The Wanted – Beacon Theater New York, NY

Katie April 13, 2014 0 Comments

It’s a different kind of feeling when you KNOW the show you are going to is going to be the last time you are going to see a band. Whether it be “for a while” or “forever”. You wish you had a crystal ball so you’d know if it’s going to be forever or not. (Heck, you wish you had a crystal ball so you’d have known you’d be out of work this week and bought VIP for all the close shows even though they were weeknights!) In 2012 I went to what was SK6ers final show before their hiatus, but that was different.  We knew Stephen would be doing solo shows so you’d be seeing at least him again and you’d be hearing the songs live still.  Not to mention, I don’t think there were any shady rumors about why SK6ers were taking hiatus.  There are all sorts of rumors swirling about why The Wanted are breaking up – they’re being forced, etc.

Friday night was my 10th time seeing The Wanted.  And I somehow managed to score a front row center VIP ticket.  I guess if it’s the end – let’s go out with a bang!  I got to meet the guys before the show.  Jay asked why I was so quiet.  I didn’t know.  Then he also informed me he had lost his phone that morning.  How does he do it!?  The M&G seemed to go by a lot faster than it did on Long Island. Maybe because I was so quiet!

We ended up going to eat after the M&G and I got to my seat just as Midnight Red was taking the stage.  I opted to sit for Midnight Red and Cassio Monroe’s set and wasn’t sure what I’d do for The Wanted because they were telling the girls they couldn’t go right up against the stage.  I ended up sitting on my folded seat for half the show and once security didn’t seem to care girls were leaning against the stage I moved up.  There was a light right in front of me that would come right in my face at times.  The heat those things give off! No wonder why everyone on stage is always sweating like crazy.

The show was perfect.  The guys interact so much with the fans up front throughout the show, talking to them and all that. (Or in my friend’s case – taking their flask and drinking from it!) It didn’t feel like the end. Until the end. When they were walking off stage after “Glad You Came” I teared up a bit.  It’s one thing when you see a band and you don’t know when you’ll see them again – but you know they’ll tour again so it will happen.  It’s a totally different thing when you have no idea if they will end up back together after all of this. Having lived through so many other boybands reuniting but my ultimate favorite NSYNC not (at least not for a tour – though trust me I bawled my eyes out to see them at the VMAs)

I’m not sure what else to say about the show.  I was nostalgic being at the venue where Hanson recorded their first concert VHS.  I was excited because I made it to NYC and the venue on my own and met up with friends there. (I can do anything!) It was just so bittersweet. I hope it’s not the end and I hope that they figure out whatever it is they need to do and come back very, very soon.

The Wanted Word Of Mouth Tour – Huntington, NY

Katie April 10, 2014 0 Comments

Tuesday night, The Wanted kicked off their US leg of the Word of Mouth tour in Huntington, NY at The Paramount.  Before the show, I got to meet the band because I had purchased a VIP package through their fanclub.  Each package included a lanyard, signed card and a chance to meet the guys and get an individual photo.  The line moved pretty quickly, although it seemed like they gave everyone enough time with the guys.  I gave Jay a present and Siva thought it was just about the greatest thing ever.  I’ll have to see on Friday when I meet them again if he’s put it to good use! (I gave him a Phone Fetcher which I had reviewed here a couple of years ago!)

There were several hours to kill after the VIP had gone through the M&G and before doors were set to open. They let us in early and we were on the barricade in the front row but then thought better of it and went over to the ADA section. With all the pushing coming from a couple of people in the ADA area – we probably would have been better off trying to stay in the front row.  These people were completely oblivious to the concept of “personal space” or that maybe I was sitting for a reason and didn’t need a small child standing right in front of me!

Midnight Red kicked off the show.  I think I liked their set better when they did it at Foxwoods in October.  The set was a bit different and I don’t know, I just wasn’t feeling it.  Maybe because it is so focused on center stage (give or take a random band member coming off to the side) and we were off to the side.  The rest of the crowd seemed to love them though.

Next up was Cassio Monroe who I had never heard of, but they were pretty good. They had one song/rap about trying to get a girl to dump them instead of them dumping her which was pretty funny.

Then it was time for The Wanted! The strobe lights during their set was out of control and I had on sunglasses on and off for most of the show because it was just way too much.  They started the set with Gold Forever which I thought was perfect since this is, unfortunately, a farewell tour.  The whole show was pretty high energy, they did a few songs playing instruments.  They said that they hoped to be back soon. Let’s hope that somehow it works out for them and their “hiatus” isn’t very long.  The setlist was the same as they had been doing for the UK leg of the tour (check it out below) and it consisted of 19 songs which included a medley and no covers!

They had 1 outfit change about halfway through the main set – with Jay coming back out in an outfit that made me feel like he had escaped from a Florida retirement community.  Siva had on what appeared to be some sort of harem sweat pants?  Max’s outfits were probably the best of the night.

As I said, the whole show was high energy and did not disappoint.  I am bummed that my next show tomorrow will be my last 🙁

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The Wanted at Foxwoods

Katie October 26, 2013 0 Comments

Friday night The Wanted brought their fall tour to Foxwoods.  Getting tickets to this one was a lot of fun.  And I’m being sarcastic, kind of.  First, there was a presale.  While Foxwoods emails me passwords for every OTHER presale they do at this venue, for some reason I never got one for The Wanted.  Then rather than tweet the password out to EVERYONE, they replied to only a few girls tweets and by the time I found that – all the decent seats were gone.  There were only a handful in the lower orchestra to begin with.  Then the public sale was when I was in PA for Mixtape Festival so Maribeth got recruited to help me and once again – NOTHING in the orchestra.  I ended up going to Foxwoods website (they sell tickets themselves AND sell them through ticketmaster – it’s crazy) and was able to find a seat in the orchestra on the side but on the aisle closest to the center.  I figured if someone better came up I’d sell it and buy another one – and then dummy me had it put at Will Call instead of print at home. (It’s the scrapbooker in me)

A couple of weeks later my friends gave me a heads up that there was 5th row on ticketmaster now and while I was debating buying a second ticket, 4th row popped up so I snagged it.  Then I had to take a trip to Foxwoods to pick up the Will Call ticket after selling it on StubHub. (Whew. At least I wasn’t stuck with it.)  I also ended up winning 2 tix but no one wanted them sooo… I am thinking a ticket scrapbook header is in my future. Ive never wanted to cut up my own tickets before but since these are extra…

All that effort absolutely ended up being worth it because I was the closest I had ever been at the venue! We were off to the side, but the guys are really good about going to the far ends so it was perfect.

Midnight Red opened up the night after their tour with Austin Mahone got canceled.  They did I think 4 original songs and a few covers which included Rihanna’s Diamond, Bruno Mars Treasure and an acapella version of Boyz II Men.  AND they dance.  They are no NSYNC, but a dancing boyband has been missing from my life.  I think the girls were really into them too – that or they were being murdered – based on the screams.

Then it was time for The Wanted!  Their band took the stage and played the intro music and one by one they appeared on the stage for All Time Low.  The shows was pretty much constant high energy and I didn’t sit down once – which is probably why today I feel like I’ve been hit by a bus. (Totally worth it though)  Nath was completely cracking me up the whole time when he was over by our side, kind of having miming conversations with the crowd while he wasn’t singing. He’s adorable.

For Heart Vacancy each guy gets a girl up on stage with him… well, usually.  Except last night Jay had a large and tattooed man that would absolutely HILARIOUS. (He didn’t get to pick for himself)  We met him after the show and he said that he was a friend of the drummers and when Jay hugged him he said “Please don’t kill me” and then he told him that he was Tucker’s friend and he was glad about that.  We were also told Jay smelled wonderful. haha.  It was seriously the best heart vacancy… person, probably ever.

They did a new song that Max wrote called Could This Be Love (although the setlist says Could This Me Love?), their Killers medley was back that they did in August… Warzone that they did not due in August was in the setlist again…

And the encore was We Own The Night and Glad You Came – where they allowed the first 5 rows to run up front but no one else which was kind of nice.  Although I didn’t go up there, which was kind of neat because then I was kind of the only one left and got lots of eye contact!

After the show they had a stack of setlists to give out, and I ended up with one from one of the security guards pockets, I think, because it’s all folded up.  We couldn’t find any spot where they might be doing pics or autographs (there’s really no spots at these casinos and it stinks because the venues are nice!) even though we did a few laps of the casino and stopped at the pay with mobile slots section before retreating to the low stakes poker tables.  Oh well, I have VIP for April 🙂

Kiss108 Jingle Ball

Katie December 11, 2012 0 Comments

The final event of the week was the Kiss 108 Jingle Ball in Boston.  Originally I wasn’t going to go to this one because I used up all my vacation days and wouldn’t be able to have Friday off.  But then my friend made me an offer that I couldn’t refuse – 5th row tickets and a MEET AND GREET with The Wanted.

The only down side was we needed to be there by 4:30, so I had to leave the NJ hotel at 8am and drive through PA, NJ, CT and MA. (It was kind of bittersweet driving past my house exit and knowing I wouldn’t be seeing my bed for a while longer!)

As part of our VIP package we were given a backstage tour and got to see everyone’s dressing rooms and the side stage, go in the arena while Bridgit Mendler was doing soundcheck and then hang out at a pre-show party where Karmin performed.  And we also got an added bonus of meeting Alex Clare.

Everything was disorganized after that and we had NO idea when our Meet and Greet would be.  Everyone we asked told us a different time between 7:15 and 7:50. (7:50 was when Ed Sheeran was set to take the stage so we were very nervous we would miss his set!)  Finally we went over to the table and were told we had ALMOST MISSED IT.  (Thanks for the wrong information, EVERYONE!) and ended up in the back of the line.

Then they told us we could be in 2s for the photo, but wanted us to be in 4s once we got up to the front of the line. (We refused and fortunately the guy didn’t fight us on it.)  Sarah and I both like Jay the best, but he was on the far end so we decided we’d put him in the middle of the photo so we could both be on either side of him without completely ignoring the other guys.   Sarah went first and next thing I know she was throwing Jay over to me and then Max and Tom got upset and stood by the wall.  The photographer snapped a candid photo at this point that is HILARIOUS and it’ll be up on the Concert Katie Facebook page shortly! (If I didn’t get it posted already)  After the photo Jay turned and gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek!  Unfortunately they kicked us out before I could say anything to or hug Max 

We went to our seats to catch the tail end of Ed’s set – You Need Me I Don’t Need You and A-Team – and we showed up in his photo of the crowd!  I’m glad we got to see at least a little of him, though obviously I’d have like to see the whole set!

Next up was Cher Lloyd who did basically the same set as the night before.  She’s fun, but I’m still not totally sure if I like her or not.

Next up was Karmin who did basically the same set as the night before again. But they are fun and I don’t know why I ever didn’t like them!

Keenan Cahill was also there hanging out!

And then it was time for THE WANTED!!! Our seats were amazing, 5th row center – Jay pointed at Sarah and I during I Found You and Max winked at us (I guess he’s not so mad at us afterall, lol)  They did the same set from the night before too – Chasing The Sun, Lightning, All Time Low, I Found You and Glad You Came.  The set was over far too soon, but we’ve decided we will be hitting as many shows as we can when they come back to the US in 2013…

After The Wanted was Train who I really had no desire to see… but I sat there anyway. Their set was short – only 6 songs so it wasn’t too too bad. 50 Ways  If It’s Love, Mermaid, Drop of Jupiter, Hey Soul Sister and Drive By.

Then it was time for Justin! I did the whole show without earplugs too which was kind of dumb especially during Justin!  He did a similar set to the night before (All Around The World, Beauty and the Beat, Be Alright, Fall, Mistletoe, As Long AS you Love Me, Boyfriend and Baby) but I think he skipped out a couple of acoustic tracks and for the Christmas song he did Mistletoe and said he wasn’t sure he knew all the lyrics.  At one point he did stop but the crowd covered for him.  Before his last song – he TOOK OFF HIS SHIRT and the crowd went wild!  The set seemed to be a lot different than the night before – just that Justin seemed to be more into it and it didn’t end so abruptly like it did the night before. I felt like there was closure.

I then hung around in the parking garage for half an hour waiting for the traffic to go away because I couldn’t believe I had actually driven IN BOSTON (by myself!) and was convinced I’d get lost going home.  Which I did, but not too badly. (Though I think I had to pay an extra $5 toll I wouldn’t have otherwise. oops) I ended up making it home at 3am and made it in to work Friday before 10!

Q102 Jingle Ball Philly

Katie December 10, 2012 0 Comments

Show 2 of the week was the Philadelphia Q102 Jingle Ball.  We got a hotel in New Jersey and found that it wasn’t too bad of a drive to Philly and to the venue. (We had been a little nervous about that – but it all worked out fine)

Doors were at 5, show started at 6 and at first there was next to no one in the arena area.  We had seats on the side of the stage, 8 rows back. A lot of the acts came over to the side to give us some love.  Although some (Justin Bieber) seemed to favor the other side of the stage more.

Bridgit Mendler from Disney’s Good Luck Charlie kicked off the show and did 2 songs – one was her latest single Ready or Not. (I think the other song was Hurricane)

Olly Murs was up next and he did 4 songs as compared to the 3 he did the night before.  He started with Heart Skips a Beat, ended with Trouble Maker, also did Oh My Goodness and Dance With Me Tonight.  It was nice to actually see his performance, he has a TON of energy and it is hard to get photos of him because he is always on the move! He also did the theme song from the Fresh Prince since that song mentions Philadelphia.

Third up was The Wanted – which was a bit surprising. I thought that they would be a bit later on in the show. Jay and Nathan seemed to really like coming over to our side and dancing which was awesome! Their set was a bit shorter than the night before, since they weren’t headlining.  They did Chasing The Sun, Lightning, All Time Low, I Found You and Glad You Came.

And then next on the bill was – PSY! He came out and did Gangnam Style and that was it. I don’t know if anyone would have cared if he sang anything else. He seemed like he was SO serious and really into his performance. It was fun and now I get to say I saw it live.

Next up was Ed Sheeran, who I was super excited to finally get to check out. He did Lego House, A Team, You Need Me I Don’t Need You at least. (I didn’t keep track of the setlist except for Justin and The Wanted. I know, I know.) I’m not sure that the younger crowd actually “got” him, but I was very, very impressed with his performance.

Then it was time for Cher Lloyd. There was a young girl in the seat in front of me and she was cracking me up during Cher’s performance singing along. So sassy! Cher performed Swagger Jagger, Superhero, With Ur Love, Oath and Want U Back if I am remembering correctly.

One Republic was probably the band I was least excited to see of this line up, but then I realized just how many singles they had and that I pretty much knew all their set. They started off with Secrets and also did Good Life, Apologize, they debuted a new song, Stop and Stare, and maybe some others I am forgetting. But it was a good set for them.

Next up was Karmin who I used to hate but now completely love and I want to be Amy when I grow up. They performed Hello, Crash Your Party, Look at me Now, I Told You So and Brokenhearted. (I think that was everything?) They just seem to be having so much fun on stage and before they came out we saw Nick doing push ups on the back of the stage. (The stage rotated around so they could do set ups for one performance while the other was still going on. It was genius)

Then finally it was time for Justin Bieber! The girls were obviously all there for him and they went nuts. He started his set with All Around The World and then went in to Beauty and the Beat. After that he sat on a chair and did an acoustic set including Die In Your Arms, Be Alright, Fall and then Christmas Eve. He asked if we wanted another acoustic song or to do another upbeat one and then went in to As Long As You Love Me. The acoustic portion seemed to go on forever. A bra also got thrown on stage which was pretty funny. He also did Boyfriend And he ended his set with Baby. It seemed like a really abrupt ending to the set as well and when the video came on at the end saying the show was over we were a bit confused because it didn’t seem like it was over based on how he ran off the stage, but we also didn’t think he’d do an encore.

K104′s Not So Silent Night

Katie December 9, 2012 0 Comments

Tuesday night was K104′s  Not So Silent Night.  Some friends of mine found out about this show before it was really announced and that The Wanted would be headlining, so of course I had to go.  Shortly after buying a GA seat, they released VIP pit seats.  At first they said these would be “front row seats” but they were actually just access to a front pit which we’d be released into around 3pm and the show wouldn’t end til 11.  Considering this, I decided taking the wheelchair was the way to go because there was no way I was going to be able to stand that long.

The show kicked off at 5pm with Olly Murs despite the guys at the venue saying the show wouldn’t start until 6 and everyone would be doing 45 minute sets.  Olly did 3 songs – Heart Skips a Beat, Oh My Goodness and Troublemaker.  Clearly NOT a 45 minute set (we’d have been there into the next day if they did!)

Next up was The Ready Set – who did a set of More Than Alive, Young Forever, Spinnin’, Killer, Give Me Your Hand (Best Song Ever) and Love Like Woe.

After that I stopped keeping track of the setlists because I didn’t know any of the acts.  But also performing was Austin Mahone, Rita Ora, Chris Wallace, and Boys Like Girls.

Boys Like Girls frontman (I think, I was sitting and couldn’t really see anything) had the band completely stop playing when they were going to do love drunk and then called out some girl who was going to record the song and went on this big rant about how the had a ton of other videos of them performing the song the exact same way on YouTube and that we should all put our cameras away.  Of course, this was the song I had handed my camera to Sarah to take photos for me (She took all the photos but The Wanted for me so I didn’t have to stand) so I only have a couple of them.

After their set I did find a pick on the ground though that must have slipped out of someone’s hand!

The bad thing about being in the middle of the crowd was there were a lot of young girls who didn’t know how to handle themselves.  At one point, a girl tried to drink water and ended it up spitting it out all over everyone.  Thank GOODNESS it was just water or things would have gone downhill FAST. (Her friend later came back saying she did start throwing up. I am glad they got her out of there in time!)

Then there was a girl during Boys Like Girls who was attempting to crowd surf by climbing over the barricade and attempting to land on me.  I felt a foot hit my arm and then saw my friend yell at her for almost falling on me and then pushed her back over the barricade.  There was a bit of fighting going on but when security came over nothing happened.

Finally it was time for The Wanted. The crowd surged a bit so girls got in front of me that weren’t there before so I ended up 3rd row.  (The barricade had a lip and since there were already girls there, I didn’t want to have the wheelchair half on the barricade and half on the floor because it wouldn’t be stable, so these girls took advantage of that and then wondered why they kept bumping into the leg rests throughout the show. Duh!)

I *think* I have The Wanted’s set but it might not be in the right order, I tried to record a clip of each song but failed miserably. I know I forgot to record any of Heart Vacancy and the first couple are so short in time I have no idea what they are now.  I love how in the moment I am like “Oh that was enough for me to figure it out!” haha, nope (I also didn’t think so much crowd noise would be picked up – not used to the video on the new camera yet!)

All Time Low
Lightning
Heart Vacancy
Gold Forever
Chasing The Sun
I Found You
Glad You Came