okay so to begin where we left off…. we started our drive to DC a little bit later in the afternoon, because we wanted to sleep in and get our rest for the drive. we left nashville at around 1pm and started the drive. we drove until about 10pm, and stopped in virginia because it was snowing, and we wanted to watch teen mom :) so we checked into our hotel and ordered pizza, and did just that. we woke up super early the next morning to finish the remaining 4 hours to DC. we got to DC and went to nick’s hotel, where we proceeded to freeze to death for about 2 hours. we bought hand and feet warmers to try and keep warm, which didn’t work. we almost gave up and left because it was so ridiculously freezing. there were about 5 other girls there at the hotel. nick came out at around 1:30pm, and loaded his things into the car, and of course was nice enough to come over to where the girls were waiting to meet them and take some pictures. we stood to the back because we wanted to give the other girls their chance to say hello and get what pictures or autographs they wanted. after he was finished taking pictures with them, he came over to us and said hello & gave us all hugs. he told us that he saw us in nashville, and asked us what we thought of the show, what our favorite songs were, what other shows we were attending, etc. he told us that he had written a new song the night before that he was going to be playing that night at his show. we told him the show was amazing, and that we were blown away, and that it was really awesome to be at the ryman show again exactly a year later. he said “oh yeah the ryman a year ago, elvis was there.” and then he told us that he really appreciated our input and the compliments meant alot coming from us. after we told him what shows we planned on going to, he leaned in and said to us “i dont know if you guys want, but just contact my assistant for meet and greets or whatever.” we thought that was so nice of him to offer, so we just couldn’t resist going to the show that night, as we had previously not planned on doing. so we said our goodbyes, and made our way to the venue to see what kind of tickets they had available. we ended up with center orchestra, row k. which was about 13 rows back. we picked up our meet n greets and waited in starbucks to keep warm until doors opened. once the doors opened, we made our way inside to the meet n greet line, which was in a back hallway of the venue. there were about 75 people in the line. we were second to last, and once it was our turn we all went in together. nick said ‘oh hey, havent seen you in awhile’ with a huge grin on his face. we all took individual pictures, told him to have a great show, and made our way to our seats. diane birch was awesome. nick came out and blew it out of the water! set list as follows: - last time around
- state of emergency
- olive and an arrow
- inseparable
- while the world is spinning
- the way you make me feel (cover)
- fireflies & use somebody (cover)
- before the storm
- black keys/a little bit longer/speech
- vespers goodbye
- conspiracy theory
- signed, sealed, delivered (cover)
- stay (first time performed live)
- rose garden
- stronger
- tonight
- who i am after the show, we got some grub, and started our drive to NYC. after about 50 miles, we decided to stop and get a hotel because we were all so sleepy. we crashed, and woke up and started our drive at about noon the next day. it was about a 3 hour drive to NYC and once we got there we went to see what was going on at david letterman. there were a bunch of people outside so we decided to go to the venue and look for tickets since we didn’t have any. there was nothing we really wanted at the box office. and the scalpers were asking ridiculous prices for seats that we would never be interested in paying that kind of money for. i know that sounds terrible considering how many people would give anything just to be seeing the show. but since we were going to a few shows, we wanted to save our money for better tickets. after having no luck, we went to the car to warm up. when ‘use somebody’ came on the radio, we took that as a sign to take another shot at finding tickets. we walked up to the box office and a cop that recognized us from trump started talking to us. we spoke to him for awhile before going into the box office to check for tickets. the cop walked in behind us and handed us 3 tickets. :) they were in row r, but we were so excited just to go that we didn’t care, haha. we actually ended up standing right near where kevin, alex & jason from honor society, and the family was standing. kevin looked like he was having a blast! singing along, and rocking out. once the show was over we went home to crash, excited to do it all over again the next day. we woke up at 5:30 to go and check out standby for regis and kelly. after getting stuck for about 30 minutes behind a garbage truck on a side street, we finally parked and made our way to abc studios. there were about 65 people in the standby line, and about 10 people waiting to see him go inside the garage. he made his way down the street at around 8:20 and stopped and said hello and took a few pictures before making his way inside. we decided to head down to the venue to wait for the box office to open to see what tickets became available. we waited, and waited, until about 3pm when a line started to form and they moved us outside. they put up a barricade, and started a lineup. we were first in line since we had been there for so long. at about 6pm we met up with our friend alexandra [love you!!] who would be coming to this show, and philadelphia with us! so we needed 4 tickets to the show this night, and ended up getting two pairs of tickets. one pair in row c, and one pair in row e right on the center aisle. GREAT seats!! we ended up right on the opposite end of the row where joe, kevin, jess, danielle, and the family were standing. forever seven, danielle’s brothers band opened up the show that night. mandy was standing right next to us and seemed to be enjoying herself. :) kevin and joe were obviously having a great time once nick came onstage, singing along, etc. joe even screamed along with the crowd when nick took off his shirt during ‘stay’ and pretended to catch some of nicks kisses and put them in his pocket, hahaha. the show was MIND BLOWING!!!!!! nick asked joe and kevin to come onstage so he could “share the moment” with them. they sang ‘please be mine’ which was a really fun surprise!! the crowd went nuts! nick also covered empire state of mind, and catch me. this was one of the most breathtaking shows we have ever been to. we feel truly lucky to have been a part of the audience. after the show, we headed home to get some sleep before heading to philadelphia the next day. we woke up and drove to new jersey to pick up laura [love you!] and got lost about 50 times on our way. we needed a total of 6 tickets for the show, and on the drive we called live nation and got 2 tickets in the 8th row. when we got to philly we checked into our hotel, and waited for alex stewart [love you!] to get dropped off. we all got ready in our hotel, and ended up buying 4 second row (ended up being front row) tickets off of stubhub because they were too cheap to pass up, plus it got us all into the show. we headed to the show in upper darby which was only about 10 minutes away from our hotel. we parked our car, and waited for doors to open. we went inside and made our way to our seats which were soooo good! we were so excited! we waited anxiously for nick to come onstage, and when he did the energy in the place was awesome, just like always! the set list was different at this show. it went as follows:   - rose garden - state of emergency - olive and an arrow - last time around - inseparable - i just want to celebrate (cover) - while the world is spinning - black keys/a little bit longer/speech - vespers goodbye - fireflies/use somebody/catch me (cover) - before the storm - stay - conspiracy theory - stronger - tonight - who i am   after conspiracy theory, nick was joking around saying that he has been getting so many comments from fans thinking they know who/what some of his songs are about. he explained to the crowd that conspiracy theory is about aliens, and went on to tell his story about when him and garbo saw 3 UFOs. he was joking for a few minutes and imitating girls saying ‘i know who this is about, i know who that is about’ and then he said this is why he keeps more to himself when he is onstage with his brothers because he gets off subject and talks about random stuff. and also joked and said that people were probably thinking “who is this guy?” “why did i pay to see this show?” you could tell that he was having a really good time! now for the story about what happened during stronger…. and this should clear up all the different stories that have been going around!!   halfway through the song nick stopped singing, and he told his band to keep playing. he called a boy who was in the center aisle down to come onstage. once the boy was onstage people started running towards the stage. nick said “stay in your seats. i didn’t say i was bringing more people up onstage. i am… but i didn’t say that i was.” this is when some random older man got up onstage UNINVITED. then nick called our friend emily onstage. he had been looking at us and kind of gave us a little grin, and then looked our way and motioned at us (carly, christina, ness, alexandra) and said “come on up here.” so we made our way up onstage. it was such an awesome feeling to be up there, and to look out at the crowd and see it from his side. to see all the cameras, the glowsticks, the smiling faces. it must be a really awesome feeling to see that every night! he went on to say that at this part of the song, it requires the crowd to sing along, and that he chose to bring the people up onstage that he did, because he had seen us singing along to the words throughout the night. unfortunately, no one listened to him, and people just started making their way onstage without being called. nick being the trooper that he is continued to play the song, and as far as i know finished it. once the stage got rushed, we just stood to the back, because we wanted to respect his space. the girls were stepping all over the wires, and the equipment, snapping pictures in his face, all in all just being extremely disrespectful. nick had a really awesome idea, and if fans could just learn to be respectful, and cooperative, this could have been something he might have done more in the future. it was a really awesome opportunity for those of us actually called up onstage, and all of the people who took it upon themselves to make their way up, ruined it for us. which really just is not fair. but regardless, it was a fun opportunity. but unfortunately, due to the disrespect of so many people, it’s an opportunity no one will have again. after he was finished, nick ducked through the madness, and made his way offstage. once security cleared the fans off the stage, they came out and fixed all the equipment, and nick continued with the show. to clear up the rumors that nick FELL down onto his back with his guitar, or was pushed offstage, or knocked down, HE WAS NOT!!!! words from his own mouth, he did not fall down.   after the show we headed back to our hotel, where nick was also staying. there were quite a few fans waiting outside in the cold to catch a glimpse of him. there were also quite a few people inside! we sort of waited around to say hello, and when he came in he waved and smiled and said “party in the lobby” joking around. he came right over to us & gave us all hugs, and immediately started talking to us about what had happened during ‘stronger.’ he said that his intention was to bring about 10 people up to “start a small choir” and then it just got out of hand. he said that that older man that came up onstage tapped him on the shoulder and said ‘i’m here’ and that his response was (in his head) ‘that’s good, because i didn’t invite you!’ then he told us that he was surprisingly calm, and didn’t freak out when he got mobbed the way that he did. alex stewart showed him a picture that she had taken on her phone, and he was joking about how mike was just standing there not knowing what to do. we told him that it was going to be the last show that we were going to, and his response was a laugh, and “pssht, yeah, if this is your last show, then this is my last show.” :) since in the past we have said it was our last show, and showed up a few days later, ahaha. we took some pictures, said our goodbyes and that was that. we went back up to our room, ordered pizza, watched tv, and just had a good time.

in a perfect world, we will work it out to be at another show or two, but who knows what the future holds.

check back for more updates!

carly & nick:

christina & nick:

ness & nick:

a few concert pictures:

all of us in dc: