! I tried to take video of this part but my camera didn’t co-operate with me.

David and When You Say You Love Me

Before we knew it, David was on his last song. He didn’t talk too much between sets and it was sad to realize that he was almost done! When You Say You Love Me left me mesmerized. I’m sure I stopped breathing at this point too and am surprised that none of us passed out from the emotion and excitement. David explained that WYSLM was “one of those message songs that I like to doooo” (so adorable how he said it!) but told us how it was an important message and how it was for the fans to show them how much he loved us (of course you already knew that, but I still hung onto every word!) The crowd was screaming and cheering for him like crazy at this point. I’m surprised that I didn’t start crying but I think I was just too enthralled and captivated with the whole experience. Again I tried to take video but it didn’t work! ml got some of the ending of the song and a security guard came up to tell her to stop recording about 30 seconds before David finished. I practically smacked him because he was interrupting us while David was singing and there were only a few precious seconds left, dang it! David finished the song and introduced David Cook and was gone in a flash.

Backstage

David’s set went by super fast but we were all excited because we knew that we were going to meet David backstage at the afterparty! After the concert ended, people with backstage passes had to sit and wait for security to take us up and all the Archey Angels were taken up first. It was here that I finally got to meet Virginia5, who’s just amazing in person! I’d estimate that there were at least 60 of us Angels, so we were given our own private room with David and the rest of the Idols were somewhere else. David came in after we were all there and he tried his hardest to get to everyone. He only had about an hour to be with us because the other Idols had to leave for Lexington and he had to get his belongings from the bus before they left. We talked to Jeff for a bit more at this point and karidol, ml, Virginia5, kpham54 and I just observed David interacting with the fans. At one point karidol got David to speak in Spanish and again my camera didn’t co-operate or else it would have been a great video! I was so upset when I realized that it hadn’t worked!

We were told that David had to wrap things up and that he only had about 5 or 10 minutes left and I literally panicked because I hadn’t had the chance to get near David yet. I quickly asked him for a picture and a few autographs and handed him the gifts that I had for him from luvnugsrarofan and myself, but didn’t say much else because my mind went blank, ahhh!! He thanked me and I think I just didn’t say anything or I might have said “you’re welcome”, I was too much in awe! I talked to karidol in Spanish so she could take the picture and I could feel David turn around and look at me surprised, I don’t think he was expecting me to speak in Spanish, haha! I was literally shaking during this time and wrapped my arm around him and then a few other fans got their pictures. I managed to sneak in a few other pictures before David left because I really didn’t like the first one, but I could not stop shaking! I couldn’t believe that David was standing right there next to me. His eyes literally glow and he was so gracious whenever someone asked him for a picture and really listened whenever someone spoke to him. He kept saying “did I get to everyone? I want to make sure that I had the chance to meet everyone” and he thanked us all for coming before he left. His arms were laden with gifts! I kept wondering what it must feel like for him to have all those fans around you and having everyone taking pictures of you right and left. As surreal as it is for us to meet David, I imagine it’s pretty surreal for him too. I didn’t get a hug but I’m sure that he smelled like heaven! Before I knew it, we all had to go. It was a fantastic experience and I know that I’ll remember it forever!