Beyond Magical

December 6, 2018: David and Sarah, together again!

What a night! On Thursday, Sarah and I attended our fourth David Archuleta concert, this time a Christmas concert, held at the Mesa Arts Center (the same venue as his last concert we attended back on April 14th, almost eight months ago). Our first Archuleta concert experience was in Queen Creek, not far from Mesa, way back in March 2016. We'd all been huge fans since David won the runner-up position in the seventh season of American Idol (spring 2008). That first concert was a family affair, with Sarah, Chris, Dylan, Mark, and me in attendance, as well as some of my nieces and nephews sitting with their spouses a few rows directly behind us. It was a great evening. (You can find that blog post HERE.)

A year later, in June 2017, David came to Snowflake to perform at the local high school auditorium. Snowflake is close to home, less than a 30-minute drive away, and they offered special VIP "Dinner-with-David" tickets. Sarah decided she didn't want to be simply a face in the crowd this time. She wanted to meet David in person, so she bought the VIP tickets. I was happy to join her. How excited I would have been if I'd had the chance to meet my heartthrob, Davy Jones of the Monkees, back when I was a besotten thirteen-year-old!

That first one-on-one meeting with David was unexpectedly magical. There were only ten VIP ticket holders and the setting was intimate, allowing some time to really visit with David. It was clear from their first meeting that David and Sarah connected on some unspoken level, perhaps inspired by their shared love of music, and it was a night we'll never forget. (You can read more about that experience HERE.) We didn't realize until the next time we saw David that he hadn't forgotten it, either.

Sarah and I purchased the VIP meet-and-greet tickets again for David's concert in Mesa last April. That experience lacked the intimacy of our first meeting, with about sixty VIP ticket holders present and extremely limited time to spend with him one-on-one. Still, it was made special by the fact that he recognized us the moment he saw us from the stage before the concert, exclaiming, "Hey, I know you two!" He even recalled specific things about Sarah, like the fact that she plays violin with a symphony orchestra, when we met with him briefly after that. (That post is located HERE.)

This time, Sarah decided to forgo the VIP tickets. It does get a little pricey, and we would be happy to merely bask in the holiday tunes performed by the sweet voice of David Archuleta. We expected to be just concert-goer faces in the crowd again, and we were fine with that. It still feels like a little miracle that the evening turned out to be so much more than we'd anticipated!

Jacob's new Charlie Brown Christmas tree.

We drove down the mountain to Mesa on Thursday morning, the day of the concert. A storm system had moved in during the previous night but, thankfully, the roads were clear and we encountered just a little sleet and snow along the way. For this concert, it would be Sarah, Jacob, Mark, and myself attending. Chris had to stay behind to work, but he's more of a Scotty McCreery fan anyway.

It was 12:30 when we got to Jacob's house in Mesa. We picked him up and went to Carl's Jr. for lunch. Next, we went to Walmart to choose a Christmas tree for Jacob. With all the expense of his divorce, his move from Utah back to Arizona, the costs of fixing up the house and starting a new job, Jacob couldn't afford to buy a tree. Everyone should have at least a tiny Christmas tree under which to place their gifts, so I promised him a really cheap, obviously fake one, a true Charlie Brown Christmas tree. 

We settled on a twenty-dollar, three-foot-tall specimen, which looked truly pathetic when Jacob first shook it out of its tiny box. However, after a little TLC from Jacob, then Sarah, then me, a nice-looking little tree emerged, as shown in the photo above. Jacob did have a skirt for the tree, as well as some ornaments, so he's now all set for the holidays. He even had all his Christmas gift shopping done by the following afternoon.

Mary, Sarah, and Jacob dine at Boston Market before the concert.

Between Walmart and dinner time, Jacob prepared a batch of cinnamon rolls from scratch, so we'd have a treat to enjoy after we got back from the concert. It was a little after 5:00 when we left the house to have dinner at Boston Market before the big event.

Sarah, Jacob, and Mark enjoy dinner at Boston Market.

Since I'd discovered that I'd left my camera's SD memory card at home, we made one more stop at Walmart to buy a new one. You can't go to a concert without a camera! I could have used my cell phone's camera like everyone else does, of course, but my trusty camera usually gets much higher quality photos than any cell phone. Sadly, though, the lighting at this concert--particularly the spotlight that followed David onstage--made his face appear like a bright blob in nearly all my pictures, and in Sarah's cell phone shots, as well. The photos below were the best I could post, sorry!

Mary, Sarah, Jacob, and Mark waiting for the concert to begin.

By the time we'd finished dinner, stopped by Walmart, and paid $5.00 to park in the Mesa Arts Center parking lot, it was 6:45, about forty-five minutes before the concert was to begin. Sarah and I made a stop at the ladies' room, where we found a bunch of young girls wearing VIP passes and chattering excitedly about recently meeting David Archuleta. Truthfully, we both had a brief twinge of envy that we'd missed out on the meet-and-greet, but mostly we were at peace with our decision.

Finally, we met the guys and entered the auditorium at 7:00 to find our seats. Jacob was particularly excited (although not nearly as thrilled as Sarah, obviously) because this would be his very first David Archuleta concert. In the end, he thought it was great and expressed his desire to attend more of his concerts in the future.

Jacob, Sarah, and Mark do selfies in front of the stage before the concert.

Our seats were perfect. When Sarah said we had the four end-seats on the right side of the concert hall, I thought she meant we'd be further back. Again, I imagined we'd just be faces in the crowd, nothing more than silhouettes in a dark concert hall. I was wrong, though.

Our seats were actually in the "orchestra pit," the area directly in front of the stage. Three rows of seats were lined up there, and we were in the third row, but we were still very close to the stage, as you can see in the photo below. Those are my blue-jeans-clad knees at the bottom of the picture. There was a wide aisle behind us, with the regular seating starting beyond the aisle. There were no seats at all to our right. Everything else was behind us.

Best of all, there were no chairs in front of our three seats at the end of the row, so no one was between us and the stage. Only Mark had someone seated in front of him, the end-seat of the second row. That made us hope that maybe David would be able to see us and we could at least give him a wave.

This is how close our seats were to the stage (see my knees?).

The concert began at 7:30 with a 20-minute performance by Madilyn Paige, a friend of David Archuleta. She has a beautiful voice and Sarah is a big fan. Apparently Madilyn was a contestant on the TV show, The Voice, which I've never watched but Sarah has. Sarah was so excited when she learned Madilyn was going to be opening for David. Along with several holiday numbers, Madilyn sang an amazing song called "Irreplaceable," which she actually wrote as a high school student. Sarah's only disappointment was that Madilyn and David didn't perform their duet of "Seasons," one of Sarah's favorites. However, David did bring Madilyn out for a Christmas duet as an encore near the end of the concert.

Unfortunately, none of my pictures of Madilyn Paige turned out. I think her bright blonde hair must have intensified the shiny-blob factor!

David Archuleta's Christmas Concert, Mesa Arts Center.

There was a ten- to fifteen-minute wait after Madilyn's set. Then David's band came out to their instruments...and then, finally, David himself came out onstage to wild applause, singing one of his Christmas songs, "Melodies of Christmas." He went first to the microphone stand, briefly, and then he went to the edge of the stage opposite from us, performing for the cheering crowd. It's clear that he loves the energy produced by the fans at his concerts, as he moves back and forth on the stage to connect with them.

David Archuleta performs in concert for Christmas.

I knew he would eventually work his way to our side of the stage, so I hoped we'd be able to catch his eye and give him a wave. I was a little dismayed when I realized that the placement of the band's bass player on our side of the stage, as well as the speakers on the edge of the stage right in front of us, left little room for David to maneuver easily to the far end of the stage near our seats. As I'd expected, he had to stop several feet short of us as he sang his way across the front of the stage.

David Archuleta performs in concert for Christmas.

But that's when the first little miracle happened. As he sang along the front of the stage, his eyes had been scanning the people in the front three rows. I've noticed before that he does that, perhaps looking for familiar faces or people he met during the meet-and-greet before the concert. With all the lights on his face, he wouldn't be able to see specific faces further back in the auditorium, but the people in the seats directly below the stage are pretty well illuminated by the stage lights.

David Archuleta in concert with his band on stage at Mesa Arts Center.

After he reached the area crowded with the speakers and the bassist's equipment (see above photo), David stopped walking, and I thought that would be the end of that. However, his eyes kept moving over the people past that point, until they reached me and Sarah at the end. You know that smile you get when you run into someone you know and like? That's exactly what happened. David's smile widened when his eyes landed on me, and then he immediately moved his gaze to Sarah, where it remained fixed for what felt like a very long time. Literally, he was singing to Sarah for probably thirty seconds or so. He never stays still that long on stage (unless he's seated, of course), and since there was no one else sitting around us, it was clear that he was letting Sarah know he'd seen her and was glad she was there.

David Archuleta performs in concert for Christmas.

And it wasn't just Sarah and me who noticed. When David finally moved back toward the center of the stage, I saw that both Jacob and Mark were staring at us with their mouths open. "Wow," was all they could say. As for Sarah, when I looked back at her, she whispered in wonder, "He was singing to me!"

The cell phone flashlight apps always come out for the song "Glorious."

I love it!

For the rest of the concert, David put on an amazing performance but didn't single us out again. That was fine. We were so happy that he'd recognized and acknowledged us, we were just grateful and enjoyed the rest of the show. Sarah could probably have died in perfect happiness at that point.

That is, he didn't single us out again until the final number. 

David Archuleta performs in concert for Christmas.

We totally didn't see this one coming. He announced his last song, Christmas Every Day, and began singing. Again, he was walking along the edge of the stage, connecting with his audience. For some reason, it sticks in my head that he was singing the line, "there's nothing like a Christmas tree surrounded by family" when he reached our end of the stage and I realized he was smiling straight at me. Then, for the first time, he squeezed between the bassist and speakers to stand at the edge of the stage directly in front of us, very obviously singing right to Sarah with that wide smile on his face. While David sang, Sarah gave him a little wave and he waved back. Again, he stayed and sang to her for an unusually long time before moving back to center stage.

David performs the final encore of the evening.

While David finished the last song, I looked over and noticed that a lot of people sitting in the first two rows were now craning their necks to look back at us. Clearly, they were wondering who that girl was and why she was getting so much personal attention!

That wasn't really the final song, of course. After he left the stage, there was the usual standing ovation accompanied by chants of "David! David!" He and his band came back out to perform two encores, the first with Madilyn Paige and the second on his own. Then, knowing that was really the end of the show, his fans raced down to the edge of the stage, where he always shakes as many hands as he can.

"Hey, Sarah! I'm so happy to see you!"

He was uncharacteristically quick with the hand-shaking on this night, perhaps because he had a special guest coming backstage to meet him (you can read about that in the next paragraph). We could see his manager urging him to hurry along. Even so, when he came to Sarah, he burst out with, "Hey, Sarah! I'm so happy to see you!" (Prompting more stares from people around us.) He paused for a brief visit and a hug, and then posed with her for the picture below.

One more time, the final and best concert photo of the evening:

David Archuleta and Sarah Kinsky!

It's plain that David is one of those people who connects deeply with others and has many cherished friendships. After the concert, we saw a group of older people being escorted backstage, and later Sarah saw David's post about his middle school bus driver who was at the concert, whom David had his team bring backstage so he could visit with her. He even posted a cute video with her. 

Jacob told me the next day that he'd thought about talking to David himself, regarding a missionary he knew who was an old school-friend of David Archuleta. Jacob served with this other young man in the Santa Rosa Mission of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in northern California, from December 2010 to November 2012. He said that when David had a concert coming up in the Santa Rosa mission area (probably San Francisco in November 2011), not long before reporting for his own mission in March 2012, David requested permission for this missionary friend to attend his concert so he could see him once more before he himself left to serve as a missionary in Chile. (Permission was granted.)

Being the kind of person David is, I don't feel his connection to Sarah is unusual, but it is special. Nothing romantic, obviously. They barely know each other. Sarah is happily married to a man who adores her. She always wears her wedding ring, and her Facebook name and page openly declare her marital state. When her brothers tease her with questions like, "Would you leave Chris to marry David Archuleta?" she laughs and tells them "No" in no uncertain terms. She loves her man. I just think that, if circumstances were such that Sarah and David saw each other with some regularity, they would become good friends. Perhaps because of their shared love of music. Perhaps because they are both a little shy by nature. Perhaps because they were friends in the preexistence. Who can say? 

Jacob prepared these made-from-scratch cinnamon rolls for us to enjoy

after the concert. This was before he slathered them with cream cheese icing.

After the concert, we drove back to Jacob's place and quickly polished off his pan of amazing cinnamon rolls. We happily relived the events of the evening and shared them with Jacob's roommate. Even Dylan called from Lakeside to ask how the concert went. He and Jake expressed amazement as we described how David singled out Sarah during the concert. 

It was...magical.

I was so honored when Jacob let me drink from his special Wolf Cup

the next morning, filled with chocolate milk for breakfast!