The Circus B*tch

On to the full "Britney Spears Circus Tour at the Verizon Center in Washington DC, March 24, 2009" review (phew)! This will be a long one but I promise to make it interesting (I'll break it up into parts if it gets too terribly long).

I hadn't planned to talk about myself so much when I did this review, but when you hear what happened to me you'll see why I just HAD to share it with all of you. Seriously. Read to the end because stuff kept happening all through the night.

Besides, I want to set myself apart from other concert reviewers by giving you the personal with the professional...it's what bloggers do best after all, right? I also want you to feel like you were right there next to me, which by the way? Would've been awesome.

My apologies in advance if any of my post sounds braggadocios. I don't mean it that way AT ALL. Cross my heart. In fact, if I were cocky, I wouldn't be so surprised that all of this happened to me, so there. :)

I'll walk you through from the beginning to end and intersperse videos throughout. I promise much better quality videos in the future....the ones I took for this were awful because of the distance and my suckage with the camera, but I'm learning. You can see them all on my YouTube channel.

Be prepared for bad audio in some of them as my camera chopped up the sound whenever I zoomed in and out. And I also need to learn how to dance and film better...you'll see what I mean.

The title of this post came from a group of girls that told me I had to go party with them after the concert. "You are the Circus B*tch!" one of them said. In fact, the costume I wore attracted so much attention that I felt like a star! Oooooh, just wait until you hear what happened to me after the show!!!

The first sign that we stood out actually happened as soon as we hit the highway to head to the show. A (very cute) guy in an SUV kept pulling up along side of us and blowing kisses at us, lol. The drive ended up being awful, though, (stuck in traffic) and when we finally arrived, we discovered that the Verizon Center had closed off parking. Crap. Didn't count on that happening.

So there we were, moving an inch a minute through traffic, scrambling to find a parking garage. We finally found one a few blocks down, after some illegal u-turns and near-pedestrian-strikes. We did our best to run to the center, Amanda having to yell at me to slow down because she was in heels.

I started to think that maybe I was going to stand out more than I thought as heads kept turning, and as soon as we entered the center, Virgin Mobile shouted out to us and pulled us to the side. They asked if they could take our picture to display on the curtain (the jumbotrons weren't in use...so pre-show stuff was shown on a giant curtain like a movie theater) and to put on their official Britney Spears Circus Tour site.

Ummm.....YES!!! They took our photo and had us sign release papers. So keep an eye out on their site. We should be up there whenever they add photos from the DC show.

Oh, and then? A guy in a clown suit was walking by and Virgin Mobile was trying to get his attention. So I tapped him on the shoulder and told him they wanted his picture. Guess what his reply to me was? "I'm actually in the show." Yes, I touched a guy that was later dancing it up on the stage. You know you are impressed. You are, right? :)

I think it had to be just a little after 8 at that point, when the show was set to begin, but no music was playing yet. We also weren't sure if The Pussycat Dolls would even be there to open since they had to cancel the night before due to illness.

I decided to try to get better seats and talked to a guy that had a Verizon Center lanyard on. "Do you think there's any room on the floor for us?" I asked.

His response? Seriously? "With the way you look, I'm sure they'll find room." *blush* He directed me to the best point to try to get down there and we hurried off to find it.

But when we got there, a female was in attendance and she must not have been that impressed by me, lol. She looked at me like I was crazy and gave me a firm "no" when I asked if we could get down there (why, oh, why couldn't it have been a man?!)

At that point, we heard the crowd erupt into cheers and music started playing. We totally missed our photo if it did indeed appear on the curtain and any other fun pre-show stuff.

We raced to find an escalator, along with five million other people, and began a cramped, crowded ride to the 1,456 floor. :) Nosebleed, people...nosebleed. All the while, we could hear The Pussycat Dolls and we were mixed with joy that they were there and frustration that we weren't in our seats to see them.

A word about the Verizon Center. The place is very well laid-out and it's easy to navigate. It's clean and there are tons of bathrooms (I even made a pit stop before the show without any lines). Color me impressed if you happen to have that crayon in your box.

Also, as we would learn later, there are no "bad" seats there. Even though we were far back, we could see everyone and everything on stage very well. The only thing the distance affected was my finicky camera.



PCDs performing "Beep"

The PCDs were everything we expected and more. Phenomenal dance moves and no lip syncing (not that I mind that). You wouldn't even know that Nicole, the lead singer, had been so sick the night before. Her voice was flawless.

They performed all of my favorite songs: "Don't Cha," "Buttons:"



Buttons, baby! My FAVE PCD song! If you listen closely, you can hear me singing along.

..."Stickwitu," "When I Grow Up," (it's "groupies" btw....not "boobies" lol) "I Hate This Part," "I Don't Need a Man," "Beep," and "Whatcha Think About That."

The biggest surprise though came when they sang their brand new song "Jai Ho" from "Slumdog Millionaire:"



Nicole then got the crowd really revved up for Britney:



And Amanda and I both said to each other at the same time, "I SO want to be a Pussycat Doll!" Really. In my Heaven there will be a stage where I get to dance and sing like that in front of millions. :)

When the PCDs left the stage, Amanda and I attempted to grab a bottle of water at the concession stand and I tried to buy a t-shirt. Water bottle- success (at a price of $4). T-shirt - FAIL. The "line" (which was really just an unorganized mass crowd of people trying to get to the counter) was far too long.

Weird thing about the water.....they don't allow you to keep the cap. And I kept hitting the bottle in the armrest holder with my elbow and almost spilling it all over Amanda. And the paranoid side of me worried about someone slipping something into my drink while I was standing up dancing so I didn't drink out of it after I had stood up. (I have issues...I know...but hey, it DOES happen! I'm all for following the "no drink left unattended" safety rule.)

As we were waiting for Britney, I felt a tap on my shoulder. Someone was getting my attention for a lady that was three rows back (who kept yelling "I f'ing love you, Britney" which made me love her).

"Can I take a picture of you?" she asked me. (remember, this is all because of the costume I wore in the picture at the top)

So I stood up from my seat, with hundreds of people sitting all around me and posed for the camera. Then the girl next to me asked, "Can I take one too?" So I pose again. In my head I'm thinking, "don't do anything to look stupid," and "OH MY GOSH!!!!"

After that point, anyone walking up the aisle past us stared at me with a look of either, "who is she?" or "die, b*tch" (the latter coming from the female population....go figure).

There were really cool circus acts going on on the stage during the intermission, including this one:



It was like a show within a show. Just fabulous.

Anticipation was building as we waited for Britney to appear and we didn't have to wait long. How best to describe what I'm about to describe....hmmm....there was this circular video/jumbo tron thingie that encased the center ring of the stage. There? How did I do? You totally can picture it now, can't you? :)

You'll see what I mean in the next video below. This....screen I'll call it....really jazzed up the entire show as colors, videos, pictures and even lightning played across it.

Anyway, the circus opened with a montage from Perez Hilton on the screen and it was fabulous, even though I can't stand him. (He has been awful to Britney despite her featuring him at the start of her show, and rumor is it's because the 10-year-old boy in a grown up gossiper's body had his feelings hurt when Britney wouldn't allow him to join her on the tour....boo friggin hoo.)

I set aside my distaste for his behavior and enjoyed his deliciously freakish "Welcome to the Circus" intro:



(Here's a much better video showing the entire intro...notice Britney's appearance on screen at the end, and then she disappears behind the curtain)

At that point, I, along with the entire stadium, almost lost all bodily function (except for our voices, which we all put to good use) as Britney descended onto the stage (the stage was set in the round with one large stage in the center and two smaller ones to each side).

I had watched footage of her show in other cities. I knew what was coming. And I had been enthralled by the videos I had watched.

But there is nothing....absolutely nothing....that can prepare you for the fabulousness that is Britney when she is right in front of you. Chills, heart racing, feet leaving the floor from jumping up and down with excitement....I felt it all.

See for yourself, but a video just cannot do it justice:



Do you hear that crowd? OMGosh!! (And I can't tell which one is my voice singing because Amanda and everyone around me were singing at that point)

Okay, I just hit "preview" and realized this post is going to be way too long. So I will have to let this one digest for you and do a part two. I'll be posting part two soon because I need to tell you the exciting news about my press pass approval for another HUGE concert happening next week. Stay tuned!