98º in Concert by Meg 5/5/01
Last night I went to the Mountain View concert w/ my best friend (Ruby) and my boyfriend (Drew). We had a blast!

Before the concert: Well, we left at around 5:30 cause I wanted to get there early and pass out flyers for my website. We stopped at Taco Bell first and ate outside the venue. I was nervous for the bag check when entering because I have a $600 professional camera and I was not about to be caught with it! So, I hid the camera in a part of my backpack that was hard to notice and I surrounded it with "feminine products," lol. And I went to the only guy's line, he didn't even say ANYTHING about my backpack :) I was very happy! The we looked at the things they were selling. I wanted a glow stick on a rope, but I didn't see any. They were selling lots of new merchandise that they don't have at the 98 Degrees Store online like photo books, posters, t-shirts, and tour laminates. So, then we went to the bathroom and found our seats. They played the same stupid songs over and over some bad country/folk/rock crap, lol. Everyone was happy when that was over. We had bad seats.  Well, they weren't that bad, but we wanted better! So we plotted our moves. During the first act, we tried to move closer but we were caught by an old lady! We figured that Baha Men would have the biggest reaction from "Who Let The Dogs Out" so we waited for that song to make our move. It worked! We stepped over seats and by 98 Degrees, we were in row G on the left/center. Awesome seats compared to before :) I got some great shots with my camera.

Opening Acts: There were four opening acts. First was Wild Orchid, who I had also seen on the Heat It Up Tour. They sang 3 songs, including "Jump Around" which probably predated most of the kids there!

Next was PYT, a girl group similar to Dream. They were ok! They did a real nice a cappella song from their upcoming album. I thought it sounded great and showed their talent fairly effectively. The girls sang a total 4 or 5 songs, including their current single "Same Ol, same ol" or something like that. It was pretty good but on those songs they had a lot of vocals in the background. The lead girl had a really good voice.

Then, Debelah Morgan. She sang the same 4 or 5 songs, and used that super high voice of hers, which kind of hurt my ears at times. She was better than I expected. And, Jackie, those dancers of hers really are hot! :)

Baha Men were last. They again sang about 5 songs, maybe 6. They did a nice slow one from their album and did their 2 singles. They ended with "Who Let The Dogs Out," which was entirely too long! That song is so annoying!

98 Degrees: Last, of course, was 98 Degrees! I knew what to expect cause I had read so many reviews. But, OMG, nothing could have prepared me for that! They were amazing :) They opened with "The Way You Want Me To," which was hot! Can't wait to hear it on the radio!! The dancers looked great, their outfits were really cute the whole night. I didn't much care for Lea's hair though long, krimped (possibly fake?!) I think her hair looked nicer how it was in the ME video. But she is gorgeous, though. Anyway, the sang: "The Way You Want Me To," "He'll Never Be," "Yesterday's Letter," "Stay The Night," "I Do (Cherish You)," "Heaven Is Missing An Angel," "Invisible Man," "Because of You," "If She Only Knew," "Heat It Up," part of "Do You Wanna Dance," "Una Noche," the original and new "Wild Wild West" sorry Stevie Wonder, I can't remember the song's title! and they sang "The Hardest Thing" as an encore! They were sooooo hot, and so cute, and wow! LOL. Drew could REALLY use a haircut though. They each spent a lot of time on each side, so every body got their fair share of pic opportunities! Nick was really funny, he was kicking the security guard cause he was being rude to fans! At the end, the guys motioned to the audience to come forward, so this stampede of girls rushed the stage! My best friend was one of them. She touched Drew and Justin's hand Justin's twice :) You can imagine how ecstatic she was! OH! During "Stay The Night," Jeff didn't get down on his knee I am guessing because of his back. Poor guy, it is really great that he got out there and did his thing despite not being 100%. Also, before ME, Nick did not mention Jessica, or his girlfriend, etc. All he said was that for him, the song was written for someone special in his life. Aww, how sad! I guess they still mean a lot to each other :)

Well, after the concert, we milled around for a bit, and Ruby somehow got the bear that a girl had thrown at Nick. We plan to take the bear and try to give it to the guys at the concert we go to tonight! We also passed out my website flyers. I hope some of you that I gave those to will end up here! Some girl came up and made this spiffy flower thing out of my fake pearl bead necklace. That was so cool! Whoever you are, thanks so much!!!!!!!!!! I'd like to pay you back somehow so please email me (meg@98fanatic.com). After that, we walked around the place plotting how to get Tobacco is Wacko posters off the wall cause they had little 98 Degrees things on them! We didn't see any we could take without being yelled at by security. We saw a guy giving out "smoking is bad" t-shirts and Ruby got one! She gave it to me :) hehe. Then we went and looked at stuff they were selling again. They had glow sticks on ropes so I got one! Kinda spensive ($10), but not compared to a $30 t-shirt! Ruby asked the No Smoking guy if we could take a poster from the wall and he said "sure! we're just gonna throw them away." So we each have a huge "smoking is bad" poster with a little 98 Degrees logo on it! Hopefully I can get more today and give them away as prizes! Outside the venue's gates, they gave away Herbal Essences samples with 98 Degrees pictures - whoohoo we got about 30!!!! I have enough shampoo for years! :)

And then we went home.......... and woke 11am on accident.