Saturday night Carrie brought her “Denim and Rhinestones Tour” to the Arena at Mohegan Sun. The night started off a bit stressful, some my fault, some not. I was in the zone with a coding project I have been working on so I ended up leaving a little bit later than I had intended because I was not about to stop when I was on a roll and fixing all the “why isn’t this working?” notes I had left for myself the week before. The ticket said 7:30pm start time so I assumed 6:30pm doors time. I ended up getting to the casino a little after 6 – only to find most of the parking garage floors were FULL. I managed to get a relatively decent spot not too far from the elevators. The casino was PACKED (which I kind of expected by the lack of parking) and once I got to the Arena, I expected doors to be open already. But they were not. We ended up standing around with no one knowing what was going on until just after 7pm. We got told they were “delayed” but no one knew why – there were rumors that Carrie wasn’t there yet and also something about a truck breaking down in New Jersey but I have no idea if there’s any truth to any of that. Carrie did at the end say that they “had some snags” and she had appreciated us being patient.
When doors finally opened, they then had 4 or 5 doors open to scan tickets – but those with GA Floor tickets could only go through certain doors and no one else could go through those so everyone kept cutting everyone off to get inside and it was absolutely ridiculous. A girl ended up getting fed up we kept getting cut off and stood telling everyone “the end of the line for this door is back there.” My hero. One old lady said “Sorry. I’m with her. She has my ticket” when her friend cut me off. At least some people have common sense…
Then I got to the elevator only to see about 25 able bodied people waiting for it. I’m not sure if that’s the only way to get up to whatever suite they were going to… but I finally got on with a handful of them so I could go down to the main floor to get to my seat. I had my walker with me, and they put it off to the side as I was front row of the lower level. The DJ was already on and playing. A couple of girls asked security if they could sit, I couldn’t hear why, but shortly after one of them threw up. They both ran off to the bathroom and custodial was called to clean up – but it took FOREVER for anyone to show up and then there were like 5 staffers watching. One of the seats ended up out of commission (#2) so as the people came who were supposed to be sitting there, they got moved. Not only did 1 and 2 get moved (which made sense) 3 and 4 did too (also made sense, since 2 was bagged off and a mess) but then 5 and 6 demanded they get moved too. Now, 5 and 6 were about as far away from the gross seat as I was – and I had no problem being 3+ feet away from it… but staff moved them elsewhere as well.
This was all going on during Jimmie Allen’s opening set – so I can’t really speak much for his performance and honestly don’t really know who he is or care for him anyway. I know he was an Idol cast off and on last season and that’s about it.
The DJ came back on for a bit and then it was time for Carrie. I was entertained by people with floor tickets not knowing what a pit floor and GA floor meant and wanting to sit somewhere or complaining that their legs hurt. Carrie’s set was everything I was hoping for, and more. Lots of sparkly costume changes and even a couple of swings that got her from the main stage to the B stage (which was very close to where I was sitting!) A nice mix of good and old songs and I am absolutely obsessed with her new single – Hate my Heart. Totally relatable. She even had Jimmie come out for a song and they had a cute little dance break! My favorite was probably the end, the part she said was the “sassy” part of the show – Last Name, Something in the Water and then the encore of Welcome to the Jungle and Before He Cheats. Screaming those lyrics at the top of your lungs with a full arena is very therapeutic.
