Girls' Night, with Teens and Cougars...SYTYCD Live Show in San Diego 2008

So I did one of the dorkier things I've done in awhile, and went with some girlfriends to see the So You Think You Can Dance live show last night. I thought it would be all kids and teenagers, and the parents who took them there, but it was a very mixed crowd and we actually weren't the only ones of driving age who attended. And also surprisingly, it wasn't a dry event. We didn't realize this until after halftime, but good to know for the future. The top 10 and a few extras from the show danced as (too short) solos, pairs, and in a few group numbers...seems they picked the season's highlights and just fine tuned them. The show was more entertaining than I expected, but also too long. And nobody fell or messed up badly, so that was kind of a bummer.

If you are planning to see it when it comes to your city, here are some of our post show thoughts...

Pros-
*Dancers have been practicing and are in better shape & dance better than on the show
*The guys with the really hot bodies had their shirts off for most of the night. Thank you costume team.
*It's not a dry event
*Songs were mostly pretty good- mix of mellow, hip hop, and a few showtunes
* I was reminded that I needed to add Twitch to my Tigger list (see first blog post). I *knew* I had forgotten someone...

Cons-
*Crappy sound system with too loud music (it was a slightly low budget run down venue, so not the show's fault, i guess)
*Dumb mini-skits they had the dancers doing in between dances. The kids seemed to enjoy them. We say stick to dancing.
*Not enough (any?) new performance material, with the exception of the solos
*Too much product placement and show promotion / constant highlight recaps...and I think we could have lived without the dancing Snuggle bear at halftime...
* Speaking of, it didn't need an intermission, but i guess people spend money then, so they had one, which killed the momentum of the show and made it too long
*Area restaurants packed pre-show- so if you're going to Sports Arena in SD, don't plan on a quick bite a Chili's or the oh so trendy Olive Garden. Don't even plan on being able to get through the front door. There's a nice empty thai place just up the road on the right....
*Not the best type of show when seated a bit far away / up higher. Try to sit on the sides, floor level, close to the stage so you can see their faces (ok, glistening sweaty rock hard bodies) better.

I also discovered a few mellow pretty songs that I like...
Hallelujah and also Misery Business- Vitamin String Quartet
Hometown Glory - Adele
Rock Your Soul- Elisa
The Garden- Mirah (a bit creepy)
And they did a cool Bollywoodish thing that I think was Shankar Mahadevan...a song called JBJ. (No mich, not him)

But hands down, the highlight of the evening was the latest in cougar fashion, being sported by our (50 something) neighbor in the photo above. That we had to stare at for the entire show.