After missing a couple of other Idol alums at the casino, I finally made it up there for Jason Castro (one of my faves from his season) He was performing as part of Mohegan Sun’s “Reality Check” which features various reality show people at the casino for events.
At 7pm, Jason was to perform in the Cabaret Theater. I had never seen a show in there before, but I had researched it before hand and saw that it held about 350 people. When I got in line a little before 6pm, there were maybe 50 people in front of me so I knew I would be making it inside, but where I would end up sitting was unknown.
At about 6:30pm everyone was let into the venue and unlike the Wolf’s Den where they seat you, we were told we could sit wherever we wanted inside as long as it was not a table in the front that said reserved. I managed to get a seat at the end of one of the second “rows” of tables. I took out my camera and started playing with the settings only to realized – I HAD NO MEMORY CARD! I also did this in August at Arthur Ashe Kids day – but that day I also had a backup memory card to save the day. Unfortunately this time the cards were both at home on my desk! Luckily, my camera has some internal memory and I manged to play with the settings and get it to hold 24 photos on sport mode. (Now I just have my fingers crossed they will print as 4x6s without a problem for my scrapbook!)
Everything was running a bit late, so Jason came out after 7pm. Setlist was as follows:
That’s What I’m Here For
Let’s Just Fall In Love Again
Love Uncompromised
If I Were You
Somewhere Over The Rainbow
Who I Really Am
You Are
Hallelujah
After the performance (which I have some video clips of and will made a media post in the not so distant future) he did a short Q&A.; The first question he was asked was which was his favorite song of his. he answered saying “It Matters To Me” and then noted that he didn’t sing it for us and apologized. I decided to leave as he was getting asked what his first song he ever sung was, as he was doing an autograph signing after and it was waaaaaaaaaay down the hall and I didn’t want to get stuck in a stampede once everyone was leaving.
I was surprised there was such a crowd already in line, once again about 50 people, when I had only seen a few others “sneak” out. Jason had said during his performance he would be taking photos and signing, and it seemed like they had a professional photographer taking a lot of photos. Then when it was almost our turn to get up there they said pictures OF him, not with him. We said ok and I figured a picture of me facing him while he signed was better than nothing – but after he saw the flash go off he decided to pose! So I have a photo of me looking at him and one of us looking at the camera. Thanks Jason for breaking the rules haha They should have been more consistent with that from the beginning, because it is hard to say “ok” to not getting a picture with him, when everyone in front of you got a picture with him!
Jason’s performance was awesome – I think he sounded much stronger since his Idol days though he is still a bit awkward on stage. (But that is just part of his appeal) His guitarist (Steve?) noted that off stage he told really great jokes and yet when he gets on stage it’s like a switch goes off and Jason said that everyone makes him nervous, but we were making him comfortable and that is why he was joking/talking so much.
A few photos under the cut!
