Now that I have superpowers (read my other thread), it was no problem for me to be in Chicago, IL, one day and Springfield, MO, the next. Right? Riiiight. Springfield is actually closer to where I live than St. Joseph from last September, so despite the fact I was pretty beat getting home from Chicago late last night, I had one of those "if you don't go, you'll regret it, what's a little tired?" talks with myself, and hauled my not-very-ample ass off to the Ozarks.

And you know what? If I hadn't gone, guess what we may have missed? Justin debuting "Sweet Time" and "When She Cries."

I was surprised at the size of the crowd. The weather was truly horrible a mere hour or so before Justin was scheduled to go on. As I was driving to Springfield, I kept seeing the sky getting darker and darker, and hoped it would prove to be north, but no such luck. I drove for at least an hour in the heaviest of the downpour, which was scary not only because of the flooding potential but because I had no idea where I was along my route in terms of when I'd hit the next turn.

But about the time I left my hotel to go to the park, it had tapered off, and by the time the opening band (finally) got off the stage, it was sunny, warm and humid. Read that as Norskie wilted, quickly.

After maneuvering into a spot I thought would give me the best exposure with the sun in the background, the crowd started coming up around me. To my left, I heard this androgynous guy (read into that what you want) talking about how he was "crazy" about Justin. When I get up the video of Get Here, toward the end, you'll see Justin walking over to interact with someone who was, indeed, going crazy in the audience. It was that guy.

To my right, a gaggle of young teens came up and one girl said "he did that Justin to Kelly, did you see that?" and another said, "I LOVE Justin to Kelly!!" Amazing again how many people have seen that movie, considering.

Justin was announced, and warmly welcomed by the audience. He and Greg walked out and pretty much got right to it. Amazingly, it seems I remembered the entire set list without checking the tape, since Justin said he did 14 songs.

Lady
Easy
LST
N&D
MFV
Get Here
Crazy Love
The Joker (Space Cowboy)
Brown Eyed Girl
Knocking on Heaven's Door
Sweet Time
When She Cries
Missing You
Encore: I Got Friends in Low Places

The whole concert was casual and interactive and Justin had the crowd laughing and singing along through the whole thing. There's a difference between funny and corny, and Justin is funny. He ended doing a bit with The Joker that worked really well in terms of the humor. He also told a story on himself about his fashion choices on Idol. You'll hear me laugh on the tape, I'm sure.

Don't underestimate how hard it is to get people to sing along. The band that came on before tried and tried and almost no one cooperated. On the video, you can hear people singing with/for Justin (when they knew the words).

It was challenging to video, because Justin moves around (of course) and there was a tallish teenage girl in front of me who kept bobbing over to her left into my camera angle. Early on, there was a little boy just in front of me to the right who was standing on one of those folding camping chairs that was collapsing, and he was actually falling into me. I ended up tapping his mother on the shoulder to let her know, because if I had moved, he would have possibly hurt himself.

It was nice to see Greg up there with Justin, doing the two-man band thing. I wonder what he thinks about these gigs? He looked like he was having a good time, and he became part of the joke in The Joker.

The local news each had a segment showing Justin performing. It was kind of funny that one of them showed a close up of Justin spotting someone way in the back and he said "I see you back there!" and the female anchor giggled like a schoolgirl and said "We see you, too, Justin!"

So much more will be shown on the video. He almost forgot to promote his EP and jazz album, and managed to remember only when he came back for the encore. The guitar thing really threw him. He brought STHH CDs to sell, so he was at least thinking before he came, heh.

What else? I guess only that I did have one unfilled wish ~ I wanted to see Justin leap over the moat, LOL!