| Georgia/Florida April 5, 2003 Part 2: The Concert |
| After picking up our pictures around 5 pm, Debi and I headed to Wild Adventures, where we got something to eat and met up with Monica. *waves* Around 6:30 we decided to go to our seats in the reserved section. Debi and I had seats in the 11th row, but we only sat in them for about 3 seconds. Monica was in the 5th row and the seats around her were empty, so we decided to sit with her until someone came and kicked us out. As it got closer to 7 (when the show was supposed to start), we realized that #1 the season ticket holders weren't showing up for their seats (the good, close seats are all reserved for season pass people) and #2 tons of people were already sneaking up to the front to get the empty seats. We waited for the security nazi ladies to turn their backs, and Debi and I headed to some empty seats in the 2nd row. Turns out that most of the people around us had snuck up too, and we were able to stay there for the entire show. To top it off, the people in front of us were little girls and they sat almost the entire time, so it was like being in the first row. :D O-Town hit the stage around 7:15 and performed for about an hour. They opened up with The Joint and ended with All Or Nothing. I don't really remember the order of the songs (other than the first and last ones) but they included We Fit Together, Suddenly, Craving, Love Should Be A Crime, These Are The Days, the guys' solo songs, AND American Game, which was totally cool to hear again. All of the solos were the same as last summer except for Jacob, and for the life of me I don't know what his new song is called. I know the chorus, but I don't know the title. They totally faked us out at one point when they brought a piano on stage. Debi and I looked at each other like, "YEAH! Baby I Would!" WRONG. Trevor started talking and said, "This is my favorite song off our new cd." I was like, "Huh???? New???" Turned out it was CRAVING! That song is so awesome live, especially with Ashley playing the piano. Luckily we were just to the right of the center, so he was facing in our direction for the whole song. :) Why on earth didn't they choose THAT as their 2nd single instead of I Showed Her? Throughout O-Town's performance I developed a new respect for Jacob. I've never DISliked him, but he's never been a favorite either. However, on Saturday his personality totally won me over. By the third song the security nazi ladies were telling everyone in the audience to sit down. I HATE when they do that at concerts and I was NOT happy. Of course the guys on stage could see what was going on because it was happening right under their noses. When it came time for Jacob's solo song, he did his usual introduction -- Hi I'm Jacob, good to be here, blah blah blah. But right before he started his song, he yelled, "I don't care who's telling you to sit down, STAND THE F--- UP!!!" lmao It was awesome! We all jumped out of our seats. YEAH JACOB!!!!!!!!! (he didn't actually SAY f*ck, but he started to and caught himself lol) The other thing that made me pay particular attention to Jacob throughout the show was that he was paying particular attention to US. Debi kept hitting me in the leg every time he looked at us, and it was pretty much CONSTANT, during EVERY song. Towards the end of the show I wanted to make sure it wasn't just our imaginations, so when I caught him looking again I waved to him. He kind of smiled and then pointed at me while he was singing the next line. Yep, that was confirmation! lol Maybe it's because we knew the words to the songs, even the non-singles and American Game, which isn't on the cd at all. *shrug* Another interesting random tidbit from O-Town's appearance: Tommy Smith (the keyboard player, formerly with BSB until he sued them for not giving him credit on helping write songs) was a no-show. I don't know if that means Tommy is no longer with O-Town at all or if this was just a temporary thing. I'm sure Nick didn't miss seeing Tommy at all. lol Moving on to the main event: NICK! His performance in Valdosta is pretty much blurred together with the 3 NON shows I saw last month, so I'll just give you the basics of what I remember. #1 He sounded BAD. Poor guy was squeaking worse than Aaron! At the beginning of the show he told the audience that he was sick but he was gonna try to do his best, and Debi had even said when he met him earlier in the day that he sounded sick. He wasn't completely awful, but he hit some REALLY REALLY REALLY bad notes, totally made me cringe. Hopefully everyone realized that he doesn't ALWAYS sound like that, he was just sick and having an off night. #2 (you may have heard/read this elsewhere) He messed up the words to Who Needs The World. Instead of singing the second verse, he started singing the first verse again by accident. Once he realized what he was doing, he TOTALLY started cracking up and stopped singing. The band kept playing though, so Nick kind of composed himself and started up again a few lines later. I love to watch/hear him laugh, sooooo adorable, even when he screws up. After the song he said, "I haven't forgotten the words to a song in a long time!" Um, Nick, you messed up the words to Open Arms in San Francisco last month, but you probablydon't realize that, or at least you won't admit it. lol #3 (you may have also heard/read this elsewhere) He didn't sing Do I Have To Cry For You/Everything I Do. He just went right from his usual "ending" song (Help Me? I don't remember) into I Got You. With the way his voice was sounding, I'm GLAD he didn't try to sing those songs cuz it would have been painful to watch him struggle through them. Plus Jason, Nick's keyboard player/music director, wasn't there -- noclue why -- so that could have been a factor in him not singing DIHTCFY/EID also. #4 About 1/2 of the way through the concert, Nick randomly took off shis shoes. No reason what-so-ever. The stage was wet from all of the water Nick had poured/spit on himself, so it would have made a lot more sense for him to keep his shoes ON. Then a song or two later he took off his socks too! Nick spent the last couple of song on stage barefoot. Nick toes! :) Other random things... Nick was thrusting A LOT, definitely more than I remember at the NON shows I saw in March. I guess he was just feeling particularly frisky. lol He didn't introduce his band at all, which he usually does during Help Me. It was weird seeing him perform Shout WITHOUT Sev since they showed up on stage for that song at all of the NON shows I went to. Right before he started WNTW, Nick said something like, "Valdosta, Valdosta (two different pronunciations), how the hell do you say it?" I thought that was pretty funny. Fans rushed to the front of the stage for the last song, IGY. Debi and I stayed in the second row and just stood on our seats to see over everyone. A couple fans sprayed Nick with silly string, but they didn't get him too bad. After the concert Debi and I briefly met Avigail *waves* and then spent several unsuccessful hours trying to track down O-Town. However, BY ACCIDENT we found Nick instead. This time he never came out of his bus though, just lots of sightings of Tony, Rob, Andre, Derrick, Dwayne, random girls coming on and off the bus, etc. After a while the bus drove off (followed by several cars of fans) presumably to head to some local bar/hangout spot. If Nick was so sick that he could hardly sing, he shouldn't be going out partying with his friends, but whatever, that's his dumbass decision. Debi and I did a little exploring of Valdosta (yes, there is actually a little bit to explore, shocking huh?) and finally made it to bed around 3 am. To be continued with "Adventures in Carterland" |
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