Daughtry and Dancing (and us)

Late last week, I received a gem of an e-mail. It read:

"Dear Ashley,

"Dancing with the Stars... blah, blah, blah... Would you like to dress up fancy and see Daughtry perform for free?"

And I thought, Why yes, yes I would.

Okay, maybe that's not exactly what the e-mail said, but you get the idea. I had the choice to either A) endure many painful hours of watching rhythm-less stars try to dance at the premier on Monday night or B) enjoy to a mini-concert with Daughtry, Santana and the professional dancers at the results show. It was a pretty easy decision. Next thing I knew, it was Tuesday and Matt and I were on our way to Hollywood to see the Dancing with the Stars Results Show live. (PS- Many thanks to Christian for all of the screen shots of the show!)

When we arrived, Matt was convinced he was the only man standing in the check-in line so I quickly started pointing out all of the men I could find, but they were all twice his age. I commended him for being such a great sport about attending an old ladies' show, and then reminded him that we weren't there to see Dancing with the Stars. We were there to dress up fancy and hear Daughtry live in a small venue. Plus, I already got to see how live television works when I went to American Idol this Spring and thought it would be cool for Matt to see it, too. It's fascinating to see how small the sets really are (those wide-angle lenses are so deceiving) and all of the little things that go into a live national broadcast.

Since we didn't want to use a day of leave for our little excursion, we got there much later than the hard-core grandmas and were numbers 148 and 149 in line. We figured that nixed our chances of getting a good seat, but boy, were we wrong! As we walked onto the set, a producer directed me and Matt to the gold chiavari chairs next to the dance floor--front and center--for Daughtry's performance of "September." Since there wouldn't have been enough time to set up and take down his band's gear on the stage during the live show, they filmed that one song beforehand and spliced it into the live broadcast. And oh my goodness, it was AMAZING! We were a whopping 15-yards away from the band and it was like Daughtry was in our living room.

Oh, and let me just say right now that the dancing was phenomenal that night. I mean, I expected it to be good since it was only professional dancers performing, but they really blew me away. Kherington, from So You Think You Can Dance, danced to "September" and was absolutely beautiful. She had the most perfect legs I've ever seen and I was more than a little jealous. But then I came home and ate Matt's leftover birthday cake and decided that life is better with chocolate anyway.

For that first Daughtry song, we and about 75 other people were sitting in the VIP chairs that are reserved for the stars' friends and family during the actual show. (We were in Kurt Warner's family's seats in case you were wondering.) We knew we'd have to change seats right after the performance and sure enough, once the cameras stopped rolling on Daughtry they started moving everyone up to the balconies. Which would have been fine, of course, but once again a producer came over and pulled the two of us out of the pack. She asked us to follow her and then seated us right next to the band. We couldn't believe our luck. Well, actually, I could. I told Matt on our drive down that his good looks would probably get us good seats and they sure did.

We fully enjoyed the remainder of the show from our new seats, and it was kind of crazy being so close to the celebrities. Daughtry smiled "hello" to the two of us and was so close that we could have touched him but, thankfully, we're not creepy like that. (Or like the girl in the blue sequin dress who we watched run down from her seats and try unsuccessfully to hug all of the stars after the show.) In fact, it's not Daughtry's celebrity that we like; it's his music. And let me tell you, his music is amazing. He was really so impressive live! And Santana? Man, can that guy play a guitar! It pretty much rocked getting to see Santana's fingers move and hear Daughtry sing up close and personal.

However, there are disadvantages to being so close to the stars. I learned this afterward when I got a phone call from my little brother, who announced: "Guess what? After the last song everyone was standing up clapping and they were doing a close-up of Daughtry, and you and Matt were the background. But then you moved your hair and sat down and made a weird face and the camera was still on you so it was kind of awkward." Great. Don't you just love little brothers? We saw the clip and found that Christian was telling the truth and it was indeed slightly awkward.

I am sure the producers were just cringing but oh well. At least we have indisputable proof that I was there, right? Right... Anyway, back to the show. After the Photograph performance, there was a bunch of that Dancing with the Stars blah, blah, blah business that eventually led to The Hoff getting kicked off and the creepy sequined girl getting ushered off the dance floor after trying to give him a hug. Good times, no? We then walked to The Grove and celebrated checking the live studio audience thing off our must-do-while-we-live-in-Southern-California list with dinner and window shopping. It was a great way to end such a fun day!