I attended this show last evening, and without a shadow of a doubt, it was a terrific show. When your first "major" concert is to see your favorite band (GGD), then it makes it all the sweeter.

Doo Su opened for the no-showing Fastball, and I spent most of the time mingling with the growing crowd among friends. Not that these guys were awful, just that they didn't grab my attention as much as Fastball likely would have. They played for a while, they plugged their shirts & CD's constantly. I found that somewhat annoying, but they pumped the crowd up for the rest of the concert by asking if we were ready to see Sugar Ray & The Goos.

Next, Sugar Ray performed, and they definitely got the crowd into it. Mark was sick and admitted to it, but they still did an awesome job. Mark flirted with the idea of singing "I Want it That Way" by the Backstreet Boys a couple of times but quickly said he was "just kidding." They played all their big hits, ending with "Every Morning" as expected.

It took a while in-between Sugar Ray and the GGD's, but it was worth the wait. The light show and the fog machines started going, and BLAM, here came "Dizzy" over the speakers and they ran on stage. The crowd went absolutely crazy. Tired feet and an ear full of music and I was happier than Little Suzy Anne on Christmas morning after a year of being a perfect little girl.

I'm going to run down the set list with added comments to songs that I feel needed added comments!

1. Dizzy

2. Long Way Down (this one sounded great, I don't know why but everyone was singing it and they made some musical changes in it and it rocked.)

3. Lazy Eye (think I was the only one in my area to actually recognize the song, but they got into it anyway.)

4. Fallin' Down (John got on the mic and said "this one was written before you were born" but to his surprise the crowd knew this one well and sang right along.)

5. Slide (this was awesome, no other way to describe it)

6. Full Forever (I guess Robby had a tendency to get too close to the microphone during this one, cause the lyrical sound was really unintelligible, and I was close.)

7. Black Balloon (MY FAVORITE SONG, I got into this one more than any song they played.)

8. Bullet Proof (love this song)

9. Name (this one had me teary-eyed live)

10. Naked (kept us from getting too emotional I guess)

11. January Friend (Robby sounded much better in this one)

12. There You Are

13. Another Second Time Around (really liked this one too)

14. Acoustic #3 (teary-eyed song #2 for me, lol......whole crowd sang this one too)

15. Burnin' Up

16. Broadway (got an awesome reaction since there's a pretty famous road called Broadway in Knoxville too. I think this song will do great if they release it)

17. Hate This Place (this is John's personal favorite song from DUTG isn't it? Excellent song.)

And of course.......

18. Iris (what can I say?)

At this point they brought down that projection screen and ran that "Greed in Action" video I've heard they do, then about halfway through the GGD burst back out onto the stage and finish up the show with:

19. Flat Top

20. Just the Way You Are

and finally,

21. Two Days in February (the projection screen came down again and it ran a generic movie of a woman talking on a telephone. John told everyone that this was a story of a guy, a girl, and a telephone that killed their relationship. Most of us know it's about him. They added some electric sound to it and especially during the bridge of the song, but it was awesome. As the song ended, John & Robby took their guitars and threw them through the projection screen, tearing huge holes in it. That was great. Then they left and I was left speechless and breathless.

What a show.

One last thing, I know all these stories about people who say "OH MY GOD, JOHN LOOKED RIGHT AT ME!" or "Oh MY, JOHNNY POINTED AT ME!" and things like that. However, I was smart and totally unexpecting of that sort of thing. During the middle of a song that didn't have everyone's hands up or anyone bouncing around, I stuck both my hands up and pointed at him and yelled "You da man John!" and luckily he had just finished the last guitar riff of that particular part of the song, so he had about 4-5 seconds of free use of his hands, and he pointed right back at me and smiled. I was in right about the 6th row. That was just cool. They looked like they had fun all night, and it was great. Miss em' already.

Damn, what a show.