IT WAS FREE

Last Friday we went to the MC Hammer /Vanilla Ice concert. All I really NEED to say about it is that it was free. I seriously would have been disappointed if I had paid to get in!

We arrived at the concert at about 7:15 and the doors didn't open until 8, so we got to wait outside in the freezing cold for awhile. BRRRR! Jeremy won 4 tickets to the concert from a radio contest, so we brought along our friends, Mark and Erin. We took a few pictures of us out in the cold, waiting to get in. Here I am with Mark.
Jeremy and I trying to look cool for the camera (we were REALLY cool).

This is Mark and Erin. Mark is long-time friends with Jeremy - since high school. We have recently hung out with them and have found they are a lot of fun!

While we waited outside we found our own little ways to entertain ourselves. There were so many people dressed in super funky 80s attire. If we would have known we would have joined in the party! It was so fun to see what other people came up with. I don't know how we survived the 80s, those fashions are among the ugliest! Jeremy and I taught our friends what MIGs are and we had plenty of fun calling and claiming our own sets of MIGs.

Once we were inside we realized we were going to warm up real quick. Our tickets were for general admission on the floor. When we first got inside we could walk right up within about 10 feet of the stage. Then people kept coming in behind us. Before we knew it we were packed in so tight we couldn't even move our arms! A few idiots in the crowd started pushing back and forth and I just kept thinking to myself, "stay on your feet!" I don't think I've ever been in a crowd that tight before where I didn't have even the slightest control over which way I was moving. It got so tight that I finally put my arms up in front of me to make sure I had breathing room. Finally one of the security people came to the front and told everyone to knock it off with the pushing because people were almost getting crushed into the stage. It mellowed out after that, thank goodness.

The opening group to perform was a local group called Love Me Long Time. They were a punk rock band and were actually quite interesting to watch. Even though we didn't know any of their songs, we all had fun jumping around and being together. At one point the lead singer had all of us packed-in bodies open up into a circle. He then jumped down and was singing and dancing. I realized that I'm not really that tall because all I could see was from his eyes up. Jeremy had to take over the camera.

After that group performed everyone was hyped up for Vanilla Ice to come out on stage. This is where it got really, really, really lame! He didn't come out to perform for over an hour!!! The promoters had been throwing hats and T-shirts into the crowd before the concert, and as people got more and more anxious, they would come out and throw more stuff and try to entertain the waiting crowd. About 55 minutes into the wait people were chanting for Vanilla Ice to come out on stage. After about an hour people were booing. That's pretty bad to have people boo you at your own concert! I was so annoyed at having to wait so long, especially when we had someone babysitting our kids. Anytime I have a babysitter I feel like I'm not on my own time and waiting is even worse! This is why I was so glad I didn't pay for our tickets. I would have been ticked! We took some pictures to help the time pass.

During this huge break, I managed to catch a T-shirt and a hat. Jeremy caught about 5 T-shirts! He started just handing them out to people around us. Finally, after about an hour and 20 minutes (ridiculous, I KNOW!!! What the heck was he doing backstage?) Vanilla Ice came out to perform.

Once he was on stage the concert was OK. I don't know any of the songs he was singing, but I was with Jeremy and friends.

Here we are with Vanilla Ice in the background. I have to explain because you would never know it if I didn't tell you.

Same with Mark and Erin.

Near the end of his performance a bunch of confetti came flying down everywhere and stuck to our hair. Woo hoo!

So, overall, I felt like the Vanilla Ice portion of the concert was a huge flop. He seemed to be trying to relive his glory days that are now gone. He still knows how to perform, but it just didn't seem to be as hip to me as I would have thought. He also only performed for just over 30 minutes! We waited 3 times that long just for him to come out!!!

During the break, the promoters came out to entertain and throw more free stuff. The following picture may not seem significant to you, but to me, I had to take it because this guy was DRIVING ME CRAZY!!!! He was RIGHT in front of me and he wasn't very tall, so every time a T-shirt was being thrown from the stage he would jump and jump and jump. Several times when he would land it was right on my foot! HELLO!!! Does that feel like the floor to you!!! To make it worse, he had a piece of confetti stuck to the rod on his glasses! LOL Get a clue, dude.

The wait for MC Hammer wasn't quite as long as for Vanilla Ice. The stage crew cleared off the stage to make room for his dancers and he was out in about 1/2 hour. He was definitely the better part of the show, but unfortunately by the time he got out there we had already been standing for 4 1/2 hours in a super crowded, confined space. It was about 11:45 when he started.

I did know more of MC Hammer's songs and he and his group were quite entertaining to watch.

Finally, around midnight, I wasn't feeling very well and thought I had better hurry and sit down. Jeremy and I made our way through the crowd and ended up leaving during MC Hammer's performance.

I felt bad about leaving because his performance is what I really wanted to see - with all the dancers. If stupid Vanilla Ice didn't take his own sweet time coming out we could have seen the whole concert. It was really late and we still had to pick up the kids from Jeremy's mom. We heard from some of our friends that the concert went another 1/2 hour after we left and finished at around 12:45am. Sheesh! So, after all was said and done, I'm glad we didn't pay for the concert. It was a disappointment.