A few weeks before the show, my wonderful friend Lynell offered to hook me up with soundcheck passes. *Hugs her* I couldn't not include Tiara, Sarah (my roomate) and Matt (my best friend) or they would have had my head, so we made plans for four. She gave me her friend ER's cell number (since he was the one on the tour that would be doing the actual hooking up) and I had to call him to find out where to meet and pick up the passes. I won't bore you with details, but it was a loooong day of phone tag with ER and one close call, but we made it in just in time. Hey, last row of soundcheck is better than not being there at all, huh? We got a few dirty looks from girls hanging out by the doors trying to get in when we got the passes though. That was kind of fun. LOL. I'm so bad. ;0) I baked ER brownies and brought them as a thank you and he was ever so grateful, even though he was "on a diet". I even got my Tupperware back after the show! All four of us can't thank them enough for that.. so *BIG hug* You guys rock! :0)

Another amusing detail: I had heard security was super tight all tour but there was no way in HELL they were gonna stop me from getting my digital camera in. I came up with this intricate plan of hiding places on my body and in the belongings of my friends (including things like sticking my media card in my shoe!) But security barely even did anything. Both times I went in, for soundcheck and for the show. It was a little anti-climactic honestly.

Soundcheck

Soundcheck was entertaining. Like I said we JUST made it in at the last second, so we were in the last row, but hey, that's better than not being there at all, right? The lighting was weird and it was kinda foggy so none of my pictures came out at all. I'm a little sad about that. Oh, well. Some highlights from soundcheck to the best of my memory:

• Backstage before soundcheck, the guys had declared it was "80's Day" for some reason. I'm not sure I want to know. Chris was wearing a Def Leppard flag tucked into the back of his pants and hanging down, which he called a "skirt". Yeah. Okay then. A bit into the soundcheck he said what has to be one of my very favorite Chris quotes of all time: "With this skirt on, I feel like a Backstreet Boy!" The guys all burst out laughing right along with us and Lance managed a "Kevin" in there, while attempting to maintain his composure. Classic Chris. I love that man. *Laughs*
• One girl started to ask a question I don't remember, and she used the phrase "youse guys's" (like, for example, "What are youse guys's favorite colors?" It's a local OH/PA accent thing.) Chris immediately interrupts her mid sentence and says "Youse guys's? You mean us guys's?" He repeats it over and over, even in his answer to her, and the WHOLE time she had NO idea he was making fun of her. Haha.
• Someone asked what each guy's favorite ice cream was and JC got heckled for saying vanilla. To which he replied, from his usual mental plane that no one else completely gets nor wants to venture into: "Vanilla is like a blank canvas." Deep, dude. Deep. Justin went on and on about Graeter's, a local Cincy/ Columbus ice cream company, which for the record IS the best ice cream in existance. Excellent taste, Justin! ;0)
• Another question was "When you are on tour do you still keep in touch with your old friends?", to which Chris (? Maybe it was Lance? I can't remember!) replied, "We go on tour to get away from our old friends!" Justin then says "I bring my old friends with me on tour! There he is!" and proceeds to point out Trace to everyone. Lance starts going on about how when they are in Memphis its great because its where Justin and his old friends are or something. Chris turns to him and says "You're from Mississippi, not Memphis!" and Lance says (and I'm paraphrasing) "Well.... around Memphis. The Southern area."
• A little girl asked how old everyone was when the group got together, which is normally one of those questions that you roll your eyes at, but the girl was SO little it was cute. They went around and said and then figured out that the girl was two when the group formed.

Though the food was good, we ended up gettting into the venue late and we missed NSB2 and caught the VERY tail end of Tony's set. I'm really sad about that cause those are the two openers I wanted to see. I could care less about P. Diddy. Hmph.

Between Tony's set and P Diddy's set I ventured to find my seat. I had yet to see a seating chart that had the pit included, so I had NO idea where I was going. I ended up in the floor seats that next to the stage walkway on the left side, fourth row. Yeah, that would be right about the time I died. Minor Teenie Moment Number One.

As I am taking off my jacket and getting settled, I look up and there goes Bev, Chris's mom, right past me. I wouldn't have even noticed her I don't think, if Lynn hadn't told me she'd been on the road with Chris the past few days and to keep an eye out for her. Since I have some time to kill I start looking around and I spotted Trace in the pit. That hat was sure... interesting. Those of you that saw him know what I mean. *Shakes head* A few minutes later, Joey's dad starts walking around in the pit. He got cornered for some autographs right near my seat, so I amused myself watching him for awhile.

P Diddy's set was... uh yeah. That's all I have to say about that.

The lights go down for *NSYNC to hit the stage and everyone around me starts moving to the railing along the walkway. The security people were completely fine with that, which was awesome, and so I ended up standing on the walkway for the entire show. How can I explain this? The walkway forms a box around the pit, right? Just before the walkway meets the main stage on either side, it goes diagonally out for a few feet and meets up where the little flight of stairs is. I was in the middle of the diagonal section on the left side. Minor Teenie Moment Number Two.

Chris made my night in so many ways. Now, I considered myself a devoted Chris fan before the show, being that I co-run kirkpatrick.nu and all, but this show completely sealed me as a hardcore Chris girl. There is no turning back now, welcome to the dark side, and all that jazz. *Watches Robin dance around with glee* ;0)

Now, for obviously reasons, much of the concert blurs together in that I can't remember the chronology of events. I'll just make a list of highlights in no particular order:

• I have NO idea what song it was during, but Chris came sort of slowly half jogging by, slapping hands of people along my side of the walkway. He missed my hand... but he somehow saw that he missed it and even though he was like 2 or 3 people past me by then, he walked back a few steps just to touch my hand and then went back to what he was doing. Minor Teenie Moment Number Three.
• During TIPY, Justin was standing at the top of the stairs on my side. I have a few entertaining pictures of that. Haha. For his verse he held the mic out to the audience to sing. Since I was like *right* there, I caught his eye at one point. He saw me singing my little heart out like a good little concert- dazed fan and gave me that trademark tongue-out smile. Now, I'm really not a Justin girl, but that boy in person.... DAMN. *Melts*
• This was the ultimate moment that made the evening: During "Gone" JC and Chris were sitting on the previously mentioned stairs right in front of me. Chris was looking around a little and I managed to catch his eye. I pointed to my FuMan Skeeto hat (I was representin' like a good little Fu!) He looked confused for a minute, but then once he saw what it was, he grinned, nodded and gave me a big, exaggerated wink. Minor Teenie Moment Number Four.
• I'm not exactly sure of the timing of this, but it was either before or just after the blues version of IWYB. Chris decided he wanted to sing bass so he went and stood directly in front of Lance. Lance sang some of those jaw dropping looooooow notes that make you just *melt* and Chris tried to move his mouth along as if he were singing. Funny stuff.
• Chris's "story" before IWYB was... entertaining to say the least. For those that don't know, Chris lived in Wayne County, Ohio for awhile growing up. By the end of his story, I don't think any of us could ever forget that fact. While clutching his microphone and rocking back and forth on his stool like a little kid,he told this severely warped fairy tale that went something along the lines of: "Once upon a time... in Wayne County there was a little boy named Chris. Chris was the strongest boy... in Wayne County. One day he was taking a walk... through Wayne County to buy some magic beans when he ran into his two little friends that were pigs. They planted the beans and grew the biggest beanstalk in Wayne County. They climbed up and saw the cow that jumped over the moon. But then a big evil wolf came and tried to eat the pigs, but then a little girl in a red hood came up and stopped him..." JC cut him off finally. But not before he slipped in a few more "Wayne Counties".
• At the end of the blues version of IWYB, the guys pause and "decide" who gets to finish the song. Since JC had been "mean" to Chris when he was telling his story ("Uh huh! He made fun of me... and you... and a dog named Boo... from Wayne County!"), Chris decided he should do it as his punishment. Chris, JC and Justin fought for a few minutes over if it would be 1-2-3 and THEN he sang it, or if it was 1-2 and he sang ON 3, or if they should say 1-2-3-GO and does he sing ON "Go" or AFTER "Go"... JC messes it up on purpose once they get it settled and everyone gets quiet. Chris turns to look at JC, and Justin turns to the audience and says "Ladies and Gentleman, that is what we call... an 'oops'". A beat. Then Chris begins to dance and sing "I did it again. I played with your heart..." The audience immediately "ooooohhhhhhhhs" and Justin shoots Chris a "F*** off" look. Justin bows to the audience with a "yeah, yeah" sort of wry grin and starts walking away to the side of the stage. Chris says "I... uhh... I'm just gonna.... go now..." and turns to leave the other way. Somehow... I forget exactly what happened next, but Chris ended up "dead" on the stage with Justin looming over him. Joey then begins to dance around goofily and sing "Ding dong the Chris is dead" in a little kid voice. Classic.
• Since I was at a prime place on the walkway Joey and Justin stopped to sing and dance directly in front of me during a few songs (Joey once, and Justin twice). I'm talkin' like 3 feet directly in front of me, their feet about chest high to me. Ever wonder what it was like to look up a popstar's nose?
• When Justin was dancing there at one point, he reached out and touched my hand. Yay.
• Much to my amusement during the Beatles and Temptations medleys, the middle-aged security guy near me that was guarding the bottom of the stairs leading to the floor seats was dancing, singing and having a grand old time. Hehe.
• As if he hadn't already completely made my night, Chris decides to spend a little time in front of my section of the walkway for a bit later in the show. Instead of that run-by mindless hand slapping who ever's hand he happens to touch thing, he was taking the time to interact individually with people, which was very cool. You know how guys do that... hand thing instead of shaking hands? That like "gimme five, grab your wrist and slide" thing? Well Mr. Chris did that with me. Who cares if his hand and wrist were beyond sweaty by that point. Not me! Minor Teenie Moment Number... what are we on? Five?