NKOTB -- Full Service Tour
Friday, July 10, 2009
Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre -- Irvine, CA
Friday was a furlough day for me, so I was able to leave early and pick up Aura to go down to Irvine for the NKOTB concert. She and I had plenty of time before the show by the time we arrived in Irvine, so we went to the Irvine Spectrum. We went to the Barnes & Noble to purchase children's books for Joe McIntyre's "Let's Get This Foundation." I already knew that I wanted to donate "The Giving Tree" by Shel Silverstein, since that is my favorite book in the whole world, and it happens to be a children's book. Aura had never read it before, so I had her read it, and she decided that she loved it and wanted to donate it as well. When we approached the cashier, she told us that she had just recently read it to her 5-year-old nephew, but apparently it was too sad for him. Uh-oh. It's such a beautiful book, though, that she's going to try to read it to him again when he's a little bit older.
We then went to Corner Bakery for some dinner. The food was OK, and it was quick. We just HAD to stop and get cupcakes for our after-show snack, too. I got a peanut butter & chocolate one, which had a mini-Reese's cup on top. Aura went for the Red Velvet. So, cupcakes and books in hand, we headed for the car...where we found out that the show would start at 7:30, not 8:00 as I thought. Oops. Luckily, the amphiteatre is only a couple of minutes away.
We arrived in time to hear that the opening act, the Jabbawockeez, had already started. We were disappointed that they were up first, since I'm not a fan of Jesse McCartney, who was the second act. We took the long walk from the parking lot to the plaza outside the amphiteater, and saw the people collecting the books. When they saw what we were donating, one of the guys said, "That's my favorite book in the whole world!" Me, TOO! He showed it to his companions, and a couple of them said that they loved the book, too. Happy to see that I wasn't the only sappy person around, I turned in the book and placed my name on the list to obtain Joe's new song via email (it was his Thank You for donating to the foundation).
Jesse McCartney was about to get on stage, so we realized that we had plenty of time and checked out the merchandise booth. I was originally going to get a track jacket, but it was dark green, and I really liked the black one from last year, so I decided not to get it. I saw that they had "Full Service" underwear, which they labeled as "shorts," but I don't think that people should be wearing those in public without anything over them. The woman selling the merchandise was pretty much yelling at all of the people trying to buy stuff, saying that we should form 2 lines. Um, ma'am? We've been standing here for a good 5-10 minutes, and NOW you tell us to form lines? Perhaps you should have made a sign or two denoting that, since everyone was crowding around anyway. She was nice to me when I bought my underwear (you know I couldn't resist, right?), but maybe she just appreciated that I was ready to complete my transaction. Aura and I then went to get drinks for ourselves. We saw that the Jabbawockeez were signing stuff at a table, but didn't feel like getting in line to meet them. The staff didn't even let her take a picture of them from outside the line. I thought that was kind of weird. I overheard some stupid person asking her friend why the 'Wockeez weren't wearing their masks. Maybe because it's damn hot? Maybe because then you could take pictures of their real faces? Maybe because you're stupid? OK, that's harsh, Sher.
We went to our seats. Unfortunately, we weren't sitting together because when I had purchased the tickets, I couldn't find 2 together and ended up getting solo seats. That sucked because they charge $20.00 parking for each ticket transaction. Rip off. Our seats were on opposite sides of the amphitheatre from each other, about the same row. She was on the aisle, and I was 3 away from the aisle. The very nice women next to me helped me wave to Aura so that she would see where I was sitting. They also tried to point out to me some woman that was wearing a dress that barely covered her butt, in very high heels. I didn't see her until later that night, when they all pointed her out to me as she walked up the stairs for the 5th time that night.
NKOTB started the show with Full Service. They had a really cool light display that showed little silhouettes of them as they entered the stage.
Summertime
Medley: My Favorite Girl, Didn't I Blow Your Mind, Valentine Girl, and Please Don't Go, Girl
Aura texted me that Joe was going sharp. I had thought that Jordan was a little flat up to that point. They eventually got on track later, but it was funny that the musicians in us were being so technical. We can't help it, people.
Games
If You Go Away/Stare at You: I like that second song a lot. OK, stare at me, Jordan. So romantic. Unless the person staring isn't who you want it to be. Whatever.
Dirty Dancing
I thought that there was a musical interlude after this song, since the guys had left the stage. Oh, no. They were actually going into the back, and appearing in the STANDS, one in each of the upper sections. I was soooo jealous! They were singing Single and hugging people between their turns to sing. I went crazy, and kept screaming.
Cover Girl
The screen showed the Twitter icon, then flashed "TINK!" The Twitter contingent went crazy, because we knew that Jordan was about to take the stage. There he is!
Give It To You I had a good vantage point, and tried to take a minute of video. I guess I was too obvious because the staff guy motioned to me and watched as I deleted everything from my camera (it would just take too long to weed out the stills from the videos). I was annoyed, but I understood. I was mostly annoyed because I saw people taking video for almost the entire show and didn't see them get caught. So I was annoyed that I was caught. The gals next to me were annoyed for me. I told you they were nice. :) What really pissed me off, though, was that I could have taken some nice stills from my view, right after I had put my camera away as directed. Sucks. Also sucks that I missed the rest of the song, and also most of the next one.
Popsicle: Bright colored outfits with stripes, like ice cream parlor workers!
Five Brothers and a Million Sisters: This is Joe's new song, dedicated to the guys and his fans, which he had debuted the last time that I saw them. This is also the song that he gave out to those who donated books.
They then introduced the band members. One of the guys was from Orange County, CA. Donnie tried to get us to scream louder, and said that we didn't sound like people whose basketball team had won the national championship. Wow, he FINALLY acknowledged it! It's about frickin' time, Ddub. I screamed quite a bit at that one. He then predicted that the Celtics would win next year, and he was booed.
Tonight This was audience participation time. Donnie decided to embarrass Jon and have us scream: JON! KNIGHT! HE'S A FREAKIN' PIMP, Y'ALL! It was hilarious. I love how they tease Jon for his shyness on stage.
Click Click Click They sat on stools at the end, prompting me to wonder if they were about to sing "California Sad-Eyed Girl." :)
I'll Be Loving You Forever: Jordan reached the high note beautifully, and I was blown away. YAY!
Hangin' Tough: I had been standing for the entire show, but sat down for this, the Boston sports team love-fest. This time, it was for the Red Sox.
Step By Step
One Song
That was a fun show! I waited for Aura to get to my seat (I was on the way out), and we hung out in the plaza for awhile, under the thatched roof, tweeting Donnie to tell him that we were waiting for him there. We were surprised that they were all being so silent with the tweets. In the meantime, Aura took this picture of me.
We saw that they were starting to turn off the lights in the plaza, so we left and looked for a Starbuck's so that we could eat our cupcakes together and try to wind down. We still hoped that there would be a tweet from Donnie, but nothing. We went to The Block in Orange -- HEY! I didn't realize just now that we went to The Block after *seeing* the Block! Whoa. Anyway, after Wrong Way Sherry (I had called myself that all evening) drove around the parking lot a couple of times, we parked the car, and asked a security guy on a Segway to direct us to Starbuck's. At the Starbuck's when I ordered my Shaken Iced Green Tea, I told them my name and the employees started singing Frankie & the Four Seasons' "Sherry" and I was a happy girl.
We enjoyed our cupcakes, although they were not as moist as I hoped they'd be. We tried to reconstruct the above set list as best we could. You know, if I hadn't deleted everything, it'd be accurate, but whatever. Sad that we didn't actually get Full Service, and only Half, we decided to drive back to Cerritos. I've since complained in a tweet to Donnie, but I'm sure he just now hates me because I was being negative. Whatev.
Thanks, Aura, for the fun time and the laughs! I look forward to whatever their next tour holds for us.
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