Yuku free message boards

Quote:

---

American Idol Night with Guarini, Caldwell & Glocksen on April 12
03/20/08 - American Hockey League (AHL) Peoria Rivermen

Peoria, Ill. (March 20, 200 - President/CEO Bart Rogers announced today that American Idol Night will take center stage on Saturday, April 12, when the Rivermen face off against the Iowa Stars at 7:00 PM. The night will also feature the world-famous Ralph Rashid/UFS Downtown Outlet Center Fan Appreciation Night.

Former Idol participants - Justin Guarini, Kimberly Caldwell and Gina Glocksen - will sign autographs from 6-8:00 PM and then follow that up with a post-game Idol-style concert with each person singing two songs. Guarini, a native of Columbus, Georgia, was a runner-up to Kelly Clarkson from Season One; Caldwell, a Katy, Texas native, was the seventh-place finisher from Season Two; and Glocksen, a Naperville native, took ninth place in Season Six.

Guarini and Caldwell co-star on the TV Guide Network's "Reality Chat: Idol Wrap," which airs in conjunction with each Idol show.

Fan Appreciation Night was named after the late Ralph Rashid, a senior account executive with the team and member of the Rivermen Hall of Fame in the Builders Division. Each year, Rivermen season ticket holders and fans take home thousands of dollars in prizes at the last home game of the regular season.

---

www.oursportscentral.com/...id=3607902

The video is processing. It's on my slower notebook computer, so be patient.

Meanwhile, some photos and a recap of our excellent adventure.

First and foremost (to anyone from California, that is) the weather in Peoria was rotten. Cold and rain. Like the east coast, I think, the midwest has been having a miserable wet spring. Another year, and it would have been sunny and possibly in the low 80's by now. I'm sure they couldn't wait to get off the plane back in sunnier LA.

But they were good soldiers and said nary a word about it. Shelley and I arrived about fifteen minutes before the meet and greet was to begin and the line was already to the end of the barricade they had set up to keep people orderly. We knew the three of them arrived when we heard a squeal go up (ThinkingofJ, was that you? LOL) and the line moved along at a pretty fast pace. They have meet and greet events at this arena often and I suspect the locals "know the drill."

Our turn comes and we walk up the little podium, Shelley first and then me following. Justin looks up and greets both of us. Shelley had him sign the $5 photo she bought for a friend of hers back home, while I joked about the Mann Act.

Yes, you read that right. In the veritable cesspool of information that resides in my brain, you never know what is going to bubble to the top. In this case, it was a federal law that prohibits transporting women across state lines for immoral purposes. I'll just say Justin gave me context for it and leave it at that. But, hey, I get bonus points for originality. I'm willing to bet JG's never had that subject come up before at a meet and greet.

I took Shelley's photo with Justin (I hope she'll post it later) and then a qucik snap of her with the other two gals, and we made out way to our seats to wait out, I mean watch the game.

The three of them at the m&g table.



I have not been to a hockey game since college and (forgive me, Dad) I was reminded why. Not my game. We were sitting the the Red Carpet section right behind the players, surrounded by the most die hard of the die hards. Their fight song was "Fight, Fight, Fight, Fight." They literally meant "fight, fight, fight, fight." They finally got one in the last 2:30 of the game. Second biggest cheer of the night, topped only when one of the Riverman got off a shot from in front of their goal that went the entire distance of the arena and into the opposing team's unmanned goal. Too much hockey info? Yeah. But one other thing. Apparently, Stevenson needs to keep the stick down. (Shelley is laughing at this point.)

After one period, we'd had enough. We decided to walk the concourse and then check to see what was up with the meet and greet line. This was getting close to when it was supposed to be done. Just about that time, they put up the m&g on their scoreboard.


The announcer said to jump in line to get your autograph, and the line that looked like it was dwindling down, grew back to almost its original size. They ended up staying about half an hour beyond the announced end time. I tried to snap some candids, with limited success because of the crowd. At one point, however, the ever-obliging JG saw me with the camera and gave a look and a smile.


At this point, we figured out that the stage was at the end of the arena. We spent pretty much the rest of the game trying to stategize the best location. We thought because of the glass barrier that the best we were going to be able to do was pretty far up and off the to the side. This was our view:


Pretty crappy, huh? We were resigned, but then, the announcer said "the concert would begin as soon as we remove some glass." At that point, we decided to scramble over to the other side, where there wasn't a rope running across. The set up still wasn't great, but a definite improvement. We just got settled in and the concert started.

Kim was up first, and her rock songs brought up the energy and were a good way to kick things off. She interacted with the audience as well, and several young guys around me were quite complimentary. Shelley videod her performance and we're going to send it to Kristin, if you want to check it out.

Then Gina Glocksen. Apologies to any of her fans who are lurking, but she really didn't make much of an impact except for the fact her fiance accompanied her on the first song.

Then it was time for Justin. Shrieks and screams, and lots of young girls yelling out "I love you Justin!!" That pretty much kept up the whole time he was on stage. At one point, a competition broke out, with one group yelling "We love you Justin!!" and another yelling "We love you more!!!"

I noted what Justin sang above. Here are a few performance photos.





Air guitar on Easy.


He broke out the real guitar on Missing You.


At the end of his third song (Missing You), I heard people starting to yell out "encore." He obliged with "Let's Stay Together."

He "just doesn't understand" in Let's Stay Together.


I think the first video is done, so I'll put that up in a separate thread and probably add more photos to this thread as I get to them.