third time's a charm

okay, last night was the third and final night of the jonas brothers extravaganza. and somehow, we DID manage to save the best for last! our seats for this show were the best of the bunch - on the club level (where the suites are), and a little closer to center than before.

we left the house a little earlier in hopes of finding the wristband/audience wrangler dude, hopped in the carpool lane, and got down to the venue in half an hour. and then i decided to spring for the preferred parking lot ($25, ouch), finding a spot right near the exit. sweet!

i snapped a shot of the girls, again clad in their custom jonas brothers tees, pledges of love for the boys inked with colorful markers on their faces, arms, and legs, and clutching the new posters they'd made earlier in the day. and the teen decorated my arm a little, too. nice, huh?

i decided to throw caution to the wind and tucked my "good" camera into my tote. knowing our seats would be pretty good, and seeing other DSLRs at the previous two shows, i figured i had a decent chance of getting better pictures this time around. it's not anything special - just the nikon D40x - TOTALLY not professional equipment that any REAL photographer would use. i mean, don't get me wrong, i love that camera, and it's awesome for me, but i'm thinking that a pro wouldn't be caught dead with one like it. i threw my sweater on top of the camera, we crossed our fingers, and got in the long ass line of giggly fans waiting to enter the stadium.

again, the teen managed to run into a friend from school who was similarly dressed and decorated. after exchanging a few hugs and checking out each other's tickets, the others left to join their parents, who were waiting in line somewhere ahead of us.

burger king is one of the sponsors of the tour, and they'd been pushing their new "apple fries" with free samples - but were always out by the time the teen got there. this time, though, she hit pay dirt and happily took two bags. they're just plain apples, peeled and sliced to look like fries, and when you order them at burger king, they come with a caramel dipping sauce. these came sans sauce, but she happily dug into them anyway.

the doors finally opened, and the line moved pretty quickly. and when it was my turn, the lady noted the weight of my tote and asked me to take the sweater out. she took one look at my big ass camera, gave me a look, and pulled it out to inspect it.

lady: "you can't take this in."
me, playing dumb: "oh, really? it's just a regular camera, it's totally not professional equipment."
lady: "well, let me get a supervisor."
[supervisor saunters over]
lady: "is this camera okay to take in?"
supervisor: "this is too big. they don't let these in without a press pass."
me: "oh, no! i'm not a photographer, i just wanted to get some nice pictures for my girls." [girls smile and look innocent]
supervisor, turning to another employee: "what do you think?"
[i flash my biggest, "i'm just a girl" smile and fiddle with my hair]
employee, smiling back: "oh, i think it's okay."
supervisor: "go ahead, you're fine."
me: "oh, thank you so much! i promise, i won't make a spectacle of myself."

i love being a girl so damn much.

we made our way into the venue and headed up to the top level where i'd seen the wristband dude the day before. sadly, we didn't find him, nor did we see anyone else who could have possibly gotten us down onto that floor. i peeked inside and noted that there was already a large group of screaming, glow stick-brandishing fans down there, and knew that it was a lost cause. and so, off to our seats we went.

i don't know why, but my pictures make it look like we were actually sitting further away than we were. oh, well.

i got comfy while the girls debated going out and continuing the search. i was handed a menu of snacks and drinks by a club waiter, and happily perused it as they decided to go out and check things out.

i didn't order anything particularly interesting - just iced tea and soda, a soft pretzel and cotton candy - so i didn't bother to take pictures of them. i did, however, take this:

the girls came back, emptyhanded but breathless with excitement. "we saw where they were doing the meet & greet, mom - we were like TEN FEET AWAY FROM THEM!" and BFF said "yeah, i totally saw kevin's sideburns and we both saw big rob!"

big rob is the band's main bodyguard - you can imagine why they call him that. and he's actually featured in their latest single, "burnin' up." hilarious.

anyway, since they didn't have special wristbands, they couldn't get into the meet & greet - and the teen even tried sweet-talking the attendant standing at the door. i was sad for them, but not surprised. those things are tough to get into unless you've got some sort of connection, and we sure didn't have one. but they shook it off and refocused their attention on the show, which was about to begin.

and sure enough, demi lovato came out a few minutes later and did her job as their opening act again.

and then, as "we will rock you" came over the speakers and the theater went dark, the screaming began in earnest and the show began. by now, we could tell you the exact order of the songs, and even recite some of their lines as they joked around with each other and the audience. ha!

this part of the show was always a showstopper - in fact, as they got to the top, the music would stop and they'd pause to listen to the screaming and cheering. the fans ate this shit up - the cameras would do close-ups on each guy smiling and blowing kisses, and they'd shriek even louder.



taylor swift's presence at the previous night's show was explained when the band announced a "surprise guest" and she popped up onstage, strumming her guitar and performing her latest single.

and it was funny when she finished, shouted out her thanks to the audience, and left the stage - only to return a few minutes later and repeat the performance for the rolling cameras. the filming for the 3D concert movie was still in full effect, and she was obviously a part of it as a guest performer - much like the jonas brothers themselves were guest performers for the hannah montana movie.

i took this for winnie, who's not a jonas brothers fan. at all.



check out big rob:

i took this horribly grainy video with my cell phone - boys in tight skinny pants jumping around and doing cartwheels and flips is highly amusing to me.



the show came to an end all too soon for the girls. and, all right, i'll admit it - i totally had a blast at this show. the entire audience was even more pumped and enthusiastic than at the other two shows, i got to take much better pictures, we had great seats, and okay, fuck it - i enjoyed the whole performance. immensely. i cheered, i danced, i jumped up and down, i even threw in a few fist pumps, and i sang along to a horrifying majority of the songs. i know i'm entirely too old to be a "real" fan, but tell that to the 45-ish-year-old who was on her feet the entire time, wearing a jonas brothers tee she'd made herself, with no teenaged kid in sight, and dancing next to her friend - who was roughly the same age. that's not creepy at all, considering the boys are 15, 18, and 20. but i can certainly appreciate the fact that they each play various instruments, write a lot of their own songs, and the that they can sell out entire stadiums within minutes of the tickets going on sale - despite a marked lack of radio airplay. disney truly is magical. mm-hmmm.

the girls paused for one final photo op:

they pointed out where they'd seen the meet & greet:

and as we headed down to street level in the elevator, the girls wished they'd had at least ONE of these:

in the car, as we waited in line to exit the parking lot, the teen let out a big sigh and said "i miss them already."

oy vey.