Martina McBride Miracles

oh. my. heck.
It was the BEST concert I've ever been to!
Here's the scoop: DH bought 8 Floor tickets to the Martina McBride concert a couple of months ago for last night's performance in Oakland! He knew I loved Martina, and he figured we could find a lot of people to attend the concert with us. Little did we know how hard it would be! We asked over a dozen couples to go with us --some wanted to go but couldn't, some wanted to go but couldn't afford it, and all the others hated country music. We finally found one couple to go with us (M and J). So, we had 4 tickets left. Luckily, DH's Aunt who lives in Dublin agreed to go and got a friend to go with her. That left us with two tickets. Yesterday --the day of the concert! --DH asked a million people at work until he found a couple who would take the tickets. Wa-hoo! All tickets were sold/used!
Here are the Miracles: Some of them might sound lame, but they made for an interesting, coincidental, and fabulous night for everybody.

• Little Big Town opened for Martina McBride and they just happened to be M's favorite country band. Her ring tone right now is their song "Boondocks". Crazy! We had NO idea they were the opening act!
• Martina sang a Loretta Lynn song; J grew up on Loretta Lynn and knew the entire song by heart. Made his night.
• Before Martina came on, I was talking with DH's aunt and her friend about a Journey concert and how great it would be to see them; Martina's very first Encore song was Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'". Oh, the irony, people! And it doesn't stop there...
• The couple from DH's work that took the last tickets had just been, Tuesday night, watching the Six Degrees of Martina McBride and mentioned how great it would be to see her sing live. Isn't that the coolest?!
• Parking was amazing. We were so close.
• The floor seats were out of this world! I don't think I can ever go back to the balcony...
• You could see everything. The music was flawless.
• Martina sang the entire set without an intermission. And man, can she blow! And she wasn't all cocky or rude; she was constantly thanking us for our applause and even paused to sign an autograph during the concert.
• I felt like a teenager again, dancing in the aisles, singing along; it was invigorating! (or maybe it was the Diet Pepsi...).
• DH bought me Little Big Town's CD. Excuse me, Little Big Town's autographed CD!
• There was no traffic going there or back.

Only Downers: One of the singers of Little Big Town had her baby (unexpectedly 3 weeks early) this last week, and so not the entire band was there. They still sounded great, though! Her signature is missing on the CD, so that's the only sad thing. The other downer was....it was too short!

P.S. I decided that American Idol was AWFUL compared to this. And here's why:

1. AI contestants were singing "cover" songs; none of them were their own.
2. AI contestants cover a large range of sound and genre; Martina is an expert at her craft, a professional.
3. AI contestants were in a competition; they haven't been doing concerts for 2 decades.
4. Our seats at AI were pretty high up and so it was hard to see the stage and enjoy the performers, which brings me to...
5. AI contestants were more about Performing, rather than Singing. Martina just had to stand there and sing her head off and we all thought we were going to die of Awe.

But, to be fair, I still really enjoyed the AI concert, especially since I'm such a fan of the show. But Martina McBride was AMAZING.

THANK YOU, DH!! I love you!