A Most Special Evening

As an individual who was always starstruck, I wondered how it would be -- how I would be -- to meet a favorite actor, Hollywood crush or favorite band. Last Saturday, I had an opportunity to answer that question with the most incredible first-hand experience in my life - meeting the Brand New Heavies. It was so much better than I expected. I still have not yet returned to earth. The shock has been intense, although it has numbed me to the extent that I'm acting bizarrely normal. Let's get to the story.

So last Saturday, I drove to Atlantic City. After an awesome italian dinner at Specchio in the Borgata with a friend, we decided to kill some time on the casino floor and throw out money before picking up our "special guest tickets" at the box office, which was on the same floor of the Borgata's famous casino floor. After losing some cash to ridiculous casino games, I headed to the Box Office about 30 minutes before the show started. I approached the lady at the Box Office, and she said the tickets weren't available yet. I was getting really nervous, so I decided to call the Brand New Heavies tour manager. I asked him about the tickets, and then he said something, which sent my world tumbling down: "Sorry buddy, we made a mistake. We're out of tickets and they won't give us any for you or any other contest winner, but I'll see what we can do to help you."

I wanted to fade into darkness.

Until....

The tour manager appears behind the desk of the Box Office and starts talking to the people working for the Borgata. A few minutes later, I still don't have tickets, just the backstage passes for after the show...or so I thought. Apparently, the tour manager negotiated with the Borgata people to have me and my friend backstage DURING the concert.

10 minutes later, I'm on stage-right, 10 feet away from Andrew's bass amplifier. I watched the entire concert from the side of the stage -- and no one bothered me and my friend in that little private space. I sang every song word for word and at one point had N'Dea Davenport point at me as she turned around while singing. It was crazy. Flippin' crazy. The Heavies played a lot of old hits off their Brother Sister album and a lot of their new hits off the Get Used to It album. It was just incredible.

Fast-forward. After the concert, I expected to meet them for a few minutes, get my free t-shirt, tell N'Dea I love her and Jan that I wish I had his brain, and then split. Instead, I'm in their dressing room for 2 hours with some of their friends, and their manager mixing drinks. It was an intimate party (last night of their US tour) with a lot of conversation and alcohol. At one point, Simon Bartholomew (guitar god), told me to take some nasty brandy shots with him (check out my pics to see the before, during and after shots). N'Dea was just a sweetheart. I picked Jan's (Keys, Drums, songwriter/leader) brain too. I realized later on that on my web pages (e.g. friendster), I've had his name come up a lot under the "people i want to meet" question. Well, it's done. Andrew (Bass) was a riot. I made connections with the backup singer and the session keyboardist, and most importantly, exchanged information with the band members and their tour manager. Let's just say that it's possible that this isn't the last time that I get to spend some time (no pun intended) with them.

There are just too many details to this most special evening, and no blog entry or novel can truly encompass and express what I've experienced. Incredible. That's all I have to say.