Cleveland, OH- July 1, 2000
Concert Diary
After about 3 years of being a fan I FINALLY got to go to an NSYNC concert this past Saturday July 1st. I was the second night of performances for the guys here at Gund Arena in Cleveland. The concert was an adventure all in itself, but much craziness and mayhem occured pre- and post- concert as well. I bring you now a play- by play of my first NSYNC concert experience from start to finish. Be prepared to laugh and to cry and to drool over JC right along with me. ;0)
Sometime in Febuary 2000...
My story begins here abouts sometime in February of 2000. The guys had recently put out the video for "Bye Bye Bye", the first single off their much- anticipated new album, "No Strings Attached". I discovered that the tickets for the up- coming summer tour were going on sale March 25, 2000 at 10 am. I was determined to go. Despite being a long-time fan, I had yet to ever see them live, primarily because I didn't have anyone to go with. But I had recently "converted" my best friend Michelle to being a fan and I was working on my friend Melissa. So, I mentioned it to them and both agreed to go with me. Woohoo. Nothing's gonna stop me now. :)
March 24, 2000
Tickets were to go onsale the next day. Michelle and I discussed our options on how we were going to go about getting tickets. Melissa had to work the next morning, so it was just Michelle and I. We had 3 options: phone, internet, and camping out with teenies for several hours in downtown Cleveland. Hmmm. That last option wasn't even an option, so we had 2 choices, phone or computer. We decided to meet at my house at 9:45 and decide then.
March 25, 2000; 9:44 am
Ticket Day. Michelle arrives in pajamas and I greet her at the door in my own pajamas. Hey, we are gonna be here for awhile, so we might as well be comfortable. :) We go online and have trouble getting onto ticketmaster.com because of heavy traffic. We give up after 10 minutes and try the phone. We get busy signals. Lots of them. Then, miraculously... at 10:19 Michelle gets through! We morph into Teeny mode and squeal a little. The voice tells her "Press 1 for NSYNC tickets". She presses the button and puts the phone back to her ear. As I look on, her whole face turns white and she slowly moves the phone to stare at it. She then freaks out and says that she hit the "talk" button instead of "1" and HUNG UP ON THEM. We are in shock. We were so close... We get over it quickly and as the rest of the day passes, the incident becomes more and more humorous. So we try the phone for a few more hours with no luck. We try online again. We try the phone at Michelle's house. We try the computer at Michelle's house. Noon rolls around and Michelle has to go to work and we STILL have no tickets. My mom kicks me off the phone at about 1 so she can make some calls. I am sad and defeated. My hopes of ever seeing them live have been dashed once again.. At about 2 my mom lets me back online to try some more and even though I am SURE all the tickets are gone, I try. Big surprise, no luck. But on a whim I try to get an individual seat as a last- ditch effort. I get one! 21st row of the floor, seat 15. After I have calmed down from my excitement, I type in my info and get it. But the thing tells be that I took longer than 5 minutes so I don't REALLY have the ticket. Grrr. I try again and by 3 pm I have 3 seats: section 1, row 17, seat 15; section 3, row 17, seat 7; and section 4, row XX, seat 15. Mission accomplished.
June 1st, 2000
Exactly a month until the concert. I mail out my Meet and Greet form from the Official Fan Club with hopes that I'll be victorious.
June 22, 2000
I officially give up hope of having won a Meet and Greet. Oh well. Maybe next time.
June 23, 2000
Michelle comes directly over to my house after work saying she has a story I might like to hear. (Before I tell the story, let me fill you in on a little background. Michelle works for a theatre and special events lighting company. That is kinda important to know.) Anyhoo, so Michelle's boss asks her to do a gig in Pittsburg from Wednesday to Sunday of the next week. She says "Sure. Wait! No! I have a concert on Saturday." He pauses as an evil smile forms on his face... "You aren't going to the NSYNC concert are you?". She is like "Me? Naw, why would I do that? Nope. Uh uh." LOL. Real smooth. He says "Yes you are!" and proceeds to tease hermercilessly. But the he is like, "Well I know a guy on their management team and I am good friends with some of theis riggers, do you want a Meet and Greet?". Michelle's initial thought: "Oh my God, Debbie is going to DIE!". He says he'll call the guy and see what he can do. Things are looking up...
June 24, 2000
Michelle comes home from work, declaring that she hates me. Her boss told everyone in the shop about the NSYNC thing and they teased her all day. She blamed it on her mean best friend that is forcing her to go but they didn't belive her. Heehee. I felt a little bad, but, hey, she wanted to go. :)
June 27, 2000
Four days til the show. Still no word back from Michelle's boss's rigger friend, but he assures us he will talk to him. Meanwhile, we discover that on Saturday there is an Indian's baseball game, a fireworks display by the lake, a race at the Burke- Lakefront Raceway AND the NSYNC concert all going on at the SAME TIME. Which means we have to leave at 2 pm for the 7:30 show even though we live 25 minutes away or there will be no parking.
June 29, 2000
Two days. The NSYNC entourage arrived in Cleveland today and Michelle's boss tells her that he will be taking his rigger friend out to get drunk that night so he'll try to hook us up.
June 30, 2000
The show is tomorrow. They do have a show tonight here too though. The rigger guy never called her boss back last night. Grrr. So he is gonna go TONIGHT and get back to us tomorrow morning before we go downtown.
July 1, 2000; 12:00 pm
CONCERT DAY!!! Michelle's boss calls saying that his rigger friend said that only the NSYNC guys can give out passes, but he wished he could help. Dang. Ah well. Some other time.
July 1; 2:15 pm
Michelle and I drive to go pick up Melissa. We listen to "No Strings Attached" as we drive and we talk about the guys and the concert. Michelle is a big Lance fan and she strongly dislikes Justin. Melissa doesn't even know all their names yet. She knows JC. She likes him. Alot. She gets Lance and Justin confused sometimes. She has to think really hard to rememeber Joey's name, and she just calls Chris "Guy Who Is Always In The Back".
July 1; 2:45 pm
We get downtown and park at the Tower City Parking deck. Tower City is a big mall that has a covered walkway to Jacob's Field (where the Indians play) and Gund Arena (where the Cavs and Rockers play). The concert is in the Gund, so we figure that is the best place to park. As we are walking through the parking deck, Melissa trips a little and the little in- between- your- toe thing on her sandel breaks. Her shoes are black and they are like flip- flops in that they have no back straps. So basically she is screwed cause she can't walk. LOL. Then Michelle remembers that she has black electrical tape in her trunk from the last gig she did for work. She fixes the shoe and all is good. :)
July 1; 3:00 pm
We get into Tower City only to discover that every Teeny and their mother had the same idea we did. The place is crawling with girls with body painted "I Love Fill- In- The- NSYNC-er" messages and skimpy little shirts. Yeck. We decide to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe cause we have a couple of hours to kill and we haven't eaten there in awhile.
July 1; 3:15 pm
On our way up, Melissa's shoe breaks AGAIN. Good thing Michelle brought the tape in with her. She tapes it up good this time. That bugger ain't goin' anywhere.
July 1; 3:25 pm
We make it through the crowd up to the Hard Rock to find a 2 and a half hour wait. Forget that. Off to the food court.
July 1; 5:05 pm
We've eaten. We've shmoozed. We are bored. We look at the movies playing and decide to go see "Gone In 60 Seconds", cause we'll be out at 6:40. Perfect.
July 1; 6:42 pm
Movie is over. I didn't like it. Action movies bore me. LOL. We head into the walkway toward the Gund. Half the crowd is going to the concert, the other half to the Indian's game. We get to the venue and head for the bathroom. On our way out, I literally run into someone. It turns out to be, of all people, my next door neighbor Erin. Hmmm. Weird. Go figure. It sure is a small world.
July 1; 7:05 pm
We have figured out where we need to go to get to our seats, but we don't want to split up yet. We are walking around in search of the Fuman Skeeto booth when my arm is grabbed and someone says my name. It is a friend of ours, Laura, whom we did choir and theatre stuff with in high school. She is working a concession stand at the concert for Top 25, our school show choir. It's a REALLY small world.
July 1; 7:17 pm
The hunt for Fuman was unsucessful. :0(. We decide on a place to meet and split up to go to our seats. I walk down to the floor in search of my row. I get to my seat and I am ready to die. I was so close, I couldn't even believe it. I looked around for Michelle cause she was in the same row, just on the other side of the aisle and I see her. We silently flip out together. LOL. This is gonna ROCK.
July 1; 7:30 -ish
The lights go out. Screaming insues. Glow sticks are waved. Steve Fatone walks on stage. The concert has begun.
July 1; 10 something
Whew. In a bright burst of fireworks, the concert is over. I catch my breath and attempt to wade through all the confetti and people to meet my friends. By the time I get there, I have had enough screaming Teeny exposure to last me a lifetime. Melissa had an AWESOME time. She now loves NSYNC. Woohoo! The girl in front of her caught JC's sweaty towel during TIPY, so she was a little bitter about that one. LOL. Michelle was a little upset cause right before NSYNC took the stage, a group of 15 took the row in front of her and OF COURSE the 6 foot father had to sit right in front of her. So she barely saw the concert. But on the up side, when the stage came into the audience for "This I Promise You", she says she was standing there with her arms crossed not smiling. Chris caught her eye and smiled. When she smiled back, he winked at her. ;0) . *Sigh.*
July 1; 11:00 -ish
We get back in the car and I pop in the NSYNC European Debut, cause we KNOW we will be sitting there for awhile while everyone tries to get out.
July 1; 11:30
I think we have moved 4 feet. Melissa is asleep in the backseat.
July 1; almost midnight.
We have made it through the booth thing where you pay, but we are still on the ramp to get out of the parking deck and onto a real street.
July 2, 2000; 12:30 am
It is now the next day. The CD ends. We put in Footloose the musical cause it is loud and it will keep us awake. We are on a main road now. Stopped dead in a traffic jam, but still. Making progress.
July 2; 12:55 am
We are on the freeway. FINALLY. Melissa complains of cold from the back seat. There are no blankets so I joke with her to cover herself with the road map on the floor of the car. She is desperate so she does.
July 2; 1:30 -ish
We get to Melissa's house. Michelle fishes through her purse for Melissa's money and driver's license she has be carrying all day cause Melissa had no pockets. She locates the money, but the driver's lisence is gone. It must have fallen out somewhere along the way. This is not good.
July 2; 1:40 -ish
We are ALMOST home. We pull into our neighborhood (Michelle and I are nextdoor neighbors). As we are nearing our street, Michelle slams on the breaks as this random possom/mole/armidillo thing darts out into the street. We don't hit it thank goodness, but we are still unable to identify the species.
July 2; 1:50 -ish
Out of the car, into my house, up the stairs, take out the contacts and drop into bed ready for sweet dreams of NSYNC. :0)
