This is how I feel I should start off…I will admit that I am addicted to boy bands. I thought I had my addiction under control, I only took hits off Backstreet Boys and New Kids on the Block with occasional taste of Boys II Men and 98 Degrees.
I am a grown woman, with grown kids, and I am even a Gigi (grandmother), a young one. ?. I should be able to keep my addiction under control, especially since neither of my weaknesses are touring this summer. Right? WRONG?
I am totally calling out my bff Karah for being my boy band dealer of late and introducing a new flavor, its not a new one like One Direction (must draw invisible line there) but one that has aged very well over the years and developed like fine smooth wine…I knew about this flavor when it was first introduced, but I always had enough satisfaction with my standard boy bands. So I was able to resist until…
One day Karah calls me to say 98 Degrees added a Georgia date to the My2KTour in Macon…MACON? OK guess all Atlanta spots were booked, but it is only an hour further south of Atlanta. She managed to score front row, so being the ticket snobs we are, there was nothing else to do but take them. There were some other artists touring with them and I recognized their names, but had never followed them too closely. I was excited to just have a concert to go to because this summer was the making of a big boy band drought. I did manage to see Duran Duran, but they are not really classified as a boy band, just a band that was my first love…and they still ROCK BTW.
So you may wonder why this might turn me to a new level of addiction…One word, or well really one letter hyphen then word…O-TOWN…WTH! I was familiar with this group. I knew they were on “Making the Band” and came out of obviously Orlando. Karah had mentioned seeing their first concert in Valdosta which aired on the show and I did recognize the songs that had been on the radio. That was my knowledge of O-Town.
Let me tell provide how things unraveled for my boy band sobriety or at least my controlled boy band addiction. It will become evident during this synopsis from the concert day as to why my addiction has spiraled out of control again…Damn you Karah…*muah*
As the My2KTour grew closer, we of course got VIP. We also had another friend, Lacy, going with us. She had her ticket and VIP as well and on Saturday, July 23 we headed towards Macon. We discussed who would stand where and by who. We were on a mission on how we were going to try and get Justin out of the way. LOL It was eventually decided that Karah would take her O-Town boys and Lacy and I would make a Jeff Timmons sandwich. 🙂
We got to the venue about an hour before call time for VIP. We rode by, note on a one way street, saw the buses and such then I look in the rear view mirror…Jeff Timmons walking from the venue down the street…I admit I got a little excited. We were like we need to go back, so I put car in reverse. Luckily no traffic…remember one way street. I have my seatbelt off, throw the car in park, and we were gonna try to go catch him to get a selfie…but no one else moves. We kind of froze then Jeff did look like he ducked a little bit, not looking our way but I think that spooked us. So I did manage to sneak a paparazzi shot…just to prove we did see him.
I will just call it like it is, major fangirl fail. But after posting on Instagram, Jeff did Like the picture, so I claimed a little positive vibe from the fail.
Ok, where was I, sorry got distracted. We had the VIP where we were in the classroom picture style with all three groups, only three since Ryan Cabrera was not at the show. We discussed Ryan was kind of an odd man out, he is a solo artist, no group dynamic, just him.
As with any of these VIP, they are rarely on time, but we were the third group to go in line so once it got started we had our picture made and we managed to avoid Justin for the most part. He did get his head up in Lacy’s face, but our picture still turned out pretty good. Also, all other cities, the placement has been the same…Drew picks Macon to come down to the front…dang you Drew Lachey, I wanted you behind me.
After all the VIP pictures, we had the acoustic set and the Q&A…for the sake of time in this post I will just leave at that for now. It was a good time though!
While waiting in the lobby before the show, we knew we wanted to do the selfie’s with O-Town after the show because who doesn’t like selfies with boy band members in general, with exception of one or two. You just have to purchase either a t-shirt or poster, that Dan from the group designed…it was pretty snazzy. To beat the rush at the end we purchased our stuff and then went and went to our seats on the front row. So far my sobriety is in check, I am just ready to see how good these O-Town guys since Karah gave such high praise.
We had no clue who was coming on first…assumed it was Ryan or Dream, but since Ryan wasn’t there, figured it would be Dream. The lights went down and the video screen started and Karah yelled at me with urgency that it was O-Town coming on first…oooh ok well lets get started.
The four guys of O-Town came out. I had learned who was who by showtime. Thanks Karah and Lacy. I knew Erik since he was the samari in Dead7 with Nick. These four guys are easy on the eyes and man oh man performers. Right out of the gate was high energy. They were doing their thing and I was enjoying myself. The seed was planted. I felt the twitch of addiction sneaking in. Then…the final seed was planted. They started singing “These are the Days” and one of the members, Trevor, decides to come down and do selfies with peoples phones. OK I’m in to try this.
It turns out he is taking peoples phones and giving some to the guys on stage to do pictures/videos and Trevor was doing the same. Not being the aggressive type, because I just am not like that, (those laughing, shut it), I just waited there and wait for an opportunity. I took a selfie with him in the background, then it happened…
I handed him my phone, and expected him to just take a selfie, but he switches it to video…
WTH? Did that really just happen? If I didn’t have the above video I would think it was a dream. I have had a strange amount of good luck when it comes to interactions with artist at concerts, much to the dismay of some. <3 ya Karah…but this was amazing. Trevor just carried on a small conversation with me while singing…I crack up when he says ,”wait just a sec”, sings his part, then continues. I was already getting the addict high just watching their performance but this interaction with Trevor right here gave me a hit of whatever you wanna call it, boy band crack, and it was some GOOD STUFF. Premium even…
So needless to say, the rest of their set I was totally enamored. After the show, Karah goes, “I told you they were awesome live.” Uggh, now what am I gonna do, what any good boy band addict does…immerse yourself into that world. Dammit! Before Dream came on, I posted the above video to Instagram. I had text/messages to me, “how does this always happen to you?” I don’t know but the universe can keep whatever it is surrounding me. 🙂 In the meantime, I was now more excited for the selfies after the show.
Now back to the show, for just a little bit. Dream came on and they were entertaining. The males in attendance rushed the stage, hooting and a hollering. The girls from the group looked and sounded great. I only knew the one song of theirs that they performed last.
Then the headliners, 98 Degrees came to the stage and they were awesome as well. They will even say that their staple primarily has been ballads, so the more up tempo songs are less. They did throw in the mix of groups like Sugar Ray, Britney, N’Sync and my boys the Backstreet Boys. The Britney section had me cracking up. Justin still freaks me out though…
They also did some Prince songs, O-Town and Dream both made an appearance during these songs…lots of boy band crack on stage. I may have twitched a little bit.
As they always do, the show comes to an end what seemed too soon but then I recalled…selfies with O-Town. We normally linger out of an auditorium but we made haste and went and got in line. I need another hit of that premium boy band crack.
I had my shirt and approached Dan, who was first. He asked my name and signed the shirt. I told them how much I loved the show and that they need to come to Atlanta. He said he knows and they are trying to get back here…I did tell them that this was my first time seeing them, but I didn’t gush about being a new “townie” because well I don’t know. This new stuff running was new and I was a little wild eyed. We then took our selfie…he is such a cutie pie!
Next was Jacob, Erik and then Trevor. They all signed and I reiterated how much I enjoyed their set and please come to Atlanta. While speaking to Erik I did tell him I thought he did a great job in Dead7. He was very appreciative and said it was so much fun to do something like that. He insisted on taking the selfie, so I obliged because well he is cute. Then I get to Trevor, he gave me a hug 🙂 and said he saw the video posted on instagram (noticed he liked it too later). I thanked him again for that and all the other stuff I had been saying and he took our selfie. I am considering us Glasses BFFs since we both have similar glasses on in the pics and I mean we have had a meaningful conversation while he was performing…LOL
All jesting aside, I was really truly blown away by these guys and yes I am now in the process of immersing myself into their music and such. Guess I need to try and watch the Making the Band episodes on YouTube.
I have already tweeted Star94 to add O-Town to Jingle Jam because that would be just awesome and Trevor says he is in. Told you we were BFFs now. See when you get hooked on the GOOD stuff you can’t get enough and keep hitting it when you can. #bringotowntoATL
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So again I repeat… My name is Julia, and I have an enabler named Karah and I am a boy band addict but I am dang proud of it…Now O-Town get back to Georgia again soon!
Julia @jmcentire
