Louis Tomlinson at Mohegan Sun

Friday Night, Louis Tomlinson opened his Faith in the Future tour at Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, CT.  Getting tickets for this show was incredibly difficult and I was convinced bots took over the onsale.  With how many chunks of seats were not taken during the “sold out” show, I am still pretty convinced this was the case.

Traffic to get to the casino was a mess, way worse than your typical Friday and it’s almost Summer traffic, I think there was a pretty bad accident about 30 minutes into my drive.  My GPS kept redirecting me and in the end I am not sure it really helped me out at all, but the trip took about 2x as long as it was supposed to but I managed to show up shortly after doors opened.  The drive ended up making my knee angry so doing the show with just my cane was out.  And I had upper level seats.  I grabbed the walker, hoped they’d have a place to stash it while I was upstairs and headed inside.  The usher told me they might be able to relocate me and it would be worth asking but do it early when they still had a lot of options to move me to.  The staff was SO SO nice and I told them I could probably do the stairs if I needed to, but they insisted they’d be able to find me a seat with little to no steps and they certainly delivered.  I got moved about halfway back to a last row of the lower level with no steps to get to the seat, on the aisle and with a spot nearby to stash the walker.  After they screwed things up so badly earlier in the year, it was nice to see they DO care about helping out those who need help and ask for it.

I wasn’t sure what to expect as despite having tickets to see other 1D members solo, this ended up being the first one I actually made it to. (Appropriate it was Louis as he is m favorite member, though I do tend to listen to Niall’s music the most)  The place absolutely erupted when he did Night Changes – the first One Direction song of the set and everything was shaking.  The show was a lot of fun and I think I had more fun people-watching all the girls watch the show – why is the new thing to film yourself watching the concert? The set ended up having 2 1D songs and 1 Arctic Monkeys cover (which also got the whole place to erupt)

Louis kept saying it was going to be a very long tour, but this was the first night of it. He’s no stranger to Mohegan Sun as One Direction had played there several times but it was a little bit weird for me seeing it just be him and him doing all the stage banter. (I’ll have to get used to it as I have tickets to see Niall next year now – hopefully 3rd times the charm and I’ll actually make it.)

One Direction 2013 World Tour

After thinking that I wouldn’t be making it to a One Direction show, I was able to go see them Saturday at the Jones Beach Theater on Long Island.  I had never been to the venue – it is really cool! (Literally.) The stage is pretty much in the water at the beach and it’s a really neat place and hopefully I’ll get to go to another show there someday!  There were talks of thunder storms so I went prepared with my rain coat since the whole venue is open air and the night before the guys were playing in the rain.

I was a bit nervous about my ticket (stubhub / location) but it actually turned out to be really nice in the center of the venue! And there were still a lot more people behind me which is always sure sign that your tickets aren’t that bad 😉

5 Seconds of Summer opened.  I didn’t want to stand for their set, but the girls in front of me did, so I didn’t see any of it. (Well, that’s not entirely true. They recorded the whole thing on their phone so I was able to watch through the phone screen for some of it!) It was still light out so even if there was something on the screens, I couldn’t see it.  But from what I heard they were good.  They are from Australia and Louis discovered them on YouTube and asked them to join them on tour.  I think they came on at 7:30 or 7:45 – even though the show was “supposed” to start at 7. (The girl behind me was whining from 6:30 that no one was on stage yet…)

Then after what seemed like forever, One Direction took the stage! (I thought that they would be coming out at 8:20, but it was later than that. Which was worrying me because I thought there was going to be rain – but that was a non issue.)  They made sure to thank the fans constantly throughout the set which was a nice touch.  Harry also mentioned how the tickets went on sale over a year ago so that we had been waiting for the show for a long time.

For the questions from Twitter – they talked a bit about what 3 items they’d take on a deserted island with them, then Louis and Liam did cartwheels and they did the Harlem Shake which ended up with Harry having a horse head on and then saying he couldn’t sing any more because he was a little horse. (hoarse.)

During the encore, when Liam came out to sing Live Like We’re Young, the mic was not working.  So, he did what any great performer does and threw his arms out to motion to the fans to sing the verse.  And of course we did with no problem.  Then he ran back to the main stage to swap his mic out for one that was working 🙂

The show was a lot of fun and I thought it was cute how they mentioned the song titles before a lot of their songs (of course, when I didn’t need to be keeping track of a setlist!) and I am not sure that there was anyone who had more fun during the show than Harry!

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One Direction USA Tour Setlist

Unfortunately it looks like I will not be attending a show on the One Direction tour this summer (and not for lack of trying!) but I have some friends attending and it looks like this was the setlist for opening night last night and I would imagine it would remain about the same for the rest of the tour.  (And I hate to beg, but please someone hook me up with tickets to an east coast date?! MA.. NY… please?)

Up All Night
I Would
Heart Attack
More Than This
Loved You First
One Thing

Cmon Cmon
Change My Mind
One Way Or Another
Teenage Kicks
Last First Kiss
Moments
Back For You

Summer Love
Over Again
Little Things
Teenage Dirtbag
Rock Me
She’s Not Afraid
Kiss You

Live While We’re Young
What Makes You Beautiful

One Direction 12/1

Saturday night it was time to do it all over again as One Direction had their second performance at the Mohegan Sun Arena.  As far as the setlist and everything goes, it was the same show as the night before, but of course there were little things that were different.

Camryn was once again the opening act – and she didn’t wear the shoes that were giving her so much grief the night before.  The logo she had on the screens on the sides of the stage was also different from the night before and I think she ended her set with a cover mash-up that I don’t recall having been done the night before.  During her set she was throwing t-shirts in the crowd and one hit off a girls hand and the girl behind her caught it.  The girl who’s hand it hit turned around and grabbed it from the girl who caught it and then a mother swooped in and ripped it out of her hand to give it back to the girl that caught it.  I guess Camryn saw this go down too because she ended up tossing a few more near the girl that missed it the first time.

The guys once again started with Up All Night and all around seemed to be a bit more relaxed and loose on stage.  Louis didn’t seem to look as bored and they were all doing their little dance constantly. (I love that they only have 1 dance move and throw it in basically during EVERY song.)

At one point Louis got a hold of some silly string and was getting Liam over and over again.  Then he ended up spraying some of the crowd down front as well before dropping it down to one of the guys near the barricade.  Poor Liam.

Harry joined in a bit more on the antics tonight than he did the night before – he ran up one of the ramps and then slid down trying to go between Liam’s legs who was at the bottom of the ramp.

I looked for Niall and he was on the ground.  Then he got up and kind of like bowed so I am assuming he fell over, but I completely missed how he ended up on the ground.

They seemed to talk to the crowd a lot more too.  Friday night Louis at one point said they didn’t have time for “gossip” and stopped talking, but Saturday they were all commenting on how loud and great we were and how they loved that this was their job and we made it a job for them.

Overall it was a great show and I wish I was going to MSG tonight for their headlining performance there. (It’s not too late – anyone out there got ticket connections? Please?)

One Direction – Mohegan Sun Arena – 11/30

Friday night One Direction performed once again at the Mohegan Sun Arena.  They keep calling these shows “Warm Up” shows for the big event at Madison Square Garden, which is almost a bit offensive because I couldn’t get tickets to the MSG show to save my life and it seems as though these shows aren’t quite as important to them.  But, anyway…

Every time I go to one of these shows (especially alone) before doors open I wonder why I torture myself in these insane crowds of people who just appeared on Earth the night before.  (Is this a line for the doors? Do we have to wait for them to open? My phone has a camera on it can I not bring it in?)

The night was also special for me because I was trying out a new smaller concert camera.  It only has 20x zoom compared to my old 35x but I think that it did quite well.

The opening act was once again Camryn.  I don’t recall her getting all that great of a response last time she opened either.  She kept telling people to stand and jump but most of the girls in my section (and many others that I could see) just sat.  I also have never heard an opening act complain about her shoes so many times!  I guess they were velcro and kept popping open, she ended up taking them off for half a song, then had them on again a bit later complaining again about how obnoxious they were.

The songs in between the sets once again had more girls up than Camryn.  (This is when you know it is time to re-think your opening act.)  I spotted the set list and zoomed in and was able to see most of it – except for what they’d be starting the show with so it was a surprise when they came out of the end of the catwalk to “Up All Night”.  They only did a few of the songs off of the new album which was surprising.  I am not sure if this is the same setup for their 2013 show of if they will re-work things a bit – but I am kind of hoping they re-work it (not that I have tickets – yet!) to include more songs from Take Me Home.

Louis and Niall were cracking me up for most of the night.  When Louis wasn’t standing around looking bored he was doing stupid little moves and then Niall would repeat them and they’d crack each other up.  They also were nearly running into each other constantly and diving in a different direction at the last second.  At times Liam got in on the antics as well.  (And just to note – Louis is my favorite so I am not saying he looked bored to be negative against him)

They did a cover of Wheatus Teenage Dirtbag – and I guess a lot of girls have been saying it is a new 1D song.  This is because if I remember correctly before they performed it they said that it was a NEW SONG and then after they were done asked if we liked the NEW SONG.  If you weren’t aware it was a cover it was quite easy to be confused.

Harry also tried to make a joke – asked who went to the local high school and then said that the principal called because they all missed the school day and where were they? queuing outside.  I thought it was pretty funny, but it didn’t get a great response from the crowd lol

The show was a ton of fun and then I did it all again the next night… so look for that review tomorrow w/ photos from the opposite side of the stage. Somehow I got mirror image seats – same section but on different sides of the stage. Same row too!

One Direction at Mohegan Sun

After many failed attempts at trying to get tickets to see One Direction on any of their tours, they added a Connecticut show and I somehow managed to get a ticket for it.  It was not the best seat in the world, but it was in the upper level in the section closest to the stage – so I suppose it could have been worse.  And it turned out that it ended up being their first headlining show in the USA as well.

When we arrived, I had to laugh at the parents who were trying to bring their kids through the casino.  You can not walk through it unless you are 21+ and there are signs all over the parking garage with details on what entrance to use if you have people under 21 with you.  This was just the beginning of dumb parents (more on that later)

There was a mob for the doors so I decided to go and gamble for a bit before heading inside.  I ended up losing $5 on a Lobster Mania machine and then I found the handicapped accessible line (this is awesome, because I never would have survived standing in that mob of girls who were all way too excited to get inside and therefore could not stand still or control themselves) waited a few minutes for the woman checking bags to fight with a mother over a poster that would not be allowed in and then take toothbrushes from some young girls.  My section was directly across from the doors to get in, which was nice because the floors in the arena have a design on them and I trip over the design EVERY. TIME.

I was concerned I might be the last row in the whole arena, but fortunately there were 3 rows behind me. (For future reference I think the section ends with row M.)  The tickets said possibly obstruction and there really wasn’t one, except that the screen behind the guys on stage couldn’t really be seen at the angle we were at. This could have easily been remedied if the videos in between sets were shown on the screens on the side as well, but for whatever reason they decided not to pipe the video in on them.

The first opening act was a 12 year old named Camryn.  She didn’t really seem to get the crowd pumped up at all, although she tried to get everyone to jump and fist pump along with her.  I had my earplugs in and had a hard time hearing her singing over her backing track. You can find out more about her at her website: http://www.camrynmusic.com/

The second opening act was an 18 year old named Manika.  Her singing was at least louder than the music, but I wasn’t in to her at all.  You can check out her at her website: http://manika-music.com/

When the lights came back on after Manika’s set there was an “awwww” from my section because they thought that One Direction would be on next.  I guess I have to try and remember back to my first concert – before a lot of the girls who were at this show was born – to see if I felt the same way. (I don’t really remember)   The music in between Manika and One Direction’s set had the crowd more pumped than both openers combined. Everyone was jumping around and dancing to songs from Grease, Kriss Kross and “I like to move it move it”.

At the Mohegan Sun Arena, they have a band of screens that go around the arena that show ads for upcoming shows and alcohol. (I never realized the amount of ads for alcohol that they showed until last night. There were at least 3!) Some of these ads are bright and some are dark.  Every time a dark ad came up everyone would scream thinking that the lights were going out for One Direction to take the stage. (I can’t fault the girls too much – this tends to confuse me at times too!)

Before the show started, I was able to see the guys walk up the back of the stage and get ready for the show to begin.  They had the same stage clothes as their set during their tour with Big Time Rush.   Each of the guys had their chance to talk to the crowd during the set, though pretty much everything they said I could not hear because the screams were insane!  At one point they took questions from twitter – which resulted in them doing American Accents and singing the theme song to the Fresh Prince of Bel Air.

From what I could tell from the videos – it seemed like each set was supposed to represent one of the seasons. For the final set it was winter and Liam was wearing a scarf!  There was even snow falling in the arena and the guys were throwing snow balls at the crowd and each other.

I certainly missed the choreographed dancing of the boybands of “my day”, but the guys had high energy and were running, jumping and spinning all around the stage and seemed to genuinely be having a great time.  I took an insane amount of photos, so choosing what to post here was difficult.  I am hoping to get the Concert Katie gallery updated soon and whenever that happens I’ll post a link so you can check out more of my photos from this concert and others as well.

After the show, leaving the arena was very difficult. Parents were waiting for their kids to come out and some of them gave NO ROOM for people to exit. It was ridiculous going through this wall of parents. (My parents went with me too, mainly to gamble and so I wouldn’t have to ride there alone – but we made a deal to meet at a restaurant so they could order me some food before the place got mobbed. It was a genius idea, even though I thought I was never going to make it to where they were because I had to navigate through the sea of parents!)

Na na na
Stand up
I wish
I gotta feeling
Stereo hearts
Valerie
Torn
Moments
Gotta be you
More than this
Up all night
Tell me a lie
Everything about you
Dj zayn
Use somebody
One thing
Save you tonight
What makes you beautiful

I want

Big Time Rush Better With You Tour

Thursday night Big Time Rush’s Better With You Tour hit the MGM Grand Theater at Foxwoods Casino. Performing were Jackson Guthy, One Direction and of course, Big Time Rush.

It was apparent that the majority of the girls there wanted to see One Direction more than Big Time Rush.  For those of you not in the know, (and trust me, for a while after I got tickets I wasn’t sure who One Direction was either) One Direction was put together as a group on the UK version of X Factor, similar to the 2 groups make on the US version.  However unlike the groups on the US version they actually ended up coming in 3rd place.  They are 5 guys, though unfortunately one of them could not be there last night due to a death in the family.

When we got in to the venue, we saw that it was set up for a Jackson Guthy, which made it a bit amusing when girls were asking where One Direction was when he took the stage. Obviously someone else was going to perform before them and you need to be patient!  Unfortunately his performance was not that great at all. His first song was good but then it all seemed to be downhill from there.

 

After Jackson’s set, it was time to set up for One Direction.  Their set up was basically just hanging a banner.  They all came out to sing and I have to say I was not all that impressed with their stage presence. Maybe I was hoping they’d dance or something but they kind of just stood there.  Which kind of helped for taking photos at least, although my camera hated the lighting during their set.  One Directions setlist was: I Want, Moments, Use Somebody, More Than  This, One Thing, Up All Night and their current single – What Makes You Beautiful.  The crowd was absolutely INSANE for their entire set – errupting in piercing screams whenever Niall jumped in the air. I mean, it was cool, but I don’t know. (This is how I know I’m getting old. ha)   After their set, a bunch of girls left, including the 2 next to us.  I always tease if I go for an opener that I’m going to leave early – but usually end up at least checking out the headliner (and getting sucked in to staying) but hey, if you want to pay for only a 7 song set that’s your thing.

Then it was time for Big Time Rush!  Big Time Rush is the boyband featured on the Nickelodeon show of the same name.  I met the guys last year when my friend begged me to win tickets to a radio performance and now I’m hooked (and in love with James. Who was born 3 days before I turned 6…)

 

The set started out, of course, with the Big Time Rush theme song.  The majority of their set were tracks off of their newest album, Elevate.  The stage set up was not too crazy, although there was a trampoline which was pretty cool, as well as a few fireman poles that the guys took turns spinning down.

There was a lot of dancing, of course jumping and even some back flips.  The guys also went out in to the crowd a lot, which I thought was pretty brave.  They did almost all of the song Cover Girl in the crowd, hugging girls in the audience as they made their way through the crowd. For Worldwide they brought a girl up on stage and rather than the crowd being jealous – they cheered insane amounts when Kendall put an arm around her and kissed her cheek and when Logan and James were holding her hand. I have to admit, I was a little jealous of her.

The show was really exciting and I hope that I can catch them this summer on their summer tour! BTR’s setlist is under the cut!

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