Gaelic Storm at the Wolf Den

Katie June 28, 2022 0 Comments

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.

Big Time Rush at Hartford Healthcare Ampitheater

Katie June 28, 2022 0 Comments

Friday night, Big Time Rush played their 2nd show on the Forever Tour at the Hartford Healthcare Amphitheater in Bridgeport, CT. (Will that ever not be confusing?)  Connecticut born Dixie D’Amelio opened the night and I am absolutely too old to have any idea who the heck she is. (The mom next to me was reading on her kindle throughout her performance which probably wasn’t a bad idea considering the amount of books I need to get a move on to read and review)

Although the fashion made me think I was back in the ’90s, I knew I was in the ’20s when there was a sea of phone cameras were held up anticipating the curtain in the front of the stage to drop and for Big Time Rush to take the stage.  I opted to take a photo of it with my… actual camera.  No doubt one of only a very few in possession of anyone in the crowd.  (Several tour photographers were out and about however with theirs)  They started with “Windows Down” which samples Blur’s “Song 2” which I remember vividly from 1997 and I honestly wonder how many of these girls jumping around and screaming the “woohoos” were even alive then.  (I heard one of the girls next to me say the last time she saw them was 10 years ago when she was in 4th grade.  I was much older than that the last time I saw them, also about 10 years ago)  I also need to direct some of these girls to check out some *NSYNC performance videos because the dance moves they were cheering for, while I appreciated the choreography, were mediocre at best. (Though I was impressed by James feeling the need to jump all over the platform and not use the stairs – especially since he was seen wearing a knee brace in rehearsal photos.)

Not included in the setlist.fm set is in the acoustic breakdown when they did a medley of songs with Carlos playing the ukelele.  Carlos did Na Na Na, Kendall morphed it into CeeLo Green’s “Forget You”, Logan decided it sounded more like Sublime’s “What I Got” and James… well he started singing “I’m Too Sexy” which made Logan jump up in front of him when he started to take of his shirt.

Big Time Rush played for nearly 2 hours, the amphitheater was absolutely PACKED and they even went out in the crowd for a song with Kendall and James ending up dancing on one of the Dugout bars which I don’t think was part of the plan considering they had platforms out in the crowd for them.  Also of note, they had a T-Shirt cannon, but Logan and Carlos opted to throw a shirt out into the crowd by hand – both of them landing with the same person which made Carlos fall to the ground laughing.   What are the odds?  They also brought out a boombox to which one of them said, “Hey there’s a cassette inside!” and one of the others quipped, “no idea what that is.”  Cmon boys, I already felt enough like a grandma in that crowd lol

Sorry not sorry for all the James pics. I clearly have a favorite.

Mandy Moore Ridgefield Playhouse June 21

Katie June 22, 2022 0 Comments

In October 2019, The Ridgefield Playhouse booked a show with Mandy Moore, who hadn’t toured in over 10 years.  On December 20, 2019 I spent $135 on a ticket to see Mandy at The Ridgefield Playhouse on Saturday, March 28, 2020.  You can probably guess what happened then.  March 24th – it was postponed to a date TBD.  In October 2020, it was rescheduled to Sunday, June 20, 2021.  Then nearly the whole tour got canceled, but somehow the CT and NJ date survived.  It was then rescheduled for Tuesday, June 21, 2022.  914 days after I had bought the ticket, I got to see the show.  I am not sure I have waited that long for anything else before in my life! The Playhouse even renovated their lobby in the time we waited – and it looks awesome! Way more spacious than it had been.  Mandy had some changes too – she and her husband (who is on tour with her in her band!) welcomed their first son, Gus, and now she is 6 months pregnant with their 2nd son right now!

The opening act was named AHI – a singer from Toronto.  His set was a bit of a roller coaster – but in all the best ways.  He did one song about having to give up on someone because the love you have for them isn’t more than the love they have for themselves, a song for his wife (who is also his manager and currently at home taking care of their 4 kids!) and probably the most powerful a song that he had dreamt and woke up to write about the senseless gun violence against blacks that he dedicated to all the mothers who have lost their children.  Definitely check him out if you can – he seems to be doing pretty well on Spotify and I really enjoyed his songs and his storytelling in between his songs!

Then it was time for Mandy – who came out and said “We finally made it!”  I also liked the stories that Mandy told in between her songs as well.  If you knew me in high school – you’d know I absolutely was NOT a Mandy fan.  Mostly due to jealousy because she got to open for *NSYNC and was in an episode of 2gether!  You know, all the legitimate reasons for a teenage girl to not like another teenage girl.  I obviously knew “Candy” and “I Wanna Be With You” but that was the extent of it until her 2020 release “Silver Landings”.  I also hadn’t gotten the chance to listen to her latest release, “In Real Life”, before the show. (Though I’ve had it on in the background as I write this!) But I thought she did a great job of mixing in some older songs (Apparently “Only Hope” is a popular oldie – I’ve had 3 people ask me if she sang it – and she did!) as well as songs from both of the new albums she is kind of touring with together.  I unfortunately opted to not keep track of the setlist and while setlist.fm has several shows up, it doesn’t have anything from CT so the following is a bit pieced together from me seeing what seemed familiar and what she seemed to play consistently at her other shows on the tour.

Every Light was done acoustically with just her husband on guitar and the rest of the band had left the stage.  I’m not sure if it was my spot in the theater or what, but I found for some of the softer ballads her voice was a bit drowned out and overpowered by her band (who were excellent, by the way).  But overall the show was a lot of fun and dare I say worth the 914 day wait. And I’m probably still a bit jealous of Mandy (now she got to work with Milo Ventimiglia and Justin Hartley!?) but can deal with it like an adult. 😉

She kept saying she just had a few more songs – but hadn’t done Candy yet! (And she was selling a Candy shirt so I figured it HAD to have been coming, even though she did talk about trying to come to terms with that chapter of her life and moving on)  When she came back out for the encore she said of course she couldn’t NOT do the song.  The second song of the encore was a song that she had sung on This Is Us and talked a bit about how she had spent the last 6 years on the show and initially wasn’t sure if she wanted to get back into music or not – and Mike and Taylor (members of her band/her best friend and husband) had kind of gotten her back into it and also that This Is Us did as well with her character’s backstory.  It seemed fitting that the encore was kind of her first song and last song (for now, anyway) and kind of bookended her career thus far.

In Real Life
I’d Rather Lose
Little Dreams
Fifteen
Extraordinary
Save a Little For Yourself
When I Wasn’t Watching
Heartlands
Only Hope
Every Light (acoustic)
Gardenia
I Could Break Your Heart Any Day of the Week
In Other Words
Brand New Nowhere
Four Moons
I Wanna Be With You

Candy
The Forever Now

The Masked Singer Tour

Katie June 22, 2022 0 Comments

I had been intrigued by the idea of the Masked Singer Tour since it was announced a few years back.  I went back and forth on buying tickets and then eventually ended up finding out I had the opportunity to get free VIP tickets and I couldn’t pass that up.

My VIP access gave me a M&G with the host of the show, Season 6’s Pepper, Natasha Bedingfield.  She was super sweet, loved the shirt I had made of the Russian Doll’s face and we chatted a bit about that.  I also got to meet 2 of the characters – Banana (from Banana Split) and Pineapple.  Pineapple also was pretty into my shirt lol  We also got a free drink coupon and access to the venue early for “crowd free” merchandise shopping so I got myself some pins and a magnet.

I wasn’t entirely sure how the show was going to work and even after seeing it I am not sure it totally worked.  There were costumes “from the show” that performed songs and there was a bit of a storyline as well – Alien and Taco got engaged, an audience member got to come up on stage for Alien’s bachelorette party and got a lap dance from Thingamabob and Robot among other characters. Another audience member (or perhaps a plant) came up on stage when they were looking for the golden mic (that allowed the characters to sing any song they wanted like the original) and then there were performances from Natasha mixed in (she killed it on Purple Rain!)  The costumes were not celebrities, just I guess dancers who “lip synched” to the original songs. (Or whatever costumes with no moving lips do!)

Each night the show has a “local” celeb that performs and is unmasked. I had been following along with the tour’s instagram to try and guess each night.  It started off pretty nice with Drew Lachey and Maddie Poppe – but quickly went into a bunch of local Fox news station reporters and weather people so I wasn’t entirely sure who CT would end up getting.  The clues ended up being someone from The Bachelor or The Bachelorette. Of course, a show I have never seen one episode from.  It turned out to be Matt Munson from Season 13 of The Bachelorette who is from CT. He sang “It’s Tricky” as his song.

Overall, for free, I enjoyed the show but if they did it again I am not sure I’d pay for it – dependent on who the host might be.