Around 5:15pm on Saturday, me, Mary and Rose hop in the camry and head for the hills. 2 hours and change later, we pull into downtown Bloomsburg.
Yee. Haw.
It was about 7:20, and the doors didn't open until 8pm, so we went off in search of dinner. We spied some Daddy-s along the way, but didn't want to get involved in Ron's snow throwing, so we steered clear. After some warm nourishing grilled cheez at the christian-themed coffee shop (I swear), we headed to The Blue Moose.
(and yet, there were no mooses to be found. hmmm...)
We were on our way up the stairs, when Mary realized she had forgotten her ticket. In the car. In new jersey.
No biggie - I just handed her mine and got the one that Dirk had left for me (he's so sweet, and Meis rules too), so that crisis was averted. After waiting on a longass line to check our coats, we head into the concert room.
It was awash with swingers - they were giving lessons. We chose not to participate and instead amused ourselves, watching the folks get all swung up.
The room was HUGE, with a lot of chairs set up in the back, and a BIG dancefloor. The stage was fairly low, and a lot of people were on the floor already, so we went and staked out our spots, right down in front, leaning against the stage.
We were then informed we weren't allowed to touch the stage. O-kay.
The swinging finally ended, and the opener, a local chick with a guitar came out. Yawn. Joe had said that they told him on the phone no photos were allowed, but people were snapping away. I took a test shot of the Jewel-esque chick, in full view of the bouncer. No reaction from him, so we took that as the greenlight for photos.
She FINALLY finishes and scampers offstage. The crowd was pretty young, with a lot of high school kids and their parents, plus some little kids too. They were in a good mood, so there was a nice happy vibe in the room.
The show starts! Yay!!
The boys come out and Scotty gives me a nice smile and wave, which was cool. I got big smiles from Dirk, and Scotty and Josh and Mike and Kurt kept posing for the camera.
Or, for as long as I was allowed. About 15 minutes into the show, security starts hassling Joe about taking shots. A soon as I saw this, I snapped one more shot, and quickly hid my camera. I wasn't losing my funsaver to a bouncer.
And speaking of bouncers...there was one on each end of the stage, and 2, right smack in the middle. Scotty sees this, and gets annoyed, because they were right in our way. So he starts messing with them, making faces and funny gestures behind them. They're all in my shots!
After they gave Joe a hard time, Scotty disappears for a sec to talk to James, tour manager extraordinaire. 2 minutes later, the bouncers were removed. Yay!!
Show
highlights:
- Scotty replacing
some "Mr. Pinstripe Suit" lyrics with "2-1-00"
(FOX
promo) lyrics. He promptly cracks himself and us up. The horn section
takes note.
- Wardrobe notes: Josh wasn't wearing a hat...Kurt has grown a goatee (more on that later)...Scotty skipped the shirt and tie for a short-sleeved sweater under his snazzy new blue suit...Glen has grown out the silver and has bleached tips in his hair.
- Kurt's drum solo has grown, and Andy now has a nice long solo.
- Mike kept pointing at me during "Who's That Creepin'" and making funny faces
- The horn section hopped off the stage and paraded thru the audience during "Jump With my Baby"
- The horn section making fun of Scotty during his 'applause pleas'("okay...come on...okay...STOP!!")
- Scotty said SOMETHING to Andy during "The Goodbye Song" and he laughed so hard during his solo, he couldn't finish it.
- The dancin' Big Bad Voodoo Daddy horns. Those boys are too cute. :)
So, as usual, the show kicked the largest amount of booty possible. Well DUH.
There was a big public meet n' greet afterwards, which is always fun. We talked to Mike for a few minutes before the rest of the guys came out - he and Ron usually come out first. He had to go take care of something, but promised to see us in a few.
There's few things better than being greeted with big hugs from 9 different men. :)
Highlights:
- Kurt can't really grow a goatee, but he's trying, dammit. He's done it in sections, so he had a mustache and a chin thing going, but never shall they meet. The boys have taken to calling him Beardo.
- Got a big squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeze and kissie from Dirk. He didn't realize I was standing next to him until I took someone's pic with him. :)
- Ron jumped all over me like the Voodoo Puppy that he is. He wanted to know if I got lots of pics of him, and we were both disappointed when I told him the answer was no. oh well...that's what we have the spring for.
- I did, however, get some nice ones of Mike, which he was glad to hear.
- Got a big hug and another warning about beer-in-the-pocket from Josh, whose hair looked GREAT. He's thinking of shedding the hat altogether.
I went looking for Karl and panicked when I couldn't find him - I couldn't possibly leave without seeing him. Fortunately, Kurt understood my plight and went to find him.
- Got another wave and smile from Scotty, so I trotted over to see the birthday boy. We talked for a bit, and he notices Mary's hair, which is currently sporting pink streaks. He said it was cool, and if he had hair, it would most likely look something like that. I thought back fondly, and mentioned that I remember back when he had hair. He takes off his hat, to show that yes, he is in fact, shaved completely clean. He leaned forward to show us and I rubbed his head and told him he had a nice skull. He laughed and put his hat back on.
- Karl had joined us at this point ('bout time!), and reminisced about spicy cheeeeken wings.
- We talked to Andy for awhile, who told me someone had stolen his hat at the Disney New Year's Eve thing. Bastard mouse! He and Rose also had a discussion about being catholic.
- Glen wandered back over to us, and proclaimed he "has a mustache like Burt Reynolds". i have no idea who told him that or why.
By now, it's getting late, and we all have long drives ahead of us. We bid the boys adieu and head out, but not before talking to Mike some more outside. He's really excited to start the chia pet soon. :)
So we leave. After a few wrong turns and a stop for some water, we finally make it home at 3:30am and sleeeeeeeep.
And that was that show. :)