State #1: Washington
I saw them in concert for the first time ever on November 22, 2008 in Tacoma, WA. That by itself is amazing enough, considering the fact that I thought I'd never be able to see them in concert at all. I desperately wanted to see them in concert the first time around, but I was too young. My sister got to go to a couple concerts, and I was insanely jealous. Eventually, I got my mom to say that she'd take me to a concert the next time they were in town, but they split up shortly after that. So when I saw 2 front row tickets were available for the concert in Tacoma, you bet your ass I bought 'em! They came out on the stage, and I was in awe. I couldn't even believe my own eyes. Joey really was standing right in front of me singing Please Don't Go Girl.
He sang part of Click, Click, Click to me, and at the end of the concert, Jon reached out and touched my hand. (My right hand, for those of you who were wondering.)
I took tons of pictures, and a few videos (not as many as I now wish I had taken), and made a whole photo album of it the very next day.
State #2: Iowa
Then the end of January comes, and my friend in Iowa, Mel, who I had never met in person before calls me the night she is camping outside waiting to buy tickets for the Des Moines concert and says, "If you want, I can get you a ticket!" Iowa?? For real? Was I seriously considering flying almost 2,000 miles to go to a New Kids On The Block concert with a bunch of people I had never even met? It all sounds so crazy, but I have some of the best memories ever from that concert. I'm sitting here laughing out loud just thinking about it. I flew into Nebraska, and drove to Mel's house the night before the concert. Mel, Shannon, and I stayed up all night long looking at pictures, making t-shirts, signs, and a very lame version of Joey's topless porkpie hat, and just laughing our asses off. Morning comes, and Mel's friend Jen came over with one of her friends and we all sat around watching Hangin' Tough on VHS, wondering the whole time what the hell the choreographer for Stay With Me Baby was smoking. LOL
Time to leave for the concert! For some reason, even though I had never been to Iowa before in my life, I ended up being the one driving. Whatever. I just flew to freaking Iowa to go to a New Kids On The Block concert. I'm pretty much game for anything at this point. lol
We left several hours before the concert so we could hopefully hang out by the buses and maybe get some face time with the guys. We get to the building, and Mel suggests we drive around the building once before we go park so we can see where the buses are. So I turn and drive to the back right side of the building. I'm about to turn and go across the back of the building when Shannon says, "Ummmm, guys.... that's Donnie." Everyone started trying to get out of the rental car, but because it's a rental car, I couldn't figure out how to unlock everyone's doors, but it didn't matter anyway because Mel, her daughter, and Shannon all figured it out on their own and left me alone in the car. Sure enough, Donnie was right there giving people hugs. I seriously considered just leaving the car in the middle of the street until I got my hug, and then going back for it in a minute. Instead, I rolled down the window and shouted to Mel, "What about ME?!?" Mel shouts back, "I don't know! Do a lap!" LMAO WHAT?? Donnie Wahlberg is RIGHT there and you want me to keep driving?
I didn't really have time to think too much about it because I had no idea how long he'd be outside, and this may be my only chance ever to meet him. I drive across the back of the building, searching and searching for somewhere to park. As I'm coming up to a light on the other end of the building, I see a parking lot just on the other side of the intersection. SWEET! Except the light turns red. SHIT! I look around, and I didn't see any cops, and I didn't see a camera on the light, so I blow the red light, turn left, fly into a parking space, throw it in park, jump out of the car, and start running. I didn't even take the time to lock the car doors. I Flo Jo'd my ass down the street (literally down the street... it was downhill. I'm amazed I didn't trip and get road rash all over my face because that would be my luck) and I make it to the line of Blockheads in about 5 seconds. Except now that I'm about to meet Donnie Wahlberg, I'm wheezing because it was cold outside and I just set the new world record for the 100 yard dash. Come on Sarah! Catch your damn breath before he gets to you! Ok, breathing normally again. For the most part. And here comes Donnie.
I asked Shannon to take a picture of me with him, and I felt bad for doing that almost immediately afterwards because she didn't get to get a hug from him. Sorry Shannon! But hey I don't feel that bad because she was one of the people that abandoned me in the car. ;) Donnie gets to me, says hi, I say hi back, and he gives me a hug. After a few seconds, I went to let go, and he pulled me in closer for a few more seconds. He let go, smiled at me, and moved on to the girl next to me. OMG Did I seriously just HUG a New Kid?!?!? I was literally jumping up and down afterward. He gave everyone else in the line a hug, then went back to his bus.
We all hung out outside for a few more hours, and eventually some of the other guys came off the bus, or came out of the building. Mel asked Joey about the weird stuffed animal on his bus, and he said it was the bus driver's and its name was Road Dawg.
Some more time goes by, and Donnie's bodyguard comes out and says that Donnie's coming back out for some more hugs, but if we got one last time, please step back and let the people that showed up after the first time get their hugs. So, our little group all stepped back. But no one on our end of the fence went up to the fence, so we all got our places back. SWEET! I put my sweatshirt on, and gave my hat to Mel's daughter, thinking he wouldn't recognize me and I'd get another hug. He gets up to Shelby, gives her a hug and talks to her for a second. While he's doing that, I'm trying to figure out how to work my camera because apparently Donnie Wahlberg's presence made me forget how to work the damn thing. While I'm messing with my camera, he looks at me and says, "I met you earlier didn't I?" Blink. Blink blink. My brain had completely shut down. Donnie Wahlberg was talking to me. I looked at him and said, "Uh... yeah." He smiled and hugged the girl on the other side of me, and kept on going down the line. Meanwhile, I'm standing there trying to comprehend the fact that Donnie Wahlberg just remembered me. Wow.
We hung out for a little while longer, then went and got something to eat, changed clothes, then went and found our seats. First thing I did before the concert started.... that's right. I bought a Property of Donnie shirt and a Face Time shirt. The concert was great. We were something like 12th row, so we had a great view when the girls in front of us weren't standing on their chairs. And remember how I told you earlier that we made a really bad version of Joey's porkpie hat? Well, there's more to that part of the story. I found this cheap costume hat that sort of resembled his topless hat from back in the 80s, and I cut the top of it off. We were almost ready to leave Mel's house to go to the concert when we got the idea to write "Let's Get This" on it with some glitter glue. We thought that since we were going to be so close to the stage, that we could throw it up onto the stage when Joe started doing his Let's Get This speech. He always grabbed one of the fan's Let's Get This signs to hold up during his speech, so how cool would it have been if he had a fan-made replica of his old hat with Let's Get This written on it to hold up during his speech? Way cool. At least for us because it was ours. lol We knew when the speech was coming up, so I started to make my way a little closer to the stage, but security wouldn't let me any closer, and I was still just a little too far away to toss it up there myself. Another fan saw what I was trying to do, and offered to toss it up there for me. I gave it to her, and she tossed it, but it didn't quite make it to the stage. I found this video on youtube though, where you can see the hat being tossed, and Joe sees it, and says, "Oh! Almost." So at least he saw it. It's shortly after the 1:30 mark in the video.
We went to Denny's afterward hoping Donnie might show up, then we went back to Mel's, and again I stayed up all night long even though I had to drive back to Nebraska to catch my flight. Iowa was a BLAST.
State #3: New York
The summer tour was announced, and I was DYING to go to the Jones Beach concert in New York. They mention it in their song "Summertime" and I just knew it was going to be a special concert. And to top it all off... not only was I flying to New York for this concert, but I had 5* tickets to boot. I get to New York pretty late, probably around 10:30 pm or so, and after I got my luggage, and my rental car, and after I drove forever looking for the damn hotel I was staying at near JFK, I finally get a few hours of sleep. I got up nice and early so I could go to Manhattan. I took a cab from the airport, and damn I'm glad I did that. I think I might have died if I had tried driving through Manhattan on my own. LOL First stop: Statue of Liberty. It was so cool to see it in person. I spent most of the morning there.
I get back to the mainland, and walk around Battery Park for a little while before deciding to head back to the hotel. Don't wanna be late for the M&G! Took the subway all the way back, and I had just enough time to brush my hair, put on some deodorant, brush my teeth, and head out for the concert. The traffic on the LI E highway sucks big ass, just to let you know. Worse than Chicago rush hour traffic. It took so long to get to my exit, I thought for sure I wouldn't make it there on time. Luckily though, once I hit my exit, there was practically NO traffic at all. So the rest of the ride was smooth sailing.
I get to Jones Beach Theater right on time and meet up with my 5* group. Great bunch of girls! And it wasn't much longer after that, that they started to check us in for the 5* party before the meet & greet. Awesome! Food! I was so hungry because I hadn't eaten ANYTHING all day long because I had been too busy sightseeing. I brought this hat with me that I had made, and I wasn't sure if I actually wanted to wear it or not. It was a very cheaply made version of Joey's black hat with with a hole in the top that I wrote on with glitter glue, just like the one I had made in Iowa, only slightly better. I wrote Let's Get This around the top part, and on the top of the brim, I wrote 5 Brothers and a Million Sisters. I finally decided to wear it into the M&G. And man I'm glad I did. After the M&G I actually felt kind of bad for the other Joey girls in the group because Joey pretty much ignored them the whole time. You have about a minute and a half to talk to the guys, then they do pictures, then you leave. I had everything I was going to say all planned out.
I walk behind the tent with the rest of my group, quickly look around for Joey, he sees me, says hi, and holds his arms out for a hug. I run up to him and hug him like we were friends that hadn't seen each other in a long time. He lets go and says, "I like your hat," and he took it off my head so he could look at it. And I start talking. I said, "I had one just like it in Iowa..." And I was going to tell him all about how someone tried to throw it up on stage for his Let's Get This speech, and I know he saw it because he said "Oh! Almost," and I wanted to see if he remembered it at all... but none of that came out of my mouth. Why? Because after he looked at it, he said, "You should wear it more like this though." Then he put it on my head and spent the whole time before they took the pictures positioning it on my head just the way he wanted it, with his face about 3 inches away from mine. They called for pictures, and I was standing on his left. He put his arm around my shoulders, and I put my arm around his waist. One of the other Joe girls was standing on his other side. Click! Picture 1 done. They're about to take the second one, and Joe says to wait a minute. He switches out who's standing on his right because he wanted the other Joe girl to have a chance to stand next him, and then Click! Picture 2 done. So he spent the whole M&G with me and my stupid hat, and then I got to stand there with my arm around his waist for both pictures. Dream come true. :)
But then... CRAP! The ILAA people were telling us to leave, and I hadn't hugged any of the other guys! So I go over by Jordan and give him a hug, then I go to give Donnie a hug, and before he hugs me, he looks at me, smiles, and says, "Twittah." That would've been the perfect time to ask him to follow me on twitter, but I'm a dork and I didn't think of it at the time. Oh well. So I hug Donnie and then the ILAA people really are trying to get us to leave, so I leave. For the concert, I was in the 10th row. Concert was amazing, as always. And at the end of the concert, the guys all got in a boat and went out in the water. Donnie and Jon actually jumped off the boat, and Donnie being Donnie walked across the stage in his soaking wet boxers. Fun times. :)
State #4: Illinois
There's a fairly large group of us that had sort of gotten to know each other through the website newkidsnetwork.ning.com. After a while, we all said how cool it would be if we could all go to a concert together. The closer the Chicago concert got, the more it looked like we would all be able to go to that one. Now... how to get tickets so we're all sitting together? DawnL to the rescue! She bought all the tickets, and we all just gave her the money for them. We were finally all going to meet each other! Mel, Shannon, and I found each other and went to Dick's Sporting Goods to meet Jason and ask him how the guys were holding up, since it was the day after the world found out that Michael Jackson had passed away. He said they were doing good and we got a picture taken with him.
After trying to figure out where everyone else was for a while, we eventually met up with the rest of the gang in the parking lot. After waiting for forever in the neverending line to get into the venue, and singing Truck and Fish a time or two, we finally found our seats, which weren't all that far away from the stage! Go DawnL! :) They were showing pictures on the big screen that people were texting in to them, so since Tracy couldn't be there with us, we sent her picture in, and got a picture of it when it showed up on the big screen.
I called her during Please Don't Go Girl and 5 Brothers and a Million Sisters so she could sort of be at the concert with us. We missed you Tracy! After a little while, the Jabbawockeez come on stage, and Mel starts beating the crap out of my arm. lol I look at where she's pointing, and holy shit. Right there, 2 rows in front of us, was Barrett McIntyre, sitting there watching the Jabbas with Griffin.
I had a blast hanging out with everyone, and I really hope we get to do it again soon! We always have such a great time when we get together. I don't really remember too many details of that concert, but it was awesome just being there with our whole big group of friends.
And last but not least... State #5: Texas
The Houston concert. I was finally going to go to a NKOTB concert with my big sister. And it was their last concert of the year. It was so cool being there with my sister.
We were right in front of where Donnie was when the guys go out into the audience, so she got to touch Donnie's hand.
There was a point in the concert, I think it was after I'll Be Loving You Forever, that the applause just seemed to go on forever. The guys were up on stage crying, and almost everyone in the audience was crying too. So many good times coming to an end. Not forever this time, but still. It was sad to see them go, even if it was only going to be for a few months. Mel was at this one too, and I saw her from across the venue. After the concert, my sister and I went to the after party for a little while, but it was a nightmare. So many people you couldn't move an inch, people spilling beer on you.... not cool at all. So we left and drove back to her house.
I'm just in awe that any of this happened at all. For the 15 years after they split up, I had accepted that they would never get back together again, and when no one else was home I'd listen to Please Don't Go Girl. I'm so lucky to have experienced something I thought was an impossibility, and to have had the opportunity to revisit my childhood. I've had so many amazing times over the last year, and I've made so many new friends thanks to these 5 guys. Thanks for getting back together NKOTB. It's been fun.
