Krik and I left Palestine around 8:20am on Friday and rolled into Memphis to pick up Brendaly at the airport by 5. Naturally meeting up with my "Scott Lovin' Sista" again was incredible. I never realize how much I miss these guys 'til I see them again. Coleen had already made it into Bartlett and was waiting for us at the motel. So there was a great "Rockapella Road Tripppers" reunion. Linda called and was right across the hall from us. We ran out to get a bite to eat and were not impressed by Logan's Road House. Poor service, mediocre food. Oh well. Who cares? We're here to see 'Pella!
So we got back to the motel and met Boge and his sis coming out. Hugs all around, of course. Boge is the ONLY man I love more than Rockapella. *G* Anyhoo, so we went to say hi to Susan in the room. It was so great seeing those guys again, too! While we were in Boge and Susan's room, Jenn called. They asked her to come by but she said she was unpacking, etc. SO...we all decided to go invade her room. Finally spent time with Jenn! Yay! And it only took what? 3 shows? *G*
Oh, when we were in the lobby, we saw Fred who said that he and Phil came in early but Da Boyz weren't due in 'til tomorrow. Bummer.
We'd found out earlier that Da Boyz would be leaving the motel about 6 to head to the venue. So, what a coincidence that we should be down in the lobby surfing the 'net when they started filing out. *G* I had pulled up my website (it has a nice group shot of Da Boyz) and Jeff happened to walk by just as it came up. So he goes, "Oh, whose site is that?" I told him it was mine. He says, "Nice shot." *G* I think George came out next, then Scott who says, "How'd you guys get to Tennessee?" I think John was coming out with Scott and of course we smiled at him but didn't really know what to say. Kev wandered out last and at that time we were on Jenn's site with (ta da!) a pic of Kev. He goes, "Whoa! Who's that? That's ME!" I said, "Don't look! It's a nekkid picture!" *G*
So we get to the venue. It was much easier to find this time, although we STILL had to turn around and come back again. Geez.
We get to the venue and were waiting to be let in and see Scott A. (Babyboy) and his friend, Ryan. It was SO GREAT to see Scott! I just hugged him forever! He is getting cuter everyday. OMG! If I was younger....*G* I've adopted him and Ryan now, with Krik sharing joint custody. *G* Ryan is a hoot. He fit in just perfectly. And get this. They're coming to Lufkin! YAY!
I met some that I hadn't met before which was cool. And of course there were the "usual suspects": Suzi, Wanda, Jill, etc. Many others were there too of course. But first, we had to find Ron (the venue director). We brought him a Texas Road Map (go back to the show last year for the whole story about the cow), which was a cow and a fork which said, "Take a left at the cow and turn right at the fork." Also gave him some of my mom's salsa (everyone has to get a jar eventually. *G*) Hugs from Ron. We love him. What a great man!
Okay, 'nuff of that. On to the show!
How cool that Krik, Brendaly and myself had the exact same seats as last year. Front row, Kev's side.
I have to admit that I was a bit nervous about the show since this was John's first show with Da Boyz and El would no longer be there. I'd heard through the grapevine that there would be some new material, but never in a million years did I expect what we were about to be treated to. The show has changed almost completely and believe me...that is NOT a bad thing. It was absolutely AMAZING! There is no other way to describe it, really. You just have to go. I'll do my best here, but I can't possibly recreate all that went on. We were EXHAUSTED by the end of the show. I can imagine how Da Boyz felt.
Okay, ready? Sit down, strap in, grab a beer and hang on....
The show starts with a song I'd never heard before. I found out later that the song was an original by SCOTT called "Tonight". It was a great start to the show! Their mics were on stands and they started with this cool snapping fingers thing. Lots of cool choreography in the show now. Even Jeff. *G* Neat little VP/vocal tradeoff at the end. *sidenote* John didn't appear to be a bit nervous at all. He was smiling, and dancing, and he has a GREAT voice!
"Moments of You" was next. This was fun because once during one of the "You, you, you" Scott pointed at ME! Wheee! Then he pointed at Krik the next time. I was having a difficult time deciding which lens I wanted to use. I had planned on getting extreme closeups, while Krik (with her NEW camera) got the group shots. But I finally changed to the smaller lens because there were so many group opportunities. Right as they broke into "MOY" Krik, Brendaly and me held up a sign that said, "Welcome John!" Coleen, who was one row behind us, just HAD to join in. *G* Her sign said, "Me too!" She's so funny! We love the "Pretty Princess". *G*
Scott: "It's great to be back in Bartlett, our home away from home. Three years in a row. Thanks for having us. I heard we were the "audience pick", so thank you." While Scott was talking, suddenly Jeff has a spasm or something and starts drumming. *G* Scott: "That's Jeff. Sometimes he just spouts off, but this is how we control him. He's got these little leads right here and we just...zap him right there." Jeff wanders back behind the curtain. *G* Scott: "We have a brand new member, John K. Brown." He said John was from Kentucky and this show would be new for all of them. Scott: "Who has not seen Rockapella before?" (this dude in the front row raised his hand. He had the BIGGEST red 'fro I'd ever seen!) Scott: "You have not seen Rockapella before?" (Jeff in the background, "You're outta here!") Scott: "You have hair just like Kevin and you've never seen us?"
Then Scott of course talks about how there are no instruments behind the curtain and calls Jeff. Remember, Scott threatened to "zap" Jeff earlier. Jeff: "Is is safe to come out now?"
This is when all the voices join in and they go into "Off My Mind". This was my first time to hear it live. I LOVE it! During "Can't get you off my mind," Scott motioned to Brendaly. *G* Yeah, HE knows who his "pets" are. *G*
"Dancing In The Streets". They'll probably always do this song so Kev can get out into the audience and acknowledge returning fans. I think it's sweet.
Scott then starts talking about El retiring and that they needed to find someone to take his place. He said that someone told him to check John out at a theme park called "Holy Land". "So I go to watch the show and it's a very...nice show. I wasn't quite seeing...it was very nice...contemporary Christian/Gospel stuff going on. It was very nice. Okay. I'm not sure how this fits in with Rockapella, we're not known for doing Christian material, but okay. I'm not sure if this will work out. So all the singers come out and this guy comes out and...I'm sitting there *pretends to be looking at other folks beside him* looking and going, do you see...can you hear..? That is the answer. How did he show up here performing at the Holy Land Theme Park in Orlando?"
John takes the lead on "Stand By Me". Beautiful. Absolutely BEAUTIFUL! And his little vocal run at the end....wow."
Next up, "Use Me". Okay we've seen them perform this a million times, right? Right? WRONG! Not like this! Jeff's up on the riser in the back doing his VP stuff. And the song is going wonderfully. Then it hits....THE DANCE. I don't know WHO came up with it. I don't know HOW they came up with it. I don't CARE. This is SO COOL! I cannot even begin to describe it here. John starts, then Kev joins in, then Scott, then George. Lotsa knee slapping, foot stomping, etc. You just have to see it. Suffice it to say, they were all breathing hard at the end...Um..so were we. Wow!
Kev's turn to talk and he's still tired. "How are ya'll enjoying the night so far? You think this is exciting for YOU. It's VERY exciting for us. So..what about John?" We were all cheering. Scott was being sweet and brought Kev a bottle of water. *G* Kev: "The Rockapella Dance Show will take a break with Crystal Geyser. I'm getting quite a workout. Maybe next time I'll get a towel or something." Scott brings him a towel and he uses it to dry his armpits(and whatg sexy pits they are!). Kev started singing like he was in the shower. *G* Silly boy. Kev was talking about how great John is. "Not only is he fun to watch but he's a great guy and fun to be with. So it's a very exciting time for us and we're very happy. We're very happy. And very happy to be back in Bartlett. So did everyone have a good summer? Did you go to the beach or do anything special?" He talked about four of them live in Florida and "we have sunshine and...hurricanes, and lovely white sand beaches." Jeff started making the ocean sound. Cool. Then I THINK it was John, started making bird noises. *G* LOL Kev: "And people in their bathing suits, bikinis. Men in their speedos. Do we have any speedo wearers here tonight? C'mon man." He pointed to Scott A. "You wear a speedo, don't you?" Scott indicated that he DID indeed wear one. "Yes you do. You do. It's okay. You can admit it." Scott was talking about the olympic swimmer, Michael Phelps wore a really tiny one. "Did you see that? I mean it was down too low don't you think? I mean that's all I could think about was, OOh. Man pull up your pants!" Kev: "If a hurricane blows through there. So thank you for coming out and saying that you wear a speedo. So anyway, Florida and the white sand beaches..."
"Under the Boardwalk" Scott was doing the seagulls and John was doing birds. Cuties! Can I have one Mommy? I'll feed him and walk him everyday, I promise!
All the guys sat on stools for the next song. George: "These are some nice stools." Scott: "We like the old style songs. We like the originals, but we like to mix it up with the older stuff. Give it the Rockapella treatment. Some of the old stuff, like the Mills Brothers. Mills Brothers that I heard growing up. Well not really. I am the oldest now. I'm 62. I look good, though. So we kinda gave the treatment to one of their old songs...or we copied and totally ripped them off..."
"Lazy River". Scott didn't whistle this time, though. Bummer. But he DID do a trombocal solo, so that was cool too.
The next song was awesome! They start doing this little dance around in a circle. At one point, Jeff managed to do two or three pelvic thrusts RIGHT IN FRONT OF KRIK! (I'm not sure exactly how much of the rest of the show she remembers. *G*) The song was "Rock the Boat" OMG! When is the next CD coming out?! George: "Do it. Do it. Do it 'til you're satisfied." Humina! Again, lotsa cool dancing. There's a little break where they're singing, "Step step, side to side..." and dancing. So cute. George again, "Do it 'til you're satisfied". I think this was the time when Susan's sister got MUCHO stage love from George and believe me, she was ready for him!. You go girl! *G* George will soon learn to NEVER tease a southern woman. *G* She'll take you up on it. *G* Background boys singing, "Rollercoaster...of love." George starts doing this little bass riff which was awesome! Then he raps something like, "He's the best, he's the most. Like hot butter on my breakfast toast." (that's not the exact translation but I'm close, I think.)
Then they left the stage. We were all, "WTF? COME BACK!!" But it was just intermission.
When they returned the Mayor of the Bartlett presented them with Keys to the city. How sweet was that?
"Small World". Scott got a bit of audience participation on this with "Small World...I-Ay" (or however you spell it. *G*) OMG! At the end of this they all started immitating the little robot things at Disney. LOL Must be seen to be believed. Scott was doing this little hip-wiggly thing that wasn't MEANT to be naughty, I'm sure, but...um....
"Rockapella's Greatest Hit" Jeff: "You can sing along." Thank God nobody in the audience did. *G*
"Here Come's the Sun"
"Long Cool Woman" had a new intro:
George: "The name is Leonard. C. Scott Leonard the Fourth. I ain't a cop. I ain't CIA..I'm a private homeboy. I'd just gotten the key to Bartlett, Tennessee. And I just got out of jail." Kev: "I'm on the street and I see my beautiful lady and I'm like, Whoa baby, you got it goin' on. I know I'm lookin' good, I'm in my fierce suit. The one that makes my butt look good." (Meanwhile, Scott is acting this whole thing out. Spends lots of time caressing his own butt. Gee. If he'd only ask me, I could help him. And yeah, baby. That suit DOES make your butt look GOOD. A trash bag makes your butt look good. *G* But I digress)Kev: "Oh you know what? I need backup. I better call them." Scott mimicks pulling out a cell phone and Kev (I think) makes dialing noises. Scott's got the "phone" on his ear and he's kinda standing in a way that, well...you can see it when I put up pics. Again, he doesn't mean to be...*G* Scott: (in a silly voice)"Hey guys. I need to get the uh...pitch for my song (George gives it to him but Scott is still talking.) "Okay I need it again."
"Long Cool Woman" During the "Bang bang bang" part, John has a gansta type gun. *G* Yep. He's workin' out just fine. *G*
After LCW, they kinda stand around for just a second, as if they really don't know what to do. Scott: "So what's next?...I got an idea!"
They move into "My Girl" John does a nice job on this, too. John: "Now since I'm the new guy, I get to pick someone out of the audience." He runs down and finds Elvia, a very pretty young lady with a itty bitty skirt. I'm not sure but I THINK this is when I was trying to get a pic of Scott and he started posing for me and holding the pose so I could get the pic. Naturally I panicked and it was blurry, but whatever. *G* I love him for trying. *G* Anyhoo, they get Elvia up on stage. John: "Just relax. Don't be scared." Kev asked Elvia if she was named because Elvis was "around here". She told him that her mother had named her. Duh. Kev asked if it was an hispanic name and she told him it was and that it meant "to live". Kev: "Oh you're going to live tonight! Cause we've got keys to the city. You can do alot with keys." (Um...Kev?) So Kev goes, "We have this song for you. It's short...Oh, Elvia. You are so good lookin', yeah. Oh Elvia. That's the end of the song." And he let her leave. She made it to the edge of the stage and suddenly....
"I know you want to leave me, but I refuse to let you go." "Ain't Too Proud To Beg". Great replacement for Pretty Woman! *G* All the guys are "begging" Elvia for her love. Pulling her in opposite directions, etc. Then George goes, "Hey baby I got what you need." And gets down on his hands and knees and starts screeching, "Baby, baby, baby...", not realizing that everyone else has stopped singing and are just standing and looking at him. *G* Finally he looks up and goes, "Oops." And they finish the song (sometime during the song, Scott tries to bump and she just will NOT move.*G*) Kev gives her the Live in Japan CD and goes, "What about George there? What happened? He gets a little carried away. He loves the ladies." Scott: "That was fun, but she would not do the bump." OMG!
Back on the stools for "I'll Hear Your Voice". Beautiful. Kev got the words right this time too. *G*
Next we all got to sing "Happy Birthday to G-Man". *G*
George: "Today's a good day for me because..I'm not the "new guy" anymore. That's cool. But I was thinking, man. I used to have some funny jokes when I was the new guy. I could joke about drinking chocolate milk. But now this guy's in the group. And he drinks just as much as I do. I got a special ring on today. It's kinda shiny. It's a 300 game ring from the American Bowling Conference. And I thought it'd be kinda special to wear it tonight because tomorrow, we got a travel day and we're gonna travel up to South Carolina and I brought my bowling ball with me and I figured I'd take care of some bidness tomorrow and uh...whup these boys. Ya'll can look on the website for the verdict." Scott asked him how many 300 games he'd bowled and George told him 5. Scott told us that George had special shoes that had different soles depending on the surface of the lanes. George: "That's why these boys better watch out...and drink a lot of beer." Scott: "Make mine a Shirley Temple." (Okay am I the only one who thinks Scott drinking a Shirley Temple is just about the CUTEST thing in the world? *G*)George: "When we got here someone said, George, your voice is deeper this year...*going even lower* Well..."
"Papa Was a Rolling Stone" Finally George was doing his little "hand thingy" during the break again. YAY! That is SO sexy! Why? I don't know. It just is.
"Where In the World Is Carmen Sandiego" Jeff's solo was GREAT! I love how he kinda "voices" some of the notes. I can't describe it. Kinda like, "Diggity, diggity..."
First Encore: "Up On The Roof/Wonderful World". The lead is traded off more now. Pretty. Okay, Krik and I are afraid to take pics during this cause our cameras make a noise. However, Krik is always BEGGING me to risk it for a pic of Jeff. And being her friend, I complied. We both had our cameras up and Jeff caught us, earning a grin. *G*
"Dance With Me"
"Zombie Jamboree". Kev changed his eyeball part. This time he just goes, "Ow OW! My LEG!" About that time, John came over to help and Kev looks at him and quickly goes, "Whoa, whoa, whoa..." Funny stuff. Scott must have heard about our "limbo" obsession, because he did it backwards this time. Boo. But the Bee-hind Limbo ain't so bad either, baby. *G*
Encore number 2: "Shambala". I love this song.
Of course they ended with "Keep Smilin'". During the break, Scott tried something with "Speedos" which tickled Kev, which tickled Scott, which tickled the rest of the group. Scott: "I never should have started that." And he literally laughed out loud.
The absolute BEST moment in the whole show was at the end of "Smilin'". As Da Boyz all were bowing, I caught Scott's eye and mouthed, "You were GREAT!" To which he mouthed back to me, "Thank you!" And....BLEW ME A KISS! OMG! Um, hello, Scott? This is Mo. Could you please bring my heart back with you when you come to Texas? *G*
I'm going to end by saying, I am just bouncing in my seat typing all this out right now. I had more fun at this show than I ever have. We laughed almost constantly at the antics of 5 gorgeous and wonderfully talented men. Here's hoping they will continue for many years to come.
The Meet and Greet
Back to Bartlett, 2004