O-Town

Pop 2000 Tour Greenwich RI

Sunday night I took my new car on its first road trip to Greenwich RI for the Pop2000 tour.  I had thought that doors were opening at 6, show at 7 so I positioned myself to arrive by 5pm.  When I parked, just after 5, there seemed to be an awful lot of people in line and I checked my email to see that about 15 minutes after I had left, they emailed to say DOORS were at 5! And the SHOW was at 6!  Luckily it all worked out and ended up being an early night so I could get the almost 2 hours home at a reasonable hour!

First up was Ryan Cabrera, he did a similar set to what he had done in Tulsa – House on Fire, 40 Kind of Sadness, True, One the Way Down (without the track featuring Taylor Hanson, boo!) and ended with a medley of Slide / Semi-Charmed Life / Sexual Healing / Fresh Prince / What Makes You Beautiful.  There may have been one other in there he said he hadn’t done in a bit, but I don’t really remember as that is when security decided I could no longer have my walker with me, kept putting in front of the girl next to me and then asked HER if it could be moved.  A) I don’t even know who she was B) I had already said yes she could and just asked for 1 second to take my personal items out of it to keep with me.

BBMak was up next and did a much shorter set than their headlining set a couple nights ago – but it was just as great! They seemed really impressed with the loudness of the crowd (Ryan as well) and said that we were 500 people but sounded more like 2000.  They weren’t quite as unhinged with their banter as they were in Fairfield – maybe they’ve gotten a bit of sleep?  It’s always so great to see them and I got a wave of nostalgia passing the “mall” my mom and I had to drive to nearly an hour away to get tickets to see them the first time back in 2000 (with Hanson of course).

Then it was time for the main event. O-Town! Once again, I didn’t keep track of the setlist and apparently no one else has all tour either (*shrugs*) .  Things were pretty much the same as in Tulsa.  LFO came out after 2 songs and did his set, with the addition of Baby Be Mine.  My view was a bit obstructed for that part so I couldn’t really see Brad, but I could see the antics of the O-Town guys on the sides during all the songs which I’ve previously only watched out of the corner of my eye, and it was quite amusing. Then it was back to some more O-Town and of course, all hell broke loose during These Are The Days and despite the venue saying no one could be up against the stage, security made little to no effort to get anyone to go back to their seats.  By the time Chris joined them, my front row ADA seat was about 4 people back and I couldn’t get to my walker to help me stand and get a better view even if I wanted to. (Wouldn’t it be nice if everyone’s legs got taken away when they sat down at a concert?) The *NSYNC songs went HARD and a couple times Chris stuck his tongue out, took a breath and was like “phew” because there were a lot of dance moves!  Different from Tulsa – Brad from LFO came out to do a modified version of Left Eye’s rap during Space Cowboy.

Of course, the final song of the night was All or Nothing, everyone joined in at the end, and then the show was over. 🙁  Until next time… whenever that may be.

 

intro/LD
Holla
chasin’
allforlove
LFO
Heartbreaker
tatd
skydive
off
chains
fire
nsync
aon

Pop2000 Tour at Foxwoods

Saturday night, O-Town brought their POP2000 tour to Foxwoods.  On the bill for the night was Ryan Cabrera, LFO, O-Town and Chris Kirkpatrick, Founding Father of *NSYNC.

Ryan opened the night and even though he did do a “new” song his setlist doesn’t really seem to change at any of these Pop2000 shows. He was hosting an event at 9pm elsewhere in the casino so he was done with his set by about 8:25, went to merch for some photos and I assume left shortly after that.

Then it was time for O-Town – I hadn’t seen them I think since my birthday last summer, so I was quite happy to see the changes that they had made to their set.  Brad from LFO joined them as usual, but things with him seemed off. But he did rewrite his little speech into a poem which was fun. But his whole bit seemed a bit awkward.  To finish up their set they brought out Chris for some *NSYNC songs. Or N-Town, if you will.  They finished out the night asking if we were drunk enough to sing at the top of our lungs.. oh, I can do that 100% sober – and we sang All or Nothing – with Brad and Chris joining in at the end.

After the show we hung around to talk to Chris Kirkpatrick… nothing really exciting to report but when I said *NSYNC was on hiatus and that’s why I was going to see Hanson he said “…maybe”… is he messing with me or not? Guess we’ll have to wait and see.

O‐Town Setlist Great Cedar Showroom at Foxwoods Resort Casino, Mashantucket, CT, USA 2024

O-Town at Patchogue Theater

Wednesday O-Town brought their Pop 2000 tour to Patchogue Theater on Long Island.  Weeknights and Long Island don’t usually mix for me, but since it was my birthday I decided to take the day off and go! I also decided to splurge on the $100 t-shirt + selfie option which I hadn’t done at the shows I went to previously. (Though I was a bit too busy with BBMak and Chris Kirkpatrick VIP at those!)

Ryan Cabrera once again opened, and I guess after my critique of his banter, he changed it up a little bit. His birthday was the night before and when he said he was party’d out someone else shouted it was their birthday so I got an indirect Birthday shout out since he said he’d be celebrating their birthday tonight!

Then it was time for BBMak – They once again did the same set as they had been doing.  I never did end up seeing the video Mark took of Back Here to see if I went 3 for 3 for being in them or not!  I hope that after this tour they’ll be doing some more stuff in the US in the future! Fingers crossed!

Then it was time for O-Town/LFO/Chris Kirkpatrick.  For the most part, it was the same setlist but where they had added Sky Dive in MA they ended up doing Giants, which was fun because it came on during my drive and I was thinking about how much I had liked it!  They mixed up their banter a bit in the shows too which is always fun, especially their back and forth with Chris Kirkpatrick!  Chris also said they were filming something for Netflix – the cameras were around and on stage during the *NSYNC stuff so I am curious to see what that ends up being and if I end up being visible in it or not!

After the show I waited for the selfie line, which I had not done in quite some time.  Their ring lights were dead so we were told to have our flash on, but even on auto mine didn’t go off and the pics still came out great!  Erik came out first and told me that he hadn’t seen me in a while! I assured him that I was at the Friday and Saturday shows as well but with the selfies costing more I couldn’t do it as often as I would have liked.  Jacob was next and noticed that my Birthday sash had the Hanson symbol on it and said that he really liked them. I explained I had made it for my birthday last year when I saw Hanson but this year I was recycling it and sharing my birthday with them.  Dan was up next and gave me a big hug and then told me to get 2 redbulls and some coffee for the drive home (which was showing as being nearly 3 hours when I was expecting it to be more like 2!)  Trevor also gave me a big hug and was glad I shared my birthday with them and also noted he hadn’t seen me – so I explained to him too I’ve been around!  He also told me to drive safe home.

When I got in the car, the GPS kept wanting to push me to the Ferry (which I don’t even think is RUNNING at midnight!) but after fighting it a bit I ended up finding a route that was under 2 hours! And I made it home before 2am! Wooo.  I took a half day the next day so I could sleep in a bit after all of the birthday excitement!   This Pop 2000 Tour has been SO fun I am sad I won’t be seeing any more shows but I am hopeful at least O-Town will be back in the fall – and maybe I can squeeze in a trip to the Big E.

Pop 2000 Tour – Webster MA

Remember how earlier this month I said I should skip the outdoor summer shows? Well, this one was already in the works before I said that, but it didn’t make me change my mind.  The weather kept fluctuating between being really hot or thunderstorming, fortunately any storms held off, but the heat did not.  Needing to have just a small clear bag, I ended up leaving my camera home and taking my fan instead which turned out to be the right choice. (And I tend to use my phone more with O-Town because it can handle their running all around better than my camera can because I always forget to look into the settings before the show)

We left very early since it was “day game after a night game” and got to Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagaugchaubunagungamaugg (not kidding) and the venue just as gates were opening.  We found a spot in the shade and made a deal that we’d skip the opener Dean Ford and Ryan Cabrera since our seats were in direct sunlight and only head inside for BBMak and O-Town.  Where we were seated we could still see the stage anyway (though Ryan had a speaker head for his set) so it wasn’t like we were completely missing out.

When Chris talked about Ryan, he mentioned most of the same things I had been saying when we were in the shade.  And then he started talking about things my friend had brought up at VIP the night before! Did we write his hosting script? Sure seemed like it!

When we got to our seats I immediately started feeling really claustrophobic and was glad that I opted to bring the fan. Once I put it on and drank some water I was feeling a lot better.  BBMak took the stage and did the same set as they had done the night before (although seemed to have some tech issues with their track on their first song), but Christian was blocked Friday night and Mark and Ste Saturday so it kind of evened itself out.  There also was an older couple in front of us that kept kissing and it was so obnoxious and out of place and at one point it seemed like Christian was just staring at them.  Their set was: Out Of My Heart, Still on Your Side, Next Time, I Can Tell, More Than Words, Unpredictable, Ghost of You and Me, Back Here.

Then it was time for O-Town!  For the most part, their set was the same as Friday night, but after the LFO shoes came on stage, instead of inviting Brad out, they did Sky Dive?  Seems like it was a last minute addition.  The guys seemed to be really hot on stage – Trevor’s shirt was completely soaked and when I finally stood up for the *NSYNC portion I was surprised with the amount of sweat drips that were all over the stage.  At one point Trevor did a jump that ended up breaking his necklace.  I saw him grab the necklace off himself and stick it in his pocket, and it seemed like later he was able to pick up whatever charm he had on it and stuck that in his pocket as well.  Jacob’s neck seemed so red, I am not sure how they made it through that whole set without incident!

After the show it was pretty hectic with all the VIP options being after the show since it started so early.  Security did a good job separating everyone out and we made it to our separate room for Chris VIP which was fortunately air conditioned!  Chris talked about Masked Singer again, Celebrity Big Brother, and other random things.  It seemed like he didn’t want to stop talking and he had to be pushed to move on to photos and autographs.  It’s so nice that he cares to actually spend time with fans and chat than just rushing us through everything to get it over with!

I have one show left on Wednesday and I am not sure yet what type of VIP or photo ops I’ll be doing… but I guess we’ll see!

Pop 2000 Tour – Ridgefield CT

Friday I made my way back to the Ridgefield Playhouse, this time for the Pop 2000 tour.  Since the show was so close to my birthday I went all out and ended up doing both BBMak and Chris Kirkpatrick VIP since one was preshow and one was postshow.

I got there at 5:45 for my BBMak VIP and promptly at 5:45 someone from the venue came out and said they were ready for us, which was weird because when is anything ever on time? (And O-Town VIP set to begin at 4:15 had just gone in at 5:30)  Turns out they weren’t actually ready for us so we just hung out for a bit (and I was able to hear some of O-Town’s acoustic set and BBMak’s soundcheck while waiting) and then went into the room.  The night before, Ste and Mark had not been at the show as they had visa issues – but they came in to the room and told us that they almost didn’t make it to our show either as they had some delays from Manchester to Dublin and had to run through the airport to catch the flight in Dublin to the US.  The poor guys must have been exhausted, but you couldn’t tell.  They sang “Back Here” for us, did a little Q&A and then did photos and autographs.  I had never met them before and they were sweeter than I could have even imagined.

My friends were doing merch for BBMak and Chris, so I sat with them for a bit, answered a couple of questions and then when the theater doors opened I went into get settled and realized my 3 shows at the playhouse this week I had been in the same seat. B 107.

Ryan Cabrera came out first, and I feel like he does the same set every time and I am just kind of over him. Sorry. (Not sorry?)  I’d be pretty pumped if he added MMMBop back in to his medley again though…

BBMak was up next and I was sooooo excited for their set and they did not disappoint. I was also surprised how many lyrics I still knew (aka pretty much all of them) when I couldn’t even tell you the last time I had listened to their CD.  Back Here was on our tour playlist for Hanson last year but other than that… their set included: Still On Your Side, Next Time, Unpredictable, Ghost of You and Me, More Than Words, Out of My Heart.

Then it was time for O-Town! They did a few of their own songs, then did a few LFO songs with Brad to Honor Rich and Devin, then a couple more songs (which included These Are the Days which had everyone bum rush the stage to get their camera taken and security made no effort to send them back after) and then they went into *NSYNC songs and Chris came out and joined them.  They had expanded on the number of *NSYNC songs that they had done, which was perfectly fine by me! They ended their set with All Or Nothing and the guy in front of me – who was facing me and not the stage? ended up giving me a fist bump when I was done singing lol

After it was PURE CHAOS with all the options going on post show. I ended up just hiding in a corner until it was time to go in for Chris’ VIP.  They did his photo ops first and then it was time for the VIP Q&A, it was a small group and there weren’t too many questions and then we did photos and autographs. Chris was fantastic, as always.

When we left there was a shaved ice truck outside but it was also raining and we had an early day for our afternoon show the next day so we passed on that.

O-Town at the Odeum

Up until 3pm the day of this show,  I wasn’t sure if I was going to go. Usually for shows that aren’t in CT I employ the “front row or bust” system – but these tickets went on sale when I was at a doctors appointment so I ended up snagging 3rd row instead.  Figuring the show was in early February and it would snow,  I never was certain if I’d make it there or not.  It ended up not snowing but it was ridiculously cold.  I ended up putting my ticket on stub hub a couple of days before and after no bites grabbed my ‘heavy coat’ and make the trek to Rhode Island.

I was actually surprised by how many people were walking around town and how few parking spots there were.  At 7pm I made my way across the street to enter, only to be face to face with a curb cut out that was pitched FAR too steep.  After struggling to climb this mini mountain, I made it inside.  Merch was upstairs and while I think they had an elevator, I never did venture up there as I opted to not stay after for selfies due to the hour and a half ride home.

At 8pm Carly Underwood took the stage and then brought Tyler Levs out to join her on guitar.  People of the blog – our contender for worst opening act of 2023 is here! (It doesn’t even matter that I haven’t even seen any other openers so far this year)  The majority of the crowd was chatting through her set and it was just… bad. I’ll leave it at that.

Just before 9, O-Town took the stage. Last time I saw them was a Pop2k tour with Chris Kirkpatrick – this was just a regular O-Show with no Ryan Cabrera (yay) and no *NSYNCers (Boo). They changed up the setlist a lot and it was a ton of fun!  I had planned out a couple of potential sit down songs but didn’t end up sitting at all. (Some of that may had to do with the fact that there was a bumrush to the stage at one point that didn’t let up so while I was supposed to be 3rd row I was more like 7th and wouldn’t have been able to see a thing from sitting)  It was a good mix of new and old but I really need to listen to more of the new!  I tried to keep track of the setlist as best as I could but I think I missed a bit… but the don’t let me down / treat you better / get ur freak on / cry me a river medley was incredible. Each of them was doing their own song all at once and it should have been absolute chaos but somehow it was amazing instead.

I also loved how when they were mentioning bands from the 00s Trevor threw out a soulDecision mention and Erik said that New England has always been a bit more boyband crazy than the rest of the country.  Now if they could schedule some more concerts in the summer here… this is not the first time the show was in jeopardy due to poor weather conditions!

O-Town Long Island

O-Town recently had a show on Long Island that happened to be on Trevor’s birthday.  I decided I would make the trek to go since it was a special day and also because it was at Mulcahy’s which is home to the boyband tribute group Larger than Life and I had wanted to check them out.  Ryan Cabrera was also on the bill and Lance Bass would be hosting.  Since I couldn’t get an answer on if Lance’s M&G would interfere with O-Towns I only did VIP for O-Town. (Turns out, I could have easily done both, but was happy to save some cash)  Traffic was horrible and I ended up getting there about a half an hour late only to be told that I had missed nothing and that VIP had been delayed.  Part of VIP was a soundcheck – which couldn’t be done because the venue’s sound guy was MIA.  We ended up doing photos first and then hanging around until we could see some of the soundcheck.  Unfortunately the venue said I could ge a seat but didn’t inform me it would be in the way, way back of the venue (when my fellow VIPers were able to snag front row) but fortunately O-Town’s team is awesome and worked with security to get me a good spot. (And then had the nerve to tell me not to try to jump on stage.  Um, dude, did you see the trouble I had just getting onto this high chair you gave me to sit in? You have *nothing* to worry about)

Larger Than Life was on first and while the crowd seemed to be into them – I’ll stick to the real deal. Thanks.  (They kind of blew it when they totally butchered MMMBop.)

Ryan Cabrera was up next and I am pretty sure I have been hearing him tell the same stories for the last I don’t even know how many years.  Security ended up giving me his setlist which he kind of drew out all of the songs so that was a pretty cool thing to have.

Finally it was time for O-Town – they ended up playing until almost midnight (or maybe later? That’s the problem with taking so long to write these reviews lately!) and put on a great show, as always, and we even got to sing happy birthday to Trevor.  Just like in NY – Lance joined them for Bye Bye Bye and the crowd went wild.

I ended up skipping the selfie line so I could get a head start on the trip back home. I was exhausted so as much as it stunk not getting to see the guys again, I made the right choice.

Not sure if this setlist was right as I went off memory instead of keeping track…

O-Town at Resorts World Casino

A Saturday at the end of June we made the trek to Resorts World Casino “New York City”. It was more like Middle of Nowhere Queens… This was the Pop 2000s Tour – hosted by Lance Bass of *NSYNC with performances from Ryan Cabrera, Aaron Carter and O-Town. We went for the VIP M&G which was supposed to be a photo with Lance *and* O-Town as well as VIP table. We were a bit disappointed to see that the tables were behind the GA tickets, but of all the tables we had what seemed to be the best one, at least.

We lined up and did our photo – and were disappointed to see that Aaron Carter had joined in as well. Boo. They took 2 photos on our phones and 2 on a professional camera which made for a lot of people looking at the wrong cameras in photos which was frustrating. They should have said they were first taking them with one camera so we knew where we were looking…

Then it was time to start drinking in order to make it through Aaron’s set. Lance kicked things off introducing Ryan Cabrera, who came out in an *NSYNC shirt. Lance then introduced Aaron and in the moment I didn’t think there was actually enough alcohol to forget his set but that plus the fact that it was like a month ago and I am just writing this now… highlights did include when he “played” the piano tattooed on his arm.

Then Lance came out and read from a piece of paper his “intro” for O-Town all about how he looks up to them and they are the greatest boyband 😉 Their set was pretty similar to the ones they had done earlier in the year and since we weren’t close enough for phones to be grabbed and I’m still bitter mine had never been grabbed I opted to take a bathroom break during “These are the Days” – only to have to run back to my spot when I realized they started singing “It’s Gonna Be Me” next! And I made it back in PLENTY of time for Lance to join the guys on stage for Bye Bye Bye!!!!

As usual we jumped in line for post show selfies with O-Town and they were wonderful, as always!

When Jake mentioned the summer tour to us earlier in the year he said he thought we would like the lineup and while I’m kind of sick of seeing Ryan Cabrera and would never willingly see Aaron Carter if not “forced”, giving me the chance to go 3/5 on my *NSYNC quest was most appreciated! (Can they take JC out with them next tour?)

O-Town @ Stage One

A couple of days after seeing O-Town at the Wolf Den, they made their debut at one of my favorite venues, Stage One in Fairfield, CT.  This show was a bit different because we were able to purchase a pre-show VIP package to spend some more time with the band.  We were told to be in line by 3:45, which we were, but unfortunately due to other venue restrictions we were stuck out in the cold for nearly an hour and a half.  Upon entering the venue we got to watch soundcheck with the guys – where they did Love Should Be A Crime, 2 of their new songs – No Goodnight and Whatchu Wanna Do – which was explained by Jacob by being about sex but ended up with us all being taken to Church… and I think the other one they did was Shady Business.  After the goofings around of soundcheck, we got 2 photos with the band and then had some time to kill before the show started.

Fairfield Theater is a seated venue, so we purchased a membership to the venue in order to get an early shot at tickets and got 2 seats in front row and 2 seats in 2nd row, everything else was already snapped up by the time I got in to buy them.  I kept saying that the 4 empty seats in the front row (center) were going to be “old” people who had no idea who the band were, so I just had to laugh when my prediction was correct.  It was really awkward and the guys were trying to make them feel welcome by sitting on the edge of the stage and singing to them and stuff… but they ended up leaving about half way through the set.  Our friends jumped down to join us in the front row and it seemed like that changed the whole vibe of the show – the guys came closer to the front row and were just a bit more relaxed once they knew it was fans in the front! The set was the same as the show at the wolf den, super high energy and a lot of fun.

After the show, we did our selfie line and got to chat with the guys a bit about the people in the front – Dan said he was glad they left so “our girls” could come down front with us and that it was a really bizarre experience.  Jacob said they were still working on routing for the new tour for this summer, but we should like who they will be touring with. That made me curious to know who he thought I would be excited about seeing… and hoped it wouldn’t be Aaron Carter since they are doing some show with him in the UK.

O-Town at the Wolf Den March 2

March 2nd O-Town made their return to the Wolf Den at Mohegan Sun for I believe the 4th year in a row. (I made it to 3/4)  I ended up getting to the line at about 4pm and it was not too bad. I am sure the crazy weather made many stay home who otherwise would have been coming out.  Trevor was going through the line when I got there giving hugs and saying hi before soundcheck started. He commented on my shirt (Slytherin) and asked what it was – then said he wasn’t a Harry Potter guy but maybe he should be a Harry Potter guy because he really liked the shirt LOL

They let us inside at 6:30 to give us time to have a few drinks before the show kicked off at 8pm.  They played about an hour set and premiered 2 new songs that should be coming out on their new EP sometime soon! The setlist seemed to focus on more of the new tracks (Lines and Circles and beyond) than the older nostalgia tracks, which was a bit of a disappointment. Not that the old stuff isn’t great as well – I guess I am just less familiar with it.

After the show everyone who bought a T-Shirt (for $60!) was able to get a wristband to get selfies with the guy after the show.  I always groan at the ever increasing price of the shirts but happily hand over my money and love getting to say a quick hello with the guys.  I just wish the Wolf Den shows had VIP available too because there’s nothing I love more than throwing $250 at boybands. 😉   I told Jake I would see them on Sunday and he started telling me to make sure I was careful driving home! <3 And as usual, our selfie came out the best of the 4.  Always a fun time seeing them and I’m pretty pumped that I get to see them TWICE in one weekend this “tour”!

Some highlights from the show…

New song – Whatchu Wanna Do

New Song So Good Night(?)

The dance to Sensitive was INSANE

We Fit Together is always a highlight

 

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