9.19.11 Adam News and Info

Hard Rock Meet & Greet & concert recap-

Before I start my recap I would humbly suggest that you listen to some music as you read, and I would love if that music could be Queen's Don't Stop Me Now. It totally embodies the feeling of euphoria that permeated my entire trip. Feeling so good that you’re walking the line next right to manic and you are so filled with happy that you think the top of your head might blow off. It’s a rare treat that an entire three day trip goes so smashingly well (I visited old friends the first day), and this trip was that from the moment I left the house to pulling back in the driveway when I got home.
Could not have asked for one thing better!

OK-
Because of the delay in hearing what time I needed to be present for the Hard Rock VIP meet I arrived there a tad early. There was a tall security guy (I shall call him Vinnie, he looked like a Vinnie) in there who was fun to talk to so I and a smattering of other fans spent the time talking to him. Some of them were not VIP people and they were asked to step back outside to wait as the doors had not been officially opened. He kind of almost asked all of us to go outside and that was something I did not want to happen as it was literally 92ºF and 110% humidity out there and I was melted enough as it was.
What is it with Meet & Greets and sweating?

Anyway, I decided that it might be a good idea to turn on my schmooze and befriend Vinnie and we chatted off and on while I waited and I showed him my new Adam Hat tattoo, which he thought was a hoot and made me the craziest Glambert ever. At one point he did tell us we would have to wait outside and as I was mentally calculating how much money I could offer him he was distracted and we were allowed to remain cool.

So as I and maybe 5? 8? Other VIPers were waiting we heard the sound check with Adam singing, and by God he was singing Pick U Up live. This was my absolute favorite song off the original album (since eclipsed by Can’t Let You Go, but not by much) and it has always been a disappointment to me and many other fans that we don’t ever get to see it performed live. But we got it at sound check!!

The vocals were spot on, the band was not. To my uneducated ear it sounded as if part of sound check works with individual instruments and then part focused on vocals, and this was a vocal focus. The band (minus Monte if I am not mistaken) was just kinda sorta hitting chords and made no attempt to stay on beat or hit their marks. But the singing was sublime and he did the entire bridge as was done on the album. I made it a point to listen closely to that part as we have always assumed that the difficulty of that portion was the reason it isn’t done live, but he did it and he did it marvelously. The band plodded along and at the “All my life” time they came in at the wrong moment which spoiled the effect, but the vocals were right there.

So- now going into the Meet & Greet Neil is checking us in and of course Vinnie has to come over and say to me “Show him, show him your tattoo!” As I am standing with Neil I tell Vinnie “No, don’t… he already thinks we’re all a bunch of batshit crazy assholes. He doesn’t need to see this."
Then Neil in his typically deadpan manner says to me “Let me guess, he autographed your arm and you had it tattooed.” and I am sure he is rolling his eyes to himself. I say “No, and it’s not complete yet, but…” and lifted up my sleeve and show him the Adam Hat.
Then Neil says “Actually, that’s kind of cool!”
I am idiot enough to be happy that he approves… maybe I am not ridiculous batshit after all but instead cool batshit.
Yay me!

So standing in line to see Adam, thankfully in a climate controlled setting this time. Not too long a wait either- I think I got in at around 6:30 PM, which for Adam is kind of amazing. We are all making new friends, meeting old friends, everyone is curious about my shirt. I am wearing the VIP t-shirt that I got my last time around. They have run out of t-shirts for this group and we are filling out forms to receive them and no one knows what size to order so they are all looking at mine to try and judge. It really is a gorgeous shirt, and I so appreciate the slight v-neck as I can’t abide having my throat constricted.

Anyway, then I am admitted through the curtain and am in the “almost your turn” line. There is a long table where purses and so on are left so you don’t waste time juggling them while meeting Adam, and the newer, sterner security guy asked me how many items I had to be autographed and I replied “Two”. He then told me to leave my tote bag on the table and I said “No, I can’t…. I have props. For my picture”. He got this long suffering look on his face and said “Ma’am, I’m going to have to see what’s in the bag”. So he goes through my stuff- I have a clipboard with my photos to be signed, some Tic Tacs, and two empty, washed beer bottles I had stuffed full of Kleenex so they wouldn’t drip water on my photos. I had them in my daily use coolies- foam cover things to keep the beer cold. The guy said “You can’t have those in here- there’s no food or drink admitted into the venue” and I told him “They’re empty, they’re washed, they’re not even real beer bottles any more- look, they’re stuffed with Kleenex even!”
He lets me through and he’s definitely thinking batshit.
Screw him, I’m next.

Now I think I kind of fubared my Evansville M&G by babbling and I was determined to do a better job this time. I knew that once the photo was taken the M&G was over, so I tried to keep my back to Neil for as long as possible. As I walked up to Adam he freaking said “Oh, hi! It’s nice to see you again!” and I’m like “Hi!” (what the hell, does he remember me? Really? Or he says that to everyone, I don’t care it’s awesome!). Then I said “Both hands, please?” and held out my hands and he held each of them in each of his while I looked into his eyes and said my spiel:
“You have given us such a wonderful summer- every night we have crappy Ustreams of the show and every morning we have Youtubes of every song and it has been a really great ride. I wanted to do something to commemorate it all, and it is not completely finished but I don’t know when I will have the opportunity to meet you again so…….”

At this point he has kind of a puzzled look on his face like what the hell is she going to do here? I raise up my sleeve and show him the new, very fresh tattoo of the “A” voodoo hat and his eyes lit up and he said “Oh my God! You have to get that in the picture, you have to get that in the picture!” Then he is holding my arm and looking more closely at it and he asks “Did it hurt?” and I said “On the inside part a little bit towards the end but totally worth it.” And he said “That is so cool” and rubbed over it with his finger.
I died from joy!

I move to get out my clipboard with the photos on it for a signature- first one is the demure Flaunt profile and he says “You bring me the oddest pictures to sign.”



Then I flip to the next picture (have your stuff organized!) which is one of him wearing “the green shirt” and I say “This shirt has quite the fan club, I was disappointed that you didn’t bring it along on the tour” and he said “Oh, I should take that with me next week when we go to the warm climate”.



An actual conversation!
I did it!

Then it is photo time and I need to get on the other side of him to allow the tattoo to show and we rearrange ourselves. I tell him “I brought props!” and I pulled out my bottles and tell him I want us to toast Glam Nation 2010. I give him his bottle and we put arms around each other and I swear I didn’t do it on purpose but I’ve ended up with my bottle in the wrong hand, so I have to reach around him in front to get my bottle out of my right hand which is wrapped around his back- I have completely encircled his waist with my arms. I get it right and he looks at the 10 year old worn out coolie cover and says ”Ooh, tropical!”. We smile and Neil takes the picture.



Now I totally did know this as he did it, but my tattoo was not showing in the photo. I said “Oh man, the tattoo wasn’t showing- take another one” and Adam says “Yeah take another one, we need to be able to see the tattoo” and he actually uses his very own hand to pull up my sleeve so Neil can take another pic.



After one more toast to Glam Nation 2010 I put the bottles away (they are going to be enshrined), we hug and I say “I am up front and personal tonight, it’s the last one where you don’t have to be family friendly and I just know it’s going to be a really good show” and he says “Oh good, then I’ll see you!” Then we both “goodbye” and I leave to flail.

I totally took more than my allotted amount of time and I know that. I think the key is to engage him somehow that isn’t same old same old and make it fresh for him. Plus he was in a rocking good mood and really seemed totally happy to be there doing that with I think three groups of M&G’ers.

As far as my impressions, they are so utterly different than that first M&G where honestly, I just don’t feel as if he was in the mood. He had tweeted earlier that day in Indiana about a hangover (it was the morning after the VEVO shoot in Indianapolis), and it showed. We all have had days where going to work is a bit of a struggle- in my career I have even said “Look, I’m here, I’m doing it, and that’s about all you’re gonna get today so don’t ask me to be happy about it” and I think that Evansville was one of those days for him.
But at the Hard Rock he was “on”, he was taller and bigger and had his full presence with him. In Evansville he did not. I feel bad for the Evansville people but try and keep in mind that he is a human person and is not infallible.

The show, the show, the show!
I had second row center and it was everything I could ever ask of an Adam concert. I got eye contact, I saw sweat, I could count the glitters on his fabulous self. I had wonderful people surrounding me except one lady in the front row who sat down (WTF?) and I managed to hit her on the head with my glowsticks at least three times. Get up, bitches! Front row at an Adam show your butt should not see the seat. Anyway, lovely gay couple beside me neither of which were Adam’s type. Older couple behind me who did not quite know what to expect of the show and did not get my desire to get folks moving during intermission (tough crowd in that department). The guy just kept saying “He’s a talented kid”. Glambert beside me- great bunch, good fans all around and I gave away 25 glow sticks and then danced and jumped and screamed and flailed all through the show. I am most decidedly not a dancer, but I was determined (and had drained those beer bottles earlier, plus venue drinks) and I did manage to keep moving the entire night except for “Soaked” when I kid you not a tear or two actually streamed down my face. What an experience to see him do that so closely- he is inside each song for real. I managed to get Isaac to hear me scream his name, and I got Taylor’s attention by screaming his as well during his intro. Props to the lesser known, y’all. Isaac is a very different type of drummer than LP and IMO he is bringing a different energy to the show- he’s more raw. LP is a great technician and I by no means want to diminish even a molecule of his performances as he is totally magnificent, but I found Isaac to be more straight up rock as opposed to duplicating whatever track was used in the studio.
Basic banger in the best possible interpretation of that phrase.

Adam was so on- nothing held back. Every gesture was full bore, every note sung flat out- that boy gave everything he had up there- there was absolutely nothing left to be desired. The videos tell the story- I remain in awe at how someone can have every single possible attribute necessary to do what he wants to do as a career- it’s just amazeballs, the whole package. I swear I got eye contact like 100 times and everything was just so fucking special.

The post show gathering was just as awesome as everything else- a few of us popped a top and rehashed, flailed, squeed, and even managed some real discussion about the nature of fandom and its effect on the career of an artist. I simply could not have asked for a more interesting party to hang out with- getoverit, Boca Babe, Adamadamo and her Mom, our new friend Jennifer, and the banned from everywhere sugarandspice. As the evening wound down we decided to tour the Rock and Roll memorabilia on display throughout the Hard Rock and we wandered without a goal destination looking at tons of really cool stuff. Somehow we ended up at an Elvis display where for no apparent reason we paused to reflect on the whole awesome evening. Then not 30 feet away I saw a group of men approaching, trying their best to be invisible… and one was Tommy!!
Hell…. One was Neil!!
Oh mother humping son of a bitch, one was Adam!!!!

I think I nudged Boca and whispered “Look”. The group kept walking towards us and at about 10 feet away Neil said “Evening ladies” and I swear to you I was never so proud of a group of fans in all my life because not one single one of us uttered the first sound or moved a muscle. We looked- I’m sure our eyes were wide open and did not miss a thing, but we did not make one single solitary sound. Adam and the group turned into the elevator vestibule, got into an elevator and were gone. But it was the specific elevator that went to my room! I was in the north tower with Adam! My fantasy had me right across the hall from him!! That Hard Rock complex is something like 80 acres in size, and we ended up standing right in that spot right at that moment when that entourage walked that 30 feet of space? The only few feet of public space they walked through? It could not have ended any better!
Perfect ending to a perfect experience- my whole trip was fabulous.

I did have a bit of a scare when I woke up at 4AM (I’m a bad sleeper) after maybe two hours of sleeping. I had a strange round bruise on the back of my hand, like I had smacked it against something. I had been drinking, but seriously mostly just water after the show, so not drinking enough to not remember an injury. Spider bite? So hmmm on that one. Then when I go to put on make up I see that my lips are irritated and too red and feel kind of numb. WTF? I think ‘allergic reaction’ and go over what I had eaten the last day- nothing out of the ordinary. Maybe I was dehydrated and my lips stuck to my teeth while I was asleep? What a mystery! So red, numb lips and a red spot on my hand… do I need 911? I can get a disease just from reading about it so I am starting to wonder. As I am thinking about it, it dawned on me- I had been screaming so much at the show that I “opened my mouth opened it wide” to the point of having stretched my lips all out. That’s too funny. And when I put on my watch- it has a large face- I figured out that I must have bent my hand backwards so many times clapping and glow sticking and flailing that the stem has poked the back of my hand to the point of a quarter sized bruise.
All in a night…

I had a lot of airport down time on the way home but I had Adam videos on my iPod and am certain that more than a few people wondered at the crazy lady with the shit eating grin on her face who was chair dancing at gate D4 and on every flight. I found videos I had forgotten (No Boundaries video? All the Idol group sings?) I had added and had myself a ball.
Then got home to find that the husband had done some landscaping work to surprise me and I am ded with happiness. Hyperbole is my friend because that was the best trip ever, the best meet & greet ever, the best concert ever and so on and so on and so on.

And as soon as that tattoo is finished I will be tweeting photos of it to Adam continually- I almost had decided not to do it as I know it raises my Tier of Fandom Level from 1.5 to a solid 2.0 but I SO do not care- I love it beyond words and cannot wait until the feathers, color, and retouch goes on!!

I am A Happy Buderschnookie!!!