KIIS FM Jingle Ball aka "16 hours in LA"
with us. :D And I can tell you that his skin is VERY soft. *swoon* Read on for all the random, rambling details. (This is gonna take a while, skip down a bunch of paragraphs for the concert stuff lol)
I left work around 9:45 am on Thursday morning and headed to the airport. Thankfully it wasn't raining (YET) but it was windy as hell. Not really the kind of weather you want to fly in. Debi met me at the airport, and a little before 1 pm our plane took off for LAX and our insane adventure began.
We got to LA a little after 2 pm. Our PLAN was to pick up our rentalcar, check in to our hotel (in Beverly Hills), get ready for theconcert, find the "Nick spots" from the Help Me video (Stein on Vine, the drum shop, the recording studio, The Frech Cottage motel), and then drive to Anaheim for the show. No one would tell us what time the concert started -- the tickets said "doors open @ 6 pm" but even JoJo couldn't tell us anything more than that. So we planned to get there around 6/6:30 guessing the concert would start at 7.
That left us about 5 hours to do everything -- turns out, it wasn't enough time.
It took us over a half an hour to get our rental car, and by the timewe drove from there to the hotel (which was supposed to only be 20minutes away, gotta love LA traffic), it was after 4! We changed and attempted to make ourselves look presentable and were out the door by 4:45. Knowing that traffic was A MESS and Anaheim was at least an hour away, we decided to skip the Nick sights and just head straight to the concert. By 5:45 (an hour later) we were STILL in LA and had traveled at most 10 miles. NOT A GOOD THING!!!!!!!!!!!!! Armed with our not-so-trusty maps, we zigged and zagged on EVERY FREAKING
POSSIBLE HIGHWAY to get through LA to Anaheim as fast as possible. 10 to 110 to... I think there was a 605 and a 91 in there somewhere... finally on to Hwy 5. For future reference to anyone traveling in LA, HIGHWAY 5 DOES NOT HAVE A CARPOOL LANE!!!!! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!! *Note: this is where the swearing started* lol The whole time we were listening to KIIS waiting to hear SOMETHING by Nick, about Nick, anything Nick related... nothing. Avril, Justin, Michelle Branch, Destiny's Child, Nelly, O-Town, Christina, no Nick. Finally we gave up and put on Radio Disney -- almost immediately heard America AO and it made us feel better for a few mintues.
We FINALLY got to Arrowhead Pond around 7:15 -- 2 AND A HALF HOURS AFTER WE STARTED. We were NOT happy, we STILL didn't know exactly when the show was starting, and we didn't know the line-up of artists. We piled up with all of our gear and headed to the front doors as fast as possible. Check the signs as I'm walking in -- cameras allowed -- yes! I open up my purse for securty -- NO CAMERA!!!!!!!!!!
I left it in the car!!!!! *slapping myself in the head 38743987483 times* I can't believe I did that, I still feel SO AWFUL. DAMMIT!!!!! But Debi had her camera and we were already late, so we went in. I'm still really really bummed about the camera thing. We should have TWICE as many pictures as we do. *pout*
ON TO THE STUFF YOU CARE ABOUT, THE CONCERT...
We walked in and Kelly Osborne was on stage. We asked a security guy what we had missed, and he said one performer that we didn't know, so *whew* at least we hadn't missed Nick. THANK GOD. I seriously
would've broken down bawling right there on the Pond floor if we had missed him. Slightly relieved,
we headed to our 5TH ROW SEATS. WHOOOOHOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!! Kelly was cute, sounded better than at Wango Tango in June, but I think that's because they had the music turned up REALLY REALLY LOUD and kind of drowned out her vocals. lol Kelly leaves the stage and they show the next performer on the screen -- IT'S NICK!!!!!!!!!! OMG we ALMOST missed Nick! Half an hour later and we would have. Thank you God for not letting us miss him!!!!!
Nick's set is mostly a blur. I just kept thinking to myself, "OMG this is NICK BY HIMSELF!" Debi and I moved to the second row just as he was taking the stage. They wouldn't let us in the first row, but second was ok. WTF? Whatever! We were mere FEET away from the amazingly wonderful, beautiful NICK F*CKING reveal!!!! He came out wearing a jacket which he soon stripped off to reaveal his lovely arms. *thud* You guys know the set list from the other Jingle Balls: Blow Your Mind, Help Me, DIHTCFY, Just What I Needed (HOLY THRUSTING AND BOOTY SHAKING BATMAN) I Just Wanna Take You Home, and I Got You. Nick was a MANIAC -- throwning poinsettia plants, kicking speakers off the stage, throwing water on the crowd and himself, humping a pillar (AAAHHH "against the pillar with Nick" has even more meaning now! lol), writhing around (and thrusting) on the floor, absoluetly freaking amazing. Lots of tongue, smiles, smirks, and sweat. lol Unfortunately only about 1/3 of the crowd was standing for Nick,
but that meant more attention for us. Made eye contact with him several times. *swoon* I am very proud of
the fact that Debi and I knew all the words to all of the songs, unlike the people in the front row who were
just standing and watching. At some point during his set (I don't remember which song), Nick's hands
went to his belt and I looked at Debi like, "WTF is he doing?????!!!!!" He stripped his belt off (damn sexy),
dangled it over the people to the right of us, and finally tossed it to them.
Now for my dumbass moment of the evening. During Help Me (I think that's what song it was -- I know it wasn't BYM, DIHTCFY, IJWTYH, or IGY) Nick approached the edge of the stage right in front of us and
looked like he was going to jump off. I figured that he was going to the pit area that was blocked off between the stage and the front row so I made a dash for the front to try to get as close as possible. Nick had a different plan. He stepped from the stage ON to the railing that was blocking off the front row, so he was stradling the pit area with one foot still on the stage. He was trying to get over the pit and go down our aisle into the crowd, and I was in his way! lol All I remember is seeing Nick's foot at like my chest level and
looking up at him. He was looking down at me half confused like, "Where do I go now? You're in my way!" I kind of stumbled backwards in a panic and Nick jumped down on to the floor right in front of us.
As he was heading down our aisle, I reached out and ran my hand across his arm --
the RIGHT arm, MY arm, I touched the ARMBAND!!!!! *thud*
(As some of you know, I have an arm fetish and I LOVE Nick's right arm, so I was in absolute heaven.) Debi, as always more bold than I am, ran her hand across his STOMACH as he went by! lol Nick made his way down our aisle, and then he turned around and came back towards us and the stage. Debi and I both touched his left arm (the "collage" lol) as he made his way back up to the stage. Afterwards when we were talking, we both said we noticed that Nick's skin was REALLY soft. :D We also said that if we were REALLY thinking, we would have tried to touch something other than his arms. Use your imagination. lol
Our other memorable moment came at the very end of Nick's set. He was finishing up I Got You, getting ready to leave the stage, and he again came towards our side. Stopping right in front of us, he unhooked one
of the bracelets from his right wrist and tossed it up to the crowd. As if in slow motion we watched it fly straight up over our heads and reached for it. Having NO coordination, we missed. lol BUUUUUT the
bracelet landed ON Debi's chair and we scrambled for it. After a couple seconds of grabbing hands and a little pushing and pinching, DEBI GOT THE BRACELET!!!!! AAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!! It's basically two
bike chains stuck together side by side and clasped by a snap on a piece of leather. (You'll see it in the pictures) So that's the"piece of Nick" that we brought home with us. I spent the remainder of the night occasionally grabbing Debi's wrist (she put the bracelet on of course) and staring at it longingly.
Must've looked pretty funny. lol
Nick left the stage around 8 pm and the climax of our evening was over less than an hour after we got there. Talk about let down. Nick was on so early that we had to sit there and TRY to enjoy the rest of the show knowing that the highlight was already over. But we stayed for the whole thing. Gotta get our money's worth! Tidbits about the other performers...
Avril followed Nick. She brought her own fan to blow her hair while she was performing. lol Her performance was good, better than I've seen her on awards shows. She did all 3 of her singles and 2 or 3
other songs. Like Nick, she too went into the crowd, but on the other aisle, not ours. I got a pick from one of her guitar players. (Evan, the cute one lol) During Avril's set, the second row people showed upfor their seats, so Debi and I headed back to ours in the 5th row.
Next was Justine. You all know how I feel about him. I figured out that I'm more annoyed by the Justin HYPE than I am by Justin himself. Literally the ENTIRE crowd was up on their feet cheering for him.
Allhe has to do is show up and everyone goes nuts. Forget the fact thathe beat-boxed as much as he sang. Forget the fact that he can't sing without dancing, even though he has a broken foot. Forget the fact that his backup singers *coughREPLACEMENTSFORJCLANCEJOEYANDCHRIScough* sang more than he did. He's JUSTIN and that's all that matters. His performance was good. He did Cry Me A River and Like I Love You, with a little rap with one of the Neptunes guys in the middle. He was what I expected, very JUSTIN.
I don't think I'll ever understand thephenomenon.
Then came Destiny's Child, the one act that I thought went on too long. It was like they were headlining -- pyrotechnics, confetti, a costume change. Too much for a Jingle Ball. They did all of their hits, including solo pieces by Beyonce and Kelly. I'm pretty sure their background vocals were pre-recorded,
but I could be wrong.
Next was the Goo Goo Dolls -- Debi was in Johnny Rzeznik heaven. lol She loves him. I don't. He's hot, but he's no Nick. :) We had justseen them 5 days before from the first row, so this was prettyanticlimatic for me. No swearing, smoking, or insulting LA this timethough. lol
BIGGEST JOKE OF THE NIGHT: MARIAH CAREY. *shaking my head* Mariah, Mariah, Mariah, what has become of you????? When they first introduced her, nothing happened. Dark stage, dark arena, 4 mics,
nothing. After a little while, they started playing Vision of Love over the sound system. Then it cut to another Mariah song, and another, clips of Mariah's hits for about 5 minutes. I eventually noticed everyone turning to look at the back of the arena. TOTAL DIVA MOMENT: Ms. Mariah is walking in from the back of the arena THROUGH the crowd escorted by security. Can't just walk out on stage like everyone else, no, has to make it a spectacle. *rolls eyes* She finally pranced on to the stage, greeted the audience, and started her new song. BUT SHE WASN'T SINGING!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SHE WAS LIP-SYNCHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Give me a freakin break! She's probably the most respected artist at the concert (in terms of the music industry) and she doesn't even SING! Whatever! When that song was over, Santa came out on stage. Mariah coo'ed, sat on his lap, and started her Christmas hit, All I Want For Christmas Is You. (possibly my favorite Mariah song) But she didn't sing that either!!!!!!!!!! I could have been up there faking it as well as she did, probably better!!!!! What a freakin joke. Very very disappointed.
After that debacle there was only one performer left, Kylie Minogue. WHY she was last I have no idea.
One word to describe her performance: WEIRD. She sounded good (and *gasp* she sang LIVE) but.....
yeah, weird is the only word for it. At one point her MALE dancers were wearing metallic silver speedos, black fishnet stockings, and high heels. For the next song they added flamenco skirts to their ensemble.
Quite a sight! lol She did all of her singles, a few other songs, and a new version of Locomotion. (a racy, naughty, slow version) We left during her last song, the la la la one. (I'm blanking on the name)
That was it, the concert was over around 11:30, Nick was LONG gone, now what? As we were leaving the arena it was just starting to rain. Debi and I raced to the car, battled the parking lot traffic, and made it back to the highway to return to our hotel in Beverly Hills. But of course, we never take a direct route ANYWHERE. We get distracted easily. lol We made it back to Beverly Hills ok, but then we took some detours down Rodeo Drive and past some other hotels. Didn't see anyone important, but it never hurts to look! Then we decided to check out the "Nick spots" from the Help Me video that we didn't have time to see before the concert. Keep in mind that it's like 1 am and POURING rain at this point. After a few twists,
several wrong turns, and a stop at a 24-hour drive thru McDonalds, we eventually found Stein on Vine
(the musical instruments wall), the drum shop, and the French Cottage motel. Of course, dorks that we are,
we got out of the car and took pictures at all of these places, YES, in the pouring rain.
We made it to bed around 2:30 am, only to be awakened at 4 am to catch our early morning flight.
Again, never taking a direct route, we got lost on the way to the airport. Well not exactly LOST,
but we turned the wrong way and headed in the opposite direction from the airport for about 10 minutes. Nearing a state of panic about missing our flight, I sped down the wet streets (yes, it was STILL raining)
and we actually made it to the airport with time to spare. I was at work by 8 am, reality slapping me
in the face after a crazy "fantasy land" excursion that lasted less than 24 hours.
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