Back to the Island 2024

Last week was my 11th Back to the Island and my 10th trip to Jamaica. (One of the airport employees told me I am now officially Jamerican.)   I started by taking notes on my flights down and then promptly stopped doing that once I actually arrived and the activities started.  I don’t know why I always seem to think I am going to become a different person on these trips, but it hasn’t happened yet. We’ll see how good my memory is…

There

The Hartford airport was absolute CHAOS when I arrived, lines for Jet Blue and Delta were ridiculously long but I was able to sneak up to the kiosk for Southwest, scan my passport, and get my boarding passes really quickly.  Pre-Check was longer than usual and at 4am everyone was a little bit out of it and the women behind me were laughing at a woman who said she did have a shirt on under her sweatshirt only to take it off and reveal only a bralette, asking if security has gotten stricter since she last traveled. The TSA Agent just shook his head and said, “I don’t know what’s going on, its 4am. I asked her if she had a t-shirt on.”   The captain and flight attendants came by just as we were preparing to board and the captain was complaining that they went through luggage ‘with a fine tooth comb’ (isn’t that their job?) as a result, he said he was going to take as long as it needed for the security check which ended up with him yelling at a gate agent because the gate agent was concerned about how long it was delaying our boarding. He scolded him saying that safety checks were important and however long it took, it took.  Which is fair. But also, security lines are insane so maybe show up to work a little bit earlier?  Once we got ready to take off he said he was going to “fly it like he stole it from Delta” and we made up most of the delay time in the air.  My second flight was delayed 10-15 minutes because I guess Montego Bay was getting backed up and asked us to wait and then there was an issue with baggage, but we still got there about 30 minutes after we were supposed to.  I ended up finding a friend who arrived shortly after me and then we hung around watching the chaos that was baggage claim waiting for a 3rd friend to arrive before we boarded our shuttle to the resort – which took way longer than it was supposed to because a husband going to Ocho Rios went missing before we departed.

Resort

I ended up at some point before we left thinking it might be fun to try every drink they have at the resort on the menu.  Last year we drank the same thing almost the whole time, so I figured it was worth seeing if there was something else I might like more.  I ended up getting a friend to join me.  More on that in a separate blog post, but we did manage to finish all of them around 1am during Taylor’s dance party.  This was our 5th time at this resort and not much had changed – except there now was a mongoose?  I heard that some others had seen one, but of course one of the times I was going back to my room alone the darn thing hid under a structure and then darted out in front of me.  All I got as a photo was a brown blur running across but trust me.  There also were the usual lizards, hermit crabs, regular crabs, bats, and an assortment of bugs. (And loud frogs?)  I was pretty happy for the return of hermit crabs because one year there was a whole ton of them, but then I hadn’t really seen them since.

Night 1 

The first night was a Hanson show, followed by and AMMM Bonfire Set.  I started by teasing that the setlist was predictable – because for the past few years they have opened and closed with Back to the Island – but they shut me right up by then going into a cover of Weezer’s Island in the Sun followed by a cover of Bob Marley’s Three Little Birds and Stir It Up.  I was beginning to think that maybe this year was going to be different and maybe they’d actually put some effort into these setlists.  This show was relatively cover heavy – they also did Islands In The Stream, Kokomo by the Beach Boys for the first time ever and finished their set out with a cover of Feelin’ Alright, which while they have done it before, it hasn’t been done since 2009 so it might as well have been something new.  The Hanson originals were a bit more single heavy – but let’s just get all those out of the way early, right?

After Hanson’s set, AMMM did a bonfire set on the beach in which they wrote a three song set list and just took requests from the crowd for the rest for the most part.  Taylor ended up joining them on a cover of Whitney’s I Wanna Dance With Somebody and watched most of their set from the sound booth tent.   At one point he came out to the bar to get drinks for the band and I heard him tell someone that the last night setlist was going to be “Rockin'”  – a bit of a theme, but also super vague.

Zac Solo
Zac was up first for the solo sets.  Bonus points to him for doing 2 songs off of the latest Members Only EP – The Weight of Emotion and Where You Come From.  The rest was decent, but nothing new or any real surprises and I’ll be pretty happy when Seymour Better Times is off the list as he’s done it every year since he debuted it in 2018.  I think he gets a kick out of the kazoos though, so we might be stuck with it. This year we had birthday noisemakers we used as makeshift kazoos.  Also during his set the speakers we were sitting under decided to be problematic so there were a few songs where the crew was climbing the stage and trying to fix it as it was popping in and out.  If they were such a problem that they needed to be corrected during the show, they probably should have temporarily suspended the show as to not be such a distraction but, I’m not in charge.

Night 2

We weren’t entirely sure what to expect when it was time for Night 2 – but they pulled out major rare deep cut “Dream Girl” to start the show, and it became a Members song heavy set.  Trembling from White Rabbit was done for the first time ever, Working was done for just the second time (aside from Isaac doing it at his side project), So Lovely was full band for the first time since 2005, Grace Unknown full band for the 2nd time ever.  This was 63% Members Only which I didn’t do major research into but I think may be one of the biggest members setlists since the 2014 Members Only set. (81%)  They also had AMMM’s Zack Mack join them on harmonica for Dressed in Brown Eyes.  [Note: I have since done research: 2017 BTTI Members Only was 65% and 2017 MOE in Tulsa was 68%, BTTI Members Only was 84% beating out even the 2014 set and 2018 MOE in Tulsa was 71%, MOE Tulsa 2019 was 79%,  yet somehow that 2014 set is more memorable. ]

Isaac Solo 

Isaac loses so points for doing “River” but gains them for the 2nd time ever for Ordinary Words and live debuts (excluding his side project) of Mother of Exiles and The Gift Of Tears.  He also loses for not doing my request of Greener Pastures and also for doing Hand in Hand which ended up being repeated in the Night 3 set as well. Overall, he did a lot better with his set than he has in the past, even if he did bumble his way through a couple songs.

Night 3

Night 3 was AMMM’s set – which had Isaac joining them for a cover of One More Last Chance – which Isaac had been doing with Mother Road Sons and Taylor and Zac joined them for a cover of Forever and Ever Amen.  This set needed more Ingram Hill and less she who shall not be named.

Taylor Solo 

Taylor loses alllll the points for playing With You In You Dreams (even though we kind of expected it) and THEN doing 2 never before heard live songs that I couldn’t enjoy to its fullest because I was still recovering from crying.  He had been saying that Semi Hollow would never be played live – yet somehow managed to pull it off followed by the debut of We Belong Together.  Next time, Taylor, end on the sad one. (Even though I’d still be mad about it)  We now have all of Red having been played live – it’ll be interesting to see if We Belong Together makes it into the rotation more now or not.  I feel like Semi Hollow may end up back in the vault though.

Events

I am kind of over the events.  I did like that we got to sign up on paper to play video games with Zac and didn’t have to stand in line (which I always skip doing) but we sat there watching him play with groups of 3 through 4 Mario Kart races and never got called up to play.  Watching it is boring if you’re not playing and he probably should have done 2 races instead to get in more people.  Family Feud is old, yet Isaac still doesn’t understand the rules, and throwing Taylor in as a co-host wasn’t anywhere near as amusing as I had hoped.  Plus having the events at the same time meant we couldn’t linger in the back to watch the other Family feud session to see if it was any more amusing or not because we were waiting to play games with Zac.  If they’re going to stick to Family Feud they need to theme it more Hanson and maybe a bit more “raunchy” as half the answers seemed to be going that way anyway, but it’s a premade family version of the game.  I also don’t like staying up so late after the shows – but FOMO keeps me from going to sleep before things are over.  I’m also not big into the Pool Party – especially with it back to being on the last night because it went until 1:30 and I needed to be up at 6:45 to finish packing and catch my shuttle. (Which I knew when I booked the flight, but I wanted the buffer of there being a second flight out of Jamaica to Baltimore after being screwed last year by taking the last flight out)

Night 4

While we knew Night 3 was going to be “Rockin'”, I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect.  Would they continue the awesome momentum of the first 2 sets? Or would they fall back on the usuals for this last one since so much rehearsal seemingly went into the other two?  They started with Dancing in the Wind – which really could go either way – but once they busted out Speechless – that had never been played at BTTI before – I had a feeling they did their research. (Is that why hansonstage is broken?) They also followed it with Cried – although I feel like they made this setlist a little top heavy and went back into the regulars at the end – where I’d rather they start with that and then build up for the end.  They ended up throwing in A Song To Sing as the first encore – saying that it was probably the complete opposite of Rocking but we’d grin and bear it as it was a request. (Though I do wonder WHO requested it) and then finished out with Zach Myers on I Believe in a Thing Called Love and all of AMMM for “AMMMBop” and the finale of Back to the Island.

Year 11 was one of the best – but I am hoping for some tweaks for next year and looking forward to getting my post-event survey.  The gift for year 11s was a blanket – which took up nearly half of my suitcase.  As someone who tries to do carry on only, they really need to give us a heads up about the size of these items they are giving us so I can figure out how to pack!

Back Again

I ended up asking to be put on a shuttle 1 hour earlier than when we were departing because it can take quite some time to find someone to push the wheelchair at the airport.  My name wasn’t on the list, but the driver took me anyway (he was the same driver I had on the way in) but then we stopped at 3 or 4 other resorts on the way there – stopping at one for 15-20 minutes for no apparent reason as no one boarded.  While waiting in the wheelchair for a pusher, I saw the people on the bus an hour behind us show up – 15 minutes later than we did!  The kiosk also said my flight was delayed, but it apparently was not delayed enough to show up as delayed on the screens.  I made it to Baltimore without incident and used Global Entry for the first time – there was pretty much no one in front of me, it took a photo of me and didn’t even ask for my passport – then I went to the booth and he told me I was all good and could enter.  I was so fast that they hadn’t even opened baggage claim for those who had to transfer their checked luggage.  Fortunately carry on only I just kept on my way to the security check point which was forever away.  They had no cane to help me out so I managed to get them to let me use my own but how ridiculous.  1.5 miles later, I made it to the gate, and the flight kept fluctuating between on time, 15 minutes late and 30 minutes late.  In the end, the crew was late and we did end up taking off and getting in late, but I can take a 30 minute delay over being stuck in Jamaica overnight alone.  If you’re on the fence about Global Entry, I can’t recommend it enough, I heard of  a lot of people missing their connecting flights from customs being so long this year. It took me like 5 minutes, if that.  Here’s my blog post on how I got Global Entry last year after returning from Jamaica: https://blog.concertkatie.com/2023/02/global-entry-in-10-days.html

Year In Review – 2023

Fun concert fact: in 2023 I sat in the rain at 3 concerts – all 3 happened to be to see 3 brother bands. 3 different 3 brother bands in 3 different states. (GA, CT, NY – Hanson, AJR, Jonas)

Most expensive show:
Other than Back To The Island which doesn’t quite count, Jonas Brothers at Yankee Stadium clocked in at $320, plus we already had another ticket on top of that before we got there.

Least (not free) expensive show:
Virtual were in the $10-20 range but for actual in person shows, Eric Hutchinson was $37

Free shows:
2 days of the Cherry Blossom Festival, Hanson’s Members Only Event (we’ll ignore I had to pay for membership), Darius Rucker

# artists seen: 88
# unique artists seen: 30
# shows seen in CT: 16
# of shows out of state: 25

Show farthest away: I think Jamaica wins this year
Closest show: Fairfield CT
$$ spent on tickets: About $5k
Miles traveled: 20,296

Top 6 shows of the year? The 2nd Hanson show at Escanaba for sure. I think there was a BTTI show I was really into as well. And I saw John Mayer 3x so let’s give him 3 spots… and Ruben & Clay can round out the 6th spot.

Total number of shows in 2023? 41 (2 virtual)

First show of the year? Hanson

First show with actual tickets:  I’m not sure any have “actual” tickets anymore. 🙁  (My Ridgefield and Fairfield shows most likely had actual tickets, and then Darius I had one too because it was a comped will call ticket but they are coming fewer and farther between sadly)

Last show of the year? Darren Criss (because Aerosmith got postponed)

Most surprising show? Maybe Jonas at  Yankee Stadium

Most disappointing? Aerosmith postponement

Farthest traveled? Jamaica

States attended shows in? CT, RI, NY, NJ, TN, GA, OK, IA, AR, PA, MI [no new states this year but AR was a new Hanson state]

Venue most visited? I think Ridgefield Playhouse wins this year

Band seen the most? Hanson

Best new discovery? Drew Holcomb & The Neighbors

Bands seen this year that also broke up this year? None that I know of

Friends made at shows? I don’t think I made any, though the girls next to us at Jonas were super nice and helpful but we didn’t keep in touch.

Band members met? Hanson, Joey McIntyre, Hunter Hayes, Fresh Kids of Bel Air, O-Town, BBMak, Chris Kirkpatrick, Darren Criss

Best souvenir from a show? I’m not sure. Nothing is jumping out at me as being really cool.

Longest time in line? I don’t think any were GA that I had to wait at all for… which is impressive.

Shows seen from the barricade [front row]– Matt Nathanson, Haley Reinhart, Hanson (IA, CT, PA, MI, MI), Fresh Kids of Bel Air, Lindsey Stirling, Jonas Brothers and I had quite a few from second row as well.

Most shows in one month? 

January – 6
February – 4
March – 6
April – 1
May – 5
June – 3
July – 7
August – 3
September – 1
October – 2
November – 2
December – 1

Most shows in one week? Back to the Island and then the CT/TN/GA stretch where I did 2 concerts, flew to TN, went to a Broadway show (didn’t see the end), and then did 3 more shows 1 in TN and 2 in GA.

Biggest crowd? Sound on Sound was maybe like 15-20k? Not totally sure but probably the biggest as it was a festival 

Any drunk encounters? There were 2 separate occasions in which drunk people were standing *on top of me* at concerts.  How drunk do you need to be to not realize you are standing on another human?

Missed shows:

Had to sell my tix to David Cook to get some sleep for an early flight
Aerosmith postponed and no new date has been announced yet

A Very Darren Crissmas

Going to concerts during the week can be difficult with my work situation, and this week was extra complicated as I was in the middle of some training all week – but I managed to slip away a bit early to head to Ridgefield for Darren’s Crissmas show.  I had purchased a VIP pass which allowed me to meet Darren before the show as well as got me some merch – an adorable gift bag

featuring a hippopotamus on it containing an ornament, Santa had and signed booklet.  We were told to wear our VIP laminate from that point forward and then were able to line up for merch or just hang out.  The merch line was quite long so I opted to wait and try and buy things after – I found out that the booth was having issues with WiFi and card readers and that’s why the line was so long.  Then they had us line up and sent us into the M&G room 5 at a time.  Darren was very sweet and taking his time chatting with everyone, which I absolutely loved.  He saw my *NSYNC shirt as soon as I walked in and we started chatting about their Christmas album and Hanson’s and harmonies and song arrangements – and his handler was taking photos the entire time.  I was absolutely shocked when I left the room and was ready to post our photo together on instagram only to see that there were 30+ photos on my phone from our interaction.  Honestly, one of the best M&Gs I have done – and it really wasn’t that expensive! My concert ticket cost more than the VIP did ($120 and $144!)

We then were allowed to stay inside if we wanted, but if we went out to our car we couldn’t come back in until doors at 6:30, I didn’t want to sit in my cold car so I opted to stay inside in the lobby before theater doors opened.  I took my seat in the 2nd row and immediately noticed the “No photos or video” signs that were up.  The woman next to me was saying how she was going to break the rules and I told her I might just have to join her, but would probably wait until the end so if they were going to try and kick me out I wouldn’t miss much.  She opted to take photos  throughout from her lap but I was a bit too anxious to try that and didn’t want to bring more attention if both of us were doing it.

I had previously seen this show last year, but he did mix things up a bit.  A few of his stories about the songs were the same, but I didn’t really remember most of them anyway so it was fine!  He started by coming through the aisles singing Happy Holidays and The Holiday Season and trying to get us to do a bit of a call and response.  I remember last year the crowd being WAY more into sing a longs and it seemed like for this show the crowd was a bit more timid.  He talked a bit about how Christmas music is special and there’s nothing else where we have a specific time frame to listen to it.  March isn’t Sargent Pepper’s month, we can listen to it year round, but Christmas music we typically only listen to in December and Burl Ives kicks Taylor Swift’s ass on the charts every December.  I also still absolutely love his rendition of John Mayer’s St. Patrick’s Day. (He also mentioned that John is from about 11 miles from where we were. He knows his stuff. Why are we not best friends?)   After I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas he had his drummer help show us how he came up with the arrangement and put a hip hop spin on it – hip hoppotamus… which is another arrangement of his I love.  He also said that there are some areas that people don’t know that song and he gets asked often if he wrote it – and he wishes he did because he’d be living in a castle in the sky off that royalties money.

After Drunk on Christmas he mentioned how a father and daughter had left and gave him a wave and he hoped that it wasn’t too much for her to handle (as he swears and had just gone on about drinking – which he did say getting drunk didn’t have to be alcohol and it could just be having more chocolate or pie or watching TV or whatever else you might want to indulge in.)  And then was the time when I thought he was going to do a song he had just taught himself like he did last year – but he ended up doing Granger Danger from A Verry Potter Musical and spoke about how he doesn’t credit Glee with getting him where he’s at now, it was absolutely this musical.

He then sat on the bench on stage and asked a few people in the audience about Christmas songs they’d like to hear.  When voices started yelling out he teased about how the voices in his head must be back and then got the band to start up the song to not spend too much time letting everyone yell out.   He did a few more songs before heading out before the encore.

When he came back out, he sat at the piano and asked for a few artists from people in the audience which ended up getting us a medley of Fly Me To The Moon, Against All Odds (which the lyrics he didn’t quite know, but he tried!) and Cough Syrup.  Then he did Christmas Dance and asked us to stand and dance but told us we could sit and do it, too (Thank you.  I sat, but I twisted, shook and iced with the best of them) and ended up putting into the medley the songs that he had asked for earlier that he told us he absolutely wasn’t going to sing – and it was a Christmas miracle!

This show was so much fun – and I almost forgot – at one point he called out a woman who was on her phone saying that it was fine that she was and we could do whatever we wanted during the show – but that everything was dark except her beautiful glowing face.  Then he felt bad that he called her out and kept mentioning how guilty he felt throughout the whole show.

If this show is coming near you – definitely check it out – and if not – take a listen to the CD!

Hanson in Escanaba, MI

Back in May Hanson announced what ended up being their last shows of the year in Escanaba/Harris, MI in the upper peninsula.  We bought tickets and booked our flights. The airport there is tiny and there are only 2 flights in and out each day. Delta couldn’t get their act together and here’s what happened from the emails I saved (and who knows if I actually saved all of them)

May 17:
Hartford (9:35am) Detroit (11:29am)
Escanaba (4:00pm) Minneapolis (7:55pm)

May 24:
Hartford (6:00am) Detroit (8:54am) Minneapolis (1:45pm)  
Escanaba (4:00pm) Minneapolis (7:55pm)

May 24: (I made this change to not have so many flights)
Hartford (9:42am) Detroit (1:55pm)
Escanaba (4:00pm) Minneapolis (7:55pm)

July 3:
Hartford (9:42am) Detroit (2:37pm) 
Escanaba (4:00pm) Minneapolis (7:55pm)

August 28:
Hartford (6:00am) Minneapolis (10:25am) 
Escanaba (1:31pm) Minneapolis (8:00pm) 

September 23:
Hartford (6:00am) Minneapolis (10:01am) 
Escanaba (1:08pm) Minneapolis (8:20pm) 

September 30:
Hartford (6:00am) Minneapolis (8:50am)
Escanaba (11:52am) Minneapolis (12:47pm) Atlanta (9:40pm)

September 30: (I made the change to not have so many flights)
Hartford (6:00am) Minneapolis (8:50am)
Escanaba (6:01pm) Detroit (9:55pm) 

In the end, that September 30th email & update stuck, but I did get a couple more emails from Delta confirming it with what appears to be all the same info. (Maybe flight numbers changed?)  Of course, I bought a ticket to see David Cook the night before when I thought I had a 9am flight, but a 6am flight meant I had to miss out on the show.  Fortunately I was able to sell my ticket and meet and greet to a woman who really seemed to appreciate me helping her out, so that helped lessen the blow a bit. (She sent me her M&G photo with a “thanks so much!” message the next day and it melted my cold, dark heart.)

Based on the August changes,  I had been totally willing to wait the 8 hours in MSP if I needed to (I have friends there, they could have taken me and brought me back later!) but Delta was treating it as if it was 2 separate flights and not connected and I wasn’t sure what kind of issues that might cause or if it really would be as simple as just checking in 2 different times.  When I contacted them via the chat they told me that it was either the extra Atlanta layover (please, no!) or going to Detroit instead.  As we were trying to get that all settled… Pet Assistance joined the conversation? They asked if I’d be traveling with a dog, cat or bird.  Just get me to Escanaba and back, I’m not bringing a pet!

When I left my house there was dew/frost on the ground. I also almost hit a buck on the parkway on the way to the airport.  That’s one way to wake you up at 2:45am!  When I got to the airport, I added the plane tickets to my Google Wallet.  Then somehow it became a ticket from MSP to ESC (what I needed) and another one from MSP to LAS VEGAS?  Delta, what are you DOING?  Fortunately my app had the correct tickets in there and I made it to MSP without any issues.  I had about an hour layover in MSP on the way there and made it to the connection despite having to go through nearly all the gates to get there. I had a cart get me to the end of A but had to walk the last 9 gates myself.  I found my 3 friends waiting for me at the gate and then we needed to get defrosted before taking off.  Our luggage didn’t fit in the overhead bins and there were about 10 people on the flight so the flight attendant ended up just strapping it into the seat across the aisle from me.  Our casino shuttle driver was waiting for us when we got there and took us to the casino.  We couldn’t check in until 12:30 so we hung in the lobby, got our rooms and went to check things out and eat. Then we waited for 2 more friends to show up on the later flight. We had a free night and just hung out and explored the hotel.  I ended up doing a pull tab card from the gift shop that cost $1 and won $5. That was all the gambling I did all weekend.   I also apparently offended a local when I said “there IS stuff to do here!” when spotting the kiosk of local brochures. She said “of course there is, you’re not in the middle of nowhere”  except once I grabbed a few brochures that interested me, they were 2, 2.5 and 3 hours away.  I’m not sure that counts as “here” and yes, we are in the middle of nowhere.
The next day, 2 more friends were coming.  We had discussed getting pasties which is a hand pie that is commonly found in the upper peninsula.  I had checked Door Dash and Uber Eats but there was not ONE restaurant on there. (Not just pasty places, nothing at all!) And to uber from the casino back to Escanaba was $22 one way.  Fortunately one of our friends mentioned it to the shuttle driver and he took a detour to Gram’s (which is supposed to be one of the best spots) and she was able to pick some up for us to try.  I got a beef with potato and even a while after they were purchased they were still warm and perfect for lunch!  For dinner we did a nice outing to the steak house that was on the top floor of the casino.  At some point, I got an email from Delta wishing me a happy birthday and offering me a $25 eCredit.  Delta, what is going on over there? My birthday was in July!
Then it was time for show #1!  I had fully expected that we’d end up getting some combination of the 35 songs that they just had done at Disney and for this setlist, I was mostly right.  My friends however were not happy with me because they had said they didn’t want to hear “I’ve Got Soul” and I had said since it was done at Disney it was bound to happen and they ended up opening the set with it, which made me laugh. But hey, let’s get it out of the way early! This setlist was pretty typical and what I was expecting.  What I was not expecting was for security to just be done doing their job during MMMBop and allowing everyone to rush the stage.  They had taken my walker away and I was happily sitting in my chair so I opted to not have my friends help me get up there because walking with just the cane while a sea of people were coming at me didn’t seem safe.  Turns out sitting in the chair wasn’t too safe either. I ended up with 3 men standing on top of me (actually ON TOP OF my feet) and then almost got run over by a wheelchair who decided to back up right on top of me.  I kind of expected this might have happened at the encore, but I missed out on the last 3 songs of the set *and* the encore.

After the show we hung out in the hotel since the 8 of us wouldn’t fit comfortably in either of our hotel rooms. We did a snack run to the gift shop in the hotel, which somehow was incredibly cheap and had some pickle flavored chips and “Yooper Bars” which were just chocolate bars with the upper peninsula on them. (I stuck with my baked lays and cream and dr pepper soda)

The next morning we had a late breakfast and just hung around doing more nothing. My friend did contact the GM of the theater and was told I could keep the walker with me for the 2nd show so I was already feeling a bit better about how it would go since I’d be able to have a bit of a barricade around myself.  Isaac had posted on instagram they’d be mixing the setlist up, which we did figure would happen to some extent – and we thought they might go all out being the last show of the year, but also didn’t want to get our hopes up.  When we finished eating a late lunch/early dinner we heard Hanson doing soundcheck of With a Little Help From My Friends and we hoped they weren’t just teasing us.  Some other fans nearby informed us that World Goes Around was sound checked earlier and the day before.  Then they went into Give a Little and I Don’t Want To Go Home but we still weren’t sure if they had plans to put all those songs in the setlist or not.

When they started the show, they mixed it up by starting with Fired Up but then did 2 repeats – A Minute Without You and Thinking ‘Bout Somethin’ so I wasn’t really sure where we were headed. But from there things went off the rails, in the best way possible. Instead of an acoustic set we got a solo from each brother and all the sound checked songs made the cut.  In the end we had 44 songs over 2 nights and 39 of them were unique – and I had thought they’d be pulling from 35 that were rehearsed!  Except now that we know they are capable of doing such a massive shake up and not at a members only event, the bar has been raised!

After the show we got a boozy ice cream drink and hung out for the time change. On top of the daylight saving time confusion, the casino was situated right smack in the middle of the Eastern and Central time zones. The airport was in Eastern and the hotel operates in Eastern so I had forced my phone to not auto update. For some who didn’t make that change, depending on where they were in the casino, the time would change back and forth. We made it to 2nd 1am but didn’t last much longer than that – and the delirious giggles had hit most of us at one point or another.

Sunday all my friends were on the MSP flight and I was alone on the DTW flight so I stayed in the room as long as I could before check out, took myself to breakfast at the restaurant in the casino and then hung out in the lobby watching videos until my 3:30 shuttle.

The Escanaba airport was so tiny, yet has 5 TSA agents for our flight. We ended up having to board the plane using the stairs which did not go very well for me (I’m ok, just a skinned knee) but it was smooth sailing and no flight issues. If Delta wants to just keep up with the drama before the actual travel days, I’ll take it!

Eric Hutchinson at Stage One

The last time Eric Hutchinson was in town I didn’t end up making it to the show because I was sick.  The first time I saw him was a couple of days after the shooting at Sandy Hook and I wasn’t sure if I was up for the concert.  Saturday night my anxiety was acting up and there was some sort of town trick or treat happening and parking was scarce. I almost turned around and went home to watch the livestream the venue was doing.  Maybe the universe is telling me not to see him anymore.  When he came out and said “Good evening, I am Taylor Swift” my suspicions were confirmed.

The tour he is on is the 15th anniversary of his album Sounds like This.  Every night he will be playing it in its entirety but he started with a song from 2014 that was not on the album.  He explained that he couldn’t just start in 2008, it would be too much for us, so he was going to work his way backwards and ended up doing a song from 2023 next – but explained it’s actually much older because Sounds like This is only 36 minutes long and he needed to add songs to his set when he was first touring because the set being 36 minutes long wasn’t enough and he wasn’t going to play everything twice.  Slowly we went back, 2023, 2022, 2016, 2014, 2012 and then into 2008.

To set the scene, he tried to bring us back to 2008 and remind us of what was popular then.  He went through a whole story about how we probably would have been at Best Buy and saw his album there to buy and got it and then a whole story about how we may not have even had a CD player in our car.  There were a lot of young kids in the audience so he needed to make sure that they fully understood the time period.  He also then went on to explain Perez Hilton and how he and his blog helped make the album as big as it was.

He then played the album in its entirety, in order.

To finish the night, he didn’t end up leaving for an encore but stayed on the stage. Then he explained about how once, in San Antonio, he left the stage and was getting ready for an encore and the audience left so he was no longer going to do that and he saved us all 40 seconds and we’d wake up tomorrow 40 more seconds refreshed.  He did also note that it is true that him explaining that he wasn’t going to do it just wasted all the time he otherwise would have if he left the stage and came back.

He said he would be out at the merch table once the show ended but as I mentioned previously, my anxiety has been awful lately so I wanted to do nothing more than just get back to my car and get home.  As I was leaving, a couple of women behind me were excited that the show was over before 10pm!

Eric Hutchinson Setlist StageOne, Fairfield Theatre Company, Fairfield, CT, USA 2023

Sound on Sound Sunday

Sunday October 1, after months of being nervous over it, I attended Sound on Sound in Bridgeport, CT.  I was out of town during the festival last year, but all the comments on facebook I was reading said that it was absolutely horrible and that worried me a bit for this year.  But John Mayer was headlining, in his hometown, (where we both were born) so I was going to do everything in my power to attend.  I had emailed as soon as it was announced about ADA accommodations and they kept saying that they’d be announced “closer to the show”.  Almost every other festival I’ve attended (though there hasn’t been many as I acknowledge I am not made for them) typically has what they’re going to do laid out when it is announced / before tickets go on sale.  I ended up spending $110 on the closest parking passes, which weren’t even all that close, and the weekend before got confirmation I could park in the ADA lot (I’m curious how much they were charging for that lot as I’m pretty sure I paid too much, but I had to hedge my bets that I’d be as close as possible – especially with the other parking / uber drop off being a 2 mile walk away – something I absolutely would not be able to do!)  Fortunately, waiting to find out if they’d have an ADA Platform only in GA or in VIP as well ended up allowing me to take advantage of a $99 ticket offer for the day for GA tickets when I think they were initially selling for $179.  They ran a LOT of $99 promos so I figured it was not selling as well as they expected – probably due to so many being hesitant that had attended the year before.

We opted to show up a bit after doors opened to try and lessen the lines and the crowds and getting there was pretty smooth.  Of course the accessible entrance was as far away from where we parked as it possibly could be.  But when were able to quickly get our wristbands for access to the ADA platform once we got inside and then went to check it out.  The Friday before we had gotten more rain than the ground could possibly handle (NYC was beyond flooded) and the crew spent half a million dollars adding gravel, hay, and really awful tiles to the ground to cover the mud.  Granted this was probably a whatever they could get last minute – but the “tile” that was on the ground to cover the mud – every single one had a different texture (to trip on) as well as holes in them that my wheels of my walker got stuck in several times.  This was also the only path to get to the ADA platform.  It may have been better than trudging through mud, but not by much.

We watched the tail end of the Gin Blossoms set from the ADA platform and then went to find food.  We also watched Cautious Clay, Margo Price, Mt. Joy, Dispatch and Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals before it was finally time for the acts that we had came for!

Hozier came out and was super adorable with his accent. Through most of his set a drone was going around and a bunch of people were also bouncing beach balls around and he teased that it might be a fun game to try and knock the drone done with the beach balls.  I didn’t see the drone again once he said that so maybe someone was concerned that it might be taken seriously!  He did a 12 song set closing out with his biggest hit, Take Me To Church which obviously got the biggest reception from the crowd and had the most cell phones in the air.  I really enjoyed him and may have to start listening to him more regularly!

Next up was Alanis, whom I had previously seen.  Her intro video appeared to be the same from the last tour I saw her and her set was still predominately Jagged Little Pill songs which was great since that’s really the only album of hers I am super familiar with.  Of course for her, the biggest crowd reactions were for Ironic and You Oughta Know. She paced back and forth across the stage through most of the songs and when she was standing still she was playing with her hands and it was making me very anxious. She also ended up doing a 12 song set.

Then it was time for John! (He told us to call him just John)  He somehow managed to make his stage banter about how every song was somehow about Connecticut. He claimed he wasn’t pandering but I’m not sur I believe him! He commented that the hospital he was born in was “a mile up the road” and while I think it was a bit further than that, you could sense the pride and emotion that he was “home”.  He even told a never before told story about how he got his music education from Bridgeport and when his Dad was principal he would confiscate walkmans and then he and his brothers would check out all the cassettes of the walkmans that weren’t picked back up by the students at the end of the year.  He seemed to fall back a lot on Room for Squares and at one point was feeling a “vibe” with us and swapped out a song for “Why Georgia” and he said it was about how he was in Georgia but not back home in Connecticut.  I was hoping that he’d play No Such Thing early so whoever was there just to hear it would clear out making for less traffic and he did it 3rd. A lot of people also left after he did Your Body is a Wonderland.  He also mentioned that Walt Grace probably was from Groton and worked for Electric Boat and that’s how he decided to make his submarine. (Groton is home to the sub naval base and Electric Boat is one of our companies that makes subs)  A request for 3×5 was done during the encore… and I thought I might have finally been free of a show with Free Fallin’, but nope. It ended up being the final song of the night.

Overall the event was a lot more fun than I was expecting, but not without its challenges mostly due to my disability.  I would consider going again another time, but it sounds like the promoter can’t handle the criticism and is letting a few loud people get to him and doesn’t know if he wants to do it again.

98 Degrees at Foxwoods

Thursday night 98° kicked off their anniversary tour at the Premier Theater at Foxwoods Casino.  There was also the Wahlburgers grand opening on the other side of the casino so we thought it might have been a pretty boyband heavy night.  Except the boyband centric person we bumped into was actually Johnny Wright, *NSYNC’s manager.  I’m not sure we were expecting that! (We didn’t chat long and didn’t get any info out of him, so please don’t ask lol)

All-4-One opened the night and had all 4 members! (back in March I only saw 3 of them)  They basically did the same set they did back in March but with much less talking in between songs.

Then it was time for 98°!  The first part of the show they seemed to be a little off, they didn’t have command of the crowd (almost everyone was sitting) and things just seemed off.  I think they may have not had enough rehearsal time but it was giving off “Dads called on stage to make a boyband at the talent show” vibes.  Fortunately, about midway through their divas medley things seemed to click a bit more and the rest of the show (where it was more stuff they had done before)  was a lot better.  They did several medleys – they opened with their “Opening Medley” then the y did a “Divas medley” and an “acoustic medley” and a “TRL medley”.  The TRL Medley was probably my favorite and it was definitely Tearin’ Up My Heart that got the most crowd response.

They also had this big screen behind them that was playing different scenic videos and photos of the guys throughout the set that was weird.  I also enjoyed how much Drew was making fun of Nick.  Before the Divas medley Nick asked what was a diva and Drew pointed to Nick! And then Nick made a comment about recording a music video but it was about the wrong song (which the London Bridge was behind them on the screen for the song before, but they all had their backs to it) and then Drew brought it up again later to mock him to which Nick said “I made a mistake.” I don’t think he’ll be making that mistake again, but I’m sure Drew will keep bringing it up for a while because that’s what brothers do.

After the show we lingered a bit and played on the slot machine and I ended up winning $20.  Throw that in the *NSYNC reunion savings bucket…

Jonas Brothers at Yankee Stadium

Initially the Jonas Brothers announced their show at Yankee Stadium as a special one night only show where they’d play all the songs from all their albums (after they had recently done a residency playing them all over 5 nights on Broadway).  Inevitably the “one night only” became “two nights only” when there was such demand – but I am not sure anyone was expecting them to then announce an entire tour doing the same damn thing.  Tickets were up for sale left and right because why would you travel all the way to New York if you weren’t local?  But we stuck with our plan to go and the jury is still out on whether or not we will end up at Mohegan Sun in a couple days to see it again.

When we arrived we were just outside Gate 4.  I overheard some other girls saying more tickets had just been released and when I checked they were front row ADA tickets.  So I thought about it for a second, told my friend I put them in my cart and was going to do it, and she said OK.  We then found out that we needed to enter via Gate 8 and had to go all around the stadium.  This was our fault, we parked where we parked and our original tickets were somewhere between Gate 4 and Gate 2.  However, what happened from there was absolutely the fault of the stadium and absolute miscommunication with their staff and a total lack of signage.  We got to Gate 8 which had a very long line and we were then told that there was actually an accessible entrance.  We went in and were given 2 wristbands for the floor – one because we were on the floor and one because we were in the front row.  And then… no one was available to help us again.  Upon entry into the doors there were stairs, so we went to the elevator.  A whole bunch were taken in before us and we waited a bit only for no one to return, so we took the elevator up ourselves.  We were told “no more stairs” and were on the main concourse – but there WERE more stairs to get to the field and we had no idea where to go.  We asked an usher at the top of the section who ended up calling over another guy who told us to go to the Hard Rock, show them our floor wristband and they’d let us down.  We got to the Hard Rock only to be told that the elevator was broken (there was a private event going on so whether it was broken or they just weren’t allowing us to go in there, I’m not sure.) and we had to go to – GATE 4!  The walk from Gate 4 to 8 was ridiculous enough the first time, I was not about to do it again.  Then everyone else we asked if there was a closer elevator told us something different.  We got taken to an elevator by someone that didn’t even have a down button.  I know generally for baseball games no one is actually going on the field – but Yankee Stadium just had a concert the night before!  We also ended up being told Gate 2 would get us down, but that was even further away from Gate 4.  Knowing that there was no way I could walk that far again, I had my friend carry my walker down the stairs and I slowly went down behind her.  Success. We made it to the field. No thanks to anyone else.

Security had no idea what any of the seats were and there appeared to be no ushers.  When they did come, they gave us seats that didn’t match what I had purchased on the seating chart, so I showed them what I bought and they moved us to where I thought our seats were supposed to be – but then they said if someone else showed up with higher seat numbers we’d need to move.  I mean, fine with me, I bought the aisle seats 15 and 16 so I’m not sure how anyone is going to appear with a larger number!  When the opener took the stage, one of the security guys inside the barricade made one of the security guards outside the barricade to move so I could still see, which I thought was really nice.  Unfortunately, by the time Jonas took the stage, it was a whole different story.

Next to the catwalk there were 2 chairs, then a very too large aisle, and then our seats.  Well, as soon as the guys popped up from the catwalk, people started flooding into the aisles and onto the barricade and on top of me.  I ended up standing up at the barricade because it was either sit and have everyone on top of me and see nothing or stand and hold on to the barricade and hopefully be able to see something.  Finally, like 5 songs in, security decided the aisle needed to be clear which just made everyone try to fill in behind me.  The rest of the night it became a bunch of back and forth with security telling girls to leave, other girls coming in or the same girls just moving in and out of different spots once security pushed them back.  At one time I was told I needed to be off the barricade – but that wasn’t happening as I can’t “free stand” and was not about to sit and have everyone on top of me, that would be a panic attack waiting to happen.  Fortunately he didn’t seem to come back and push the issue.  Security inside the barricade kept making sure I could still see – but I really wanted to be SITTING and able to see as I bought an accessible seat because I can’t stand for extended periods of time.

As for the setlist, they seemed to be going somewhat chronologically with the older albums, with the newer tracks mixed in.  They also seemed to think that Jack was their original “OG” drummer, but I beg to differ.  Then again, It’s About Time wasn’t included at all.  The end of the first half of the show came with Burnin’ Up, and special guest, BIG ROB!  (They also did pretty much everything but “Don’t Charge Me For the Crime”)

Then the screens that were on top of the stage moved down and there started to be a slight drizzle.  At first, it was nice since it was so hot, but as the drops started to intensify we put our ponchos on.  I don’t even know how many people asked where we bought them.  Mine? A Walmart in Atlanta before a Hanson concert.  It ended up absolutely POURING and my shoes ended up soaked.  I didn’t think to try and poncho them as well until it was too late.  Then the 5 minute count down came up on the screen and the rain slowed up.  By the time the guys came back out on stage for part 2, the rain had all but stopped.  It was at intermission we found out one of the girls who was next to us (who was trying really hard to help us out and keep people off of me) was bleeding because the girls during the first set were SO freaking vicious.  Why can’t everyone just stay in their spot!? Why can’t everyone act like decent human beings?!

There seemed to be less crowding during the second set of the show – save for a couple of drunk girls who at one point were actually STANDING ON TOP OF ME.  Her foot was ON my foot. This happened more than once. Security would tell them they couldn’t be in the middle and they’d squeeze back on top of me, then security would walk away and they’d move back and it was just again, back and forth the whole show.  One of them was dancing with security so I don’t know if she actually knew him or if she just made a new friend – as I swear I overheard her asking one of the other security guards if she could do something inappropriate to him and he politely declined.

Since I was in my poncho I was going to try and just take less photos as it was a bit harder to make it work, but then the guys had changed their outfits so I had to take some to document it.  We also got another set of special guests when Kirk Franklin and Jon Bellion joined the guys on stage as well as a choir for Walls.  The teaser article had said something was going to happen during intermission and the guys wouldn’t be on stage for it – so I believe our special guest was actually rain.  (The following night Jimmy Fallon came out to lead the crowd in a sing a long)

During Strangers after they sang, “I just saw the lightning strike” one of them (Joe?) said “HOPE NOT!” because that would have gotten the show shut down. (And I have NO idea how/where we would have taken cover in the event of that happening either)  And just before Turn Right Joe had everyone doing the wave and Nick didn’t seem to pleased because he wanted to say something that was important!

The second set seemed to go on for a really long time so when the guys decided they were going to sit at the end of the catwalk, I decided to sit as well.  Somehow this seemed to alert security and I got asked by at least 3 of them if I was ok.  I mean, yeah, but I’d have been better if I could have been sitting the whole time!  One came over and told me to just turn my chair around so I could see the catwalk, but I was fine just watching the screens for the last handful of songs.

When it was time to leave, we made our way to Gate 4, since that was where we had parked.  That elevator was  in fact working and they had us walk along the edge of the field and past the dug out and into some sort of restaurant before we made our way up and out and came out just where we needed to be.  (Finally, something worked in our favor)

Now I am off to figure out all the ways the stadium violated the ADA and to formally make a complaint.

Darius Rucker at Hartford Healthcare Ampitheater

Friday night, Darius Rucker brought his Starting Fires tour to the Hartford Healthcare Amphitheater in Bridgeport.  Yes, I went back for the second time in one week.  It was interesting to see the change in approach of bag check, parking, security, etc with the change in fan bases.  Initially I was a bit unsure of heading out to the show with there supposed to be thunderstorms all night and the venue being outside just essentially under a tent, but fortunately the weather held up making for just a humid night.

Opening the show was Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors.  The band released a new album, Strangers No More, on June 7th and you can listen to it here.  They played several of the songs off of it while opening the show, including Find Your People, Dance with Everybody (which they appropriately dedicated to the pit up front!), All the Money in the World and Gratitude.   They also played What Would I Do Without You which Drew dedicated to his wife and kids saying if we didn’t like it, he didn’t care because his family did, as well as I Like To Be Me When I’m With You, a cover of Tom Petty’s Runnin’ Down a Dream and closed their set out with Family. (I think I missed keeping track of a couple in the beginning.)   Drew ended the set by saying they would be coming back to the area soon (I’ll have to keep an eye out for that) and that if you didn’t like the music then he hoped you have a good life because we will probably never see you again. My favorite that they did was “Find Your People” which the band also recently performed on CBS Saturday Morning’s Saturday Sessions which you can watch below.

If you’d like to keep up with the band on social media, here’s the links: Twitter  | Facebook | Instagram| Website

Darius took the stage at about 9:15.  I am not really a country fan so I was hopeful he’d be playing some Hootie songs but I ended up pleasantly surprised with his setlist. I also was able to sit for the show and watch on the screens, so I ended up missing out whatever was going on with the show screens in the middle of the stage (that did seem to be pretty cool when I did decide to pop up) but I still had a good time without pushing myself too much.  When he did “Little Pink Houses” I popped up and watched and sang along a bit as it was a song I knew, and then I ended up taking over the aisle seat in my row as no one showed up on either side of me for the duration of the show which gave me a little bit better of a vantage point.

I also had peeked at the setlist ahead of time and knew where the Hootie songs were in the setlist. Imagine my surprise when he was supposed to play the first one and ends up talking about that he lost a bet to Dan Patrick and Fritzy was coming up on stage to sing a couple of songs. I am not sure exactly what happened, but he sang Private Eyes and Your Kiss is on My List with Darius singing backup.  (Even watching the clips from The Dan Patrick show I still am not sure what happened)  Fortunately it was just an addition to the setlist and I don’t think anything was actually removed. [Also at the time of this writing I am not sure if the embedded setlist is actually accurate]

After he repaid his debt, then he went into the first country song he had ever written which was “Let Her Cry” – he then declared it the Summer of the 90s and did I Like It, I Love It, Waterfalls and Poison. I was beginning to know way more songs than I thought I would!

 

He had Drew Holcomb join him for Don’t Think I Don’t Think About it, then did Hold My Hand, shortly after followed by Only Wanna Be With You.  For the most part, it seemed like the Hootie songs got the biggest reactions of anything that he played.  At least until he did Wagon Wheel at the end of the encore.  I also enjoyed that he did a cover of Valerie as well as No Diggity in the encore.

The only real downside to the night was that I was unable to open my water bottle and no one ended up sitting near me that I could ask for help and now I have a bruise on my hand.  And the other was that I think the bars were over serving some of the people in attendance.  As the show ended and I was trying to make my way to the exits, an incredibly drunk dude just barreled right into me causing me to snap and yell “WATCH WHERE YOU’RE F*CKING GOING” that ended up clearing everyone else nearby away from me for the time being (it wasn’t them I was mad at!)  And the irony is the guy’s shirt said “Shut up liver, you’re fine.”  I doubt it.

As I was leaving I saw some lightning and then it started drizzling and the drops got more frequent as I was loading the walker back into the car.  Fortunately I somehow timed it perfectly and got inside the car before the heavier rain came.  And somehow the rain itself timed it perfectly to only show up as the show ended as I think the fact that there was some lightning would have paused the show or caused it to cut early. (And what would we have done without getting to hear Wagon Wheel? Especially after the guy behind me decided to chant it before every song during the main set?)

I received a free ticket to this show from Stunt Company Media to cover Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors performance. I was not otherwise compensated.

Lindsey Stirling at Hartford Healthcare Amphitheater

Tuesday night Lindsey Stirling kicked off her summer tour with Walk Off the Earth at the Hartford Healthcare Amphitheatre in Bridgeport, CT.

Walk Off The Earth opened the night at 8pm and did a variety of covers and originals including Gnarls Barkley’s Crazy, Tina Turner’s What’s Love Got To Do With It, Wheatus’ Teenage Dirtbag, an amazing cover of AC/DC’s Thunderstruck and medley that had to have no less than 15 Beatles songs in it, and a medley around a large odd guitar the entire band played with probably like 10 songs mashed in together.  For their last song they did their latest single My Stupid Mouth and were joined by the Luminati Suns – 2 of the band member’s 3 sons that my Mom had told me about because they were on Kelly and Mark (Or was it Ryan then?) and they reminded her of “little Hanson”.

At 9:15 Lindsey took the stage and got a few minutes in before we lost sound to her violin and the dancers all left the stage.  Whatever the problem was seemed to be corrected and they picked back up where they left off, only for it to happen again during the next song.  Lindsey went over to her mic on the side of the stage which also didn’t seem to be on. A decent amount of time went on with no one in the crowd really knowing what was going on, and Lindsey seemed embarrassed but was giving us heart hands and then started doing charades of a sky diver in the middle of the stage.  When sound seemed to come back on, they decided they’d start with The Arena for the next song and Lindsey mentioned they don’t teach you how to deal with that in performance school, probably because there is no performance school.  I read that a fuse was blown or perhaps there were computer issues but I’m really not sure what it was that knocked out the PA twice within a period of 2 songs but fortunately after that point things went on without a hitch so whatever was wrong must have been properly corrected.   Another point within the show Lindsey joked that we had made it through about 8 songs and the PA was fine so she had a good feeling for the rest of the night.  She had caught a cold in Europe and was coughing quite a lot, hopefully she will be ok.

I was front row for this show and while it was nice to be that close, the speakers on the edge of the stage led to me missing out on being able to see some things.  At one point there was a dog on stage, but because of the angle I was at, I could barely see him.  Whenever Lindsey went up the risers in the center of the stage, I could only see the top of her head over the speakers/monitors.  So while front row might be great for some shows, I learned it’s not great for all and I probably would have been able to see more from a few rows back.  Also, everyone sat for the entirety of her show anyway, so I would have been fine if I opted to sit anywhere else, but sometimes that front row ticket is right there and right next to all the high priced VIP and you just have to snag it.

For “The Upside” she was joined by a member of the audience, Offbeat Bryce, for a special performance.  Bryce joined her on stage playing a kazoo for the song after winning a contest. Overall the show was a fun time and I always love seeing Lindsey’s energy and now her acrobatics with the ring being added that she swings from and plays violin from. I was also incredibly impressed that she was able to keep up with all that she does being sick! Definitely very impressive.

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