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Ok, so maybe this review is a little overdue and a little long! Read if you're feeling the down from no concerts, and definitely check out the pictures at the end, courtesy of my sister the camera queen

        It was over an eight hour drive from Kansas City to Chicago, so I was relieved, although a little surprised, when we encountered absolutely no traffic going through Chicago. Mental note to myself to take I-80 whenever possible. We got to the venue about ten minutes before the parking lot opened. We pulled into some fun world parking lot and had the perfect amount of time to get changed and everything ready for the concert. We were near the front of the parking lot, but when the gates opened people were crazy trying to get out. A group of girls in two vehicles were intent on following each other and almost smashed me in between them. I let a few cars go, since I wasn’t really in a rush anyway. I was confident that no one was going to steal my seat if I didn’t show up 15 minutes after the gates opened.
        I debated for about ten seconds on buying $20 parking before deciding I’d already spent that much for free parking in Kansas City. I parked in one of the closest rows in a spot which must of hid my car, since I could never find it after that. We walked over to where the line of people to get into the gates was and kind of just stood there not knowing what to do. I started looking around for someone I knew. I mean it’s a Kelly concert in Chicago. I’ve been to all of them, I know everyone. Right away I saw Natalie, who I haven’t seen in a really long time. I went over to her and said hi and also met Dinks in person for the first time. (I think she’s the first person I’ve ever met from Texas, besides Kelly). We got free Focus vitamin water from the people who were walking around passing them out, which was very cool.
        All of the sudden someone came up to me and tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around and Mandi said, “Do you remember me? From Milwaukee last year by the buses? I live over by you?” Of course I remembered so I talked to her and told her that I was insanely jealous of her getting to meet Kelly out of probably a thousand people that applied.
        Somehow after that people just started dropping out of the sky. Elizabeth (kellyrox99) came over and starting talking to Mandi too. Mandi was taking the bag of stuff that Elizabeth got for Kelly in for her in the meet and greet. It took me awhile to realize it, but then it hit me that, Oh!, this is the girl that I’ve been talking to online for a year and who bought my extra tickets on Ebay! I was sitting next to her! So then I made a complete fool of myself by announcing my newfound information.
        Anyway, I had a scrapbook that I’d made for Kelly from the whole Red Cross fundraiser I did with the Meijer’s posters. I’d been told that it’d be a good way for Kelly to remember what happened, instead of just thanking her. I spent a ton of time making it and had really wanted to deliver it to Kelly in person to see if she remembered it all, but since I wouldn’t be meeting her this tour, the next best thing was having someone as great as Mandi to deliver it for me. She agreed to and I planned to meet her after the show to give it to her.
        The little group we’d formed made our way over to the Vitaminwater Kellyoke stage. They were still looking for people to sing, and I don’t sing but we saw Natalie again and I told her that she should go for it. By the time she got up the courage they already had enough people. They announced that they were going to start and I started panicing and called Jeremy again who still hadn’t showed up with all the girls yet. I think they were still lost or something. I finally saw Ami and she told me that Jackie and Jeanette, the two people from our group that had been pre-selected to perform were waiting backstage. As the first people started to take the stage I pushed my way to the back of the stage, even though I think the Vitaminwater people were going to kick me out. I ran over to Jackie and Jeanette and told them good luck and that one of them had better win! They were both really nervous.
        I went back out and pushed my way up to the front of the stage. It’s in my nature, I just have to be in front. They were introducing people and letting them sing a verse of their chosen song. It was mildly entertaining, but I mostly just talked to everyone (more of the crew was showing up every minute) until it was our turn. Jeremy finally got there, and it was Nicole’s birthday so we all wished her happy birthday. I said hi to everyone again and we all got settled for Jackie and Jeanette to come on. Somewhere inbetween performances the guy was asking the trivia questions. He asked who was Kelly’s biggest fan, and even though I know I’m not Kelly’s ‘biggest’ fan, I climbed up on the stage. Gymnastics is good for something. He was like “Well okay then I guess I’ll ask you. This is a two part question so one of your friends can answer the other part and you can both win a prize.” He asked me how many Grammy’s Kelly won and what for. I asked if that was seriously the hardest question he could think of before rambling off the answer. I got one of the Kelly Vitaminwater posters for it. Then he asked my sister what the Grammy’s were for and she knew because the whole fan club/ express section was screaming the answer, so she got a poster too. Yay for matching rooms. Anyway more trivia. They gave out vitamin water lipgloss (I wanted some SO badly but I didn’t’ get any!) which people went nuts over. Back to the competition.



        FINALLY Jackie’s up. I think Jackie was first. She’s singing Walk Away, CD UK style. She totally nails it, she kicks off her shoes, dances with the microphone stand, and headbangs. We all dance, jump, and sing right on cue. Yay for going to too many Kelly concerts! Everyone cheers, it was way too much fun. Yayyyyy Jackie! Jeanette’s up two people later. I can’t remember what she sang but she did awesome too (actually they chose the people well… almost everyone could actually sing). I think she was a bit more nervous than Jackie, but everyone cheered loud for her as well.
        More people sing, I’m starting to get bored. I take one of the cupcakes that was brought for Nicole and try to get the announcer guy’s attention with it. He says he’ll come over later but he never does. I left and went to the back again to get more vitamin water and ask the people if I can have one of their vitamin water shirts. They said that they were for employees only and I should have worked for vitamin water. I explained that I’d driven a really long time to get here so that probably wouldn’t work and I promised not to wear the shirt at the concert so people wouldn’t be confused. They didn’t buy it. I really wanted a shirt.
        Ok so finalists are announced…. Some girl, some other girl, and Jackie Martinez! OMG Jackie you did it! We’re all screaming again, determined to lose our voices before Kelly actually sings. Jackie sings SUBG. We tried to get her to say jump or do the repeat game, but that didn’t work. We all jumped anyway and screamed as loud as we could. The announcer dude says it’s down to two people… Jackie and some girl that has a lot of her friends there. Basically the stage was split right in half with us on one side and her people on the other side. He asks the crowd to scream for both of them. One girl was eliminated and finally he announces Jackie as the winner! It was so cool and I was so excited for her. She deserved it so much! We all went crazy. Jackie did an encore performance to be aired on the big screen before Kelly. She had to get interviewed before we could finally talk to her. She got two meet and greet passes and she picked Jenny Rae to go with her. Jenny had an ice and cheese sculpture made for Kelly but was one of the only remaining members of our group that had never had a meet and greet. She’s one of those people who would be totally okay with not meeting Kelly because she’s that selfless, and that’s why she deserved it so much.
        Meanwhile, rain clouds are building. No building isn’t the right word. The sky is turning black. And purple. And green and lots of other not quite right colors. It’s definitely going to storm, so we head back to the car. On the way Kari grabbed two of the Vitaminwater dots that were laying on the ground. Within 30 seconds the whole lot of them had disappeared. We take our posters back to the car (which I can’t find) and head over to Jeremy’s car to pick up my banner that he had and our KC Chicago Cubs shirts. We got a group picture with all of us in our shirts.







        We make our way into the venue finally. At the door we were told to take the caps off our bottles so we couldn’t throw them at Kelly. I didn’t…. oops. I buy a tour program because I forgot to get one in Kansas City, and get an extra bag to keep my scrapbook in so it doesn’t get wet. It’s starting to sprinkle and the line is a mile long for the bathroom, but I’ve had to pee for hours now so we wait anyway.
        There are even more vendors tonight than there were in Kansas City. We make our way to our seats in the hugest amphitheatre I’ve ever been in. I don’t know how the people on the lawn could even see anything. The lawn’s pretty much packed again, even with the sprinkling. Our seats are awesome, definitely worth the big bucks I paid for them on the Ticketmaster auctions. They’re to the left of the stage, but on the aisle and second row. Perfect. I sit and again start looking around. I’ve seen all the fan club people already, but I have yet to see any of the Express Chicago crew. I saw someone that looked like Penny, but she was too short. I go over to talk to my crew again, who happens to be sitting right next to the REAL Penny. I went over and talked to her… I was afraid she wouldn’t remember me! She introduced me to everyone by her and pointed out where all the Expressors were throughout the venue.
        Lynnie and Jen were sitting a few rows in front of them, so I went to meet them. I climbed over the folding chairs which folded with me on them, causing me to fall on people and chairs and the ground. I have some wonderful bruises from that. I finally got over to them and said hi and talked to them quickly. People were mad at me for stealing their killer chairs, so I didn’t stay long. Lynnie’s accent rocked, and according to Jen meeting them was the highlight of my trip. I’d have to agree.
        I climbed back over the killer chairs and got come more bruises. This time a guy was kind enough to catch me while the chair was eating me. I talked to some more people, then went back over to my seat. Cubbie, twiddlebug, and proudfan were sitting right behind me, so I went and talked to them for a bit. I talked to the security guards who had kick ass shirts that said stuff like “Enjoy the Show” and “I’m here to help.”
        Someone came up to me (I don’t remember who…) before the show started and told me that they had given Kelly the Express CD in Kansas City and that Kelly had commented on my choice of KT Tunstall. She said that Kelly went on about how she LOVED KT Tunstall and was really excited about it!
        Finally Rooney came on. I thought they were better tonight than they were in Kansas City. They also brought an adorable little girl (who turned out to be the daughter of a fan club member) on stage for the tambourine part. She was very cute and looked in awe the whole time. Rooney finished, I walked around a bit more talking to random people. I saw Brian and asked him if he remembered my name. He said no, and I said really? He said Katie, Katie Egan. I was like dang you’re good… I didn’t even have my radio station pass showing with my name. I guess if you’re security you have to have a good memory.
        Kelly came “on” the big screen and introduced all the vitamin water stuff and introduced Jackie saying it’d be a hard act to follow which was really cute. I wonder if she actually watches the winners ever. They showed about a minute of Jackie’s SUBG performance in front of all of Chicago J The Ford people gave away the car and we watched Kelly on the screen for about two seconds before she ran off.
        There were two empty seats right in front of Kari and I… in the front row. Who knows, maybe we were supposed to have front row. Anyway we move to them and pray not to get kicked out. As ACDC shakes the place, I have a feeling that we’re good to go. Everyone who knows anything stands up with anticipation, so the whole crowd stands. It’s dark by now and the spotlight comes on. It’s just as thrilling the second night and Kelly sounds just as amazing.
        I was disappointed that Kelly cut out Anymore and Home, but I was very glad I got to see them in Kansas. Especially Home, since it’s one of my favorites. Kelly totally kicked butt on everything again. She had one note that she squeaked on in Thankful and the band kind of laughed about it. Jacob and Angela were VERY entertaining with their dancing during Miss Independent. I wanted to get up there and start grooving with them.
        Also, my sister and I are tight with Aben (formerly of GCB). We go way back from the other tours (long story… if you haven’t read some of my other concert reviews than ya missed out haha). He was standing right in front of us and saw us waving to him and once again was smiling at us during the whole show. He handed Kari another guitar pic too (I think she has like five from him now or something!)



        Part way through the show, someone (I found out later it was Mandi) handed Kelly a Cubs bear. She showed it too the crowd and said she‘d sit him on the stage to watch her, which was a mistake because immediately everyone started booing. The booing was SO loud and isn’t even comparable to the videos. Kelly looked shocked and looked back at Jason like she was asking “What am I supposed to do????” I imagine it’d be kind of scary, getting booed by 20 thousand people. I can’t recall Kelly EVER being booed before, so it had to be a first for her. She picked the bear up and turned it over and said that we couldn’t blame her because all she knew was the Texas teams.
        Later on Kelly thanked the people who were sitting on the lawn and getting soaked in the rain for her. Up until that point, I wasn’t even aware that it HAD rained, since it was just sprinkling when we were out in the open.
        Early in the show we knew that Kelly’d be walking on our side tonight. Brian kept pacing the area around us and they had a space in the barricade for her to go through. She disappeared and reappeared a lot quicker tonight onto the sound platform. Everyone sang along so loudly to Breakaway, as they had been during the entire concert. Once again when Kelly started moving I lost sight of her and could only tell where she was by the entire crowd shifting towards her. I think even the far sides of the venue scooted over, even though they were separated by thousands of people. Security was trying their best to keep everyone in their seats.
        I had my CD cover and a permanent marker out just in case, but since we were literally the last people before Kelly got on the steps to go back up the stage I doubted she’d stop. I was right… they were really rushing her as she got back behind the barricade. Some guy that was sitting about five seats down from us handed Kelly a HUGE bunch of roses and she looked at him like she was saying thank you with her eyes. Everyone in the front row was snapping pictures and unfortunately we didn’t get a very good one for how close she was. Suddenly Kelly was RIGHT in front of me. I reached out my hand and touched her arm as she walked by. It was pretty awesome. I’ve met her, hugged her, and held her hand from the stage during concerts, but now I can add touching her arm as she walked by me to the list. Wow I’m such a….. fan!



        The confetti came on and once again people went wild. Today I just held my arms up and let it float around me like rain falling down. SUBG was soon over and Kelly was thanking everyone and then she was gone. Kari got me a set list again from one of the stage people, helping to complete my collection.
        We got up right away and went over to meet up with all the crew to wish Jackie and Jenny Rae good luck at their meet and greet. They were both very excited! I left my sister with everyone and went to find Mandi. I gave her my scrapbook in it’s bag to carry. She had a ton of other bags and other things that she was holding on to. She was excited too. I told her good luck and went back over to everyone. We all started walking out to try to find the buses while we waiting for Jackie and JR and while I waited to see what Kelly thought of the scrapbook. We saw Ashley A. on the way out who is like a second cousin through marriage or something to one of the girls in our crew…. I don’t remember exactly.
        A couple people still had to get some merchandise, so we stood around by the merch tables for a little bit. All of the sudden I saw Jacob walking towards us! I was really excited because I love Jacob’s solo music. He was on his cell phone, but when we waved to him he came over and told the person he was talking to that he had to go and he’d call back later. I think it’s pretty cool that someone would hang up a phone call just to talk to some fans. I told him that I absolutely love his CD and that I wished I would have known I’d meet him and I would have come prepared with it for him to sign. He was very excited about that and started saying that he didn’t know that he actually had fans and that now he had 14 fans instead of 6 or something. He said something about having a dinner party instead of just a coffee clutch? Or something to that affect! I don’t remember but it was funny. Then he asked me if I wanted him to sign something else instead. I had him sign my ticket for me and then everyone got a picture with him. He told us that Kelly had a bunch of friends here after the show or something like that too.



        Nicole was over at the merch table, but we told Jacob that it was her birthday and that she was a big fan of his too. He went over to her and kind of tapped her on the shoulder and said happy birthday. She turned around and freaked out and was very excited. A group of drunk 20-somethings were mimicking us and it was quite annoying, but then again I’m not quite sure that they know who Jacob Lutrell is.
        Jacob left to go find someone (later we were told that he was up by the meet and greet). The venue was starting to clear out so we walked around. We found a gate that led into the buses, but it was guarded by a couple security guys and it didn’t look like there was any chance of getting through. We stood around talking. The security started to leave and some of them talked to us on their way out saying that they loved our shirts. We asked if anyone knew where the meet and greet people would be coming out but no one knew. Finally Jackie and JR came out and related their stories to us and showed us their pictures. We went outside the gate and waited by another entrance to the bus area where there were probably 100 people waiting. Jeremy and the girls that were with him left to go find their hotel after everyone got hugs. Jackie stayed and showed those of us who were left the video clips she got of the meet and greet with her camera in her purse before she left with her husband and Lisa.
        We saw one of the equipment buses come out and it had ‘Kelly’ printed really small across the door which was cool. There were only a few of us waiting now and finally Mandi came back out. She told us her whole meet and greet story and I was really happy that Kelly remembered the Red Cross project and had said that she’d look at the scrapbook later. I hope she really did!



        Kari and I said goodbye to the remaining people, knowing that Kelly wouldn’t come out and sign autographs or anything like that. We went back and even though the parking lot was practically empty I couldn’t find my car again. It took me a long time and I thought it was gone or something!
        Anyway, the whole experience was once again amazing! I can’t wait until Kelly tours again because seeing her in concert is what I live for.









Link to the rest of the pictures