As I walked past the casino, I saw a large man in a bright yellow shirt and a man with spiky hair that caught my eye. I looked closely to realize it was a security guard with Mark Mgrath, the lead singer of Sugar Ray. He looked at me smiled, waved hello and then I shook his hand and spoke to him briefly, but he was very busy and had to go. That got me very excited in hopes that I would get to meet the goo goo dolls. As I left my brief moment with Mark, I found a swarm of about 20 girls following him, it was very funny. As I walked further into the casino, I then met every band member of Sugar Ray, but I felt bad that I didn't know their names, but that's ok.
At 5:30 pm I went to the front of the event center hoping I would maybe get to meet someone or go in early. Well at 6pm they let everyone in, I was second in one of the many lines, and went straight in all excited. As I rushed over to the t-shirt stand, the usher escorted all us early birds out telling us we had to go back outside because they weren't ready or something.
If it had not been for that, I would have never met my new friend Tracy. When we were finally allowed in, we were the first in line to get the t-shirts. I got a t-shirt and hat, and of course Tracy got everything they had. LoL Trace. Well I had tickets for Section 3, Row X. All my other 4 goo concerts, I had at least been in row 4, but I was just greatful for the seats I had in this 12,000 seat venue!
So Tracy and I sat together and during Fastball there was a woman who repeatedly kept asking us how old she thought she looked, we were being very nice and said 35, and got very tired of her and her husband, so we decided to try to get better seats. We decided that when Fastball was over we would see if there were any empty seats, so we escorted our selves to about row 5, and then sadly when the seat owners came, I just insisted we were keeping their seats warm for them, and then Tracy and I headed towards the bathroom.
On our way, we noticed these seats on the side of the stage, they were all empty, and they had a view of the WHOLE stage and backstage a little bit, and a chance for us to talk to the roadies. So the usher didn't seem to mind with us taking the vacant seats. Tracy and I then started talking to the roadies, and then we finally came across a nice man who when we asked if he could get us a guitar pick, he did! He got us both the blue guitar pick from John's guitar that read "GOO" . We were so excited and thought that was the best that could happen all night...
Well when Sugar Ray came on, I decided to pull out one of my posters that I used in the Sunfest show in Florida, it read "I'll kiss your ass 4 a backstage pass!" We were not sure if Mark saw it, but I really didn't care. Then behind us we noticed there was someone with a backstage pass and he told us he was Rodney's brother, the guitar player in Sugar Ray, he said he would come for is after the show to get our poster signed, but never came back, like I expected but that's ok too. Also behind us there was this great guy who was a real big goo fan. He kept telling us how great we were and everything. Then we saw this woman go backstage, and we were real upset cause we had seen her before and she just got in because of basically how she was dressed. So the guy was like "That's ok, you don't need them, you will start your own band with YOUR guitar pick, you can be the GOO" But then I insisted we don't need silicon, and we can be the GOO GOO DOLLETTES, unlike her. We started dissing her like the goos diss the Backstreet Boys, hehe.
When they were finally done and the Goos opened with Dizzy, that's when Tracy and I became EXTREMELY excited. We were holding the poster and taking tons of photos. A funny part of the show was when he was introducing everyone from the nad and he came to Mike. He said "I love you Mike, the way a man loves his car!" Everyone was laughing. Then this really drunk man came up to us in leopard skin tight pants and said "HEY OVER THERE IS MARK MGWIRE!" Tracy and I were hysterical, but we had to fous on GOO! So then the big goo fan behind us was so cool, he took Tracy and I down to the floor level and went down by the usher, he begged and begged him and told him how big of fans we were, and finally convinced him to let us go where the professional photographers were to take ONE photo. Tracy went, came back, and was so excited. Then I went, and there was a hippy next to me, and kept telling me to just take pictures over and over, and then I got about 10 until the usher told me to leave. So then Tracy and I just stayed down in the corner until we were told to go back to our seats. But while we were in the corner, a professional photographer with a video camera kept taping us for about 3 minutes, we thought the might work for MTV and he might be getting footage for that MTV all access show? Around 3 songs later, a man came up to us and said "You are a much bigger fan then I am" and he gave us his 3rd row center tickets!
We then moved up to 3rd row, and of course us being short, couldn't see, so the nice men behind us allowed us to stand on our seats, but the ushers didn't. So then a lady in the 2nd row said "COME UP HERE" so we were now in second row, and then the ushers noticed how big of fans we were, and just sort of "pushed" us up to the front row!!!! Then a lady in the front row said "Come in front of me" Tracy and I were now up against the gate in front of front row!!!! We were about 4 feet away from stage!!! That is when I met Cjay from the mailinglist who I was looking for, and she was lucky enough to get the set list! :) So then I took out my other poster, during Iris, where I was sure John and Robby could see it. It said "Hold Me Up cause I'm short"
During the song John laughed smiled and showed Robby and said into the microphone "HA CAUSE YOUR SHORT". Then I showed my other poster "I'll Kiss your ass 4 a backstage pass" and everyone laughed. Then I got the most excited during "Just the way you are" and whenever the lyrics "and i guess that's just the way you are" came on, I pointed to John and then he smiled, and then pointed, I can't wait to see my picture of that! Well after the show, he threw his guitar through the big projection screen, and Robby followed with his bass. It was such an unbelieveable night, and I did not expect it to turn out the way it did at all! I can't wait to see how my FRONT ROW pics came out with a zoom camera I just got! I will scan them soon for everyone to see! :)