Thursday, June 2 I decided to once again head up to Mohegan Sun to check out the NKOTBSB tour. Jordin Sparks was opening at this show and I found a decently priced single seat on StubHub that afternoon. It was the front row of the upper section, but on the opposite side of the arena from where I had sat during Monday’s show.
When I got to the venue, doors were already open. Buying tickets off websites other than livenation/ticketmaster always makes me a bit nervous (especially when they are e-tickets) and when it was scanned – the kid’s scanner said “INVALID” I tried to remain calm but inside I was FREAKING OUT. He called over a supervisor and she scanned it and it still said “INVALID” but then did something else and told me I was all set. Whew! Then I spent the 40 minutes before the show started paranoid that someone was going to come with a ticket to the same seat. (Never happened, but the 2 girls next to me were in the wrong section so they had to leave when 2 girls with the ‘same seats’ showed up!)
The first opening act was once again “The Goonies”… they did the same set but the Arena was even less full for them than on Monday. (They also went on stage 20 mins earlier) Next up was Ashlyne Huff. She also did the same set but she and her dancers had on different outfits.
While I was sitting in my seat I saw Donnie tweet that it looked like JON would be joining them for the show! I am not sure why that got me so excited, but it did. (Originally Jon had tweeted that he thought he’d be cleared by the doctor to start shows back up again Friday)
Next up was my girl, Jordin Sparks. Her set was No Air, S.O.S., One Step at a Time, Tattoo and she did a mashup/medley of Irreplaceable (Beyonce) / Price Tag (Jessi J) / Perfect (Pink) / Where Is The Love (BEP). She decicated her song “Battlefield” to “her soldier Brian” who is her bodyguard that is heading off to Iraq soon. She said his family was in the audience (I believe he is originally from CT) and she finished off her set with her new single – I Am Woman. She had 2 male dancers that joined her for several of the songs.
Then it was time for NKOTBSB! The intro gets you soooo freaking hyped up for the show, it is ridiculous. Even when I knew what was coming – it still made me so excited in anticipation for the curtain to drop. And then there were 9 instead of 8! It was cool to see how the show changed to add Jon back in to the set up. He also seemed a bit rusty on his dance moves and was often looking at the other guys instead of straight ahead or wherever he was supposed to be looking and at one point Donnie grabbed him to take him down the stairs because it looked like Jon was a bit lost. In the beginning he seemed to be keeping up quite well with all the dance moves, but he kind of toned it down a bit more towards the end. I don’t blame him – it is a LONG show and a LOT of dancing!
Another difference with the show was that Joey McIntyre had a baby in the time between Monday and Thursday, so they showed a video of Joe wrapping the baby up and kissing her. Kira Katherine is adorable and has a TON of hair. (He said he hopes it doesn’t get crazy curly like his was as a kid lol)
About an hour in to the show my camera battery was blinking so I decided to turn it off and just enjoy the show and wait until the end of the show to get bow photos. It was nice that way I could attempt to pay attention to everything that was going on rather than focus on the lighting and when I could get a good photo, etc. I really need to keep a stash of batteries in my car for these last minute decisions!
During the encore, Nick came out in a white tank top instead of his jersey and I thought my camera had died after taking a few photos of him. Turns out – it didn’t… I just kept re-arranging the order the batteries were in and I was able to get a few more photos each time!
Ray Allen came out with NKOTB for the encore which was cool. He played for UCONN so I thought he’d get more of a cheer but maybe a lot of the audience didn’t know who he was?
The show was a lot of fun and I am glad that I got to see it a second time with Jordin and Jon included! The setlist was the same as Monday’s show so I am not going to bother posting it again.