If You Want It, I Got It

Okay, so when the New Kids ended their tour this past summer in Texas (and I was there — oh yes I traveled 3000 miles to see them off in style) I didn’t know if I’d ever have a chance to see them perform again. Were they going on hiatus? I know they were taking a year off. I went through the motions of mourning my super fun 18 months of NKOTB overload, and moved on. Oh I still read their tweets, visit one NK website but I stepped back for the most part.

And then Donnie Wahlberg decided to record some songs, and release one of them right here in Toronto on Chum FM. It blew up, Blockheads requested it from all over the world and Donnie decided that he would have his release party here in Toronto. I pondered for about .002 seconds before it was decided that I’d be attending the party. Just a little more DDub, like a hit of horomone-heroin.

My friend indianadelae bought two tickets for the party, and Momontherun & Turtletwins23 were quick to follow. Donnie decided to have a limited amount of “Facetime” tickets available, which basically allowed for early admission and guaranteed meeting with Donnie. Yes, Jen & I were able to procure a pair. EEP!

So basically it was the coldest day so far this fall yesterday and we had to wait outside on the cold concrete. When they finally let us in we lingered around awaiting information. We heard someone say to line up near a side room, where the meet’n'greet was supposedly happening. We joined the line with two girls we met last night. They were hilarious and we had a blast waiting for our turn. They wanted us to go in as groups of 4 or 5 which was kind of shitty because there is only one Donnie and wouldn’t we all want to be next to him? Anyways, we get in there and he was about 10 feet away. There were 6 people in front of our group, and he was meeting with each person, one at a time. They had a photographer there taking pictures. When it was my turn I walked up saying “Donnnnniiiiie” and I gave him a big hug. And his hugs linger, he makes you feel like he wants to hug you. And in no way like you’re the 150th person he’s caressed in the last hour. I love that about him. I told him all about my daughter and how she was a self proclaimed Donnie girl. How she wanted to come with me, but that obviously she was too young. He signed an old NKOTB trading card for her and then we hugged again for the picture. My camera was acting up, so the only picture that would take is one of the worst pictures of me ever. I look like I’m scolding him and we’re about a foot apart. Fingers Crossed that the pic they took worked better. I started to walk away and he pulled me back and *GAH FREAKS FAINTS* says “I love you, you know” so I say “I love you too” and walk away in a daze. I should’ve latched myself to his leg and refused to budge. We got outside back into the concert hall and people were starting to gather round the stage. Since we were waiting for 3 more people that didn’t have early entry, we secure a spot, about 3 people deep right in the centre. I’m not going to bother talking about the group of C-words that were around us because 95% of the crowd there last night were fine.

So the show starts…. there were a few people that sang first.  I’ll put it out there and say that I’m a bad New Kid fan because I don’t blindly follow other people that they like, work with just because.  So I don’t really know anything about them. I was tuning out at that point, thinking about the fact that I was about 2 vodka/7’s from groping Donnie in the VIP room an hour earlier.

Donnie comes out. He started with Rise and Grind.  The crowd was stoked, everyone was singing along and Donnie was magnetic.  I can’t believe how close we were, how low the stage was and how much I missed seeing that man live.  He loves to talk, so he did a lot of talking and thanking and he even cried at one point.  I’d like to say he’s a great actor, but I really do feel that he’s genuine in his adoration for the fans.  He sang I GOT IT  twice, the second time leaving it up to us to really scream out the lyrics.  I didn’t realize how much I’d listened to the song until I realized I was singing every. single. word. of the song.  Once that was done, he spoke some more and said he’d have a surprise for us, and Single kicked in. He sung it, and at that point I figured the rumours of Joey Mac being in Toronto were true, so I was scoping out the stage area… sure enough, about 30 seconds into the song out popped Mr. McIntyre.  he was decked out in a beautiful grey suit and I swear I peeled 20 years off my age/maturity and started crying….I’m not proud of it, but I definitely had a fan girl moment at that point. I was having heart palpitations and was trying to see how far I could get onto the stage before I was tackled by the security team.

I took a bunch of pictures of Joe, and him and Donnie had a great time with each other.  Fuck, it was like when Joe showed up in the crowd right in front of me during the Molson Amphitheatre show last June when I wasn’t expecting it.  I’m actually getting jittery right now thinking about it *LOSER ALERT*  If I remember correctly (the order of events is a bit sketch) they left the stage for a little while.  Donnie came out and danced around singing to other peoples songs.  He then called Joe back out and they played Dirty Dancing AND Full Service.  They were even doing some of the New Kid moves and laughing at each other.  The rest of us ladies in the audience were combusting as they grabbed their packages and did the thrusting we all know them for.

They also played Joe’s new song, but he didn’t perform it.  In fact, he darted off the stage, even though Donnie told him to stay.  I think he wanted to make sure everyone liked it.  Which we did.

The place was so packed that there was no way there would be any mingling going on after the performance was done.  Over an hour after we left Joe left, and took some pictures with fans outside.  Same with Donnie.  I don’t think any of us would have lasted any more time at that point.  It’s hard to stand in one spot for that length of time, in heels & heat.  Or maybe we’re just getting old.

At any rate, the night rocked. Joey Mac made my friggen life by showing up unannounced. I think I’ll ride high on that for quite a while.   What’s next guys????

Here are a few more pictures, including the infamous picture of me & Donnie.  I’m sharing it before I hold a burning party to destroy it.