Concert

Rock Boat Day by Day – Day 2

Saturday January 17We all woke up a lot earlier than we needed to – probably because we were ‘too excited to sleep’ We showered, even though the temperature control was a bit.. broken. Just before noon we headed to the hotel next door to ours, said hello to Nemo and Dory in the aquarium and waited for our shuttle.

We took the $10 shuttle ride to the port, gave our luggage to the porter and made our way to security to get on the boat. We showed our passports, went through the metal detector (where I was pleasantly surprised that my leg brace didn’t set it off) and made our way to check in.

Our sign and sail accounts were set up, which were also our room keys. It was about this time I noticed that my little schedule book had 2 of almost every page. It was very confusing to begin with, but I decided that they just knew I was a scrapbooker so I got double pages so that I could put almost all of them in my scrapbook once I got home!

We went up the escalator, got a group photo taken (I think one of the only photos of the 4 of us from the whole trip!) and got on the boat!

We checked out our room (so tiny!) and then headed to the Lido deck and got our first drink of the trip and some lunch. We also had our first encounter with one of the artists when we rode in the elevator with none other than Mr Stephen Kellogg, who showed us all the different Dramamine bracelets he was wearing. The last boat he was so seasick he had to sit for most of his sets!

At 4pm we did the lifeboat drill. Thank God we didn’t actually need to evacuate during the course of the trip because there was no way we’d survive. We barely figured out how to get our life vests on!

Then we headed back to the Lido deck for the sail away party where Cowboy Mouth was playing. Pretty much everyone on the boat was there, since it was the only show going on at the time.

We had our first Hanson spotting when Isaac and his wife were coming out of the pizza bar area while we were entering it. Isaac was sporting a spikey hairdo and Maribeth and I both commented on how it hadn’t been that long in a while and we liked how it looked!

As we walked through the casino area Maribeth noted that we were moving (we had no idea we had left the port) and I noted that I didn’t feel like we were moving at all, and was glad because earlier I thought I’d fall over when we took off.

Then we headed to the formal dining room (we had met up with some Vets who told us to eat there as much as we could) and were told that the room was “full” except we saw empty tables. We had to walk to the other restaurant and take the elevator down to the 3rd floor. Once we were waiting for our seats, we really felt the rocking. The whole dinner it seemed like we’d fall out of our chairs the rocking was so bad.

Also, 2 tables away from us having dinner was 2/3 of Hanson and their crew. That was pretty cool and it was shocking that no on bothered them. Although it was funny to see the reactions as people turned the corner and noticed them.

After dinner Maribeth and I took a quick nap while Michele and Marisa checked out the boat. We headed to the Lido deck for Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers set.

We went to bed right after because we had to be at our shore excursion at 9am.

The Rock Boat Day by Day – Day 1

Friday January 16
At 2pm I got picked up by my shuttle and was taken to JFK. The passenger that was picked up after me went to LaGuardia so I was excited to get to go by Shea Stadium to see the progress that has been being made on its destruction. Around 4pm I made it to JFK, checked my luggage (which weighed 41 lbs) and found my gate. My flight wasn’t leaving until 6:59 so I had plenty of time to people watch. Our take off time go bumped up to 6:55 but we spent close to 20 minutes on the runway. The pilot assured us that this was calculated into the flight time, but we still ended up arriving close to 30 minutes late to MIA. Once I arrived I got my luggage and waited for Maribeth. Her flight was also delayed the 30 minutes.

I thought that I would be waiting alone at the luggage claim for Maribeth’s flight to come in from Atlanta, but it turned out that somehow some of my flights luggage ended up on Maribeth’s flight so there was a decent amount of people around waiting with me.

Around 12:00am, Maribeth’s flight made their way to the luggage claim. After she got her luggage we grabbed a cab and headed to our hotel. We were escorted up to our room, almost did some severe damage to the mirror hanging on the wall (but my quick reflexes saved us 7 years bad luck) and got ready for bed.

We had a shuttle booked for the next day at noon to take us to the port.

Rock Boat&The Little Mermaid

There seemed to be a bit of a theme on the rock boat, at least for me. The first night, Kit of SK6ers fame, sang a piece of “Part of your World” during one of the songs. The next night, Isaac Hanson sang part of “Under The Sea” and during the meet and greet I got serenaded by Isaac and Taylor Hanson who sang “Kiss the Girl to me” Unfortunately I don’t have video of the meet and greet, but I do have some clips of Kit and Isaac!

SK6ers “Not So Lost”

Isaac Hanson “Under The Sea”
The steel drum is a keyboard effect done by their backup musician Demetrius (who totally rocks, by the way)

I uploaded a bunch of my videos, most of which without really looking at them to see if they were decent or not. But I tried to get at least one video of every artist I saw (each time I saw them) so a lot of the bands are represented – but the video quality varies. Between the wind at times, the boat rocking, the drunk people… it made it difficult, for me at least, to shoot a decent video 🙂

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=zacbop

A day by day itinerary will be coming soon!

Back from the Rock Boat!

I am back from the rock boat! Although it seems like my head still think it’s on a boat… I hope that rocking sensation goes away soon! It was a blast and I have tons of photos and videos I haven’t even attempted to get on the computer yet (in fact, I haven’t even unpacked the cameras and memory cards yet!) But I will definitely be posting things throughout the upcoming days/weeks.

Here’s who I saw:
Sister Hazel (1/21 – couldn’t see, just listened)
Alternate Routes (1/19)
Aslyn (1/19, 1/21)
Carbon Leaf (1/19)
Cowboy Mouth (1/17, 1/21)
Gaelic Storm (1/19,1/20)
Green River Ordinance (1/17,1/20,1/21)
Hanson (1/18,1/20)
David Ryan Harris (1/21)
Scott Munns (1/17)
Curtis Peoples (1/20)
Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers (1/17,1/19,1/21)
Sam Thacker (1/19)
The Kin (1/18)
The Spring Standards (1/20)
Michael Tolcher (1/19, 1/21)
Francisco Vidal (1/19)
Tyrone Wells (1/21)
Wideawake (1/21 – couldn’t get in, just listened)

Here’s who I missed 🙁 :
Benjy Davis Project
Blackberry Smoke
Ken Block
Graham Colton
Trevor Hall
Ernie Halter
Garrison Star
Tonic
Zac Brown Band

Overall, I think I did pretty good with seeing a majority of the bands. The first two days I napped a bit more than I probably should have (although, if I didn’t I might not have made it through the other days) but I think I did a darn good job at seeing a variety of artists – and trying to check out ones I hadn’t seen before.

2008 Concert Year In Review

It seems that my concert going for the year is over (unless I can convince someone else to pay $65 to celebrate the new year with Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers) I have decided to write up a year in review. I went to 25 concerts this year, which is an all time high for me in my 10 years of concert going. I hit my 100th concert this summer. I saw some new bands for the first time and others for the 36th!

The concerts I saw were – Spice Girls, Jonas Brothers (x5), SK6ers (x6 – 4 opening for hanson), Hanson (x5), Blake Lewis (x2), Honor Society (x5), Push Play, American Idols, Backstreet Boys, New Kids on the Block and David Cook

Before this year I had only seen SK6ers, Hanson and the Backstreet Boys before! Spots at the shows varied from front row (Honor Society) to ‘this is a good view of the stage, but we’re pretty high up’ (Spice Girls).

Most expensive show: Jonas ($150), David Cook ($150) tied
Least (not free) expensive show: Honor Society Toquet Hall ($6)
Free shows: Jonas Brothers 3-d filming, Honor Society oakes park, Blake Lewis @ Mohegan
# artists seen: 63
#unique artists seen: 35
# shows seen in CT: 12
# of shows out of state: 13
Show farthest away: Hanson in Lancaster PA
Closest show: SK6ers in New Haven CT
$$ spent: $1,106.00
Miles driven: 3,095

I am very much looking forward to 2009 and it’s concerts (kicking it off right with The Rock Boat!) but it will be hard to top this year!

Do The Wright Thing Gala 11/12/08

 

Upon arriving at the Hard Rock, our IDs were checked and tickets were taken. They were replaced with a wristband. I was too thrilled about that but luckily I had scanned it when the tickets had arrived.

At 6pm we were let in and down 2 flights of stairs where we saw Z100’s Carolina on the red carpet (though I’m still not sure who she was talking with)

We headed to the restaurant area which was absolutely packed with people and seats were at a minimum. At 7pm we headed to where David Cook’s concert would be and settled in to our spot on the floor behind the VIP/MVP area.

At 7:30 Carolina came out and then she introduced David Wright who thanked us all for coming and auctioned off some items. David introduced David Cook who came out to say hello before his set. David Wright spoke about how David Cook played for free so that the money would go to the David Wright foundation. David Cook teased that he expected that his season tickets were in the mail.

David Wright mentioned that former Mets Joe McEwing and Howard Johnson were there as well as Washington National’s 3rd baseman Ryan Zimmerman (who grew up playing baseball with David) I’m not sure I’d have recognized any of them in street clothes though!

Shortly after the auctions wrapped up, David Cook came out to play his set.
Heroes
Mr Sensitive
Declaration
Lie
Life On The Moon
Light On
(encore) Bar-Ba-Sol

We hung around for a bit longer to see if we’d catch a glimpse of anyone, but didn’t. But all in all it was still a fun night! Photos and video of David Cook getting David Wright to put on GUYLINER! After the cut.

 

The first rule of being a rock star – is you have to wear guyliner:

 

New Kids On The Block 11/08/08

Last night the New Kids reunion tour came back to Mohegan Sun’s arena and I got to see the “kids” for the first time after waiting nearly 20 years. I’m not really all that familiar with their newer stuff, so there were quite a few songs I didn’t know, but either way it was an incredibly entertaining show and the guys still got it even after all these years.

1. Single
2. Favorite Girl
3. The Right Stuff
4. Didn’t I Blow Your Mind/Valentine Girl Medley
5. Please Don’t Go Girl
6. Grown Man
7. No More Games
8. If You Go Away
9. 2 In The Morning
10. Tonight
11. Twisted
12. Baby I Believe In You
13. Give It To You (Jordan solo)
14. Stay The Same (Joey Solo)
15. Cover Girl (Donnie Solo)
16. I’ll Be Loving You Forever
17. Click Click Click
18. Summertime
19. Step by Step

Encore:
Hangin’ Tough/We Will Rock You

Natasha Beddingfield had a signing after the show – I didnt go but I did take a picture from the upper level while we were debating going to the club at the casino!

 

Backstreet Boys 11/2

Sunday night I met up with Lisa and we headed to Oakdale to see the Backstreet Boys. We hadn’t seen them since 2001 and I haven’t really kept up with them much since then. I checked out the set list on wikipedia ahead of time and there were only a few songs I didn’t recognize so I was glad for that.

We picked up our tickets at will call, which took a while because apparently fanclub tickets were kept separate than everyone elses.

The opening act was Donnie Klang from Making the Band 4. I have no idea who he is because I haven’t kept up with Making the Band since O-Town was formed, long before Diddy took it over (or whatever it is he is going by now) Donnie was cute, he could sing, but a lot of his lyrics were L-A-M-E. Hopefully he didn’t write them all himself.

BSB came out and made their way into a boxing ring and began their set. It was a great mix of both new and old so it wasn’t too many songs in a row that I weren’t familiar with. However, I thought that holding up huge signs was something that we got over after we were 12 or 14. Or maybe that was just me. Fortunately for me, most of these so called fans left before the show was over so I at least was able to have an unobstructed view for the last several songs.

The boys (or are they men now?) were very candid and silly – the stage was a much more stripped down version than the production we saw in 2001. Kevin was missing – but you wouldn’t even know it. It’s not like he had many parts in the songs anyway!

As we pulled out of the parking lot after the show, there was a crowd of girls waiting for one of the boys to come out. Of course, I thought no one would come out but as we drove by Howie came out to a sea of screaming girls. Many girls had also drove by and parked on the side street and ran back to catch a glimpse of them. Maybe they were Never Gone afterall…

Pictures and setlist under the cut

 

Larger Than Life / Stronger
Everyone
Any Other Way
You Can Let Go
Unmistakable
I Want It That Way
Shes Like The Sun (Howie Solo)
Show Me The Meaning Of Being Lonely
More Than That
Trouble
Incomplete
Drive By Love (AJs disturbing solo)
Panic
I Got You (Nick Solo)
Quit Playin Games (With My Heart)
As Long As You Love Me
All I Have To Give
I’ll Never Break Your Heart
Inconsolable
Welcome Home (Brian Solo)
The One
Treat Me Right
The Call
Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)

Shape Of My Heart

SK6ers 11/1/2008

Saturday night Jen and I made our way to Northampton, MA to see Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers. The openers were Clayton Senne and Pat McGee.

It was my 16th time seeing them and probably almost twice that for Jen. We picked up our tickets at Will – Call and made our way in.

Around 7:30 Clayton Senne came out and he played something like 8 songs which seemed like a lot for the first opener. He was followed by Pat who as always was fantastic.

SK6ers didn’t disappoint. I know they did a lot of songs but the highlight of the night was the first encore song where they played a cover of Kiss’ “I Want To Rock N Roll All Night” with an acoustic guitar, TUBA, banjo and saxophone. While it might sound like there was no way that combination could have worked, it somehow worked and was incredibly entertaining. After the show, Stephen told us that the idea came up about an hour before the show and they decided to try it! I was glad they did, it was definitely a success!

After the show, Clayton’s tour manager decided to come ask us why we were not buying his record (we told him we were broke not to offend him that we didn’t really dig Clayton’s set) and somehow he ended up sitting on my lap. (Jen, Andrea and I were sharing a chair so I guess he decided he could too)

 

Flower In Rain
Sweet Sophia
Wagon Wheel
Now Im Not So Lost
Fourth of July
See You Later, See You Soon
In Front Of The World
Days
Diamond
Hearts In Pain
Uninspired Gambling
Seven Bridges Road
Start the Day Early
Thirteen
Big Easy

I Want To Rock N Roll
Milwaukee

 

Hanson 10/22 – Zac’s 23rd Birthday

I was going to start out this blog by saying that I’ve never been to a concert on one of the artists birthdays before, but then I realized that would be a lie because it was Ramiele’s birthday at the American Idol concert last month! (And perhaps it was others birthdays as well but I just wasn’t paying attention or have forgotten through the years)

But I have been to a Hanson concert on both MY birthday and now Zac’s birthday too, so that must count for something.

I heard 4 new songs – which i was happy about. It took me 2 shows in a row to get 4 new songs in April. (But they also didn’t have a new EP they were promoting) One of which was the only song I hadn’t previously heard from “The Walk”, Fire On The Mountain. Zac did it as a solo on guitar and it was spectacular. (I had heard them sound checking it when I arrived so I kept my fingers crossed)

Two were from Take The Walk EP – Hope It Comes Soon and Follow Your Lead. They had sang the other 2 previously on tour – hopefully I didn’t miss my chance to hear those completely. (Like I think I might have done with “Love Somebody to Know” on the Underneath tour)

And the final new song was a cover, Higher, which I believe was from Sly and the Family Stone.

Other highlights were – Underneath which hadn’t been played in a while (at any show I’ve been to, anyway) and Running Man followed by Oh Darlin’. Gotta love the back to back Zac!

Before Zac did his solo, a lot of the audience put on birthday hats. Zac commented that we were all wearing funny hats. Then he said something like, “No more tattoos? Just funny hats?” taking a jab at how a lot of Hanson fans get tattoos of lyrics, symbols and images that remind them of the band (Or at least that is how I took it)

Later on Taylor talked about how Zac was going to be 23 and i’m not sure exactly what happened but it ended with Zac calling Taylor a jerk!

And maybe this is obsessive, but once again I was thinking scrapbook layouts while taking pics. “Zac of All Trades” for a title – he played the drums, guitar, harmonica and djembe!

Opening acts were Everybody Else (I met Carrick after the show) and Dave Barnes. I was impressed with both of them and will be heading over to iTunes soon to pick up some of their stuff!

 

The setlist was:
1. Something Going Round
2. Higher (cover)
3. Been There Before
4. Minute Without You
5. Penny & Me
6. Follow Your Lead
7. Great Divide

8. Georgia (acoustic)
9. Go (acoustic)
10. Underneath (acoustic)
11. Fire On The Mountain (Zac solo)

12. Dancin’ in the Wind
13. Blue Sky
14. Where’s the Love
15. Hope It Comes Soon
16. Can’t Stop
17. Running Man
18. Oh Darlin’
19. MMMBop
20. If Only / Lets Get It On
21. Hey
22. Watch Over Me

Encore
23. Lost Without Each Other

 

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