Best Friend + LA + Jesse McCartney = Happiness
A couple months ago, I saw that Jesse McCartney was going on tour and I wanted to go. I was a big fan back in the day, so I had to get tickets just relive my younger years. I don't have many friends who are fans, but sent one of my best friends a text and she was in. She was with me during the Jesse McCartney obsession phase, so she got it. We were in 7th grade when "Beautiful Soul" came out and we'd sing it all the time at recess, complete with hand motions (total nerds, ha) and essentially, it was part of our childhood, really. We bought the tickets and we were ready to go!
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Fast forward to Wednesday morning. Liz and I left for LA around 10 and made it down there around noon. Car rides are usually my favorite, because if you have great company, it's just you guys and the open road for a couple hours. We jammed to our Jesse McCartney station on Pandora (which played more Justin Bieber than anything) and laughed over all the throwback 90s music.
I've spent more time in downtown LA recently and it's a beautiful spot. It's not your typical beauty, but it has its palm trees, art and other quirks that make it so unique and fun to explore.
We decided to check out the LA Live area, because it was near our hotel and where the concert was later on. We had lunch at Wolfgang Puck's and it was not only fancy, decently priced and a nice break from the heat, the food was also delicious. In all my years of venturing to that area for events, I've never eaten there. I love a good lunch date and that was a nice little treat. We caught up on all the things - friends, guys, work and everything in between, which are the best.
We checked in and settled in, and while it might not have been the Ritz Carlton, it was a good price and not far from where we needed to go. Plus, how much are you actually in the room anyway? We touched up our hair and makeup, chilled for a few minutes, then back out we went to get to the show.
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We made it back into downtown LA. Luckily, we'd already bought parking, so we just had to find the lot and head across the street to the Belasco Theater. The show was supposed to start at 7 p.m., but they didn't even let us in until that time. So we waited in the heat for a good hour and fifteen minutes.
They finally let us inside and we all rejoiced. The outside mostly looks like an old warehouse, but as we moved around, you could see the actual theater portion and it was beautiful. It had that old timey bar feel, like "Casablanca" or something. We had general admission, so it was just free for all on the bottom. We could've gotten closer to the stage, but we decided to sit against the wall. It was a small venue to begin with, so we were going to be close no matter what.
Nina Nesbitt was supposed to open for Jesse, but she never showed and no one really said why. I never heard anyway, if so. Instead, there were a couple pop/rock bands that did a lot of covers and a couple originals. The first group was called Just Seconds Apart and they were good. The other guys never said what their name was and you could hardly understand them, so I have no idea who they were. Everything was pushed back since we didn't even get to come in until 7. It kept getting later and later, we hadn't eaten dinner and Liz and I were getting annoyed. He didn't even come out until 10 p.m. and us grandmas were ready to call it a night. HA!
I also can't forget about the guy who kept looking over at us and Liz would make weird faces at him to make him stop. I happened to glance over at the wrong time and he was staring again and gave a head nod. I awkwardly looked away and didn't do anything back. Lol.
Jesse started the show with "She's No You" - a true classic, and it was just hit after hit from there with "Right Where You Want Me," "Leavin'" and a few others. I honestly had forgotten he'd had so many singles. I was a HUGE fan back in the day, so it was a total blast from the past with every song.
Once again, my favorite point in the show was the stripped down moment with him and a couple buddies on guitar. He sang two of my absolute favorite songs that I would ALWAYS listen to in high school, "Anybody" and "Just So you Know." I was so happy with that! And of course, he closed out the show with "Beautiful Soul." I had waited like 12 or 13 years to hear it live and finally got to sing along with the rest of the crowd shouting the words back to him. It was kind of a dream come true. We had THE best time and I'll admit, Jesse and the show were worth it.
It was also the last show of the tour, so he had some team members there, as well as his mom. That was cool! Once the show ended, we all made our way out of the theater (very carefully). Liz and I bought matching Jesse baseball jerseys, then got on the freeway to go back to the hotel. Liz was hyped up and I couldn't stop laughing at stupid things. It was that concert high. We went through McDonald's and got chicken nuggets, then went back to the room, where Liz got started on "Catfish" again. And then we went to bed.
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The next day I had to work, so we woke up at 8 a.m., got ready and just came back home. All while listening to Jesse McCartney's Pandora station, which finally caught on that we didn't want to listen to Bieber and played more 90s artists, like Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC and Britney Spears. Traffic wasn't too bad and we made good timing, so I was at work before noon.
It was such a fun day! There's nothing like a good best friend day with quality time together to laugh and pretend that you aren't actual adults with responsibilities waiting for you when you come home. I can't wait until our next trip!
That's all for now,
Shelby
_____________________________________________
Fast forward to Wednesday morning. Liz and I left for LA around 10 and made it down there around noon. Car rides are usually my favorite, because if you have great company, it's just you guys and the open road for a couple hours. We jammed to our Jesse McCartney station on Pandora (which played more Justin Bieber than anything) and laughed over all the throwback 90s music.
I've spent more time in downtown LA recently and it's a beautiful spot. It's not your typical beauty, but it has its palm trees, art and other quirks that make it so unique and fun to explore.
We couldn't check into our hotel until 3 p.m., so we went next door to the Grammy Museum to kill some time. It's only $13, which is great. There are always new exhibits and artifacts to check out, even if you've visited before. This time, there was a case on the King of Pop himself, Michael Jackson.
They broke up the genres and gave a history lesson of those with the biggest influences, including Whitney Houston, Elvis Presley, BB King, Ray Charles, Beyoncé and many others.
Other exhibits include the Songwriters Hall of Fame, with handwritten lyrics and other sheet music from Taylor Swift, Dolly Parton and Willie Nelson. It was cool to hear several archived interviews with artists accepting awards for their songwriting or talking about the power of a song and what it meant to them.
There were so many moments and costumes frozen in time, and that's what I love. You get to see artists through the decades - some who aren't around anymore, some whose legacies will last forever and others who have evolved in the last few years.
Our favorite part of the museum was definitely the Garth Brooks mixing studio, though. I recorded "Friends in Low Places" (basically a glorified karaoke) and Liz mixed it in the booth in front of me, to give a feel like a real recording studio. It was amazing and we probably spent too long in there! There are also other stations to show how the musical process works with instruments, vocals and other mixing tools to see what it's like to produce or be an artist. We laughed so hard at the playbacks of it.
There was a small gift shop at the end that we perused for a few minutes, then walked back to the parking structure to head back to the hotel.
____________________________________________________
We made it back into downtown LA. Luckily, we'd already bought parking, so we just had to find the lot and head across the street to the Belasco Theater. The show was supposed to start at 7 p.m., but they didn't even let us in until that time. So we waited in the heat for a good hour and fifteen minutes.
They finally let us inside and we all rejoiced. The outside mostly looks like an old warehouse, but as we moved around, you could see the actual theater portion and it was beautiful. It had that old timey bar feel, like "Casablanca" or something. We had general admission, so it was just free for all on the bottom. We could've gotten closer to the stage, but we decided to sit against the wall. It was a small venue to begin with, so we were going to be close no matter what.
Nina Nesbitt was supposed to open for Jesse, but she never showed and no one really said why. I never heard anyway, if so. Instead, there were a couple pop/rock bands that did a lot of covers and a couple originals. The first group was called Just Seconds Apart and they were good. The other guys never said what their name was and you could hardly understand them, so I have no idea who they were. Everything was pushed back since we didn't even get to come in until 7. It kept getting later and later, we hadn't eaten dinner and Liz and I were getting annoyed. He didn't even come out until 10 p.m. and us grandmas were ready to call it a night. HA!
I also can't forget about the guy who kept looking over at us and Liz would make weird faces at him to make him stop. I happened to glance over at the wrong time and he was staring again and gave a head nod. I awkwardly looked away and didn't do anything back. Lol.
Jesse started the show with "She's No You" - a true classic, and it was just hit after hit from there with "Right Where You Want Me," "Leavin'" and a few others. I honestly had forgotten he'd had so many singles. I was a HUGE fan back in the day, so it was a total blast from the past with every song.
Once again, my favorite point in the show was the stripped down moment with him and a couple buddies on guitar. He sang two of my absolute favorite songs that I would ALWAYS listen to in high school, "Anybody" and "Just So you Know." I was so happy with that! And of course, he closed out the show with "Beautiful Soul." I had waited like 12 or 13 years to hear it live and finally got to sing along with the rest of the crowd shouting the words back to him. It was kind of a dream come true. We had THE best time and I'll admit, Jesse and the show were worth it.
It was also the last show of the tour, so he had some team members there, as well as his mom. That was cool! Once the show ended, we all made our way out of the theater (very carefully). Liz and I bought matching Jesse baseball jerseys, then got on the freeway to go back to the hotel. Liz was hyped up and I couldn't stop laughing at stupid things. It was that concert high. We went through McDonald's and got chicken nuggets, then went back to the room, where Liz got started on "Catfish" again. And then we went to bed.
_______________________________________________________________
The next day I had to work, so we woke up at 8 a.m., got ready and just came back home. All while listening to Jesse McCartney's Pandora station, which finally caught on that we didn't want to listen to Bieber and played more 90s artists, like Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC and Britney Spears. Traffic wasn't too bad and we made good timing, so I was at work before noon.
It was such a fun day! There's nothing like a good best friend day with quality time together to laugh and pretend that you aren't actual adults with responsibilities waiting for you when you come home. I can't wait until our next trip!
That's all for now,
Shelby
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