July 2024

David Cook at The Kate

Wednesday night David Cook brought his scars open eyes closed tour to the Kate in Old Saybrook. He had Leah Marlene opening, who was on Idol a couple of years ago and placed 3rd.

Before the show I opted to do his V. I. P. which changed a bit from past tours of doing the photo opp M&Gs. He did a 45 minute Q and A session where he played 2 songs, which was a cover of Collective Soul’s The World I Know and Jimmy Eats World’s The Middle.  He answered questions for like 45 minutes and talked to us a bunch about idol, some behind the scenes stuff about when Mariah Carey mentored him, which he hasn’t said to anyone ever in years.  I’m not gonna say what specifically he said about her. You’ll have to ask him yourself. Then we get a group photo at the end which he said make things go quicker,  because he often spent too much time talking to everyone at the Meet & Greets wanting to make sure everyone had a moment and then it would cut into time for doors or time for him to eat. He thought that this was just a better scenario.  I really like it because he talked a lot about songwriting and how it works for him and things like that, which I found to be really interesting and if we just did the photo I would have asked him some dumb question about who knows what if I even asked him anything at all.
As I mentioned Leah open the night. She did about a 30 minute set, which was 4 or 5 songs on her electric guitar. She was really good and she seemed to really enjoy the crowd and the city of Old Saybrook but I was kind of surprised to see people in the front row, like blatantly having their phones on texting with people with the brightness up to a 100%, but she took it in stride.
I really enjoyed her set. I probably should have stopped to talk with her a little bit after the show, but I was trying to get home because 8am meetings the day after a concert are not a fun time.
David took the stage a little after eight, he had a short set but chatted a lot during the set. Which always makes up for the difference in songs. He always has something weird or hilarious to say this time. He ended up talking about tithing and someone in the crowd screamed, this is New England and he kind of lost it and was cracking up and was joking about how tithing probably started here. We’re in the birthplace of America.  And/or it came over from the U. K where people were trying to leave religious prosecution and and then he goes well,  if you don’t call it tithing, what do you call it to which someone yelled out taxes and then we really lost him. Even his guitar player said that he had been playing with him for 5 years now and had never seen him get broken quite like that, so that was a lot of fun when he kept kind of looping back to it during the show which made things even funnier, and he needed to keep taking breaks just because he was laughing so hard. Then he said that he was going to be lying in bed in a room all by himself that night and would just still be laughing to himself about it. So glad he had a good time. Hope that means he’ll come back to Connecticut. The set was mostly newer songs and a few older ones.  And then the final song of the 4 song finale was his new song dead weight, which he so nicely released for me on my birthday, but I hadn’t had a chance to listen to it yet, so I had to listen to it live for the first time and I wasn’t sure what to expect. But I really loved it and I’m gonna have to listen to it like 300 more times when I get some free time!

Tartan Terrors at The Kate 7/3

Another Wednesday at the Kate meant that we had to try and get there a bit early in order to secure parking.  There once again was a concert on the green (which was sponsored by the Kate?!) but it seemed to be less busy as when we were there for Gaelic Storm, maybe because many had already left for the holiday weekend.  This show was about an hour and a half with an intermission and in addition to being great music – I also laughed so much. (Sorry Chris, Ian IS funny)  Unfortunately I didn’t keep track of the setlist for the show to have one to post.  We were in the front row and I was so impressed watching Emily’s feet as she danced and tapped.  How does she do it!?  After the show we got to say hello to some of the band members.  I am looking forward to when I am able to go see them again!

Justin Timberlake at Hershey Stadium

Friday July 4th Justin Timberlake brought his Forget Tomorrow World Tour to Hershey, PA.  I wasn’t sure what to expect with traffic since it was a holiday, so I left early and somehow only ran into traffic when I was about an hour out and it was due to an accident.  Everyone must have already left before me or the day before, but that worked for me! (In the past the 4 hour trip has taken up to 7 so 4 hours 15 mins is alright with me!)

A storm ended up rolling through just before doors, so we waited it out in the car before joining the absolute masses of people trying to enter the stadium.  It was an absolute cluster, which we were kind of expecting.  We made it to the ADA area and the DJ was already going.  When Justin first took the stage it was still light out which was distracting for me and I was paying more attention to the drone than anything else.  It was also incredibly hot and humid and I was trying to figure out how to best ration my water. (I ended up deciding to spend the $5 on another bottle because it was too much for me not to.)  Justin kept saying “it’s hot, it’s hot, did I mention it’s hot?” whenever he stopped to talk to the crowd.  He had a suit jacket on for a couple of songs but then took it off to have just a t-shirt on, which he changed half way through – can’t say I blamed him, I was trying to track down an event t-shirt for myself since the shirt I was wearing was soaked with sweat.  He also had sweat dripping off his arms and must have gone through at least 5 towels throughout the course of the show.

I was hoping he would walk past us on his way to the B Stage, but since the stadium is so large, he didn’t. But we had a decent spot across from the B-Stage – when the women on the floor weren’t standing on their chairs to see better…

He also took time to ask everyone who was standing to sit, commenting “I’ll wait” as people were hesitant. Then he asked for veterans and those in the service to stand so we could cheer for them which I thought was very nice of him to do.

There was some speculation that he might sing “Love and War” since it mentioned the Fourth of July – and he did when he returned to the A Stage.  There also was a really cool fireworks display during Mirrors that was probably one of the cooler things I have seen at a concert.

As much as I say I don’t like Justin, I do enjoy seeing him live, but do hope for an *NSYNC reunion tour/show in the future.

Justin Timberlake Setlist Hersheypark Stadium, Hershey, PA, USA 2024, The Forget Tomorrow World Tour

Kevin Farley at The Kate

I recently became a member at The Kate and when looking up when Kris Allen tickets were going on sale, I saw Kevin Farley would be coming to do his stand up and HAD to buy a ticket.  I opted to get one in the front row off to the side, not knowing what to expect from Kevin or his opener.  Kevin didn’t do much crowd interaction but his opener did ask my name and what I did for work and told a joke he said usually worked better if the software engineer was a man.

When I got to the lot, Kevin ended up arriving shortly after and parking 2 spots from me and I was absolutely freaking out in my car – it was DOUG LINUS.  Fortunately I got my act together before the show and when meeting him afterwards.  He signed my 2gether CDs and asked where I found them – you don’t understand how obsessed with the band I was! And then we took a few selfies.  His opener didn’t know Kevin was even in a boyband and showed him the CDs.

I really enjoyed Kevin’s set, he was really funny – though I think I know a bit too much about his sex life now… lol I never thought I’d get the chance to meet any of the 2gether members so it was a very exciting evening!  Be sure to check him out if he comes to a comedy club near you! (plus sign…)

BBMak at Stage One

Wednesday June 26 I went to see BBMak do a headlining show in Fairfield at Stage One.  Opening for the evening was Trevor from O-Town doing this thing solo.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from Trevor, and admittedly it seemed to start off a little awkward, but I really enjoyed his original songs and he kept me laughing by explaining he was half black and half white and was going to be singing songs from both sides – and would hop and then say he was going back to the white side or back to the black side to sing some of his favorite songs.  I also liked that before his originals he explained to us what they were about and what made him write them which I always find really interesting.

Then it was time for the main event, BBMak.  This was my first time seeing them do a headlining set, although it was my 6th time seeing them overall. It’s amazing how the lyrics from their first couple of albums are still embedded in my brain, and as they sang them, it all came back! The guys were a ton of fun making us laugh quite a lot and at one point Ste joked, “Who let a pterodactyl in?!” Which made everyone lose it laughing all the more.  About halfway through their set a huge storm rolled by, we could hear all the rain on the roof, but I guess the guys didn’t hear it since they never made a comment about it.  Fortunately for us, by the time the show ended, the storm had passed, but we did get to see a really cool heat lightning shoot across the sky on our drive home!

I opted to do the post show selfies with the guys, got some hugs said a quick hello and Christian snapped a few selfies.  I commented to them how the lyrics all came flooding back and Christian said “it’s like riding a bike!” and Ste commented about how I was singing every word.   The brain is strange and mysterious.  (If only I remembered what I needed to do day to day instead of all the ’00 boyband lyrics…)

BBMak unfortunately will not be at my next POP 2000 show – but I hope I get to see them again soon!

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