fearlesstemp (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
fearlesstemp) wrote2002-04-27 04:01 am
fearlesstemp) wrote2002-04-27 04:01 am
So, a week ago I went to see *NSYNC
..and I did not, in fact, wet myself. Neither did [Annie], which was a major accomplishment because we had -- wait for it -- THIRD ROW PIT SEATS! No words can express the joy of THIRD ROW PIT SEATS and so I call on the trusty old incoherent typing fit:
A;LDKJFASDKJA;LKGJ!!!!!
While we did retain control of our bodily functions, we also achieved new, more frightening levels of Love for *NSYNC. I mean, before the concert I thought I had hit the limit, that I had reached the peak of the *NSYNC Luv Mountain, if you will. But I was wrong! Oh, how wrong I was!
I love them all SO MUCH! To a degree that can only be expressed by an incoherent typing fit!!! ;LDAKJFLKAJG!!!!!
So! Much!
Now I must begin the long, drawn out, mostly boring for people who weren't there saga of Friday, April 19th, aka The Day I Saw the Blue of JC's Eyes Live and In Person (TDIStBoJCELaIP).
The trip started the same way all trips involving me start: over an hour late. This left us with only six and a half hours to kill at the Hartford Civic Center instead of eight, but we made do. The ride over was shorter than expected and jam-packed with *NSYNC CD goodness, expressions of excitement for the concert, and anticipation of the sadness that would follow the concert being over. I may or may not have commented that the post-concert depression may not be too awful because "we [would] have the memories," a proclamation that brought about intense mocking from [someone]that has not yet fully eased up.
(But it's true! We do have the memories!)
After arriving in Hartford we thought it would be wrong and a betrayal of our status as Truly Obsessed Fans to not sneak into the huge hotel connected to the civic center on the off chance that a certain boyband would be staying there. We walked in and strode confidently through the hotel loudly discussing the demerits of drilling in Alaska so that our Rabid Teenie Fanhood would not be discovered, then hopped on the elevator and rode to the top floors where we chickened out and couldn't even walk down the hallway.
No Syncage in the hotel, and so we jetted over to the civic center and tried to upgrade our fan club seats to pit (no dice) and then decided we needed a healthy snack, so we went over to McDonald's and grabbed identical meals: SuperSized Fries and Medium Cokes. While ordering we notice a bunch of guys come in wearing nifty *NSYNC badge-y things around their necks, so we're all OMG! Roadies! Where Roadies are, *NSYNC can't be far away! We came thisclose to going over and asking them about Life as an *NSYNC Roadie but then decided to go the more subtle (and also substantially more creepy) route of sitting across the street eating our fries, watching the door to see where the roadies went after getting their food. While sitting there, we were hit on by a skeevy and possibly insane (for he chatted with the air next to him for a while after he called over to us) guy, and while I was doing my best Pretend-I'm-Not-A-Stalker-In-Training stance by looking down the street away from the door to McDonald's every few seconds I noticed this swank hotel down the block. A few minutes later what should pull up to said swank hotel? A TOUR BUS! Still having, oh, five and a half hours to kill, we jetted down the street to see if anyone got off of/onto said bus because we are scary stalker freaks.
And OMG we saw them! We stood with Our People, scary teenaged obsessed fans who screeched every time a luggage rack was pulled out of the hotel and actually scremed "Steve! STEVE! STEEEEEEEEEEVE!!!" whenever Steve Fatone came out and walked around, and WE SAW THEM!!! Except for JC. No JC sighting! But I think he may have snuck out with one of the other guys wearing one of his ghetto hats and I somehow didn't spot him which just makes me sick because dude! How could I not see him? I may have to turn in my JC Stalker Card. Anyway! The others! In order of appearance:
(1) Justin. He strode out of the hotel with some other guy, short, who may have been JC (that's what other girls around us claimed later but he seemed too short to be JC to me). And he just walked and did this cute embarrassed head bobby thing when the girls screamed and looked over a bit and smiled and oh he was just so cute!
(2) Chris was next and he did a modified version of the cute Justin head bobby embarrassed walk, except with a bigger grin and a bit of a laugh and oh he was just so cute!
(3) Joey came out third and grinned huge all around and I once again felt guilty for saying that he was the member of *NSYNC I would jettison were I forced to choose one. Post-concert, I'm unable to choose. I love them all!
(4) Lance was last and he took for-effing-ever. He was very blonde, very buff, and shorter than I expected. He looked very Hollywood, big toothy grin, but none of the embarrassed shuffling of Justin or Chris. I bet he's evil. I still love him!
(5) JC should have been in this spot but he wasn't! He must have come out before and I somehow DIDN'T SEE HIM! This is So Very Wrong, but I will move on.
We had to recover form the shock of actually seeing *NSYNC by going back to the parking garage and chilling in the truck. There we were faced with the challenge of getting into the arena with our newly-purchased disposable cameras as we believed the scary signs in the civic center saying no bags and therefore wanted to carry everything in on our persons. Needless to say, the disposable cameras were a challenge.
Option One: Stuffed in the pants with lowered voice, aka the Pre-op transsexual route.
Option Two: Stuffed in the bra, aka the Breast Augmentation Gone Horribly Wrong route.
Option Three: Strapped to the calf a la a cop's emergency gun, aka the Supah Secret Agent route.
We chose Option Three and Annie got to be all Supah Supah Secret Agent because she wore both cameras (one on each calf) because her jeans were looser on the calf and therefore better hid the boxy cameras. Before we left for the arena again, we decided to ho-ify a bit and put on gobs of makeup using just one compact mirror between us. It was a challenge, but we emerged triumphant and ho-tastic.
After yet another episode off ass-hauling, we arrived at the arena and tried to sneak into the line for Soundcheck (no dice) and then stood around and tried to think of ways to fill the hours. Should we stand here? Stand there? Stand perhaps a few feet to the left or right? Oh, so many choices! And then – and THEN! – we heard the unmistakable high-pitched shrieks of Those Who Have Obtained Pit Seats from the box office ten feet away. We ran over and shoved our tickets as the ticket lady all “UPGRADE! PIT SEATS! PITSEATSUPGRADE!” since the potential of Pit Seats rendered us incapable of complete sentences. And then the bitches were all “No upgrade for you!” and we stood there, gaping open-mouthed, knowing neither of us had a credit card or enough cash to cover the deal. I may have almost cried when the lady was all “next” and made us stand off to the side so that the people behind us could go forward.
The people behind us got offered The Pit Seats and – get this – totally balked at the price (they did not know what Pit Seats MEANT!) and after some suggesting form the ticket lady Annie and I attacked the pair and sold our tickets for way way way way way way WAY less than they were worth in order to cover the cost of the new tickets and then we went up and there was a twenty second death zone where we’d sold our old tickets and the lady was doing this fancy computer stuff and we had NO TICKETS AT ALL but it was ok! Because she made us give her money and we got tickets and they were PIT SEATS!!
And then we ran off and jumped up and down and squealed and acted like mental patients. Twelve year old, TRL-obsessed mental patients.
After a few minutes I was all “Let’s go back and look at the chart and see where our fabulous seats are!” and so we went over and this ticket lady pulled out the chart and pointed OUTSIDE THE PIT and we realized that our section (section 2) was, indeed, OUTSIDE THE PIT! The ticket lady had DECEIVED us!
And then we almost cried. Almost. Really, it was close. Very close.
We sadly traipsed over and got in line because we couldn’t think of anything better to do. Our options were limited by the fact that the Not Pit Seats had left us with next to no money, so pathetically getting in line hours before showtime was our best choice. We may or may not have been those pathetic losers first in line. Maybe.
About an hour before the doors opened, Annie had to run outside and carry out the complicated keys-handoff from her sister so that we would have someplace to sleep that night. So Annie scurried off and left me alone at the head of the line for what we thought would be ten minutes and ended up being forty and it was SO SCARY! Because she had the tickets! Why didn’t I take my ticket? you ask. Why, because I’m a tard. I can’t remember my pseudo-logical reason for not taking my ticket. There really is none.
I stood there for the last twenty minutes in full-out Psycho Mode, jerking around, asking everyone around me what time it was every ninety seconds, twitching like a junkie who needs a hit, and generally acting very suspicious. I’m surprised the security guy who came out and stood eighteen inches away from me for the last fifteen minutes didn’t take me away. Anyway! Over the forty minutes Annie was gone it was like a Teenie Bomb went off in the arena and all of a sudden there were people EVERYWHERE and I couldn’t SEE THE DOOR and it was very scary! But it was ok! Annie came back, having injured a guy on the sidewalk before running across lanes of traffic to her sister’s car, and I was all “You’re HERE! I’m SO GLAD! I was SO SCARED!” like we’d been separated for years by a cruel civil war and not for forty minutes by masses of teenie fans.
Security let us in and we went in the arena, looked at the overpriced NSYNC merchandise we most definitely could not longer afford, used the ladies room (which, curiously, contained a wall of urinals), and then went down to the floor level to get our seats and had the following adventure:
Usher #1: Ok, you’re there. (points outside the pit)
Annie and Jess: (resignedly) Ok. (walk over slowly)
Usher #2: Ok, let’s see…you’re in there. (points at the pit)
Annie and Jess: In the pit?
Usher #2: Uh, yup, section two is in the pit.
And now I can’t really remember Annie’s reaction, but I know mine involved jumping up and down, saying “Really?” eighty five times, jumping up and down some more, and thanking the usher guy like he’d just, well, given me pit seats WAIT THAT’S JUST WHAT HE DID! And then we ran over and got to walk under the stage (which was just SO COOL!) and found our seats and we were in the THIRD ROW and we were ON THE AISLE and it was just SO COOL!
PIT SEATS!! AS;LDKAJ;GLKJ!!!
Since we were oh, first in line, we had some time to kill yet again while sitting in our seats. This time was spent, for the most part, by grabbing each other by the arm and whispering “OhmygodwehavePITSEATS!” and pointing at the stage all “They’re going to be RIGHTTHERE!”
Tony Lucca came out and there weren’t many people there, which made us feel bad so we were perhaps a tad over-enthusiastic but it was just so exciting! He had a cowboy hat on and is very skinny and I very much enjoyed him. And then the next act came out, the Not So Boyband and we almost DIED because we RECOGNIZED THEM because they were the PseudoRoadies from earlier that day in McDonalds! The ones we almost approached and, later, nearly stalked!
The Not So Roadies proceeded to prance about the stage and it was this horrifying but hysterical extended embarrassing moment that grew progressively worse because they RECOGNIZED US and started SINGING TO US! Pointed! Winked! Ok, so we were two of perhaps six females over the age of nine in the pit at the time, so it’s not saying much, but still! We got Much Love from the Not So Roadies. I almost busted a gut laughing.
Then P. Diddy came out and kept telling me to get up! Sing along! Dance! And I did a few times even though I didn’t know the music at all and am, quite possibly, the worst dancer in the history of time. But he told me to! So I had to comply.
And then.
And then!
And THEN!
NSYNC came out! And they were SO BEAUTIFUL and they were RIGHT THERE! And I swear, Do Your Thing? LOVE THAT SONG! Like, so much! I just. I can see them standing there, perfectly still, singing and it was just amazing. And then they jumped into the next song and it was all so overwhelming and amazing and I don’t know how they did it! It was all so amazing and incredible and FAST that I couldn’t process anything at all! Well, some things, which I will list here:
--I touched Joey twice! And Lance once! No love from JC, though. Justin danced like three feet in front of me one time, as did Joey and Chris, and I did see the blue of JC’s eyes from where I was sitting. He is so beautiful.
--Joey loves everyone, but especially JC, and everyone loves Joey, but especially JC and Lance. I love Joey too. I again felt bad for believing for so long that Joey was the member of NSYNC I would jettison first. Now I cannot jettison any of them! Five united or nothing! Well, not really. Five united or Five Apart, Providing Five Apart Involves JC Whisking Me Away to Our Island Paradise.
--Lance and JC continue to be the opposite ends of the enthusiasm spectrum when it comes to performing, with JC So Into Everything and Lance So Not Into It At All. I love them both! Especially when they perform next to each other and the gap between them is most evident.
--Chris is so funny! And I love him. And I keep trying to say more but. I just love him! So much. My ChrisLove grew the most through this concert.
--Speaking of Chris, his friendship with Justin is just so evident when they’re onstage together and it’s really rather sweet. Like, they did funny dances together on their own often, and when someone threw pot onto the ramp next to us, they were totally cracking up with each other over it. And it’s just. You can just see it! They are so best friends! It is so cute!
--Speaking of funny dances, at one point JC started his spastic jumping thing in the middle of a song and Justin saw it and started jumping too, facing him, so that they were jumping in time looking at each other, moving across the stage. It was really funny and I guess Joey wanted in on the action, so he ran over towards them, maybe to start jumping too, but he just rammed into them and broke it all up. Joey! Such a klutz! Ilovehimsomuchandwouldneverjettisonhim.
--Chris was poking at JC all through the concert, trying to get a response out of him, cracking him up, and it was so funny! At the beginning they were in this Trapezoidish Modified V-formation leaning over (doesn’t that narrow it down? Is there a song that does not involve Trapezoidish Modified V-formation leaning over in its choreography), Chris and JC next to each other in the front and right before they took off, Chris kept elbowing and shoving at JC, just generally getting in his Personal Bubble and JC kept shoving back and it was so cute! Right before they broke the TMV Formation, Chris kicked JC in the butt and ran across the stage laughing and stuff and oh. So cute! So funny! Lovethembothsomuch!
--Joey loves JC so much. He just gazes at him and I can’t blame him, because I would be doing the same thing.
--Lance is funny because after the concert I was convinced Lance was possibly evil and that everyone, save Joey for sure and maybe Justin, absolutely hated him. But thinking it over later and reading other people’s concert reports, I guess Lance could maybe just be super laid back. The only people I saw talk to him during the concert were Joey and Justin, and Joey was the only one who he really laughed and goofed of with. Whenever he talked with Justin they were both Very Serious.
--Justin is. Justin is just amazing and I love him. And I can see him going solo and being successful because dude. He’s amazing. But also you can just see that he loves this so much! And he loves being up there with Chris and jumping with JC and laughing with Joey and that’s really what came across the most with this – how they really do seem to actually like each other and stuff.
--JC – oh, JC. I love him. He’s really quite beautiful, eerily so, and his voice is amazing, and I don’t think he really cared at all that there were people there but it didn’t matter! It didn’t even matter that he totally dissed me whenever he ran by on the ramp. He was amazing and it was funny to see how different his reaction was to the audience and to the rest of the group – like, to the audience he was all “whatev” and only really smiled a few times, usually towards some people in the first row, but all the time towards Chris or Justin or Joey. He loves them! He is married to all of them! As my Cosmogirl article says he said. I can believe it.
--I totally buy that they all love each other. Because they just do! I’ll probably be totally disproven by the Behind the Music in ten years, but until then, I do believe they all love each other. Even Lance.
--The Girlfriend choreography, combined by the video playing above, almost killed me. Almost.
--So did Up Against the Wall. I just. I can’t really remember that song much at all, mostly because I really think I had a near death experience from the joy of seeing it live, in person. JC has no bones. He is all cartilage, yo.
--The MEDLEYS! Amazing. Hey Jude? What’s the word I’m searching for? Oh yes. Amazing.
--No Strings! With the ROPES and the SWINGING! I couldn’t believe it! And part of me was terrified for them because it didn’t seem all that safe but whatev! They are pop stars and they live on the edge.
--I thought it was very cool how they did try to go all over the arena, even if it did mean that they were way above my head when they sang Sailing. I love that song so much and I don’t care how many people don’t like it and how many newspaper reporters call it pointless and not worthy of a place in the medley because I LOVE it! I even love the Christopher Cross version! The canvas can do miracles! It can! And I heart the two step stuff.
--OMG! The I Want You Back chatting! Oh, it was amazing! They did the whole “tell a story” bit and Chris told this long, involved, incoherent combination of all these fairy tales and it was confusing but rather impressive how he involved so many. And also, they were all “tell a joke!” and a little girl told a joke in the front row that cracked Justin up but that I didn’t hear, and then JC told his Tigger joke quite enthusiastically. Oh, and they read a bunch of signs and I was SO ANGRY AT MYSELF for not getting it together enough to smuggle a sign into the arena, something like “Mensan 4 JC” or something. Before Chris told his strange story, he made everyone sit down, and then get back up, and then sit down again, and proceeded into this complicated version of Simon Says that was pretty funny. And oh! While they were sitting on the stools, Chris gave me a heart attack by rocking forward and back on his stool (I could so see him falling off and hurting himself! Ok, I guess you can’t hurt yourself too badly falling from a stool, but still), and then afterwards started rocking from side to side and ended up totally falling into JC and startling both JC and himself. Oh! Itwasallsofunny! And JC at the end was just amazing.
--I just. I loved it all. I loved them all. I can’t wait till they release this on video so that I can watch it and remember everything I’ve forgotten. Because I love them so much!
A;LDKJFASDKJA;LKGJ!!!!!
While we did retain control of our bodily functions, we also achieved new, more frightening levels of Love for *NSYNC. I mean, before the concert I thought I had hit the limit, that I had reached the peak of the *NSYNC Luv Mountain, if you will. But I was wrong! Oh, how wrong I was!
I love them all SO MUCH! To a degree that can only be expressed by an incoherent typing fit!!! ;LDAKJFLKAJG!!!!!
So! Much!
Now I must begin the long, drawn out, mostly boring for people who weren't there saga of Friday, April 19th, aka The Day I Saw the Blue of JC's Eyes Live and In Person (TDIStBoJCELaIP).
The trip started the same way all trips involving me start: over an hour late. This left us with only six and a half hours to kill at the Hartford Civic Center instead of eight, but we made do. The ride over was shorter than expected and jam-packed with *NSYNC CD goodness, expressions of excitement for the concert, and anticipation of the sadness that would follow the concert being over. I may or may not have commented that the post-concert depression may not be too awful because "we [would] have the memories," a proclamation that brought about intense mocking from [someone]that has not yet fully eased up.
(But it's true! We do have the memories!)
After arriving in Hartford we thought it would be wrong and a betrayal of our status as Truly Obsessed Fans to not sneak into the huge hotel connected to the civic center on the off chance that a certain boyband would be staying there. We walked in and strode confidently through the hotel loudly discussing the demerits of drilling in Alaska so that our Rabid Teenie Fanhood would not be discovered, then hopped on the elevator and rode to the top floors where we chickened out and couldn't even walk down the hallway.
No Syncage in the hotel, and so we jetted over to the civic center and tried to upgrade our fan club seats to pit (no dice) and then decided we needed a healthy snack, so we went over to McDonald's and grabbed identical meals: SuperSized Fries and Medium Cokes. While ordering we notice a bunch of guys come in wearing nifty *NSYNC badge-y things around their necks, so we're all OMG! Roadies! Where Roadies are, *NSYNC can't be far away! We came thisclose to going over and asking them about Life as an *NSYNC Roadie but then decided to go the more subtle (and also substantially more creepy) route of sitting across the street eating our fries, watching the door to see where the roadies went after getting their food. While sitting there, we were hit on by a skeevy and possibly insane (for he chatted with the air next to him for a while after he called over to us) guy, and while I was doing my best Pretend-I'm-Not-A-Stalker-In-Training stance by looking down the street away from the door to McDonald's every few seconds I noticed this swank hotel down the block. A few minutes later what should pull up to said swank hotel? A TOUR BUS! Still having, oh, five and a half hours to kill, we jetted down the street to see if anyone got off of/onto said bus because we are scary stalker freaks.
And OMG we saw them! We stood with Our People, scary teenaged obsessed fans who screeched every time a luggage rack was pulled out of the hotel and actually scremed "Steve! STEVE! STEEEEEEEEEEVE!!!" whenever Steve Fatone came out and walked around, and WE SAW THEM!!! Except for JC. No JC sighting! But I think he may have snuck out with one of the other guys wearing one of his ghetto hats and I somehow didn't spot him which just makes me sick because dude! How could I not see him? I may have to turn in my JC Stalker Card. Anyway! The others! In order of appearance:
(1) Justin. He strode out of the hotel with some other guy, short, who may have been JC (that's what other girls around us claimed later but he seemed too short to be JC to me). And he just walked and did this cute embarrassed head bobby thing when the girls screamed and looked over a bit and smiled and oh he was just so cute!
(2) Chris was next and he did a modified version of the cute Justin head bobby embarrassed walk, except with a bigger grin and a bit of a laugh and oh he was just so cute!
(3) Joey came out third and grinned huge all around and I once again felt guilty for saying that he was the member of *NSYNC I would jettison were I forced to choose one. Post-concert, I'm unable to choose. I love them all!
(4) Lance was last and he took for-effing-ever. He was very blonde, very buff, and shorter than I expected. He looked very Hollywood, big toothy grin, but none of the embarrassed shuffling of Justin or Chris. I bet he's evil. I still love him!
(5) JC should have been in this spot but he wasn't! He must have come out before and I somehow DIDN'T SEE HIM! This is So Very Wrong, but I will move on.
We had to recover form the shock of actually seeing *NSYNC by going back to the parking garage and chilling in the truck. There we were faced with the challenge of getting into the arena with our newly-purchased disposable cameras as we believed the scary signs in the civic center saying no bags and therefore wanted to carry everything in on our persons. Needless to say, the disposable cameras were a challenge.
Option One: Stuffed in the pants with lowered voice, aka the Pre-op transsexual route.
Option Two: Stuffed in the bra, aka the Breast Augmentation Gone Horribly Wrong route.
Option Three: Strapped to the calf a la a cop's emergency gun, aka the Supah Secret Agent route.
We chose Option Three and Annie got to be all Supah Supah Secret Agent because she wore both cameras (one on each calf) because her jeans were looser on the calf and therefore better hid the boxy cameras. Before we left for the arena again, we decided to ho-ify a bit and put on gobs of makeup using just one compact mirror between us. It was a challenge, but we emerged triumphant and ho-tastic.
After yet another episode off ass-hauling, we arrived at the arena and tried to sneak into the line for Soundcheck (no dice) and then stood around and tried to think of ways to fill the hours. Should we stand here? Stand there? Stand perhaps a few feet to the left or right? Oh, so many choices! And then – and THEN! – we heard the unmistakable high-pitched shrieks of Those Who Have Obtained Pit Seats from the box office ten feet away. We ran over and shoved our tickets as the ticket lady all “UPGRADE! PIT SEATS! PITSEATSUPGRADE!” since the potential of Pit Seats rendered us incapable of complete sentences. And then the bitches were all “No upgrade for you!” and we stood there, gaping open-mouthed, knowing neither of us had a credit card or enough cash to cover the deal. I may have almost cried when the lady was all “next” and made us stand off to the side so that the people behind us could go forward.
The people behind us got offered The Pit Seats and – get this – totally balked at the price (they did not know what Pit Seats MEANT!) and after some suggesting form the ticket lady Annie and I attacked the pair and sold our tickets for way way way way way way WAY less than they were worth in order to cover the cost of the new tickets and then we went up and there was a twenty second death zone where we’d sold our old tickets and the lady was doing this fancy computer stuff and we had NO TICKETS AT ALL but it was ok! Because she made us give her money and we got tickets and they were PIT SEATS!!
And then we ran off and jumped up and down and squealed and acted like mental patients. Twelve year old, TRL-obsessed mental patients.
After a few minutes I was all “Let’s go back and look at the chart and see where our fabulous seats are!” and so we went over and this ticket lady pulled out the chart and pointed OUTSIDE THE PIT and we realized that our section (section 2) was, indeed, OUTSIDE THE PIT! The ticket lady had DECEIVED us!
And then we almost cried. Almost. Really, it was close. Very close.
We sadly traipsed over and got in line because we couldn’t think of anything better to do. Our options were limited by the fact that the Not Pit Seats had left us with next to no money, so pathetically getting in line hours before showtime was our best choice. We may or may not have been those pathetic losers first in line. Maybe.
About an hour before the doors opened, Annie had to run outside and carry out the complicated keys-handoff from her sister so that we would have someplace to sleep that night. So Annie scurried off and left me alone at the head of the line for what we thought would be ten minutes and ended up being forty and it was SO SCARY! Because she had the tickets! Why didn’t I take my ticket? you ask. Why, because I’m a tard. I can’t remember my pseudo-logical reason for not taking my ticket. There really is none.
I stood there for the last twenty minutes in full-out Psycho Mode, jerking around, asking everyone around me what time it was every ninety seconds, twitching like a junkie who needs a hit, and generally acting very suspicious. I’m surprised the security guy who came out and stood eighteen inches away from me for the last fifteen minutes didn’t take me away. Anyway! Over the forty minutes Annie was gone it was like a Teenie Bomb went off in the arena and all of a sudden there were people EVERYWHERE and I couldn’t SEE THE DOOR and it was very scary! But it was ok! Annie came back, having injured a guy on the sidewalk before running across lanes of traffic to her sister’s car, and I was all “You’re HERE! I’m SO GLAD! I was SO SCARED!” like we’d been separated for years by a cruel civil war and not for forty minutes by masses of teenie fans.
Security let us in and we went in the arena, looked at the overpriced NSYNC merchandise we most definitely could not longer afford, used the ladies room (which, curiously, contained a wall of urinals), and then went down to the floor level to get our seats and had the following adventure:
Usher #1: Ok, you’re there. (points outside the pit)
Annie and Jess: (resignedly) Ok. (walk over slowly)
Usher #2: Ok, let’s see…you’re in there. (points at the pit)
Annie and Jess: In the pit?
Usher #2: Uh, yup, section two is in the pit.
And now I can’t really remember Annie’s reaction, but I know mine involved jumping up and down, saying “Really?” eighty five times, jumping up and down some more, and thanking the usher guy like he’d just, well, given me pit seats WAIT THAT’S JUST WHAT HE DID! And then we ran over and got to walk under the stage (which was just SO COOL!) and found our seats and we were in the THIRD ROW and we were ON THE AISLE and it was just SO COOL!
PIT SEATS!! AS;LDKAJ;GLKJ!!!
Since we were oh, first in line, we had some time to kill yet again while sitting in our seats. This time was spent, for the most part, by grabbing each other by the arm and whispering “OhmygodwehavePITSEATS!” and pointing at the stage all “They’re going to be RIGHTTHERE!”
Tony Lucca came out and there weren’t many people there, which made us feel bad so we were perhaps a tad over-enthusiastic but it was just so exciting! He had a cowboy hat on and is very skinny and I very much enjoyed him. And then the next act came out, the Not So Boyband and we almost DIED because we RECOGNIZED THEM because they were the PseudoRoadies from earlier that day in McDonalds! The ones we almost approached and, later, nearly stalked!
The Not So Roadies proceeded to prance about the stage and it was this horrifying but hysterical extended embarrassing moment that grew progressively worse because they RECOGNIZED US and started SINGING TO US! Pointed! Winked! Ok, so we were two of perhaps six females over the age of nine in the pit at the time, so it’s not saying much, but still! We got Much Love from the Not So Roadies. I almost busted a gut laughing.
Then P. Diddy came out and kept telling me to get up! Sing along! Dance! And I did a few times even though I didn’t know the music at all and am, quite possibly, the worst dancer in the history of time. But he told me to! So I had to comply.
And then.
And then!
And THEN!
NSYNC came out! And they were SO BEAUTIFUL and they were RIGHT THERE! And I swear, Do Your Thing? LOVE THAT SONG! Like, so much! I just. I can see them standing there, perfectly still, singing and it was just amazing. And then they jumped into the next song and it was all so overwhelming and amazing and I don’t know how they did it! It was all so amazing and incredible and FAST that I couldn’t process anything at all! Well, some things, which I will list here:
--I touched Joey twice! And Lance once! No love from JC, though. Justin danced like three feet in front of me one time, as did Joey and Chris, and I did see the blue of JC’s eyes from where I was sitting. He is so beautiful.
--Joey loves everyone, but especially JC, and everyone loves Joey, but especially JC and Lance. I love Joey too. I again felt bad for believing for so long that Joey was the member of NSYNC I would jettison first. Now I cannot jettison any of them! Five united or nothing! Well, not really. Five united or Five Apart, Providing Five Apart Involves JC Whisking Me Away to Our Island Paradise.
--Lance and JC continue to be the opposite ends of the enthusiasm spectrum when it comes to performing, with JC So Into Everything and Lance So Not Into It At All. I love them both! Especially when they perform next to each other and the gap between them is most evident.
--Chris is so funny! And I love him. And I keep trying to say more but. I just love him! So much. My ChrisLove grew the most through this concert.
--Speaking of Chris, his friendship with Justin is just so evident when they’re onstage together and it’s really rather sweet. Like, they did funny dances together on their own often, and when someone threw pot onto the ramp next to us, they were totally cracking up with each other over it. And it’s just. You can just see it! They are so best friends! It is so cute!
--Speaking of funny dances, at one point JC started his spastic jumping thing in the middle of a song and Justin saw it and started jumping too, facing him, so that they were jumping in time looking at each other, moving across the stage. It was really funny and I guess Joey wanted in on the action, so he ran over towards them, maybe to start jumping too, but he just rammed into them and broke it all up. Joey! Such a klutz! Ilovehimsomuchandwouldneverjettisonhim.
--Chris was poking at JC all through the concert, trying to get a response out of him, cracking him up, and it was so funny! At the beginning they were in this Trapezoidish Modified V-formation leaning over (doesn’t that narrow it down? Is there a song that does not involve Trapezoidish Modified V-formation leaning over in its choreography), Chris and JC next to each other in the front and right before they took off, Chris kept elbowing and shoving at JC, just generally getting in his Personal Bubble and JC kept shoving back and it was so cute! Right before they broke the TMV Formation, Chris kicked JC in the butt and ran across the stage laughing and stuff and oh. So cute! So funny! Lovethembothsomuch!
--Joey loves JC so much. He just gazes at him and I can’t blame him, because I would be doing the same thing.
--Lance is funny because after the concert I was convinced Lance was possibly evil and that everyone, save Joey for sure and maybe Justin, absolutely hated him. But thinking it over later and reading other people’s concert reports, I guess Lance could maybe just be super laid back. The only people I saw talk to him during the concert were Joey and Justin, and Joey was the only one who he really laughed and goofed of with. Whenever he talked with Justin they were both Very Serious.
--Justin is. Justin is just amazing and I love him. And I can see him going solo and being successful because dude. He’s amazing. But also you can just see that he loves this so much! And he loves being up there with Chris and jumping with JC and laughing with Joey and that’s really what came across the most with this – how they really do seem to actually like each other and stuff.
--JC – oh, JC. I love him. He’s really quite beautiful, eerily so, and his voice is amazing, and I don’t think he really cared at all that there were people there but it didn’t matter! It didn’t even matter that he totally dissed me whenever he ran by on the ramp. He was amazing and it was funny to see how different his reaction was to the audience and to the rest of the group – like, to the audience he was all “whatev” and only really smiled a few times, usually towards some people in the first row, but all the time towards Chris or Justin or Joey. He loves them! He is married to all of them! As my Cosmogirl article says he said. I can believe it.
--I totally buy that they all love each other. Because they just do! I’ll probably be totally disproven by the Behind the Music in ten years, but until then, I do believe they all love each other. Even Lance.
--The Girlfriend choreography, combined by the video playing above, almost killed me. Almost.
--So did Up Against the Wall. I just. I can’t really remember that song much at all, mostly because I really think I had a near death experience from the joy of seeing it live, in person. JC has no bones. He is all cartilage, yo.
--The MEDLEYS! Amazing. Hey Jude? What’s the word I’m searching for? Oh yes. Amazing.
--No Strings! With the ROPES and the SWINGING! I couldn’t believe it! And part of me was terrified for them because it didn’t seem all that safe but whatev! They are pop stars and they live on the edge.
--I thought it was very cool how they did try to go all over the arena, even if it did mean that they were way above my head when they sang Sailing. I love that song so much and I don’t care how many people don’t like it and how many newspaper reporters call it pointless and not worthy of a place in the medley because I LOVE it! I even love the Christopher Cross version! The canvas can do miracles! It can! And I heart the two step stuff.
--OMG! The I Want You Back chatting! Oh, it was amazing! They did the whole “tell a story” bit and Chris told this long, involved, incoherent combination of all these fairy tales and it was confusing but rather impressive how he involved so many. And also, they were all “tell a joke!” and a little girl told a joke in the front row that cracked Justin up but that I didn’t hear, and then JC told his Tigger joke quite enthusiastically. Oh, and they read a bunch of signs and I was SO ANGRY AT MYSELF for not getting it together enough to smuggle a sign into the arena, something like “Mensan 4 JC” or something. Before Chris told his strange story, he made everyone sit down, and then get back up, and then sit down again, and proceeded into this complicated version of Simon Says that was pretty funny. And oh! While they were sitting on the stools, Chris gave me a heart attack by rocking forward and back on his stool (I could so see him falling off and hurting himself! Ok, I guess you can’t hurt yourself too badly falling from a stool, but still), and then afterwards started rocking from side to side and ended up totally falling into JC and startling both JC and himself. Oh! Itwasallsofunny! And JC at the end was just amazing.
--I just. I loved it all. I loved them all. I can’t wait till they release this on video so that I can watch it and remember everything I’ve forgotten. Because I love them so much!