My year kicked off driving home from PA after spending New Years Eve with Honor Society & lots of friends. My first show of the year was Nick Jonas and the Administration at the Beacon Theater in New York City. Shortly after my friend and I won a “Pear Pals” video contest which got us tickets to see Honor Society open for Timbaland. The next night I went to NJ to see Honor Society perform a special acoustic show.
February my 1 concert a month streak almost ended, but at the last minute I got myself John Mayer tickets and went to see him at the Mohegan Sun casino.
March I went to see Carrie Underwood for the first time and was amazed. I won tickets to Lifehouse’s TIC Acoustic Café where they played a shocking 2 songs – and then met half the band after the performance.
April kicked off with a trip to NYC to see Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers 1,000th show! The month ended with seeing Honor Society perform the National Anthem at a Mets game, seeing them perform a show at Nokia Live Times Square and then I had one day to recover before spending the last week of the month checking out a taping of Jimmy Fallon’s show and then seeing Hanson every night for 5 nights! Each night they performed one of their albums in its entirety and called it “5 of 5”.
May began by me winning All Access passes for Jordin Sparks at the Wolf’s Den – Reserved tickets and a chance to hang with Jordin backstage before the show! The next night I drove through Boston to the House of Blues to check out Honor Society.
June I won tickets from a local radio station to check out Jordin Sparks once again – this time at the Webster Theater. Then I attempted to attend a Hanson/Drake concert at South Street Seaport which ended up being canceled due to Drake’s fans rioting. (But it sure did get Hanson a lot of press) I went to see the Mets with seats right behind Jeff Francouer. I went to see Justin Bieber and I went to see and met Adam Lambert (only because I won tickets).
July began with me losing my job. And my free lawn tickets began with Jack Johnson. Unfortunately because of the American Idol tour date change – I had to miss seeing (and meeting) the Idols in Bridgeport, even though I had won some awesome seats! I did get to see the Idols about a week later from the upper level at the Mohegan Sun Arena. I went to see Tim McGraw, but left before he hit the stage my pants weighing next to 20 lbs due to a crazy downpour during the opening acts (Lady Antebellum and Love and Theft). I took my brother to Warped Tour and I don’t think I’ve ever felt more out of place at a show. I spent the weekend on Cape Cod seeing Hanson on back to back nights and then went to see them again in New Jersey. I was worried I wouldn’t reach my goal of seeing them 50 times because of the Drake Riot situation. I finished out the month by seeing Rascal Flatts from the lawn free (and keeping track of the setlist has gotten me hits to the blog nearly every day since!)
August kicked off winning tickets to see Maroon 5 at the casino. They were 8th row and AWESOME. I took my cousin to see Kings of Leon and we were “grasshoppers” buying seats in the pavilion. I went to see Peter Noone of Herman’s Hermits. I met John Mayer! And saw him live. I saw the Jonas Brothers play a softball game against ESPN, I met the Jonas Brothers, I saw the Jonas Brothers perform live (with upgraded tickets I won). I met Joey Fatone from NSYNC. I saw Crosby, Stills & Nash and Tom Petty. I went to PA to see Hanson in Pittsburgh and hit show #50! And 51! And 52 in Baltimore. I got a group picture with Hanson and one of me with Taylor. The month ended with a trip to Arthur Ashe Kids Day where Jonas Brothers, Demi Lovato and David Archuleta among others performed.
September I won tickets to see Keith Urban and Kris Allen from Kris’ band after being bummed all day our other plans had fallen through and I couldn’t afford a ticket. (It became my 100th concert in Connecticut) I went to see the Titanic exhibit at Foxwoods and tried to start organizing my scrapbook space (it is still a work in progress)
October I met Jason Castro at the casino. The next night I went to see Kris Allen and Lifehouse at the other casino (but had no luck meeting Kris – again!) I had to stay up until midnight to get presale tickets to the TIC Christmas show. I went to KC101 studios to hang out with Ashlyne Huff. And I went to a taping of Nate Berkus’ Show (and he gave nothing away). I finished out the month with a Tyler Hilton show, less than 4 hours of sleep and a trip to Oklahoma for a Halloween Hanson show. Tyler was my 200th concert.
November I was on a bit of Hanson overload seeing them in MA, PA and twice in CT (and meeting them too!) I was excited to see Tony Lucca perform in Fairfield, but he backed out of the show due to being booked on an episode of Parenthood. I was told I could get a refund, but it has yet to process on my credit card… We rounded out the month going to NY to see Jason and Michael of Honor Society perform at a fundraiser. It was an awesome show and took us through the history of the band.
December had just one show – the TIC Christmas show where somehow we were with a bunch of people who had backstage access (but we didn’t), once again, we were unable to meet Kris Allen.