Rockapella Meet and Greet - The Lobero Theatre, Santa Barbara, CA - December 9, 2000

The scene back in the dance-studio-turned-reception-room was madness! People were milling about, trying to get a chance to talk and take pictures with each ‘pella. April and I spotted Jeff first, so we went up to him. He immediately recognized us and we exchanged pleasantries with him. He said that we looked good in earth tones (but I believe he was only referring to my cousin April, who was wearing a brown coat. I, on the other hand, was wearing all black. LOL). We asked Jeff if we could each take a picture with him. After he signed our Christmas CDs, we thanked him and then moved on to Bear, who was sportin’ his platinum blonde hair! It was incredible! I told him that he could pass for a Backstreet Boy, he laughed and said that he’s too old to be one. But I told him that any of those boy bands could use a man like him! We said bye to Bear and found Elliott who was standing next to him. Poor guy had a cold! He was so congested, I was so surprised that he was able to sing at all! He was up on stage for 3 hours (and 20 minutes for the Christmas set)! But he got through the whole taping without a hitch. Although, he told us that he was starving because he hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast, and it was already close to midnight! Awww… Elliott! We tried not to monopolize his time any longer since he was feeling under-the-weather and we knew that he needed to get through the whole line of fans that were waiting to talk to him, so we said goodbye to El and looked for another ‘pella. Scott was next, and we went up to him, said hi, asked him to sign our CDs and got our pictures taken. I noticed as I was standing next to Scott getting my picture taken, I smelled hot-tamales from his breath. It wasn’t awful, I just happened to smell it from him. LOL I know, the things a person would latch on to. LOL We moved on to Kevin, and this guy immediately gave me a hug. I remembered that clearly! I was a bit surprised, but I thought it was really nice. We took our pictures with him and had our CDs signed, then we decided to go mingle with other Pellaheads. I noticed that while I walking around though, every time I ran into Kevin, he would hug me. It was weird. He ended up hugging me 3 times before the night was over! And he would initiate the hug too. It seemed like every time I was about to pass him, he would grab my hand and hug me. I kid you not! It was great though, I’m not even complaining. It was just weird. LOL Since this was a turn-around trip, we all said goodbye to our new friends, Angela, Sherry, and sisters Laura and Sarah, hopped back on our van and headed straight back to L.A. that night with wonderful memories from that night.

Rockapella Concert (PBS Special Filming) - The Lobero Theatre, Santa Barbara, CA - December 9, 2000

Wow, where do I start? I'd waited for this concert for 4 months, and you can imagine the excitement I felt when I found out that this show was going to be taped as a PBS special, live CD and a video/DVD! I knew right then and there that it was going to be something special. Earlier in the week, April and I had made plans with other Rockapella diehards to meet up in Santa Barbara and have dinner right before the show started. We arrived in SB a bit later than our proposed meeting time, but we made it and met Laura & her sister Sarah, from Las Vegas, and Angela & Sherry, from Torrance, CA. We all had a quick dinner then headed off to the theatre. We got to our assigned seats, which was 2nd to the last row, and found ourselves sitting next to one of the cameras. I was a little disappointed that we had to sit way in the back, but I just decided to get over it and have fun anyway. But, as we were starting to get settled in our seats, we saw the director of the special come up on stage and he announced that he wanted all of us to move up closer and fill in the seats that were still unoccupied (which meant that if you were late, its your bad, hah!) As soon as we heard this, April, and I, along with our friend (and new Rockapella convert) Jeremy, quickly abandoned our seats and relocated to the 3rd row on the right side of the stage (VP territory), just right behind Angela & Sherry. We knew that it was only a matter of time before wed find ourselves on our feet, dancing and cheering on our beloved Rockapella! After a couple of runs of standing O's to tape for the special and to warm up the audience, the show was ready to go underway. As the crowd started to quiet down, Scott started singing his opening line for "I Am Your Man." As soon as he walked out on stage, my jaw hit the floor! Scott looked gorgeous with his blue dress shirt, a vest, tie and black slacks. Simply breath-taking! Up next was Kevin, and I just about keeled over at the sight of him! Full-on leather babee! (We asked him later on in the evening what made him decide to go for the leather because it sure looked like he was roasting in it and was uncomfortable. He said that he wasn't going for comfort this time, he was going for the "look" and man, did he work those pants! The man has some "junk in the trunk"- haha) Soon after, the rest of the guys joined them on stage. Jeff wore a pair of shiny, black pants, with a zipper on each pant-leg, a black t-shirt and a shiny, charcoal-black overshirt with the sleeves rolled-up that flew open when he walked out on stage, he looked like he was about to fly! Bear walked out in this beautiful deep-purple suit which made him looked oh-so dignified yet hip at the same time! El was simply wearing a black dress shirt, and tan pants (no red pants, yay!). He looked so adorable! *sigh* They segued right into "Moments of You" and during Jeff's intro, the lady sitting next to me let out a "J**** C****!" and she turned to her husband and said, "that's unbelievable!" And to think, we haven't even gotten to the big solo yet! With the exception of a few songs (they voted to take "60-Minute Man," and "Don't Do It" out), Bear got to show-off his earth-shaking low range with "16 Tons" which was a great choice, and El go to do "Let's Get Away From it All" and show-off his brilliant scatting. A particularly wonderful treat for me during this song was hearing Kevin scat! This was the first time I'd ever heard them perform this song with Kev and I thought he did a great job! The time for them to pick the Pretty Woman finally came and Kevin scoped out the audience to look for his "victim" for the night, LOL. He spotted this lovely young lady named Ilia, wearing a Superman baby-tee, sitting about 2nd row from the front, in the middle section of the theater, and brought her up on stage. As he sat her on the Rockapella stool, he told her that since this was a very special show, she had to be careful not to make any sudden movements while sitting on the stool because they had rigged it so that fireworks and such would launch at the appropriate moment during the song. Kevin then proceeds to sing a song they'd just written aptly titled "Ilia" and tried to go down on one knee, which he quickly found out to be quite a difficult task, much to the audience's amusement. LOL We found out later that they had to redo the Pretty Woman segment of the show and pick another PW because of trademark infringement due to the Superman logo on Ilia's shirt. "There's only one more thing for you to do, you know what it is..." Oddly enough, it seemed like there were only about 10 people or so who knew what to respond to Scott's prompting LOL. We took another try at it and this time the whole theater responded with such enthusiasm "DO IT ROCKAPELLA!" "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?" rocked the house and even the lady sitting next to me started groovin' in her seat. Little did she know what was coming up next - Jeff's solo! I made sure to watch the lady's reaction during his solo and she was totally dumb-founded! LOL It was the funniest thing! Well, I can totally understand her reaction - the man pulled out all the stops during his solo! Hey, he knew it was going to be nationally televised! He even did some turn-table scratching noises which I thought was a nice touch. What can I say? Da man is BAAAAD! ;-) Throughout the whole concert I would sing along and harmonize with the boys and at one point, the lady sitting next to me, turned to me and said, "you must know these guys!" So I said, "oh yes, I do. I've seen them in concert quite a few times." And then she says, "they're amazing!" To me, that said it all! Another proud moment! LOL Some other highlights of the night for me were: The Lion Sleeps Tonight: This is the first time I'd ever heard them sing this, live or otherwise. I didn't know they used to do this song in concert. It was such a pleasant surprise! Keep On Smilin': OH MY GOSH!!! This just completely blew me away! The last time I heard them perform this song was at the Starlight Bowl in '99 and even then I vaguely remember them doing this song at all! When each of them started to do their own thang during the VP break, I just sat there, totally in awe, I couldnt even blink. It happened so fast, I didn't even have enough time to soak everything in, it was amazing! The Christmas set: They did it especially for all of us after having done almost 3-hours-worth of taping. The guys were already tired, Scott's voice was strained, Jeff was getting restless and Kevin was completely soaked in his leather ensemble, but they stayed and entertained us. Talk about going above and beyond the call of duty! It just goes to show you how generous these guys are! Thanks Rockapella! You guys are the best!