So you want to know what my favorite concert was do you?

This past weekend was spent cleaning, gutting and organizing the house. Believe me it was well beyond needing. It has been after all, five years since we moved in, and in the time since we haven’t done a major overhaul on anything. 

Of course in our attempt to clean and get rid of things, we came upon several memories of the past. Including my number of ticket stubs from concerts, hockey games and the occasional musical/play I have been to. I sat reliving each and every one of them as I thumbed through show ticket after show ticket. Many of the memories came flooding back so vividly as if they had just occurred rather than two decades ago. I happily snapped photos on my phone and immediately posted them, look what I found I typed under the picture that showed stubs ranging in anything from Backstreet Boys in 1998 to Aerosmith in 2000, Sting in 2001 and Kenny in 2007. Immediately friends and family began responding, laughing at the times we had. And then it was asked. 

What was your favorite concert?

My favorite? 

Geez? Just one. I tried to think about it, because really it was that hard of a question. How could I pick just one when I had been to nearly 75 shows plus in the nearly three decades (eek) I have been attending shows? Do they know how hard it is to narrow that many down to just one? 

Instead I have come up with a couple of my favorites in no particular order. 

Bryan White/LeAnne Rimes-March 6, 1998

I have to say this has a special place in my heart, as it was one of the first concerts I went to that didn’t involve my parents, a puppet or children’s sing-along.  I remember getting tickets with my best friend to see the show, at the time we were in love with the country cutie whom if you haven’t heard of him was sort of like the Hunter Hayes of today. He was young, and cute and definitely talented. I was a senior in High school. It was my best friend’s birthday. The concert fell on a weeknight, but our parents were more than OK with letting us go. The day of the concert I was pumped, but more so when my other BFF at the time came up to me and said she had a surprise waiting for me at will call. She had managed to get my best friend and I backstage as she knew Bryan. I am pretty sure I just about fainted right there in the cafeteria. I did not tell the best friend I was taking instead chose to keep a secret until later that afternoon when we were getting ready.  As for the show, Bryan put on a fantastic set, even if he was sick as a dog, and LeAnn? Well I don’t remember much because we were meeting Bryan and had personal family member tags, meaning we had to leave during her set. A fact we were more than OK with.  We stood in line, and were the last ones to meet him. One by one we did. And finally we were there. My best friend went ahead of me, and then it was my turn. I remember just feeling extremely giddy and nerdy at the same time, and when he asked my name and I told him who he was, he knew how to spell it correctly. THIS NEVER HAPPENS. Apparently that best friend that hooked me really did know him and so he knew of me in a roundabout way. And as any 17 year old girl would do I hung on to every word.

‘Lisa has told me a lot about you, if you ever need anything. Have her contact me.’  

Later she would get him to sign the picture she had blown up of him and I, I still have it, and it still remains one of my favorite high school memories.

NKOTBSB  June 4, 2011

I’ll be honest here; I have seen BSB more times than I probably should admit it. And there are so many of them that have special meaning to me for various reasons. But for some reason this one stands out. I decided to go, dragging a not so eager friend along with me after another backed out. It had been a crappy year and I wanted to relive the glory days of my youth. I managed to score some pretty epic seats, nothing super fantastic like front row but close enough I could actually see everything going on, including when the boys (New Kids and Backstreet Boys that is) decided to go in the crowds. Laugh all you want but this was just one of those fun shows. The kind for a moment in which you forgo you had just turned 31. Or that you were a wife with a toddler at home. It was the kind where didn’t care about the fact the girl beside you with her mom had probably never heard of New Kids on the Block, or Backstreet Boys. You simply went, and danced and enjoyed every minute of it. You danced, you laughed you may have even taken a drink of something you weren’t sure of knowing 12 years ago it would have never happened. It was just a good concert. They did all their hits, both groups. You thought of your sister and the dance moves in the basement. You wished for those times back. It was that kind of concert. And when you turned around and saw Nick Carter coming down the stairs, and two people away, it was the kind of concert that you had to stick out your hand and relish in the fact he touched it. Because you were fifteen again, and that was just about the biggest thing that had happened to you.

Yes it was that kind of concert.

And yes he did touch my hand, and yes I didn’t want to wash it for a full week.

You will be glad to l know I did. 

Kenny Chesney-August 24, 2013

It should not surprise you to see him on the list. After all much like the one above, I have seen him now more times than I can count. So what was special about this concert? Well a few years ago I made a promise to myself, call it my concert bucket list. I vowed I would see Kenny in Boston, at least one time before he retired. It always seemed like one of those pipe dreams that would never happen until last year. When he performed at Gillette Stadium, closing night at the end of August. And I bit the bullet and bought a ticket. And I can not tell you how amazing the show was. There is something definitely in the air up there when it comes to Kenny, it just seemed so much more magical. The crowd, the set. The fact that it was my dream city, with one of my favorite artist ever. The opening acts where amazing, Eric Church blew me away and won a fan out of my husband who is usually anti country music.  I don’t know but it was there. And I felt it. Every note, every song the crowd was into. It was the tailgating sight before the show. It was spending the day after walking around Boston feeling the Kenny love. It was simply everything.  I loved when he sang Boston, looking around and thinking this is what it means to be a part of No Shoes Nation. Sure there have been more Kenny shows, where I sat closer but I also got puked on. And the crowd was rude. And everything that came with it. But for that one night, well that one night will go down as one of my top in concert going experiences.

P!nk-November 24, 2013

I can think of two words to describe this show. MIND BLOWING. Absolutely. I have always admired Pink as an artist. I love the fact she sings about life, and about things and doesn’t really seem to give a crap what others think because she is singing. I love how she has survived. But that night as I sat with a best friend, well I saw P!nk as an artist, as a gymnast. I saw her athleticism. No doubt about it that girl can put on a show. There was no lip-syncing or letting everyone else dance while you stand there and look pretty. She did and does it all. And what you got out of it was two and a half hours of pure entertainment at its finest.  I must say it was also so refreshing to see someone who is that talented seem so down to earth. She spoke to the crowds, which yes most do, but it was the way she spoke like she was genuinely happy and thrilled to be performing for us. But it was her dancing, her athleticism, and the whole entire stage show that pretty much blew me away more than anything. It truly is that amazing. I cannot say it enough, just how much I am in love with this concert.
  
 So you see I cannot just pick one. My favorites were not because they had the most elaborate sets or costume changes, but what it comes down to is the experiences. The people I went with, those that I still keep in contact with and those that I don’t. Well it is those things, which make the concert memorable