You know, I completely forgot (until reminded by Teri) that I never recapped the Michael Buble (henceforth known as MB for ease of writing) concert I attended a few weeks ago in Hershey, PA.
Some of you readers from way back might remember that my mom and I were originally supposed to see MB at Turning Stone Casino in Syracuse, NY in April. Then, the night before we were going to leave, my grandpa (mom's dad) died. So as you can imagine, it put quite a damper on things, and we never did go to the concert.
A few weeks after that, I was chatting about MB with my boss Tim. He asked me how the concert was, and I reminded him that I didn't go because of my grandfather's death. Then I mentioned that there were several dates added to MB's tour, and that he would be coming to Hershey in July.
"Hershey?" my boss echoed. "My cousin does all their PR stuff. When's he gonna be there?"
I told him that MB would be there the Sunday evening before July 4, but that tickets had not yet gone on sale. After about fifteen minutes and a couple phone calls, my boss's cousin had procured two outstanding tickets for my mom and me. Nineteenth row, center stage. Miraculous!
After I informed my mom that we would again be attempting to see MB in concert, I made a reservation at a cute little motor inn not far from Hersheypark. The plan was that we'd go up early on the concert day, do some sight-seeing and shopping, go to the show, and return home the following day.
On the day of the concert, we headed to Hershey. It only took an hour and a half to get there from Limerick, and my mom drove, which was an unexpected bonus. Unfortunately, we got to the motel thirty minutes before check-in, and they wouldn't let us into our room. No biggie -- we got lunch at a nice little restaurant down the road called Duke's.
After lunch, we checked into our motel and got settled. It was only 3 p.m., so I suggested we visit Chocolate World, which is right across the parking lot from Hersheypark.
We pulled into the enormous lot and found a relatively close spot to Chocolate World's entrance. I jumped out of the car and waited for my mom to get out of the driver's seat. She closed the door and started walking away, just as I noticed a strange noise emanating from underneath the car's hood. I called her over and asked, "Is that the noise your air conditioner makes after you turn off the car?"
She paused and stared at the car, her expression turning quickly from puzzlement to dismay to pure horror.
"I locked my keys in the car!" she wailed. "And the car's still running!"
Well, all I could do for the first few minutes after this declaration was laugh. Not very helpful, I know. Then I somehow managed to calm her down, despite her occasional moans that we were clearly not destined to ever see MB in concert.
Luckily, she had the presence of mind to remember that she had Subaru's roadside assistance. She called the 800 number and within twenty minutes, Subaru had dispatched a local locksmith to help us. It took the guy literally three minutes to break into the car, roll down the passenger window, and reach in to shut the car off. All this with zero damage to her car. Amazing.
After she signed the work order and gave him a very generous tip for his services, we headed into Chocolate World. I really don't have much to say about that trip, since (gasp!) I'm not really a chocolate lover. I bought a lot of junk for my coworkers and for my husband, though.
We returned to our motel, took showers, and got generally gussied up for the show. We stopped at the motel office to ask about restaurants near the concert venue. The woman there told us there was a Red Robin right around the corner from the Giant Center. Long story short, the line of waiting customers at the Red Robin was out the door and around the building. We looked at each other as we drove past and said, "Uh...no."
Instead, we had a lovely dinner at a local biker bar. Yes, you read that right. A biker bar. I have plenty of photos to commemorate that meal, trust me.
After we ate, we hightailed it over to the Giant Center. Now, on to the important stuff:
- Our seats were indeed awesome.
- The female to male ratio of attendees was about 8 to 1. But there were many more younger women there than I thought there'd be. A lot of teenagers, actually.
- MB's opener was a fellow Canuck named Jan Arden. I had no idea who she was until she sung the one and only hit she's ever had, a little ditty called "Insensitive." I remember this song because they played it every single night on a now-defunct radio program called "Between the Sheets" on 104.5 FM about ten years ago. She was damn funny, though. If the music thing doesn't work out for her, she could definitely be a stand-up comedienne.
- MB is as cute as puppies! And funny too!
- There was a lot of audience interaction, which I think makes a good concert great. At one point, he jumped off the stage and went running back to the furthest rows of spectators, shaking their hands, giving hugs and kisses to people, and posing for pictures with them as his band played. That was definitely one of the best aspects of his show.
- He also has quite the potty mouth. I think my mom was a little disappointed by that. I was just surprised -- he sang all these retro standards but then he swore like a sailor while interacting with the audience between songs. It was unexpected.
- He allows, and even encourages, people to take pictures of him onstage. I spent a good twenty minutes at the base of the stage, with MB just an arm's length from me, snapping his photo. This is one of those times I really wish I had a digital camera. Or even just a scanner. I have some fantastic pictures of him looking directly into my camera and singing -- I was literally standing at his feet. I think that's the closest I've ever physically been to a famous person.
- He ended the show by singing a cappella WITH HIS MIKE TURNED OFF. Boy's got a real set of lungs on him. The audience was dead quiet and he really projected all the way to the back of the house. Very impressive.
Overall, the show was way more entertaining than I had anticipated. Initially, the only reason I went to this concert was because I knew how much my mom wanted to see him, but I wound up having a really great time. I would even go to see him again!
Plus, my mother will never be able to live down locking her keys in her (running) car. That little incident will provide plenty of comedic fodder for months, perhaps even years, to come...
Labels: concerts, family, funny stuff, Michael Buble, music, travel, vacations
In My Head
