~~Concert Experiences!~~

@~~}~~Artists Who Performed: 98 Degrees {{{whistles}}}, Rod Stewart, Eagle Eye Cherry, Six Pence None The Richer, FastBall, BareNaked Ladies with guest drummer on one song Doug Flutey (football player), Melissa Ethridge, Donna Summer, Chris Perez Band, Jordan Knight {{{whistles}}}, New Radicals, Joey McIntyre {{{more whistles}}}, Natalie Merchant, Blessid Union of Souls, 'N Sync, Britney Spears, Elton John, Edwin McCain, Run DMC, Steven Tyler and Joe Perry {{{more whistles}}} and...best of all....the Matty in the Morning Crew who did "The Cup of Life" by Ricky Martin!! (Matty being Ricky, Billy dressing in drag and Sue, Randy and the rest of the gang being back-up dancers!) It was SO awesome!!!!~~{~~@

Here's a picture of me and Tay waiting outside the gates so we could get good seats inside. (We did, too! Front on the lawn!) I'm making that face 'cause I had a chip in my mouth...LOL!

Here's everyone back at Kristen's house when we got home from the concert! From left to right is: Standing: Yolanda, Kristen and Taylor~Sitting: Melissa, Stefanie, Ashley and Me :)

*~*Who Went: Me, my mom Sher, Ashley, her sister Shani, Taylor, Stefanie, Melissa, Jessica, Yolanda and Kristen*~*

@~~}~~Artists Who Performed: The Backstreet Boys {{{MAJOR whistles!!}}}, Blessid Union of Souls, Paula Cole, Billie Myers, Jimmy Ray, Lionel Richie, Lisa Loeb, Sister Hazel, Edwin McCain, Meredith Brooks, Naked, Olivia Newton John, Rebecca, Dakota Moon, Vonda Shepard, Ben Folds Five, Jonny Lang, Mariah Carey, Shania Twain, Third Eye Blind, The B52's, Sarah McLachlan, Matchbox20 and...of course...the Matty in the Morning Crew performing Grease! It rocked, like usual!!~~{~~@

***~~***The Experience***~~***

Kiss Concert 19 at Great Woods was probably one of the BEST concerts I've ever been to. It was SOOOO awesome! The list of artists was AMAZING and of course the Kiss108 DJ's cracked everyone up. Dale Dorman (Uncle Dale) hosted the show. The whole experience started at Ashley's house Friday night. Me, Stef and Taylor slept over there and Yolanda, my mom, Shani, Melissa, Jessica and Kristen came over at 5 the next morning. Me and Tay didn't even sleep the whole night, we were too excited! We left Ashley's house around 6 and got to Great Woods around 7:30. The gates didn't open till around 11 so we had a WHILE to wait. Most of the time we just laid on the blankets we had brought, ate and chatted with the growing masses surrounding us. At one point, though, a few of us walked over to the parking lot near the backstage entrance to check out some of the tour buses. All of a sudden, these 2 guys came from backstage and they looked JUST like Howie and Nick from the Backstreet Boys. We almost had heart attacks but, obviously, it wasn't them. It was SO hot out so we were all lathering on sunscreen. It didn't really matter, though, 'cause we all got PLENTY of sun by the time the day was over, some more than others. :) FINALLY, they let us in the gates and we ran as fast as we could towards the lawn. We were some of the first to get there so we basically had our choice of spots. Dummy me, I listened to some fans outside who said that middle/center was the best. Wrong. The front/middle is best (depending on the artist that's on...we found that out at KissConcert20). But oh well, we still had fun! We spread out about 10 blankets so we all had space to put our stuff and lay down if we wanted. After all, it was a 12-hour concert! Basically, the whole day was amazing, awesome, hot, tiring and fun! Some of the highlights of it were when me and Stef went wandering around the concession stands searching for Ed McMann and picking up another round of waters and we ran into Jeff from Blessid Union. He actually remembered me from the concert in Beverly and I introduced him to Stef. It was pretty cool beans, I got to meet him twice! When we made our way through the crowd on the lawn on the way back, we found all the other girls flipping out. Sean from MTV's Real World and Road Rules had come over, sat down on our blanket and chatted with the group for a while. Awesome, huh? He hadn't left the lawn yet so me and Stef grabbed Melissa's camera and ran over to him. We got to meet him and we got our picture taken with him. It ruled! Unfortunatly, I don't have any pics of the concert 'cause Melissa lost her negatives and couldn't make me doubles but the pics she has came out good. Then, when the Backstreet Boys were on (minus Brian 'cause of his surgery), we did our dance to "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)" and this totally drunk weirdo started doing our dance with us! It was SOOO funny! During the B52's show, we started a conga line around the lawn. That was a blast, too! One of the best shows of the night was Matchbox20 at the very end. They were SOOOO awesome and it was dark and late at night and they put on the GREATEST live show! We were all jumping and screaming and we all had glow sticks. After, we trekked out to the car, but not before we got concert T-shirts and posters. Once we were in the car, we ate EVERYTHING left in the coolers 'cause the food at the concert was SO expensive so we didn't buy much. Then we spent the night at the Holiday Inn in Taunton, Ma. Ash, remember the next morning when I had you trek outside to the car with me so I could get my bag? And you went in your pajamas and Stef's high-heeled sandals and there was a MAJORLY fine guy in the elevator? I couldn't stop laughing! I had tears running down my face! And Shani said she could hear me when we were coming up in the elevator! I don't think I've ever laughed so hard! We hung around the hotel for the morning and swam in the pool. Then we checked out, hit McDonalds real quick for lunch and then headed home. It was a REALLY fun weekend and one we will NEVER forget! Oh, and I almost forgot! The concert was taped and aired on Pay-Per-View and we ALL got on TV! Me, Tay and Stef were on it during Jonny Lang. The cameraman got us dancing and singing and it was cool 'cause it was a perfect close-up shot of just the 3 of us. Then the rest of the girls were caught dancing to Dakota Moon. Pretty awesome, huh? We have the tape so we'll be able to look back and remember it. It's always so much fun to do that. Although, like I said before, I doubt we'll ever forget it! :)