I’ve often found that when there’s something I don’t quite understand and want to understand more, the best way to learn it in a way I can easily comprehend is to find a kids book about it. The past couple of years I have been trying to learn how to become Antiracist.  I’ve read several books on it. I get the general idea, but still wanted to know more.  I picked up The Antiracist Kid, a book geared at teaching young readers about being antiracist and about how identity works.  Almost immediately, I learned a new term, “person of global majority” and that wasn’t the only thing I learned.  If you’re an adult and want to learn more, and maybe how to explain racism to kids or if you have a young reader curious to know more about racism and being antiracist, I highly recommend this book.  It broke everything down into bite size, easy to understand and digest pieces and has some great illustrations in there to help as well.

I received a free e-copy of this book from NetGalley in order to write this review. I was not otherwise compensated.

About the Book

From the #1 New York Times best-selling author of This Book is Anti-Racist, Tiffany Jewell, with art by Eisner-nominated illustrator Nicole Miles, The Antiracist Kid is the essential illustrated chapter book guide to antiracism for empowering the young readers in your life!

What is racism? What is antiracism? Why are both important to learn about? In this book, systemic racism and the antiracist tools to fight it are easily accessible to the youngest readers.

In three sections, this must-have guide explains:

– Identity: What it is and how it applies to you
– Justice: What it is, what racism has to do with it, and how to address injustice
– Activism: A how-to with resources to be the best antiracist kid you can be

This book teaches younger children the words, language, and methods to recognize racism and injustice—and what to do when they encounter it at home, at school, and in the media they watch, play, and read.

The 3rd leg of my tour was supposed to be the easy one off show in Cleveland. A friend had just moved there and while I had been to Ohio once on a family vacation around 20 years ago, I didn’t have it as a Hanson state.

I woke up at 3:15am, drove to the airport and got on my flight to Baltimore. It’s short, only about 50 minutes and not a decent length for napping, though I did try to sleep.  I made it to my next gate and when we were supposed to board, the gate agent said the aircraft was locked for maintenance. Something wasn’t right in the cockpit and they were waiting on parts and he kept saying “it could be 2 minutes or it could be 2 hours”.  While it appeared they were actively fixing something, an hour and 20 minutes after we were supposed to board the flight was canceled.

I ended up calling southwest as the gate agent line was lengthy and he was going to get me to St. Louis and then to Cleveland at like 11pm.  I asked if he could ticket me for that flight but that I’d keep looking at other options but it ended up disappearing, probably because a gate agent gave someone else the option first.

All the other airlines either had no options or were stupid expensive with layovers. It was only 6 hours driving so I booked a one way car (thanks to my great work discount!) And headed to the rental shuttle. Which took forever and a day to come. AVIS said they had no cars until 3:30 via the app but I was hoping if I showed up earlier they could help me out and I ended up getting an orange Nissan Kick.

By about 1:30 I was off, ETA 7:40. Having to make a couple of stops and dealing with 3 storms rolling through, I ended up dropping the car off around 8:30pm and my friend and her youngest son came to pick me up and then I went to sleep.

Saturday morning we went to check out downtown Chagrin Falls which is the area Bill Waterson known for Calvin and Hobbes is from. We went to a local bookstore and a popcorn shop and then the boys played at a park for a bit. I got pooped on by a bird.  After we were all sufficiently tired out, we headed home to nap before the show.

I had opted for front row Mezz seats for this show, not realizing it was a 100 year old venue with no elevator and steeply pitched stairs. Slow and steady we made it up to the mezz and then down to the front row.  The view was worth the effort though!  Except for when during Zac’s solo a spider appeared on the outer side of the plexi glass!

This was my first time (of 3) seeing AMMM and I enjoyed their set. It was nice to see Justin (now going by JR) from Ingram Hill again. I’m not even sure when the last time I saw IH play was, it’s been quite a while but back in 04/05 we used to see them quite frequently.

Then it was time for Hanson – who came out playing a song I didn’t recognize at first. They had a few opening songs this tour but this is the first time they started with “everybody needs somebody to love” which they had played for the first time this tour as the encore the night before. They also pulled out Great Divide for the set as well.

Zac’s solo (with special spider appearance) was Wake Up, which I can’t get mad at because even though I’ve heard it, at least it is from RGB. Isaac started his solo by talking about Hanson.net members and then said someone had requested Next Train. A girl up in the mezz stood up and screamed so we figured it was her! When Taylor waved and came up to the front of the stage I knew what he had chosen for his solo – Save Me, once again. I have 6 shows left and I’m hoping for a rambling heart one of them…

After the show we waited by the bus.  Zac was out first, but we couldn’t get closer than to get him to sign my friend’s shirt.  After he left, a bunch of girls left and we managed to get on the barricade.  I figured with my luck that meant no one else would come out, but we were pleasantly surprised with both Isaac and Taylor came out and I was able to get pics with them and my friend got her shirt signed by all 3!

We got back to my friends place around 2am and needed to leave at 9am to get me back to the airport.  I got through security pretty quickly although TSA made me pat down my own brace?  That’s a first.  My flight to Baltimore went fine even though the incoming flight was ‘tardy’. The incoming flight to get me in Baltimore was running a bit late so we ended up getting delayed about 20 minutes for boarding.  After we boarded, we seemed to be waiting to take off forever, to the point that I woke up from trying to nap to check my apps to see if anything was up, but the captain finally came on and said they were trying to stagger the planes going north east more so we had to wait a few minutes so there’d be less traffic.  When we landed, it was raining really hard and we were told that we had to wait because due to the storm there was lightning within 3 miles of the airport so all the ground personnel had to take cover so we had to wait a bit until they were allowed to come back out and get us to the gate.

I still have 4 more flights left this tour so I am hoping they all end up going smoothly.

For the second leg of the RGB Tour we were more on my home turf, New England and NYC.  This series of shows also had a couple of milestones.  The Hampton Beach show was my 700th concert overall and the NYC show was my 250th Hanson show.  This was extra special because back in 1997, the radio stations were giving away tickets to an exclusive Hanson show at the Beacon Theater in NYC.  I tried and tried and tried to win these tickets, but in the end, didn’t end up being successful.  At the time, I didn’t think to “just show up” and see if I could get in that way and taking trips to NYC wasn’t a common thing with my family at this time.  That Beacon Theater show ended up being used throughout Hanson’s tour VHS, Tulsa, Tokyo and the Middle of Nowhere.  I ended up going to the Beacon several other times over the years – to see Penn & Teller, front row to see The Wanted and even seeing Hanson as part of their String Theory tour.  But I feel like after 25 years I was finally righting a wrong, as I had front row seats to see a proper Hanson show there.

But let’s start with Boston…

Initially I wasn’t going to Boston, it can be difficult for me to get to and the venue is across the street from Fenway Park and the Red Sox also had a game the night of the show.  I also had tickets to see Shawn Mendes, so I was going to skip and meet up with my friends in New Hampshire instead.  Then Shawn ended up postponing and then canceling his tour and when I looked for tickets there was a front row box seat still available so I crashed on my friend’s plans.  I was going to pick my friend up at the airport and then she was going to drive my car in to Boston – but Thursday afternoon we got word that her flight was delayed into the evening, so I was on my own with getting to Boston.  Fortunately I only had to drive about 5 feet into the city before getting into the parking garage at the Prudential Center.

Due to rain supposed to be coming in, we changed our dinner plans and went to Earl’s in the Prudential Center for dinner and spent about $200 between 3 of us.  Here I thought being home for part of this leg it would be the less expensive run!  The next day we did our original dinner plans for lunch at Buttermilk and Bourbon which is a New Orleans inspired Tapas experience.  We had a lot of delicious food to share.  When we left the venue, we tried to get a Lyft to go the mile or so up to the venue and it gave us like 5 different drivers (one even named Hansen) before we swapped over to Uber and finally made it as close to the venue as we could get.

A couple of nights before the Boston show the guys had debuted “Dressed in Brown Eyes” along with the opener John Calvin Abney.  Since we had 3 more shows with John we were hopeful we’d end up getting to see it and we were quite pleased that it made it as the encore in Boston.  We weren’t very pleased that we were now 4 for 4 with Isaac doing River and Taylor doing Save Me as solos.  We were even less pleased when a friend snapped a photo of the selist and we found out that Taylor’s solo was supposed to be “Truth” and followed by “With a Little Help From My Friends”.  We thought maybe they practiced it and it didn’t sound great and weren’t sure if that meant it would never see the light of day or if maybe it would show up later in the tour.

Overall the Boston show was a good one, but the section I was in was not into it at all. I am not sure the woman next to me even moved, which is fine, but she kept giving me looks when I was singing along and swerving my chair around to “dance”.  The vibe was just all off and almost somber.  Until…. MMMBop when a few girls somehow appeared behind me out of nowhere and in true Boston fashion, someone ended up spilling a drink on me. And then you wonder why I think Bostonians are obnoxious. They can’t drive and they literally can’t hold their liquor.  After the show the bus was pretty much chaos (and we missed seeing Zac in the bus door by about 10 seconds!) so we opted to just head back to the hotel.

Saturday morning we took it easy because we knew we had a late night drive ahead of us.  We made the drive up to Hampton Beach and the parking lot I wanted to park in said it was full, but I knew they had a few accessible parking spots which sometimes aren’t included in the count for “full” so we decided to drive in and see if we could get lucky and in fact we ended up finding an even better parking spot, with the bus right behind us.  While waiting for the rest of the crew to arrive, we saw Taylor drive his bus by and knew that he’d need to park it right behind us soon.  We ended up hanging around since we weren’t sure if my car would need to be moved to assist in the parking attempt and well, we didn’t really trust Taylor to safely drive past it either.  First Taylor came and assessed the situation and then pulled the bus in.  There were shouts of “WATCH THE RED CAR” and then some locals came by and finished directing him. When he was finished and we were all pretty impressed he said “You either do it, or you do it” I mean, yeah, I guess there wasn’t really another option there.  But for 10 minutes my anxiety was through the roof watching him. He, on the other hand, appears to be fearless.

After (finally) getting a late lunch we went to sit by the beach for a bit.  When we decided to maybe hit the arcade, we ended up in line waiting to see what they would do for ADA instead  and had a view of all the line drama and the staff trying to keep everything under control.  We weren’t sure if the Casino Ballroom would even have an ADA area and weren’t expecting to see much of the show, but were surprised we had a good spot off to the side of the stage.  Of note: Isaac decided to do Hand in Hand with no fake voting, but Taylor decided to do Save Me again.

ADA ended up being a show within the show as we were interrupted during Go by a medic due to a girl looking like she might end up passing out and needing to be walked out of the crowd. (We had a barricade behind us that she had made her way up against, so she wasn’t actually in ADA.)  Another point during the night a girl came running in and plopped herself down on one of the stools. When security asked if she was ADA she said “Eighty?” and then they had to get another security guard to escort her out of the area.  Also behind the barricade near us were a couple of kids, so Isaac jumped down off the stage at the end of the show and walked along the barricade to give high fives.  The barricade ended up leading him into the ADA area and he couldn’t figure out how to get out.  After they moved the barricade for him, he waved and said thank you to us and made his way backstage.

After the show we hung out by my car and decided to see where things were at around midnight since we had a long drive back to my house after.  In the end we stayed until 12:30, all 3 guys came out and my friend helped get my CD to Zac and Taylor so I could get all 3 signatures.  (I had previously gotten Isaac in Birmingham) We also made song requests for the NYC show and felt the most confident that Zac would try to play what we asked. (The requests were World Goes Around from Zac, Greener Pastures from Isaac and Truth from Taylor – and I told him we knew it was on the setlist in Boston.)

We made it back to my house at 3:30am and ended up taking a 12 something train into the city and a cab to our hotel.  We ubered closer to to the venue to meet some friends for dinner and then made our way to the Beacon.  Unfortunately it was surrounded in scaffolding so my marquee picture dreams were crushed.  I knew this show was going to a bit emotional on several levels – one being the last time I was there front row, was for my last time seeing The Wanted.  When I saw the hallway we had to wait in before the Wanted M&G I started to cry a bit. Fortunately it was all before the show and I was able to get it out of my system.  During John Calvin Abney’s set, he leaned down and said “Miss, do you know what time it is?” so I told him it was 8:25 and he said “25? I have time for one more song!” and finished up his set.  Hanson ended up taking the stage about 10 minutes earlier than usual and the end seemed a bit rushed so I think they had a hard 11pm curfew.  While I’ve been kind of annoyed that this tour seems to skew more towards MON than RGB – all those old MON songs hit differently this night, since I remember seeing so many of them over and over and over being played here on TTMON from the video they filmed back in 1997.  I somehow managed to push myself to stand for the entire show – figuring if Taylor did Save Me again, that would be my break.  But he ended up doing Truth – which has been converted from a guitar song to a piano song – the other 2 joined him for the end of it and then they went into With a Little Help From My Friends.  I’m not sure why they decided last second to cut it in Boston because it was AWESOME.  At the end of the show, they didn’t do a bow just the 3 of them which was disappointing because they would have been right in front of me and I would have gotten a great photo!

After the show we waited by the bus but it was straight up 1997 with the fans singing MMMBop. *eye roll*.  Taylor ended up coming out and driving his bus away and we called it a night and ubered back to the hotel, only to see Zac came out about half an hour or so after we left.  But after standing for an entire show and being 3 shows deep for the weekend, I was ready to lay down.

On the train back home in the morning I was getting texts from work and needing to be on site so I have had a wild week and have been unable to sleep in like I was hoping. But the blog is finished, the work week is almost done and I have to get packed to do it all over again this weeknd.

Friend Me is the 2nd book in the Synergy Novel series.  I did not read the first one, though based on the characters I think I have a good idea who the first one was about. (I’ll go back and read it eventually, though.) Not having read the first, I didn’t feel at all like I was behind on the story and it was easily read as a standalone.  As a software engineer, I probably would have started this book sooner had I known it was about a programming firm! I liked all the little programming jokes/notes injected throughout the story as well – and ironically enough was reading it on the plane on the way to a business trip. I told my coworker about it and was teasing that it was VERY niche – programming romance novels – and now she wants to read it as well.

To the story – Marlee is the executive assistant to Jackson at Synergy.  She’s great at her job.  She also has a massive crush on her coworker Cooper and has been scheming on how to be alone with him when her boss is off on his honeymoon by hiring a steady stream of crappy assistants for him.  To further put her plan into place, she needs a date for the wedding to make him jealous, because he has invited one of his good friends who is very beautiful and maybe a bit intimidating to Marlee.  Coworker and BFF, Tyler, steps in to aid her in her schemes and be her wedding date.  But is there maybe something more there?

Does her scheming work out? Will she end up with Cooper even though it may be against company policy? Or will she realize she is just being silly?

I read this book pretty much straight through once I started it, couldn’t put it down.  (I had to save the last 30 minutes or so for once I got to the hotel for my business trip – but definitely stayed up too late to make sure I finished it!) I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review, I was not otherwise compensated.

About the Book

She knows better than to think she’ll get a happily-ever-after like the romance stories she loves…until her nerdy work friend starts to act like Prince Charming.

Romance-reading executive assistant Marlee can’t show up to her boss’s wedding without a date. Not after her crush invites a beautiful, brainy Amazon. So when her best buddy, Tyler, offers to be her plus-one, she’s all in for a little jealousy-sparking fun.

Until a magical kiss on the dance floor makes her forget her own name and question who she’s crushing on. Suddenly their date doesn’t feel so fake.

Leveling-up their friendship is a risk she’s not ready to take. So is Tyler asking for more than she can give. She never meant to break up with her best friend. Especially when she suspects she’s falling for him.

Friend Me is a slow-burn-to-red-hot, friends-to-lovers, fake-relationship romantic comedy featuring a starry-eyed heroine, a sweet, cinnamon-roll hero, and a pair of cranky cats. It can be read as a standalone and is the second book in the Synergy series.

When I was first heading to this concert, I was pretty excited because for the first time in a long time I actually wanted to see ALL the acts.  Since actually going to the show, my position on that has changed and I was not wowed by One Republic at all.  I couldn’t remember if I had seen them before, but when Ryan mentioned during his set he had family from Mystic, that seemed vaguely familiar. But looking at my stats I have seen them THREE times before.  Clearly, all shows were quite memorable. 😉 [For those keeping score – it was Q102 Jingle Ball 2012, Mixtape Festival 2013, and All Star Music 2016 – so it had been quite a while.]

Initially I had thought that the show was going to start at 8 like NKOTB did earlier this month, but double checking both tickets – NKOTB said 8 and One Republic said 7 (Good thing I screen capped since the e-tix go POOF after the show) so I raced to get up there earlier than intended because John K had been announced as the first opening act just a week or so ago.  For those of you who don’t know who he is – he was my absolute obsession from American Idol Season 11 and was robbed and didn’t even make it past I think the Top 24. Back then, he went by Johnny Keysar.  I’ve been following him on social media ever since, he has rebranded as “John K” and in March 2020 was supposed to do a radio station thing in CT that I managed to win my way in to.  The show was set for March 11 and ended up being my first cancelation of many.  He ended up taking the stage at 6:55 to a nearly empty arena, though people did start filling in and seemed to be receptive to him as his set went on.  I found it amusing he kept talking about playing “new music” when there was maybe a handful of us in there who had any idea who he was.

Next up was NEEDTOBREATHE and it was my second time seeing them. They don’t seem to hit up CT all that often, so I was pumped when they were announced with this tour and their set did not disappoint. Despite their set time being much shorter than that of the headliners, they managed to squeeze in 11 songs to One Republic’s 16. They put up a QR code that would pick one lucky person to go backstage after their set, but unfortunately I was not the winner.  I did see Seth walking around after the show though!

With how many Hanson shows I am going to this tour I had to decide how to break up my blog posts.  Every show separate seemed excessive (and there wouldn’t be all that much new to say after each night) so I landed on doing one post per ‘leg’, of which I have 4.. or maybe 5…

Here we are after leg one – which included 3 shows – Nashville, Atlanta and Birmingham, a birthday and a trip to Buc-ees.

Thursday I had a direct flight from Hartford to Nashville. I was extremely anxious and nervous with the flight luck I had already this year, but I managed to get there without incident and met up with my friend.  We checked into our AirBnB that was home base for the trip and I spotted Daddy’s Dogs up the street (owned by a friend of Kris Allen’s) and so we had to go there for dinner. We also had a stand off with a spider in the lobby on the way to get the hot dogs because it was crawling a little too close to the exit door for our liking.

Friday we got off to a slower start and headed to the Hard Rock Cafe to get a bear (which was more than enough time spent on Broadway) – and then did a tour of the Ryman, where Hanson would be playing that evening.  The video before you start on your self guided tour was really cool and it was neat to learn so much about such a historic venue before going to the show that night.  At the end of the tour you are able to get a photo on stage, so we got a kick out of being able to have the Hanson RGB backdrop behind us.  As we were finishing up and getting ready to head to our dinner reservations across the street, Hanson came out to film something about the venue. They ended it with an acapella chorus of “This Time Around” – what an unexpected and fun surprise!

We went to dinner across the street at Sixty Vines which had a nice view of the Ryman and some great food as well. By the time we were done eating it was time to head into line for the show!  We headed to merch first since there were seats and we didn’t need to snag a good spot.  Our seats were the front row of the balcony and had a great view and great sound. Opening was John Calvin Abney. I was hoping to like him since I will be seeing him 6 times.  His guitar got messed up during one of the songs and kept making popping noises so he decided to just unplug it, hold it up near the mic, and keep on going.  While his music isn’t necessarily something I’d listen to, I was really impressed with him and how he thought on his feet and the crowd reaction clapping along with him and cheering was great too.

The setlist was very similar to what I was expecting based on what they had done in Europe on the previous leg of the tour.  Since Paul McDonald is from Nashville, he was at the show and joined the guys for the song he cowrote with Isaac on RGB – Write You a Song.  We were hoping they’d do something acapella since the venue was originally a church and built for acoustics and they came out and did “Change in my Life” with no mics completely acapella for the encore. (Even though a lot of the crowd didn’t seem to understand that they needed to be quiet.) Of note: They seemed to decide to last minute cut a song from the set (Penny and Me?) and Taylor jumped up to the drum platform to do something midway through his solo of Save Me.

The next day we had an early morning to drive to Atlanta.  Traffic was horrendous.  We stopped for lunch at Zaxbys, somewhere I had not been before. Then we pulled up to the hotel… which was not at all what we were expecting, nor was it in an area we’d want to be in after dark. After going inside anyway and being met by an incredibly rude staff, we started finding a new place to stay instead and ended up in a massive suite in midtown instead.

We got in line in Atlanta, where they had split Members Only and regular GA – but the GA line was in the shade and the members line was in the HOT HOT HOT Sun. (I figured out why they call it “hotlanta”!)  Finally we were let inside only to find out that the ADA areas left something to be desired.  Once the mezzanine filled in, the already no so great view became almost non existent.  But it is what it is (and the staff was wonderful and organized and the venue was really nice otherwise – especially the food!)

I was very happy that John Calvin Abney didn’t seem to have a script he was using for each show (at least not yet) like some of the openers in the past.  Hanson ended up shaking up the setlist a bit, starting with I’ve Got Soul, appropriately playing Georgia, then they added You Never Know to the mix followed by a cover of Low Rider that went into Ooh La La La. Where did that come from?!  Isaac has been allowing the crowd to vote on his solo but doesn’t give all the options beforehand and both nights it was Hand in Hand vs Deeper vs River – and River has won every night of the tour so far.  Zac seems to be mixing up his the most and it is much appreciated!  After 2 nights I had 2 new songs heard live, but I’m not sure for how long that will be sustainable.

After the show we waited by the bus. We had been told that Taylor came out very quickly and wasn’t going to have time to sign, but Isaac and Zac came out and we were able to get photos. Then there were all sorts of weird giant bugs hanging around and a small child walked up to us, pointed to the ground, said “bug” and walked away. (It was later stepped on.)  Turns out, Taylor is driving his own tour bus – or at least pulled it away from the Atlanta venue with him in the drivers seat.  I hope that there will be a driver joining the crew soon because that too seems like it’s not sustainable.

Our next day was an off day so we decided to go to World of Coke.  Probably not the best choice with it being a weekend, but fortunately my friend said she’d push me in a wheelchair which was the way to go once I saw how crowded it was. I never would have been able to deal with those crowds on my own. We ended the trip in the tasting room and took a spin through the gift shop where they had a funny Hanson-ish shirt – but all were 2XL.

We then met up with another friend and her family and got some ice cream before heading to Buc-ees.  Where I fell twice. Once I’m not sure why, though I was trying to get to a shopping cart to hold to have some stability and the second because someone had spilled something and my cane caught it. Fortunately no major injury – a skinned knee and a busted pinky.  At Buc-ees I managed to get some pressed pennies despite the machine not quite working, some snacks and dinner as well as a couple of t-shirts.

Then it was back to Nashville where Monday we had the day off and my friends put in a day of work.  We ordered in for lunch and headed to a brewery for dinner.

Tuesday was my birthday! We headed from Nashville to Birmingham. There wasn’t too much we wanted to do, but checked out some murals, had some BBQ for lunch at SAW’s and went to Rickwood Field, America’s Oldest Baseball Field. I had to be at the show early because I’d be meeting the guys for my BTTI make up photo.  We hit up Target and Walmart the night before looking for red, green, blue birthday hats and were successful.  At 5:30 I got my pass and at 6:30 it was time to go in.  The guys did not want to wear the hats, but said they would hold them, with Taylor being silly and holding his in one photo like an ice cream cone.  He said happy birthday to me so many times, all of the ushers became aware (I was wearing a sash too) and said happy birthday on my way out – and then some of them again on my way back in for the show!

We were second row for the show and there wasn’t really anything too different about this setlist.  Zac had switched up his solo all 3 shows.  Isaac played River all 3 shows and Taylor did Save Me all 3 shows – but for this show he started front and center (right in front of me) acapella, and then went back to the piano.  Different, but, I’d have preferred a totally different song.  Hopefully by the time my next shows roll around, they’ll have mixed things up a bit more again.

As we were getting ready to head out, I realized Isaac threw a pick right at my feet! That was my first time not being given a pick by someone else or finding it outside the venue after the show so that was a nice birthday treat!  We went and waited out by the bus again, assuming that Taylor once again had a long drive and wouldn’t come out.  Isaac did come out and signed my RGB CD and he mentioned that Zac wasn’t going to come out so once midnight hit and it was no longer my birthday, we made the trek back to Nashville, getting back about 3:30am only to be leaving for an airport drop at 7:30am.

My Nashville friend had to go to work so even though there was 3 of us leaving there was just one airport drop. My flight was the latest out so I sat there delirious for a couple of hours until we finally boarded at 10:35 where I promptly fell asleep and was asleep so hard I have 0 recollection of the plane ever taking off. I woke up mid flight confused due to some turbulence but otherwise it was a great flight home.  The only problem was, I brought the southern heat home with me and we have been in the middle of a heat wave ever since!

Friday and Saturday I made my return to the Arena at Mohegan Sun for the first time since 2019 for NKOTB and their Mixtape Tour 2 – featuring Rick Astley, En Vogue and Salt n Pepa.  The show was supposed to start at 8 and I assumed doors were at 7, so I was pleasantly surprised when I arrived on Friday at 6:45 and was able to get right in.  For Friday’s show I had front row upper level, right by the main stage. For Saturday’s show I was further back in the accessible section, but with a straight on view of the main stage (Friday the screen was a bit obstructed) and a closer view of the B Stage.  While Saturday night was a more head on view, when NKOTB first took the stage with all the flashing lights I really thought I may have had to ask to be relocated because it was just way too much for me. (While I’ve never had a seizure, with CP it is always a possibility) Fortunately after the first song or two it calmed down a lot and I was able to stay where I was.

I typically try to avoid reviews before going to shows so I can come up with my own thoughts after, but I did read one about this tour.  It said that the acts alternated like a mixtape – so I thought they would rotate out after every song, which was not the case. But the additional acts weren’t treated like openers.  NKOTB kicked off the show and did a handful of songs before En Vogue took the stage.  Both nights on of the En Vogue ladies had her foot in a boot.  On Friday, she sat during their initial set but by Saturday she was up on her feet for all their songs.  Rick Astley was next and then NKOTB came back.  After another handful of NKOTB songs, Salt N Pepa took the stage and was joined for En Vogue on “Whatta Man” before En Vogue got another song to themselves. Another chunk of NKOTB songs and Rick Astley was back to rick roll us all.  Donnie joined Salt N Pepa for Shoop on the B stage. Jordan sang without a shirt. (What else is new) and then it was just about time for the show to be over.

Friday night, when they all came out for the encore, Donnie stopped a young man from leaving and he and another girl were called up on stage.  I thought I had seen the young man with Joey’s son Griffin (Who helped open the show with Illtown Sluggaz both nights) earlier in the night so I thought it might have been a set up and he was a plant.  I figured I’d know for sure if the same thing happened Saturday – but Donnie instead called out a couple on the other side of the stage and made them go back to their seats.  Saturday at the very end Donnie brought a different even younger boy up on stage to dance for a bit.  Joe also grabbed someone from the barstools and had her come up on stage at one point as well.  Even though the setlist may have been the same (and really, has it changed much in the last 10+ years? lol) every night is always a little bit different.

I ended up with 449 photos on my camera over the 2 nights and honestly don’t feel like uploading that many here – so you get the one up top. Maybe if I get bored I’ll add a gallery later, but I’m not liking how the main blog page doesn’t show if I’ve added a gallery so I need to sort that out…

Saturday night Gaelic Storm returned to the Wolf Den at Mohegan Sun.  I had not been to Mohegan since 2019 and was sad to see while everything else seemed to be the same, my favorite machines were no more.

We waited in line for the 3 hours before the show, since the last time we went to see them we barely made it inside.  It seemed like despite being a Saturday night, people were a lot more fashionably late to arrive and for a while we weren’t even sure the small place was even going to fill in.

The band took the stage at 8 with their new fiddle player, Natalya Kay. She seemed to fit right in and I thoroughly enjoyed the evening.  Lionel Richie was playing in the Arena and they made a few cracks that we could “even dance on the ceiling!” “Hello!” showing that they knew what they were up against (and at the end, thanked us for going to see them instead of Lionel)

While there was a lot of clapping in the first song, for the second we were told we needed to wave at them… for the whole song… and that the song was 46 minutes long.  It turns out that it wasn’t and we didn’t even need to wave the whole song, just when we were instructed to.  But there was indeed a lot of clapping because at one point my Garmin said I was at 998 steps and by the end I was into the 1200s.

They also made some jokes about driving on 95 and that it has been around since BC but they have been working on it ever since.  I mean, it’s probably not too far from the truth. Some stretch of it is always under construction.

Another cool thing they did was partner with set.live, a website where you can check in to the show you are at and sign up for the artists mailing list.  At the end of the show, they selected 2 winners from those who had checked in to come on stage and get a personalized signed poster.  The site seems really neat and I’d be interested to see if any other shows I go to end up incorporating it.