Hanson at TN Valley Fair

One day I had decided I was going to really focus and get all of my work done early. And then I realized that a new Hanson show was announced at the TN Valley Fair in Knoxville, TN and then I realized that I had just spent $700+ on 6 front row seats before asking any of my friends if they were even interested. Turns out most of them were in, and plans commenced.

I flew in to Nashville Thursday afternoon, which when I got to the airport it had no gate listed, but eventually some staff members came and realized the mistake and the screens were corrected and the flight was otherwise uneventful. My friend picked me up at the airport, we got lunch and then went back to her place to decide what to do in the evening and opted to check out a nearby resort and ended up seeing a Halloween light show, having dinner and riding a boat ride that doubled as a silent disco. It was my first time doing a silent disco and it was a lot of fun and definitely something I’d consider doing again. Later in the evening the rest of our crew arrived, we made a rough plan for the next day and went to bed.

Friday we headed from Nashville to Knoxville with a stop at Cracker Barrel for lunch and of course Buc-ees to load up on snacks. We then made our way to the fairgrounds, which apparently was built on nothing but hills and they had no accessible parking spots anyway. When we kept asking, every lot near where we wanted to be was for vendors. Finally we found a lot that said the giant concrete hill was “accessible” because it was concrete and not grass.  I think they missed the part of ADA where the parking spots are supposed to be flat? We slowly made our way to the stage, finally finding a first aid golf cart that was willing to give me a ride the last bit of the way there.  We ended up bumping into Taylor and chatting for a bit and getting a photo and then headed inside to our seats.  Apparently none of the ushers/security there knew how to count… but after some drama turns out, we were right and knew better than they did what seats were sold.

Before the show we had made a mock setlist and we were pretty close, but they did end up throwing in a few surprises – Look at You, Can’t Stop and Hey that we weren’t expecting.  The show was a lot of fun, the crowd had a ton of energy and all the ridiculousness we had to go through to get there was forgotten.  After the show we waited over by the van, but it was straight up teeniebopper land with people screaming for ‘Zachary’ – when he came over he quickly did some photos and I was able to snag him for one – but he didn’t stick around for very long.  I’m not sure if anyone else came out as they were closing the building we needed to exit through so we got told to leave – but we did manage to get someone to track down the first aid golf cart again and get us back to the car.  I wanted to take a picture of how ridiculous the “accessible” parking was, but I had forgotten.

Sunday night I ended up returning the rental car, “stealing” a car with a staff member, getting dropped off at the terminal, grabbing a wheelchair and heading to the gate. But not before my Buc-ees snacks needed an extra inspection… Upon arrival at the gate I was told that the plane held 175 people but would only have 23 on board and that we’d all get our own row (and then some) and we had to make sure to spread out for weight and balances.

Hanson at The Big Dam Party

 

When I was doing some Hanson concert math, I realized that if I added in this one off show in Tulsa, my 300th show would be Zac’s birthday on tour, provided they didn’t add any other shows in between.  Then they did end up adding a show in between and well, at that point I had already booked this trip and while I could have backed out – once you’ve given yourself a Hanson concert, can you really take it away from yourself?

I had hoped to fly Southwest both ways, but they didn’t have any flights to get me home so I did a Southwest/American split.  I took an afternoon flight to Chicago, which had an hour and 20 minutes for a layover.  Except no wheelchairs came and by the time they did show up, I had 30 minutes to get to the other gate and then I was left up at the top of the jet bridge and by the time a pusher actually came, she said ‘oh girl, you don’t have much time’, I mean… I know but is there anything I can do about it when I’m at the mercy of other people and there’s no one nearby to even flag down to call someone to help me? We got to the gate for the connecting flight to Tulsa with *9* minutes to spare and no chance to stop for food or the bathroom.  For the most part, the flight was otherwise uneventful but we did have to wait for lightning to pass once we landed because the ground crew had taken cover.  Uber wanted $50 to get me to the hotel and Lyft wanted only $20, so for the weekend my allegiance was with Lyft. I also ordered door dash to show up shortly after I thought I’d be checked in and settled and they didn’t bring half of my order so that was fun. (We have the worst luck with DoorDash/UberEats in Tulsa!)

Saturday morning I was pretty lazy, but ended up heading outside to hit up Ida Red for some Hanson merch and Antoinette’s for some snacks and to also see just how hot it was and how long I’d want to sit in it at the park before the show. I also ordered some lunch and timed it out perfectly to do it all in one trip.  I ended up deciding to try and get to The Gathering Place around 4.  I was hoping I could convince my Lyft driver to break the rules and drop me off in a closer parking lot than the designated drop off, and he agreed!  As soon as we spotted the largest rubber duck he went into the lot and I told them I was just hopping out and no one had a problem with that.  I found the stage and realized it was down a giant hill so I parked myself at the top because I wasn’t sure I could make it down on my own, and once I found out it might start raining I didn’t want to end up stuck down there if I had to run for cover.

At 5, Joleen Brown took the stage.  She had won The Big Show Off that happened earlier this year and Zac Hanson was a judge. She did a 30 minute set and I think the weather was really messing with her – the sun was bright and shining right at the stage, but she powered through!

It then started drizzling and I debated if I should go find a tent or stay where I was, and once I committed to the poncho it started coming down a lot harder and I was mildly regretting my decisions but had to stick it out at that point.  I also somehow didn’t put the poncho on right and my left leg was getting soaked but my right was fine?  I think it was because I tried to hide my arms inside as well.  Fortunately my new shorts that I was hoping would dry quickly, did.  At 7 when it was still raining (and some thunder and lightning too) we were told that the show was going to still happen but would be delayed.  The rain seemed to let up a little bit after 8 and the stage started to get set up for Hanson.  I took my poncho off, but it ended up starting to rain again and the radar was showing until 11 so I kept it on – but was hoping I’d have enough breaks in the weather to get some photos! (Which I did, but haven’t gotten them off the camera yet)  I also found out that having a cosmic brownie in the middle of a Hanson concert takes it to a whole other level, thanks to my friend Keena and her daughters who decided to share a snack with me.

The setlist was a bit of what I was expecting for a festival show with a couple of hometown covers thrown in – Livin’ on Tulsa Time and Never Been to Spain.  I do think some of the set got cut short due to the delay, but I unfortunately haven’t seen a setlist from the stage to know what was missing.  I thought that they might have finished with If Only – and was a bit surprised it was Get the Girl Back (unless it was a last minute change due to a wet stage?)

After the show I met up with my friends Jon and Adam, got to see the giant duck from the front and they walked me to the parking lot which was FOREVER away, so I am glad that I got my Lyft driver to break the rules! Jon ended up driving me back to the hotel because the spot to wait for ride share was very dark!

Sunday I woke up, ate the rest of my snacks, packed, and then grabbed a Lyft to the airport.  As soon as I entered the airport, I got an alert that my flight was delayed by about 15 minutes. I had a decent layover in Charlotte, so I figured if it stayed that way, I should be fine.  At the gate they told us it was a small plane and all roller bags would need to be tagged and if you had less than 30 minutes of a layover, they would check it to your final destination as waiting for the bags would hold them up and the bags would move to the plane much faster than the passengers would.  The gate agent also thought we’d be able to make the 10 minutes the flight was late up in the air.

I was optimistic until we were getting ready to land and were told that Charlotte airport had instituted a ground stop and we were unable to land there and they wanted us to circle until 6:45pm.  The captain said we didn’t have enough fuel to do that so we were going to circle for 10 minutes and see if we could land then or we would have to divert to Columbia, SC.  After the 10 minutes we were told the ground stop was until 7:30pm and we’d need to divert to refuel.  They had us stay on the plane for a bit, and told anyone if they got off they were terminating their trip and would have to find their own way back. A few people opted to try and get rental cars to get back to Charlotte.  My 8pm flight to Hartford got pushed to 9:30 so I figured I’d still be ok and would wait it out.  They then told us the ground stop was extended to 8:30pm and let us get off the plane. Of course my walker was nowhere to be found so they got me a wheelchair to get inside.  I was able to see some fireworks while we waited.  There were several other diverted planes, one of which got canceled until the next morning, but eventually we were told we would be boarding again.  Of course, there was no one around to push the wheelchair so I had to steady myself with my suitcase and slowly make my way back out to the plane.  It took a bit for us to finally take off, but in that time my flight got pushed to 10pm and then 11pm.  I got to Charlotte around 10pm and by then, my flight was going to take off at midnight and get me back to CT at 2am.  Most of the food places were starting to close, but my wheelchair pusher told me what ones were open 24 hours so I could get some dinner. (or lunch? I don’t even know)

The gate agent ended up giving me an upgrade to the extra leg room seats and I ended up having the row all to myself.  The captain thought we’d land earlier than 2am and make up some time in the air, but even though he did get us on the ground at about 1:45am, the grounds crew was not ready for us so we had to wait.  I got the valet shuttle to my car and got home around 3am – with a stop for McDonalds… for… dinner?

Fortunately I had Monday off due to the Labor Day holiday and was able to sleep in (I don’t think I actually fell asleep until around 5am) and not have to worry about doing much of anything.  It’s always an adventure… and now I am trying to wrap this up and get it posted before I head out for my next trip…

 

Avril Lavigne Greatest Hits Tour

Wednesday night I made my way to Hartford for Avril Lavigne’s Greatest Hits tour.  I’m not the biggest Avril fan, but Simple Plan was opening and I absolutely love them and don’t often get the chance to see them.  I also ended up jumping at the chance to get a VIP Pre-Show Pizza Party with Simple Plan.

For the pizza party we got let in a little early and were able to eat pizza and have drinks before the guys came in. They said they’d “talk to everyone” which based on other similar events I’ve gone to I didn’t think would happen but I managed to talk to each of them and get selfies. Seb and Jeff sat at the table with me but I had to track down Pierre and Chuck since they were in one spot and had everyone going to them.  We also got a group photo taken with our device of us with the band and then a big group photo of everyone. We also got a signed laminate, signed poster and a clear tote bag.

Once we were done, the doors to the pavilion still weren’t open. I took a quick look at merch and there was a shirt I wanted but I didn’t want to wait in the line. Once I got in and to my spot, I saw they were doing mobile order and pick ups at the merch booth so I ordered it that way, knowing I’d be leaving before the show was over and could quickly grab it on my way out.

The first band went on at 8 and was called Girlfriends so I was a bit surprised to see 3 men walk out as the band! They sounded like a lot of other pop punk bands but weren’t bad.

Then it was time for Simple Plan! They had a decently long set and I haven’t seen them in so long I was just so happy to see them again! Also – my new earplugs are awesome! (Even if I did drop one mid set and had to get security to help me recover it)  They basically did all their hits and the crowd really seemed into it.

Avril didn’t hit the stage until 10. I knew she did a song with Simple Plan so I was going to stay until then, but as the set went on I decided I was leaving at 11, Simple Plan or not. I’m getting old and it was too late for a middle of the week show lol.  Fortunately for me, Simple Plan came out at 10:53 and finished at 10:59.

I grabbed my merch, headed to my car, and was on the main road by 11:16 and home just after midnight.

I’m still not the biggest Avril fan but fortunately with a greatest hits tour I knew most of the songs simply from listening to the radio for the last 22 years. (The fact that both Simple Plan and Avril have singles that are 22 years old is mind-blowing to me)

Mat Kearney Ridgefield Playhouse

Mat Kearney is on his Headlights Home tour, but decided to add in a small run of acoustic trio shows so he could come back to the Ridgefield Playhouse. It was his 3rd time playing there and my 3rd time seeing him there.  He said he likes the venue and the town, but doesn’t quite know where he is.  The opener, Zach Sebaugh, shared the same sentiments – he knew we were sort of close to NY because that’s where he flew in to.  For those who haven’t been, Ridgefield is kind of in the middle of the woods. It’s a good hour from my house and 25 or so minutes of that are just winding through non highway side roads.

Zach Sebaugh opened the show, he is from Georgia. There was something about him that sounded familiar (but in a good way) I was thinking maybe a John Mayer influence but he ended up mentioning that Jack Johnson was one of his favorites and then it all made sense. (And then I started laughing about the line John once changed in a song to “You couldn’t tell me from Jack Johnson” – but I wouldn’t be surprised if Mayer is an influence too)  Zach teased by saying it was his first show in Connecticut – but won’t be his last – he is also opening for Mat the next night at another CT show.  He will be on tour this fall but unfortunately the closest he is coming is NY during my crazy October.  Hopefully he will make it back to CT at some point though because I really enjoyed his set.

In the intermission, a couple ended up sitting next to me – one of which ended up being a childhood family friend I hadn’t seen in years so that was pretty cool and totally unexpected.

Then it was time for Mat to take the stage.  He was really chatty and even said he wasn’t sure why he was so feisty. There was a group in the front row that were very animated and I think were a bit of a distraction to them – they kept calling things out to him as well.  He ended up going a bit off setlist and played ‘Real One’ for what he thought was the first time live.  He also wondered why he writes songs with so many words in them because it is hard to sing them all.  Overall it was a really fun show!

At the end of the night, I was waiting for security to grab my walker so I could leave.  Everyone else had gotten kicked out of the room but they said I should stay put.  In this time, the stage was being cleared off and one of the guys handed me the setlist. (I didn’t ask, just happened to be the only one there) and I heard a guy from the back start yelling that he had asked for a setlist and was told NO!  I was like oh great now I have to walk past this guy after he’s yelling about me, but fortunately nothing happened.

There also was a guy who came up to the front at the end of the show, put a piece of paper down on the stage, and then security escorted him out. I don’t know if this was the same guy or not, but I’m very curious as to what the paper said.

Shawn Mendes at Bearsville Theater, Woodstock

Thursday, August 8, I was lucky enough to be one of the 250 or so fans in attendance to Shawn Mendes’ return to the stage on the ‘For Friends & Family Only’, an intimate tour he is doing to debut his new album coming out in October, Shawn. To get tickets, you had to sign up via Seated and let them know if you wanted floor or balcony seats and 1 or 2.  I put in for 1 for either section and was told that I was chosen for the balcony.

I drove the two hours out to Woodstock and was hoping that it would not be raining on the way home as they were all dark, windy, woodsy roads.  When I arrived there were already some girls waiting in the rain but I opted to wait to get in line until closer to doors.  We were told that we would have to have stickers placed over the cameras on our phones and could not take any photos or videos for the first 7 songs, once we got a double thumbs up from security we could remove the stickers and use our cameras.

At 8pm, when his new music video was set to premiere, they streamed it for us through a projector on the curtain at the back of the stage.

Shawn thanked everyone for sticking around and got a bit emotional after singing his first song.  He also warned us that he might cry a lot throughout the show.  He seemed to be in a good place, and was very vulnerable in his stage banter and in his lyrics as well.  He said they were going to play the album top to bottom, which to me means in track order, but based on the track listings I had found online, it didn’t appear that he did it in order, but he did play all the tracks. I’m really excited for it to come out in October to get a chance to listen to it again – Shawn was impressed we all came out to a show where we wouldn’t know any of the songs, and was even more impressed when during a couple of chorus’ we caught on and sang along. (He said it was because we know him so well and know his writing style)

His parents were in the front row of the balcony and also in attendance was Logan Paul?  It also was Shawn’s birthday so an impromptu singing of Happy Birthday happened and he wore a birthday hat from the crowd for a couple of minutes before saying he couldn’t wear it any longer but was going to keep it.

After the show it was drizzling a bit, but that didn’t stop fans from waiting at the stage door! I opted to just get in my car and make the trek home as I had another road trip happening Friday morning!

Also of note – they stamped our hands on the way in and despite attempting to wash it off until I started bleeding, some of the ink is STILL on my hand 5 day later…

Boeing Boeing at Barrington Stage Company

Saturday, after a late night with the New Kids, I decided to make my way up to the Berkshires of Massachusetts to see Boeing Boeing, which was starring Debra Jo Rupp who is one of my favorite actresses. She was on my favorite show ever – That 70s Show and is now absolutely hysterical on That 90s Show.  Once I saw that it was only 2 hours away, I knew that I had to go check her out!  I did not realize that a play about essentially flight delays could be so hilarious!  But Debra Jo was phenomenal she was playing a French version of Kitty to an extent and had to go toe to toe at times with one of the other leads who played Robert, who was absolutely hysterical as well with a lot of physical comedy and just amazing.

The theater was pretty small, and it seemed like she had a bunch of family there.   The show was absolutely fantastic.  For those of you who don’t know what it’s about,  it’s a guy who lives in Paris and has 3 fiancées that are flight attendants or air hostesses and none of them know about each other, and he thinks he has it all figured out that they’ll never know about each other and when new flight routes are coming and bigger planes to get places fasters and delays everything kind of gets ruined in the most hilarious fashion that you can absolutely think of! After the show I ended up accidentally by the stage door because I wanted the curb cut out cross the street to the parking lot and got to see most of the lead actors and actresses leave and tell them that they did a great job!

One of the air hostesses was like  ‘Oh, we have so much fun’  and that totally came through on the stage, we could definitely tell that they were just having a blast doing the show and then I got to tell Debra Jo that I thought that she did an amazing job, she said thank you.  I think she was with family so I didn’t want to bug her for anything more than that, but it was really great to sort of meet her because she was one of the cast members that I didn’t get to meet when I went to a taping of That 70s Show almost 20 years ago now. It seems Debra Jo lives locally and does shows here a lot, so I will have to keep an eye out for more!

 

NKOTB Magic Summer Tour

Friday night I headed up to Hartford to see the New Kids on the Block Magic Summer tour.  It was humid as all get out and there was danger of there being thunderstorms that might affect the show.  I ended up getting in the VIP line to get in the accessible entrance and then my ticket wouldn’t scan, so after we tried it about 10 different ways, the guy at the door was like “you’re fine go ahead in.” I picked up my event specific merch – which was a pin because the shirt was black and I don’t particularly like black shirts and then because of the extreme heat, I decided to also get a rally towel and a little folded fan with the guys on it, that was really cool and will come in handy until I inevitably break it.  I got to my seats and they were the front row of the second section in the ADA section and they were really, really good and I was super excited about all the great pictures that I was going to take!

DJ Jazzy Jeff, opened the show  and I’m really not into D j’s as opening acts, even if it is one as famous as DJ Jazzy Jeff. Then it was time for Paula Abdul so I pulled my camera out only for it to read ‘battery exhausted’, except that I had grabbed the extra battery and put it in my bag when I switched it out, that one ALSO said ‘battery exhausted’! I ended up sneaking like one picture of Paula and 1 picture of the new kids that I don’t even think came out any good.   I had to resort to my phone to take the photos which I didn’t want to do, but had no other choice! Paula did about a 30 minute set, which was actually more her talking than singing.  A lot of dancing though and she kind of like talked through the process of like, putting on a good show and what’s important. After the first song, she had to stop and get a tank of oxygen because she is 62 years old.  Now, I’m not sure if she was actually singing live but she was talking a lot which was live.

Then it was time for the New Kids!  This set was a lot different than what I had gotten used to in their past tours, they had released new music that I wasn’t super familiar with but the show was a ton of fun as usual! I could see security kind of like trying to figure out logistics for something so I was hoping that one of the guys might end up near me when they inevitably would go out in the crowd.   It turns out I was right, there was a like cage thing, just a couple of people over from me that lit up green, which meant that it was Danny. To my left was Donnie. Danny shot us with confetti and then went up into the crowd so I really didn’t get to see him all that much.  A couple of girls jumped on top of me to try and get Donnie to shake their hands and he did. There’s a special place in hell for people who jump over disabled people to get closer to Donnie…    At the end of this song, when they’re making their way back to the stage, Jon came by and ended up shaking my hand and asking me how I was. It was like he knew me which was weird because like I feel like I know him because I watched him on TV but he doesn’t know I’m watching him run TV or does he?!

I guess it did rain, but nothing with thunder/lightning that would disrupt the show – and I was inside so I didn’t get wet even though I brought my poncho just in case! I then waited half an hour in the parking lot for things to clear out – the AC on ended up fogging my passenger side window and I didn’t realize until I was getting on the highway that someone bumped my side view mirror and knocked it forward – fortunately I carefully made it home and nothing was broken, I was able to move it back into place. Phew! (Wasn’t the first time I’ve driven home from that venue with a side mirror that couldn’t be used!)

 

New Kids on the Block Setlist XFINITY Theatre, Hartford, CT, USA, Magic Summer Tour 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!
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