Anyway, if you know me well, or have been a blog follower, you may know that I'm a vocal hater of all things concert. I don't like crowds, and I'm too short to see everything, I feel like I don't know what to do with myself between songs, and it's sorta kinda sacrilegious for a bazillion people to be worshiping some stinky singer(s). Well, one evening, I was sitting on our new porch swing listening to the radio & I hear an ad for a concert. It's Nelly, TLC, & New Kids on the Block. You know that nostalgia is the way to my heart, I happened to be surfing facebook at the time & I updated my status to say something along the lines of how cool I thought it would be to go to that concert, despite my hatred for concerts. Then I put my phone down and didn't think much else about it. Probably not even 10 minutes had passed from my status update when my text message sound went off. It was my friend's husband asking if I was serious about going to the concert. I kinda chuckled to myself, but replied that I was. Well, he knew that his wife would totally love to go & wanted to see if we could go together. Then I started to get excited. My status kinda blew up with people talking about what a cool show it would be. Another friend of mine already had tickets for the show in NOLA and had been talking about it at work, so my interest was absolutely peaked by then. A couple more friends said they would be in if we got tickets...my friend's husband asked her if she was in & she was pumped up about it as well. I had to do a little arranging with my work schedule...including working a holiday & a Saturday for this to go down, & I had no problem getting that to happen. So, a couple of days pass & three of us group text like crazy making the decision, & just like that, we have tickets!!!
Fast forward to grown women acting like giddy schoolgirls :) Well...maybe not quite that bad, but we ended up getting a hotel to make an overnight of it, planning our outfits, and our meeting place, our kids' childcare, and husbands' schedules & we did it. We were off to Nashville to listen to the music that had meant so much to all of us as we were coming of age.
The Bridgestone Arena was awesome. Easy to navigate - which is good, because obviously, I'm not down with navigating venues. We had killer seats. I had no idea they were gonna be so good. Shout out to Holly's husband, Bryan. Dude knows how to pick concert seats! Who knew? We were in lower level & could smell Nelly's breath. Okay, that last part was a lie....but, they still were good seats. We got there on time...which if you know me, is a miracle from the Lord.
Nelly performed first. He didn't disappoint in the least bit. His dancers did kinda make us wanna twerk somethin'...although, we all decided that their jiggle was in better places than ours. Ha ha. Every song the guy sang, I knew! Now, I'm gonna admit. I've been a Nelly fan for a LOOOONG time! He's all over my iTunes & I run to his music a whole lot. I have great memories to his music - even one that includes someone hanging out of my sunroof in graduate school dancing to "Country Grammar". You can't make that kinda stuff up :) Those are the things that make memories! He even sang "Air Force Ones" & "Shake Yo Tail Feather"! Love, Love, Love!!! Just a genuinely fun time! We danced hard to Nelly...and he didn't even hardly look like he had aged much at all. The crowd went wild when he popped in a grill to sing "Grillz". So. Much. Fun!!! He even sang some other peeps songs...like "All I Do is Win" & "Turn Down for What". And, of course - you know he rocked a wife beater!!!
TLC performed next. I'm admittedly not an enormous fan. I like, and know, most of their songs, but none are on my iTunes. Our friend, Amanda, who went with us said that TLC is purely nostalgic for her. She remembered cruising in someone's Geo Metro listening to "No Scrubs" on repeat back in the day. I love it! I love how songs evoke feelings and memories. That is why I love music so much! It was sad to see them perform without Left Eye. They talked about her a lot & that night was her birthday, so I can imagine it was a little difficult for them. All in all, they put on a good show. The highlight of the night was them singing "Waterfalls", which my husband HATES, because he said he was the first one to ever hear that song & he had played it out before anyone else ever discovered it. (eye roll, followed by a giggle). Anyway, it was good. Good times. Nice memories.
Finally...talking about memories. NKOTB came out. Y'all. Really. It kinda seemed as if time had not passed at all. They only sang a couple of new things - everything else was old school. Yay! Listening to them, I honestly felt like I was hanging out in my cousin's bedroom during the hot summer, listening to NKOTB tapes over and over and over again, browsing through Tiger Beat & Teen Beat, talking about who we liked best - Donnie, Jordan, or Joe? Trying to figure out if our parents would let us buy an NKOTB t-shirt or pillowcase, all while we waited on the ice cream man to come down the road. Sweet, sweet memories. My first real concert that I wanted to go to, as well as my second. These dudes had been a big part of my childhood and tween years. The songs were the same, as were most of the moves. The guys had aged, a lot, but in a good way. They were buff as heck, & still great singers, & still put on a crazy energetic show. Donnie was a cut up, just like I remembered. They brought a little kid up on stage during "Cover Girl", just like in the '80s. During some of their songs, they had the year they were popular up on the jumbotron. Doing the math kinda made me cry because such time had passed. They interacted with the fans & came out in the audience & hugged folks, stole a chick's hat, & Donnie drank someone's beer. Just a fun group of guys who obviously loved what they were doing & seemed like they felt blessed to still be doing it #25YearsStillGotEmPackedIn was the hashtag used - and it was the truth. Of course they sang "Please Don't Go Girl", "The Right Stuff", & "Step by Step". They even sang "Good Vibrations" by Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch. I had joked on the way to the concert that it would be awesome if Marky Mark showed up - but, that didn't happen. The highlight? "Hangin' Tough". Absolutely Awesome. Just like it was 1989.
Call me old. Say we were reliving the "good ole days". Maybe we were. It was an awesome night with friends, good music, crazy nostalgia, & a good getaway. Just about everyone at the arena were our age. That was neat to see. I thought a lot about it later, you know I'm a thinker. Every generation has their "boy band", ya know...the Four Seasons, the Four Tops, the Beatles, the Monkees, NKOTB, NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, 98 Degrees, Boys II Men, One Direction, 5SOS. Every generation has them. Without sounding like a hokey old adult. I think it's important. When you're a tween, you start kinda liking guys & you don't really know what to do with those feelings. It's not cool to verbalize your like for the dudes at school yet - cause they probably don't really like chicks yet, and you're scared and unsure of yourself. These boy bands kinda give a young girl a place to channel those feelings. You can't get rejected by a poster from Teen Beat. You can pour your love out and daydream about meeting them and possibly marrying one of them. Which, as adults, let's be honest - we all know is a snowball's chance in Hades, but as a tween, anything is possible. NKOTB was this for me - and without trying to speak for another person - probably my cousin, all of my friends, & maybe even you reading this, too. It was really neat to see them again, Like seeing a very good friend after years of being away. Good memories. Good feelings. Sad to realize how time passes and how innocence changes. Sad to realize how fleeting life is & how it is over in a blink of an eye.
That's why I love music. So many feels. Good. Bad, Sad. Mad. A whole lot rolled into one. I was so glad that I could come together with my friends last night to share nostalgia & joy with them! Never know where one little facebook status update can lead you! And...the biggest take away from the evening - I think that my hatred for concerts is over :) I still think the amount of $ they cost is ridiculous, but, I'd do it again. Sooner rather than later!!!
And....my NKOTB love has come full circle. It began with Donnie being my fave...I decided he was too "bad", so I moved on to Jordan, then Joe. But, Donnie is my final decision - I always did have a little love for a bad boy (as evidenced by the 1997 version of my husband) :)
Me and my peeps cold Rockin' the concert!!! :)
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