No such thing as a free lunch

But give me something free and I'll use it as a great excuse to spend money!

Miranda and I arrived (after TWO hours in traffic. Construction + Jonas Brothers = TERRIBLE traffic) at the Superpages.com Center just minutes before the concert. Sherry, the amazing lady who had the tickets met us up front. Sherry, who works for Radio Disney, is the friend of Miranda's grandma's coworker. And we had no idea what kind of tickets we were getting. I assumed lawn seats. She handed over two $75 tickets, ELEVENTH ROW! I was glad because I thought Miranda would enjoy it more from a seat than the lawn. Oh my gosh, we were so close!!

So we went to look at shirts because Tom had handed me some cash on my way out and instructed me to buy Miranda a shirt. This was her first concert, thus her first concert T. It's obligatory. She couldn't decide, so we waited in line forever for some bottled water and headed for our seats for Demi Lovato. She is the girl that was in Camp Rock (Disney's latest movie ala High School Musical and the Cheetah Girls) with the Jo-Bros. I gotta say, she was really great! I have always loved cheesy pop music, so I didn't mind the Disney look of everything. That girl had some pipes - I don't think she was off key once. And no, she wasn't lip-synching! I thought she was adorable.

(BTW - a follow-up to my alcohol @ Disney concert rant: They were selling beer and margaritas. LOL)

You know me, I have a plan always. So we left during Demi's last song to try again to buy a shirt. I didn't know how long there would be before the Jo-Bros came on, so I wanted to be sure we had plenty of time to go and get back. We did finally buy her a shirt (really cute with tour dates on the back), bathroom break, and went back to our seats. You know how these concerts go - any little flitter of activity on stage makes everyone think the main act is about to come on stage. So after about a dozen false alarms, I was certain they were really about to come out, and Miranda looks up at me sort of panicked and said, "I have to go to the bathroom!!!" LOL! That's what I get for planning. So we ran to the bathroom and back just in time for the madness.

The madness? I have been to several "heavy metal" shows with Tom. He saves his crazier music for a guys' night, but I can't say I'm inexperienced in the loud, crazy concert world. And this, the JONAS Brothers, had one of the most hardcore starts I've ever seen. Keep in mind also that Miranda is a mini-me in that she's a little cautious, doesn't like a lot of noise, etc. The lights went out and several string musicians (you know, violins, etc) filed onto the dimly-lit stage and started playing some very dramatic music. Sort of like Bittersweet Symphony. Then they started in with the long, loud, deep guitar chords coordinated with the lights, and then the whole freakin' stage lit up with fire. I've seen some little firework looking things (like sparkler sticks) on stage, but never FIRE! It is the "Burnin' Up Tour" afterall. The fire coordinated with the loud scary guitar, and keeping in mind that we were 30 feet from the stage, I was somewhat startled but put on a happy face because I didn't want Miranda to get scared! We're talking the whole stage was lit up. Like Hell!

She was such a good sport about the whole thing. She had a worried look on her face the whole time, unless she saw me looking at her, then she'd smile back at me. The Jo-Bros came on stage, and it was just like you see on TV with everyone screaming and freaking out. I don't get screaming. I do the "woooooo" thing, but I don't ever scream. Oh well, I don't have to get it because thousands of adolescent girls totally get it. Miranda was standing around with her fingers in her ears, and I thought she must've been hating it (I watched her more than the concert), but then every now and then she'd let out a scream to put all those girls to shame! And that would buy me a little more time to think, "OK, she does like it!" She kept asking me what time it was, and at 9:10, I said, "Can you make it to 9:30?" and she said, "yes". But then she sat with her fingers in her ears for the next two songs, they left the stage and everyone was screaming for them to come back, and I figured that was a good time to exit. They were probably about to do the encore. Miranda really couldn't see over all the teenage girls' heads. But she did so good!

And, my sister got free tickets to the Rangers game tomorrow night. Free tickets yet we'll probably spend a ton on parking and beer. LOL But I'm excited!