Twenty years ago tonight, I went to my second Backstreet Boys concert. It was in San Diego. A full eight to nine-hour drive AWAY from where I lived at the time. This was back when I was in college and had time and friends and a job that would allow me to do these things. (Driving and/or flying to see the BSB now is WAY more complicated with kids and being a single mom!)
Anyway, some things happened at that show that I will NEVER forget!
- Howie (ever the one to mess up on stage) wished us a Happy Thanksgiving AND a Happy Easter! We love you, Howie! Don't ever change!
- Nick asked us if we wanted to get pinched. Hey, this was the Black and Blue tour. We weren't wearing green!
- I had specifically purchased these tickets to be at a certain location in the arena. No, I could not afford the front row. But I didn't want the front row. After one show (in Sacramento), I knew where I wanted to be. I wanted to be in the back, off the mini-stage at about the first-row balcony.
This was my ticket stub:
Okay, so I wasn't the FIRST row of the balcony, but the third-row was close enough. I had a reason for this!
The reason is this:
In this video, Brian talks about waving to fans. HE DID THIS TO ME! Here are my thoughts on that night from 2001:
I bought myself a HEALTHY HEART CLUB tee-shirt before the show. When the BOYS came out to the mini-stage at the back of the arena, I happened to glance down and saw NICK's back! It was the shirt that gave him away! When the BOYS appeared on the mini-stage, everyone in our section stood up, including the girl in front of me. She decided to wave a sign at them! (How she got it in, I don't know!) So this meant that I couldn't see! So I had to stand on my toes! The people behind us were pissed, but hello, their daughter was screaming, and I do mean, screaming, right in my ear! Well, we were right at the BOYS' eye level, so HOWIE waved at us! Then KEVIN pointed to the sign and waved above it, at us, not the crazy girl in front of us. Now, I had put on my HEALTHY HEART CLUB tee-shirt over my other shirt and was the ONLY ONE in our section wearing white. BRIAN saw this and as we were waving at him, he waved back So I waved with both arms. BRIAN saw this and repeated the action! BRIAN PLAYED MONKEY SEE, MONKEY DO WITH US!!!! Oh, now I can really die happy!
This was the beginning of my quest to MEET this man! It started 20 years ago and I have SLOWLY been inching my way closer to him! ONE day, I WILL get my hug!
