MY ULTIMATE DOUBLE CLAYING-AND A CHASER

[Marilyn]

August 31st
I arrived at the Borgata around 1:45- checked in, and met Linda (Dudley5) in the lobby. Then Aikenseeker (Susy) came over- we shared a room. After dropping off our luggage we headed to Bozena and Boca’s (Susan) room. It was so much fun to meet up with everyone.
Throughout the afternoon we met up with Tessie, Lori, Christie and Gwen, and later saw Micki and Becky.
Later, after Susy and I had a quick sandwich (everyone else had eaten already) we headed to the event center. There were Clay shirts, totes, fans, pins, buttons, everything everywhere- it was really fun to see them. The fans came fully loaded, that’s for sure!
Susy and I headed to our seats- 2nd row!! In Section 300 CENTER!!! I was on the aisle and Susy was next to me.
And then it began- oh my lord, Clay came out and he was right there!! The funny thing was that he hit the jukebox and “rock and roll” didn’t quite stop as the band began playing-The look on Clays face was priceless!!!



Everyone who has seen the show knows how sexy those black pants are and that cool leather jacket.

From our seats, though, you could truly see how skinny our boy is, even though he fills out those pants in a most excellent manner!!! His voice was wonderful, no cracks, no problems. Seeing him so close just filled my heart with joy- and his eyes sparkle all the time- its truly amazing




Of course we know the fifties set by heart, but to have him sing Great Pretender right in front of me- was a truly uplifting experience.

 And his Solitaire was superb, as usual.


When it came to Mr. Pip- Clay did all the right moves- the crowd loved it! And then it was time for the Pip search. Well, he came down off stage, and stopped right at our aisle. The security guard was sitting on a chair with his back to the stage. I was screaming at him- “Look, behind you!! He wants to get through!!” I yelled a couple of times and even pointed, but the guard was oblivious.
So Clay lifted those long lanky legs and just………stepped over the four foot fence!! I was holding my hands out to catch him, but he didn’t need any help And he passed within less than a foot of me, and carried on up the aisle! Dudley and Bozena were sitting behind us, in seats that no one had taken. Would you believe that where he stopped was where their original seats were!! Dudley went back up the aisle and managed to squeeze Clays arm (lucky woman)  After he picked his Pip, he came right back down past me. By then the guards had put a chair either side of the fence. So he stepped from one chair over to the other, then scooted his cute little butt onto the stage!. He made a comment about possibly ripping his pants, which of course made everyone scream deafeningly!!!
And then it was intermission.

[mrs. c.]

Marilyn, don't leave me this way!!!  I wanna keep reading!!! Great pics too!!!

[Clayhottiefan007]

OMG I WISH I CAN MEET EVERYONE...BUT THATZ SOOO AWWWWWWESOME!

LOVW ALWAYZ
KAT

[Marilyn]

ROUND TWO
Clay makes his entrance as the group and pip #4 do their thing – I have to say that although polyester has never been my favorite- Clay wears it well. I loved when he did September- never missed a dance step- Nights on broadway he got up close to Quiana- and then the bean bag chair!! Too much heaven was wonderful! And then it was Mandy time! I have always liked this song, but Clay gives it that extra oomph- and he held the final note longer than I have heard it so far!!



The 70's- out comes HOT FOR TEACHER Clay in his scrumptious polyester suit- asking us questions about the seventies- only picking us if we held up our hands (Just for the record- I had NOTHING!- went totally blank)


And then some were yelling "You were born" and he got snarky- he said he was getting tired of this- asked how many people went to multiple shows- made us hold up both our hands- and said" Now those of you who have your hands up- every night I do this bit, and my being born is the punchline. AND YOU KNOW THIS!!- so stop ruining my BIT!!" (not an exact quote but the download is so cute -under 70's banter)
And then, and then,................he stood at the microphone RIGHT IN FRONT OF US and sang BOTW- flawless, flawless- and my eyes were riveted on his mouth and eyes (with an occasional side trip to the teasing cinammon chest hair that peeked from the polyester shirt)
WHAT? Oh, sorry, my mind wandered a little then!



And then out came Felix the deacon and went through his bit- the angelic Clay singing with his choir- the disrobing (GASP< HOLD ME BACK) Susy and I held our breaths as he approached the front of the stage- waiting in anticipation for the action to commence before our very eyes..................
AND HE WENT THE OTHER WAY- OVER TO QUIANA!!
I am sure our groans were heard over the music!! They had to be!!
But then Clay took pity and after the little bit with both the girls- he strutted over to our side and took on Angela- (BOY DO I WISH HE WOULD TAKE ME ON LIKE THAT)
Man, that boy can dirty dance!! And he sure takes a good grip on Angela-his arm snaking around her waist and holding on tight! WHEW!!
And then it was over quickly, and ANL came on (never one of my favorites, but I like Clays version!)



DIG THOSE CHEEKBONES, WILLYA!!

I absolutely love it when Clay sings "Never Gonna Give you Up"- I liked Rick Astley but I think Clays version is better! I love how his voice changes to accomodate the song!!

And........"ALONE" Clays voice, a little breathless, you could see his chest rising and falling and rising and.......................oops, got lost again! And the powerful notes of the chorus ringing out over the stage (This has always been a favorite of mine- sang it with a hairbrush pretending to be Ann Wilson of HEART. And I adore Clays version of it.


Sailing........a sweet song, a perfect foil for the gentle Clay voice

Cant touch this- Clay was a riot here, doing little dances, making fun of himself and the group. It was so funny when Angela told him they were her church clothes and he said "Run to Jesus" he even cracked himself up!
You all know the rest of the 90's medley, but he was so cute on End of the Road- his voice far outshone Jacobs- and Ethel made a comment as they were starting, and Clay kind of put his hands together and made a face, like he was praying Ethel would behave!


Here is IRIS



I will have to confess I took no pictures during LA VIDA LOCA-- I think I may have been.....a little...........distracted, shall we say? I wanted all faculties totally zoned in on the action- and I was not disappointed. Oh, I think he might have been singing during this---not sure!!

After Susy picked my tongue up of the floor and rolled it back into my mouth, we sat down to recuperate.....I mean, listen to ICMYLM. What stupid, idiotic, annoying people were at that show- there were screams, there were I love you Clays,  just totally inconsiderate people. Clay had taken his ear thingies out(technical term) and I think he got annoyed hearing all the screams, so he put them back in. It has to be distracting when you are trying to get into a song and you hear that! Even so, it was a sweet, haunting version all the same.

[mrs. c.]

Marilyn, I have a drink with me and I'm so enjoying your story!!!! and pictures!!!

[Anita]

Marilyn,Please don't stop now I am reliving every moment with you. 
Also listening to the RadioMax special ...this sooooo good.  I think I need a drink too, Sharon

[Marilyn]

Now of course, we were all waiting, hoping that Clay would do a "Stump the Band" bit, and he didnt disappoint us! He did however, think he was in Las Vegas!! I guess you see one slot machine, you see them all! (Wonder if he played any?)
And it is weird to me at 3:00 in the morning to see all the people in the Casino's
A wonderful discovery was that if you are playing the slots, you get free drinks!! Yes, folks, I exceeded my quota's of S.O. T. B's (but they dont call them that- what an adventure I had trying to get the right drink!!- must have gone through at least 7 or 8 until they got it right!!)
but I digress!

Someone picked Dont Let the Sun go down on Me- and the band did a great job- Clay sang a more subdued version of the original with his fingers crossed!!! and his cute little face screwed up- thinking that we wouldnt enjoy his singing or that he would mess it up- but he did wonderfully well.

You had to see his face when the woman requested "Whats new pu$$ycat?" It was hysterical!- so he made her come up on stage to sing it and gave her Quiana's microphone.

Then he chatted with the crowd about his Christmas concert- said he was so worried that he couldnt sell tickets because most of us had already seen this tour- and gas prices would probably be $6.00 a gallon by then!
So people were asking him where he was going to tour- and he snarked that "Ah know you are going to go back to your computers and report what ah say!!"
But he confirmed Washington DC, not going to Dayton,
and he looked right at me and I said NY CITY- and he confirmed that they were going to be there YAHOO-   right in my eyes, ladies- those sparkly wonderful green eyes made contact with mine!! What a thrill!!
and he will be in Raleigh and possibly Baltimore- but he asked us not to quote him!

Then he sang Pu$$ycat chorus with the lady- LUCKY LADY!!
He sat down at the piano and mentioned that DLTSGDOM was sung by George Michael and Elton John in the 80"s and everyone made fun of him!


Clay did his 2003 MOAM Songs and went on to Tears Run Dry
I LOVE THIS SONG!! It is really a more uptempo one that JY and 1000 Days (Even though I like them also)  I think this could be the flip side of his single and it will do well!

And then BACK FOR MORE!! I have never heard the crowd participate as much as this (except for night 2) and Clay got all rocker and dropped his mike stand at the beginning of the chorus!! YOU GO CLAY!



and then it was INVISIBLE time- those shirt tugs!!! that little stinker knows he has us!!! I just adore him!!
and so we said au revoir for the night and went and ate a huge breakfast and played the slots and checked out more free drinks- lost a little, won a little more- and it was fun!! Boca, Bozena, Dudley, Aikenseeker and I stayed up WEALLY WEALLY LATE!!

What the heck, we didnt need to get up early- but the internal alarm had me out of bed at 7:00 a.m.  So I strangled it and went back to sleep until almost 10- but then the hunger alarm kicked in, so I had to get up and feed the body!

NIGHT TWO COMING UP

[mrs. c.]

Marilyn

[Marilyn]

why thank ya , ma'am

[Marilyn]

BACK FOR MORE-NIGHT TWO

My camera is not the best- as you can see by the darkened pics from night one- but I didnt use the flash!! Since night two was even further back, the pics are lesser quality again- but I got some!

Susy met Andy Abad, the bass player, in the “LIVING ROOM” the place where people who were staying at the hotel could sit and talk, and relax.
Then when we were coming out of our room later in the day, we passed Clarence (the keyboard player) in OUR Hallway- he saw Susy’s Clay shirt and kind of ducked his head so we figured he wanted to be incognito- but the group must have been staying on our floor somewhere. A waitress also told Susy that Clay and a guest had come down after the concert, when the restaurant was closed to the public, and had dinner there. –glad he got out of his room!! I believe he was staying in the private suites that had private elevators. And that night, after the concert, Angela was seen playing at the tables.

For the second show, Susy and I had 17th row seats- we still had a great view, but the chest hair and the sparkly eyes were a distant memory-<SIGH>

From the start- Clay sang his heart out. I never thought he could improve on the night before or any other show- but you could see he was giving it everything he had!! When he did Buddy Holly, he had the cute little voice and he played with the day a a ay drawing out the syllables. Only you-----------gah!! I love when he does that!
And of course his balls of fire was the best!!!! (Yeah, I know,--couldn’t resist!)

Unchained Melody-what heart, what soul, what a voice!!
And then he went to the piano to “massacre” Elvis’s songs- and that’s when he told us that both shoes had whipped cream on them- and that the the whipped cream  could probably be sold on ebay!!

The sixties segment was so funny! When Clay did Sugar Sugar it looked like he was tickling Angela, then he came over to Quiana and she had this shocked look on her face- he had pulled the plug connected to her backpack thingy! So they went over to “Happy Together” and the girls pulled out his earplugs, grabbed his microphone-he tried to grab theirs-so Quiana held his nose and Angela put her hand in his mouth- and he bit her! Then she bounced her hand off his throat so that his voice reverberated, so he put them both in a headlock and finished the song- it was so funny- this song has always been one they fooled around on, but this was the funniest!

After he came out in his PIP hat he told us that Jacob had shaving cream in his hat and wouldn’t put it on- Jacob corrected him to say whipped cream again. And Clay had Crisco on his microphone!!
The Motown set was great, and when Jacob did his “Heard it through the grapevine”- Clay came out and sang backup- which he never did before! He told us he enjoyed being out there so much!
He climbed off the stage to get his Pip- who was in one of the front rows (guess he had enough fence leaping from the night before! He said he thought he hurt something- that the pants were so tight!! And that of course elicited numerous screams from the audience. When they were singing “Aint no mountain high enough-“ he let the audience sing most of the second part! It was fun! And listening to the downloads, we didn’t do too badly at all!

[wisconsinmaniac]

MARILYN !

YOUR RECAP IS A GIFT!   I'M LOVIN' IT !! 

MARVELOUS!   GAAAHHH ! 

I'LL WAIT TIL YOU FINISH - - -  EVEN IF IT TAKES ALL NIGHT LONG ! 

[Marilyn]

The seventies- I wish I knew what Clay said to Angela and Jacob during Quiana’s earthmoving song- He was pointing to someone in the audience and laughing. It was possibly Ethel again. And Mandy- he was focused on someone in the audience during the whole song- probably another person named MANDY. Well Marilyn is close to Mandy isn’t it-
Oh Marilyn- you kissed me and stopped me from shaking- well? If I kissed him he would shake even more!! WOOO HOOOO!!

In the seventies banter, he was joking that he was never wrong, but he changed a date when he was talking, it was funny! Especially the looks he gives along with what he says!



Bridge over troubled water was absolutely perfect- I don’t know how he did it, but Clay sang everything twice as well as he had before. He gave the whole show everything he had, and it was beautiful.



WDC- well of course since I wasn’t in second row, he came over to Angela’s side and took care of business again!! Dang it!
Then during “touch if you will my stomach”  (OH I WILL< CLAY< I WILL!!-BRING IT OVAH HEAH HONEY!!)  the girls were running their hands over Clay and Jacob ruffled Clays hair- everyone in the audience burst out laughing






Clay had all the band dancing this night- it was funny- Daniel just ran around a bit, but Felix and Marlene (?) were really getting into it.

The next change was on EOTR. Instead of Clarences deep voice on the beginning- we heard this high pitched voice- it was Jacob!! And Clarence went over and did Jacobs bit- and very well, too, I might add. I don’t think Clay knew what was happening at first, because he was laughing at it all.






La Vida Loca- and I did get a picture- one of the crew came out and danced in front of Clay, with Quiana and Angela- and he was pretty good, too! But our eyes were focused on the bon bon, of course!! He was just getting good with the slow vest removal and the tantalizing way he drew it through his hands before tossing it in the air ,,,,,,,,,,wish he would do the same with the shirt- imagine him slowly unbuttoning, one by one, then sliding the sleeves down his arms……………the shirt down his shoulders,…….OH!!
Sorry- one of my daydreams got in the way of the review. Forget I said this………



I will have to say that this time, there was dead silence during ICMYLM- and the voice was superb- the breathlessness, the poignancy, the heartbreak, and all so very clear and stirring- THIS should be an excellent download for the ULTIMATE JBT Tour

And this is the picture I took of Clay singing ICMYLM-

I told you his essence drifted out and enveloped the crowd- and now you can see it for yourself
 (NO OF COURSE I DIDNT MOVE WHILE I TOOK THE PICTURE_-DO YOU DOUBT MY VERACITY??)

As Clay introduced the crew and brought them onstage, the same guy that was dancing on LLVL walked up the stairs to Angela and Quiana. Didn’t know what was going on, but as the crew was going offstage, the girls came down and shot silly string all over Clay- you should have seen his face- it was hysterical!- and he had a hard time removing it all!
Stump the band was a little tame- they did Carolina on my mind- which I think was significant as a suggestion from the audience- don’t think Clay made the connection, though- and then he did “Isnt she lovely?” which of course, was lovely in itself
After the MOAM segment, he sat down to sing “Tears Run Dry”- and many in the audience had the glow sticks going- you could see how much it affected Clay, and he signed THANK YOU again at the end of it.
When he rocked out on “Back for More” you could hear that most of the audience was singing it, too- he even looked back at the band in acknowledgement.
And of course we all joined in on Invisible

It was so hard to see each person be introduced and know it was the end of the tour. Clay gave us a wonderful wonderful tour- something that I hope will be repeated. No one can deny the energy, the showmanship, the entertainment, the fabulous VOICE that is Clay Aiken.  It was a great experience seeing each and every concert that I did, but nothing can top that last concert- The FUN that he shared with us. Clay always included his audience in every show- and we were happy to participate.

No I wont get over last week very quickly. I am in a fog- I am exhausted- but I would do it again in a flash!!

I also wanted to point something out from the first show. A few times, when Angela was singing and when Clay was, the sound of Andy’s instrument was predominant in our ears and we could barely hear the singers. At one point I stuck my finger in my left ear, and so did Susy, so we could hear the singing. Clay looked over and noticed us, and made the signal for Andy to tone it down!!! Now how great is that- Clay was paying attention!!
TO US!!

[wisconsinmaniac]

BRAVO! 

THANK YOU !

THUD !   

[BOZENA]

MARILYN ..
.WHAT A WONDERFUL RECAP OF OUR ESCAPADES..
I WISH I WERE STILL THERE

[Marilyn]

AND THE CHASER.......
Friday morning we had breakfast- Bozena, Boca, Dudley, Aikenseeker, and myself. We walked past the theater- and I saw a sign that said JOURNEY- Sept 2nd and 3rd.

Now, if you dont know, last Saturday I was with the N.E. Hussies at the Gilford NH concert. I was supposed to get back to Long Island Sunday night to see JOURNEY at Jones Beach Theater- but through a series of circumstances and a heckuva lot of traffic, I missed my Ferry from Connecticut to L.I. and had to stay another night. So I missed the concert.

So here was another concert staring me in the face. Since Susy and I were staying Friday night also, I told her we should get tickets. When we went to the box office, the woman said its almost totally sold out but I have a couple of tickets in the last row X. Well, since the theater was small I said OK.
As she was ringing them up, she said, "Wait something just popped on"

SECOND ROW TICKETS, PEOPLE!!! four seats away from where we were the first night!!

YEEEE HAAAAA!
So thats how we found ourselves rocking again on Friday night
I have to say the energy was totally different from Clays concerts.
Most of the audience was sitting down for the first segment (not Susy or I though) They finally got up and sang a couple of songs with the band, but there was not the camaraderie and bonding and love that you feel at a Clay concert!

A side note- I found it amusing how trained we Clayfans are- stand up on the rocking songs- sit down on the ballads- stand up - sit down- etc, etc,- Its funny!

So here are some very blurry journey pics- except the last one, when the lead singer Steve looked right at me while I took his picture. After I looked at the pic, I found the placement of the persons hand in it quite amusing



THIS IS THE KEYBOARD PLAYER- HE ACTUALLY HAD AN EMERGENCY APPENDECTOMY ON TUESDAY- ALMOST DIDNT MAKE IT- BUT HE WAS THERE AND HE THANKED THE CROWD AND FANS FOR THEIR PRAYERS- SUCH A GREAT GUY!!



THESE ARE REALLY BLURRY- BUT YOU CAN SEE HOW CLOSE WE WERE- DIDNT USE THE ZOOM


NOW IF WE COULD JUST GET CLAY TO WEAR AN OUTFIT LIKE THIS- THINK IT WAS PAINTED ON!! AND THE SHIRTBUTTONS WERE OPEN AT THE TOP AND BOTTOM, NICE!!

[Marilyn]

MARILYN ..
.WHAT A WONDERFUL RECAP OF OUR ESCAPADES..
I WISH I WERE STILL THERE

ME TOO, BOZENA, ME TOO!!!

[BOZENA]

what fun we had

[Marilyn]

WE SURE DID BOZENA!! THANKS FOR SHARING!
CHRISTMAS TOUR NEXT!

GOOD GRIEF- ITS LATE- GOODNIGHT!!

[BOZENA]

GOODNIGHT MUFFY...

NOW WE WORK ON TICKETS FOR THE XMAS TOUR

[ANGELA]

MARILYN,
WHAT A TERIFFIC REVIEW--THANK YOU FOR SHARING  YOUR DOUBLE CLAYING WITH US.
LOVE ALL THE PICS TOO.

HAVE A GREAT DAY!!
ANGELA