Dan meets American Idol alum Danny Gokey

Tonight marked the season opener at Comcast Center in Mansfield, and with a studded first night lineup featuring Sugarland, Jake Owen, and Danny Gokey, I had to head down to the venue in hopes of landing a photo op. I tried not to get overly optimistic since the past couple times I've tried hanging out by tour buses it has not turned out to be worth my while. But, I headed down anyway, and as it turns out it did pan out today (not to mention it was a gorgeous 75 degrees and sunny to be lingering around outside, so no complaints here).
This was my first time really scoping out the area at Comcast Center, and things certainly didn't look promising when I got there. Parking was easy enough, and I found the equipment trucks quite easily, but it soon became clear that the tour buses themselves were sectioned off in another area with a security guard who was not going to let me by. Nonetheless I hung around the trucks hoping that maybe I'd get lucky and run into a band member or manager. After a long time waiting, I see a tour bus pull in, and quite frankly, got pretty excited. I didn't know if it was Jake's, Danny's, or Sugarland's bus, and really I didn't care, I would gladly take a pic with any of the artists. Unfortunately, the bus pulled into the blocked off area and I started to think that today would be another in my string of unsuccessful photo attempts, but that was not to be. A short while later, things looked up when the tour bus pulled back out and parked along side the trucks in an area that - to my benefit - was very VERY easily accessible. I maneuvered over closer to the bus, had a little chat with the driver (who didn't really have any in sight), then decided to wait around. Whoever's bus it was, if they were going to be going to it at any point, they'd have to walk right by me...and that's exactly what happened.
A few minutes later, I see Danny Gokey walk by with another gentleman, and here was my chance. Danny saw me and I think kind of gathered that I was a fan asking for some sort of request, as he started to slow. I asked if he had time for a picture, and he said sure. Once we got the Banner set up, I was able to get a great picture with Gokey and an autograph, and had a little chat about the two common topics regarding the banner - "is he really that tall?" and "wow, a lot of people have signed this." Although I didn't get any kind of glimpse of Sugarland on the day, it was a success to get a picture with Danny. And with that being the first show of what is already scheduled to be a busy concert season at Comcast, I'm going to stay optimistic that I'll be able to have more successes at that venue over the course of the year.

Great picture, and as usual, another great addition to the Dan the Banner collection.