sunset on the beach with david cook & company
Once again, I had a chance to be in Virginia Beach this year for the Patriotic Festival. Last year, the star of the show was Sugarland with Jennifer Nettles as its lovely bundle of energy and talent. This year we had David Cook. The crowd went crazy every time the announcers mentioned his name. The audience was 98% female!
Speaking of female, the single "girl power" for the evening was the talented Felicia Barton. She wasn't listed on the program, but was the unofficial energetic opening act for the concert. The crowd warmed up to Felicia's smiling face and powerhouse voice instantly.
By the time Matt Nathanson came on board, everyone was ready to rock. And rock the beach, Matt did! Not only that, he was surprisingly funny and charming. He repeated his name at least a half dozen times and so even if one came to the concert not knowing who Matt Nathanson was, one surely left remembering his name without a doubt. :)
As to David Cook, all night long I was waiting for him to do my favorite Billie Jean song (proudly showing my age here) ... but he didn't. Neither did he sing The Time of My Life, Permament or Come Back to Me either. There's no doubt whatsoever from the very first note that a David Cook concert was a pure rock concert. David plays the music he loves, not what we hear on the radio a dozen times a day. Since I have yet to buy any of the songs on his new CD, I didn't know a single tune that night while everyone else around me was humming along with every word. Starting with the opening act, the sound system was already terrible. We could barely hear David's voice or make out the lyrics he was singing. (Last year, they managed to fix the same problem for Sugarland after a few songs, but not so this time.) To make things a tad bit more interesting, the drummer in David's band seemed to beat the living daylights out of his drum set while violently whipping his long hair up and down all night long. At one point, I thought he was going to pass out of exhaustion or deliriousness. Thank goodness, he didn't.
As for the former American Idol champion who's been rocking his way into America's heart, bad sound system or not, he looked and sounded like a soulful, younger Brad Pitt on that stage and could do no wrong in the eyes of the female-dominated audience. Safe to say ... Virginia Beach adores David Cook!
If this little post still doesn't satisfy you (because you are such a huge fan of David Cook or at least secretly possess a healthy curiosity about all things cool), check out Marc Payne's blog. Marc is one of the two official photographers of the Patriotic Festival 2009 and he's sharing lots of details and pictures on this fun event on his blog and flickr site.
