David Cook Concert - April 2nd

I'm a little late with this post but back on April 2nd, we went to Wilmington to see David Cook in concert. Ryan Star was the opening act and even though it involved a night in a hotel, a day off work, and an American Idol, I somehow convinced Mike we should go.

The concert was at Trask Coliseum which is the UNC-Wilmington basketball court. Our seats were way up high and to the far left of stage. My one complaint about the evening is that the acoustics were HORRIBLE. We couldn't make out a single spoken word though the music was largely recognizable.

Ryan Star, who was my favorite guy on "Rockstar: Supernova" (a show of largely suck) was the opening act. I'm really glad to see him touring and gaining some exposure. He's a really intense performer and sang five songs in all - 3 from his upcoming album and 2 (Psycho Suicidal Girls and Back of Your Car) from his last solo album which I've had and loved for a long time.

David's set was as I expected - awesome. I did think he'd hit the stage hard and loud but he actually came out and very quietly sang "The World I Know", a Collective Soul cover and the only song of the night from his Idol run. Here's the set list:

• The World I Know (Collective Soul cover)
• Heroes
• We're Only Honest When We’re Sleeping (2007 unreleased)
• Declaration
• Mr. Sensitive
• Souvenir (2008, unreleased)
• Kiss on the Neck
• Lie Little Lies (Fleetwood Mac cover)
• Hot for Teacher (Van Halen cover)
• Come Back To Me
• Bar-ba-sol
• Light On

Noticeably absent? A Daily AntheM and Permanent which are both for his brother (who is fighting cancer). And the "magic rainbow" winner anthem song.

However, I believe the best part of David is the banter and because of the acoustics, we caught almost none of that. Very disappointing from that perspective. His band is amazing though. Neil (guitar) was on our side of the stage and he was even playing behind his back at one point. Then his drummer, Kyle, totally reminds me of Animal from the Muppets but in a really good crazy way.

Overall I really enjoyed the show. Minus the screaming tweens behind us "WE LOVE YOU DAVID" literally every 10 seconds. Ugh.

Mike even said he enjoyed it - which made me brave enough to ask if he would mind going to see Ryan and David again once I found out they had added a show 20 miles from the house. He agreed to go so I bought tickets yesterday morning. I'm excited because this is a completely different venue - instead of the family-friendly Azalea Festival with about 5000 people, Cats Cradle is a small 21+ venue. Way more awesome.

Here are a few pics - the coliseum crowd, Ryan during his set, two from David's set, and one of Ryan signing autographs in the lobby after the show.