Concert Stories #9: Christina Aguilera

Presented by Summerfest and Kiss FM

#9

Christina Aguilera

Marcus Amphitheater

July 1, 2000

Age 17

The pop stars keep on rolling with Christina Aguilera at Summerfest 2000.  I remember vaguely being a bit surprised how short her set was, but I know that at that time she only had one album out so it was understandable.  More importantly though, I was impressed with her vocals and how amazing she sounded live.  You can not deny that woman’s talent.  Out of all of the pop starts from the late ’90’s and early ’00’s, she was clearly the best vocalist in my opinion.  My brother, someone who I dragged to many many concerts with me, accompanied me on this show with my friend Andrea.  The month after this concert I would compete in our local Junior Miss (now Distinguished Young Women) competition and use Aguilera's "What A Girl Wants" as my dance soundtrack (and took third place if your wondering).

Andrea and I and my brother in the background, who I promise isn't always so creepy looking!

I can not for the life of me remember who the opener was, but from the looks of it, I'm guessing another boy band.

And then the lady of the hour came out!

The necessary white outfit of the night:

And of course, yes, I still have the confetti from this concert as well!

Consert Stories #8: Backstreet Boys

Presented by Sears naturally

#8

Backstreet Boys

In The Millennium Tour

BMO Harris Bradley Center

November 4, 1999

Age 16

Hot on the heels of seeing *NSYNC I was on to the next boy band, Backstreet Boys!  Again, as a result of my very sheltered childhood, I had very little idea who the Backstreet Boys where.  My friends in high school had started to teach me about them and *NSYNC, but I was always a little bit more familiar with *NSYNC then BSB.  My parents treated me, my friends Kelly and Cathy, and possibly my brother (not 100% on that one) to this concert.  It was the first concert I had seen “in the round” where the stage sat in the middle of the arena and could be seen from all angles.  Our seats where amazing, almost center of the circle and just a few rows up.  It was the closest I had been to such a high quality production and the choreography was so impressive.  Kelly, Cathy, and I were cheerleaders at the time and we had worn our high school cheer coats to the show, which I remember elicited some nasty remarks from another group at the arena.  It was one of the earliest memories I have of total strangers hurling insults at me just because of something I wore.  Besides those few comments though, things settled down once the show started and boy was the show was great!  BSB made use of the entire stage so you weren’t left feeling you were ever on the wrong side of the circle.  They had a ton of great dancers and even though Kevin had injured his arm or shoulder beforehand (his arm was in a sling), he still performed at the top of his game.  Like *NSYNC, BSB also had a portion of the show were they flew into the arena.  I'm not sure when this fad became popular, flying into the audience, but I still see it at shows today and it's awesome every time.  That night was such a great time and still I remember being so excited on the car ride home with my friends and talking non-stop about it.

Starting the show off looking serious boys

Saying "Hi" with their "tough" pose

Nick Carter, of course my favorite, singing it!

The prerequisite white outfits of the night

And like most pop acts during this time, they flew threw the crowd

Final bow and goodnight!

Saved the confetti from this one as well!

Concert Stories #7: *NSYNC

I LOVE that this was sponsored by Clairol Herbal Essence

#7

*NSync

Opener: Jordan Knight

Boys of Summer Tour

Marcus Amphitheater

August 8, 1999

Age 16

And so it begins….my pop phase (although it's probably not a phase if I still attend pop concerts regularly)!!!  I grew up very sheltered.  My parents would make my brother and I go run outside and play in the fields, read, or do something creative.  We did watch television but not much.  As I result of this upbringing, I had no idea about *NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, Christina Aguilera, or Britney Spears until I got put into public school with kids that had MTV and listened to the radio (I listed early to the rock station, oldies station, or AM radio with baseball games – apparently I was an old man).  Well, when I hit public school, my new found friends quickly informed me of what I should be listening to and *NSYNC was a big one.  Girls at school had pictures of Justin Timberlake and JC Chasez up in their lockers, which at that time I had never even had a locker before!  Things went bananas when my mom took me, my sister, and younger brother to see *NSYNC at the Marcus Amphitheater in 1999.  Contrary to the pictures, our seats where pretty good.  Naturally my sister came with so she could check out Jordan Knight from NKOTB doing his first solo work as the opener.  He was pretty good I must say, but of course I loved *NSYNC better.  At one point they flew through the crowd and the furthest they reached was directly above us!  With my sister and I being 5’9”, we jumped on our seats and tried to reach them but alas, they where still a few feet above our heads.  I remember they did a section of songs where they went through covers of songs from the decades and I did not like that except the Jackson 5 song they sang, because who doesn’t like the Jackson 5?!  Overall though the concert was a blast.  I was 16 and in full on "boy crazy" mode, what better to help that craziness than seeing a boy band with a few thousand more hormonal teenage girls? This concert was my first real big “pop” concert and really started me on a roll of many more to come!

It should be noted that I have no idea what the proper capitalization, punctuation of *NSYNC is.  I saw one way and ran with it..

*NSYNC starting the show off from above! Look at all those hands in the air!

Their pose here reminds of Charlie's Angels a little bit

Some snazzy costumes there

Remember those track suits?  And JT on the big screen!

Their final waive goodbye!

Yes - I even kept the confetti that came down at the end of the show!

Concert Stories #6: No Doubt with Weezer

#6

No Doubt

Opener: Weezer

Tragic Kingdom Tour

Marcus Amphitheater

July 2, 1997

Age 14

Gwen Stefani is my sister's favorite musician, I mean FAVORITE.  I can not stress this enough, she loves anything Gwen related, including of course No Doubt.  Naturally, when No Doubt came to town in 1997 my sister got tickets for herself, her boyfriend, her friend, and a 4^th person but the 4^th person couldn’t go so my cool 18 year old sister had to drag her dorky 14 year old sister with her!  The concert took place during Summerfest, if you do not know what Summerfest is, Google it.  Summerfest is awesome and I’m so lucky I grew up 20 minutes from it!  

We had bleacher seats at the Marcus Amphitheater, which were a ways back but we had a great center view of the stage.  Weezer opened and I was too young to know much about them, but years later I would realize how incredible they are and loved that I had caught them early.  No Doubt ruled though.  It was their first headlining tour supporting The Tragic Kingdom album and just so much fun.  We had some smokers sitting right in front of us which was a little distracting at first (I was raised in a smoke free environment and my dad would shut anyone down who dared to light up around us), but they left the concert early for some reason and that was great for us.  My sister and her boyfriend took their seats in front of us and then we all danced and jumped all night long to “Just A Girl”, “Spiderwebs”, “Excuse Me Mr.”, and so many more awesome tracks.  If I thought I was cool when I saw Richard Marx with my friends, my cool rating went up higher now (only in my head of course).  Getting to see these two awesome bands with my cooler older sister and no parental supervision had me thinking I was hot stuff.  

Only downside to the night is that I wore some typical ’90s “Delia’s” style shoes, white sneakers with big platforms, which cut into the back of my heals.  A small price to pay and also a price I will pay for many years to come as I’ve never learned that breaking in new shoes at a concert isn't the best idea.