The concert!!!

I'll admit that I was a little concerned going into this concert because I had built it up so much in my mind. I didn't want it to suck because my expectations were too high. I am pleased to announce, however, that despite my enormously high expectations, they were completely exceeded! Let me start at the beginning and I'll tell you the tale of possibly the greatest night of my life. I don't have a husband or little ones, so I can say that and be pretty sure that it's accurate. Kinda sad, but oh well.

Lorri and I decided that since it was such a special night, we would really live it up and go to dinner at the Sizzler. Kidding. Not about the Sizzler plans, though-we're both poverty stricken and she keeps getting gift certificates for there because the restaurant where she works is owned by the same peeps. Anywho . . . the line was too long there and everywhere else good, so we ended up at Training Table. Not to imply that the Training Table isn't good, but let's be honest . . . it's not that great. Their cheese fries and dipping sauce actually are quite good though. Because the restaurant is right by the E-Center, it was packed with groups of late 20's and 30-something women dressed in their finest 80's garb and NKOTB shirts. This did not please Lorri. She's far too good for anything like that. I'm not too good for it, I'm just physically incapable of showing that much enthusiasm.


So after consuming much greasiness, we headed over to the concert and took the obligatory, always slightly off-center self-shot.


We also ran into our friend Ginny who had far better seats than us, but don't worry-I'm not that bitter. Please ignore the double chin.


Then the show started. Lady Gaga was the opening-opening act and we would have taken a picture of her, but we were too baffled. We just kept staring at her trying to figure out what the crap she was wearing/singing/doing. Natasha Bedingfield was the opening act and she was much better. We at least knew some of her songs. Plus she has an awesome voice and wasn't wearing a weird leotard like Ms. Gaga.


Then the wait for the actual reason for attending the concert began. It wasn't very long, plus they had this cool thing where you could text in a message to be entered for a drawing, and what you texted would appear on the big screens on the front. There was all sorts of stuff texted in, mostly about not being jailbait anymore, how peoples moms wouldn't let them go to the concerts before, and a great one about how the New Kids are in Utah now, so they can have more than one wife.

Then . . . THEN . . . the fun really began! Along with massive amounts of deafening shrieking and screaming. (It probably would not surprise you to learn that both Lorri and I at different points in the evening, were ready to beat down a couple of girls.) The guys looked great and happily, no one was sporting a rattail. Our seats were on the second row off the floor, but they were a little further back so we were at an angle.


Hey look, there's Danny on the screen! He and Jon were pretty much in the background the whole time except at one point when Danny did some sweet break dancing. Remember back when the reunion was announced and I blogged about how Danny looks like a pedophile? Well I take it back. He is no longer Creepy Danny. I'm back to enjoying him.


At one point they moved to a mini-stage in the middle of the arena, so we got a much better view. Look, there's Jon! I can call him Jon instead of Jonathan 'cause we're tight like that. Random association, but remember in the first couple of episodes of Arrested Development, how Buster would have panic attacks and needed oxygen? I wonder if Jon feels like that before every show.


Look at Danny's arms in this one . . . he's still totally buff.


That's Donnie sporting the receding-hairline-covering red baseball cap below. I was never a Donnie fan back in the day, but oh my, I certainly am now! He looked awesome and was really good about playing to the crowd. There were, however, a couple of close-up crotch-grabbing moments where I couldn't help thinking "Dude, how old are you? Are you seriously still doing that?" Oh, and speaking of old guys trying to be all sexified, Jordan had a little solo moment and did the open shirt blowing in the breeze thing. I'll be the first to admit, he looked pretty darn good, but it just seemed a little awkward. I think there's a clip of it on YouTube. I'll post it later. Jordan and Danny were my two favorites way back when and I think I may possibly be over Jordan. Lorri and Erin can fight it out to see who gets him. He just looks like he's had a few too many run-ins with cocaine and strippers.


Here's where they slowed it down a little and Joey wore a gay scarf. (Disclaimer: when I say a gay scarf, I mean nothing derogatory or negative by it. I simply mean that it was a scarf that I could picture Perez Hilton or Steven Cojocaru wearing. Or maybe Elton John.) I was kinda distracted by said scarf. It was weird. Earlier in the evening when he did his little solo thing he also wore a gay shirt. It was black and foil-y gold. It's possible that my grandma owns something similar. If you click on the picture below to make it bigger, you can kinda see the scarf. Joey is the second from the right.


I had another picture to post, but for the moment, it is no more. As I said, Ginny had better seats than we did, and David Archuleta (Go David Cook!) was sitting nearby. Why he was at a NKOTB concert, I don't know, but Ginny took a picture and texted it to me, but I've texted too much since then and it has been deleted. So . . . if I can get her to forward it to me again, I'll post it. If not, it's o.k. 'cause I'm not a fan of little Archie. I know, I'm Mormon so I should like him, right? Well I can't. I'm sorry. Call me a cold-hearted biotch, but he annoyed the crap out of me. I'm sure he is very sweet in person, but I don't really care to find out.

So, in summary, the concert was awesome, Lady Gaga is weird, Danny is no longer creepy, Donnie's the shiz and Jordan, while still hot, has aged more than the rest.