Aaron Carter Concert Review

~Aaron Carter's Jukebox Tour 2003~

8/21/03-Milwaukee, WI-------8/22/03-St.Paul,MN

Okay...so it was Thursday morning and we were getting ready to leave for the lovely Aaron Trip..which started with the Milwaukee concert, then the next day the Minnesota concert. We got to the Riverside theater in Milwaukee at like 3:30pm...plenty of time to spare...Aaron hadn't even arrived at the theater yet. He was in Milwaukee, but no one knew where...he was supposedly "driving around the block" yeah...all day..yep. lol we later found out that he was actually at his hotel...a huge sky-scraper type one lol...which explained why Mark kept pointing to it while he was talking on his cell phone earlier. First we went to the Box Office window to see if i could pick up my Meet & Greet pass. While we walked to the front of the theater, i saw Stan, Aaron's keyboardist, walking out of the theater. I was like "Ah! Can i get a picture with you!?" and he was like "Sure, no problem" So after my pic with Stan, we asked the manager in the box office if they had my Meet & Greets but they said that we had to wait until like 5:00 or something. And so we went back behind the theater, where we knew the backstage door was. There were about 8 fans there. and like 2 security people that worked for the Riverside. No one saw Aaron or any of the opening acts yet. So we waited around, until people slowly one by one started arriving and coming out/going in the backstage door. We saw Chris and Brittany of Jump5 walking...we said "Hi" but then they kinda left...they walked around town for a while. But we wanted to stay where we were while everyone else came. Then I noticed what time it was and suggested that we should go to the Box Office again to see if we can pick up my Meet & Greet pass yet. But i just made my mom go...cuz i wanted to be by the backstage door in case Aaron got there...because he was supposed to soon. Then Greg Raposo got dropped off in a car..walked down the alley..waved and said "Hi"..then went through the backstage door. Then Stevie Brock came...waved, and went inside. Then after like 20 minutes or a half hour, Aaron's bus pulled up at the opposite end of the alley. (Both ends were fenced off with little gates that reached up to about waist-level...but the side that we were on was RIGHT next to the backstage door. So after a LONG minute...Aaron got out of his bus and walked down the alley towards us with his bodyguard. (I love his bodyguard...he's nice.) He was being rushed by about 4 guys...and he waved to us then was pushed into the backstage door...where he tripped and stumbled. :( People are so mean...why do they rush him so much away from his fans? There were only about 20 girls out there...what are they gonna do? We were also held back by GATES...urgh people are so dumb. Anyway...i noticed it was time for me to go back to the lobby for Aaron's Meet & Greet. So my mom and I went in there, and there were a whole bunch of other fans there. We waited for like a half hour in that 100 degree lobby..with about 40 people in it. It was impossible to get cooled down..it was just as hot outside. I said "Gosh, i feel bad for Aaron...he's gonna get a lot of nasty sweaty hugs today." Then finally they let us go in...and they took us down a hallway and down some stairs..and into a big room with a mini-bar and some restrooms. We were all directed to get into a line around the room while we waited for Aaron to come. They said "LISTEN UP! OK EVERYONE GETS ONE AUTOGRAPH, SO GET WHATEVER YOU WANT SIGNED READY...AND NO PICTURES WITH HIM ARE ALLOWED" I guess Aaron was running late. URGH when i heard that i just said "HA! YEAH RIGHT...i'm SO DEFINATLEY getting a picture with him!" While waiting in line i realized that Aaron's best friend Craig was sitting on a bench bouncing a basketball with some other guy! No one even seemed to notice, or know who he was! I was like "oh my god! mom it's Craig!" and i walked over to him and said "Hi! Can i have a picture with you?" and he said "Yeah, sure" and so I squatted down next to him for a pic, but then he stood up lol..so i stood up. He put his arm around me so i put my arm around him and my mom was like "Ah wait, Tessy...how do you get this thing to work!?" (the camera) and i'm like "Um...press the button..?" and Craig's like "No, uh...you gotta turn it on..." and hahaha it was so funny. Then we got back in line, and pretty soon it was my turn! So there it was...my moment...my dream come true...Aaron standing right in front of my face, all attention on me. I was like "Hi!" and i was gonna give him a hug but then i decided to give him his scrapbook, and i felt bad cuz haha he moved his arms a little like he was gonna hug me lol oops. But then i'm like "This is for you" and hande him the scrapbook and he was gonna sign it but then he's like "Oh, for me?! thanks!" and then i said "and i got this made for you" and handed him the engraved ID bracelet i got him.(it said "Aaron" on the front and said "Love, Tesia VanRite Green Bay" on the back) and he's like "Oh wow!! cool! Thank you so much, i really appreciate that!!" and then i'm like "can i have a picture?" and he said "yeah!" and i just completely wrapped my arms around him, haha. Then i gave him a hug and said "Thank you" and "bye, aaron!" I didn't get anything autographed, lol..but i didn't care, i didn't need anything. Personally i think autographs are kinda pointless, unless you make them special or something. I mean of course it would be special cuz it was from AARON..but..i mean..he wrote his name...lol..it just seems weird for me to ask him for an autograph. But my mom got him to sign the picture i took of him and had enlarged from his concert last summer. Then there Aaron had to leave and walked out a door with Craig and his bodyguard. Then we went back upstairs and all the girls were mad when they found out that the last few people in line got pictures with Aaron and they didnt.Aw. By that time they had the Souvenir stand set up...there were so many awesome Aaron T-shirts! But they weren't ready to sell them yet. So we went outside, back by the ally where my friends were and stuff. Jump5 was doing there autograph session in the ally. Greg did his there, too. We got Chris and Brandon autographs, and got pictures taken with them. I also got Greg Raposo's autograph and a pic with him. After a while we decided to go in the theater and get our seats. We walked up to one of the lady's who looked at your ticket, and right away she said "No posters allowed" to me...and i'm like "what?" and she said "you can't bring those in here" and i'm like "why not!?" and she said "its just our policy" and i'm like "URGHH" so i had to put them in a pile of a whole bunch of other posters that fans made. Then we went back and she asked a guy, "can they bring those flowers in?" and he said "yes"..thank goodness. then we had to pass these other guys and they said "you cant bring that in" (my Cheesehead) and i'm like "you're kidding, right?" and he said "no" and i said "why? it's a present for Aaron" and he said "well that's too bad" and i'm like "come on! i BOUGHT it for him...i'm just gonna hand it to him while he's on stage..i'm not gonna throw it or anything" and he said "sorry...rules are rules. I bet you here that from your mom a lot, huh? haha" and i'm like "No" "Please? it's a CHEESEHEAD! he'll be representing WISCONSIN if he wears it!!" and he laughed and said "Sorry, you can't" and i was really mad..but i had to put it by my posters. but while i was over there i tried fitting it in my Adidas bag...but it was too big. So we started walking in the theater and then i saw Aaron's sound guy, so i got a picture of me by him. he didn't look at the camera though, i couldnt get his attention, lol he had headphones on. then we went down the aisles, and got to our seats. Ah we were RIGHT up against the stage...no gates...railings...bars...or SPACE...our chairs were right next to the stage. it was PERFECT. Then i said hi to Kate...a girl i met online who had seats right next to me...and i ended up borrowing her backpack to go get my Cheesehead and sneak it in. Hehe..and it worked! yay! (thanks Kate!)After a while the concert finally started, and Stevie Brock came on stage. He's a 12-year-old singer that looks and sounds like he's at least 14. I already had his CD long before the concert, so i knew all the words to his songs. His performance was...WOW...totally AWESOME. I LOVED IT. It was sooooo great! He's a good dancer too...he's very fun to watch perform. I'm a very big fan of him after seeing him live and meeting him. Very awesome kid. Anyway, he came on stage and sang like 3 songs. He also danced to part of Justin Timberlake's "Rock Your Body"...that was really awesome. Stevie looks like he's been performing all his life, he has great stage presence. He kept on looking at me throughout his performance so i have really good pics of him looking straight at my camera. :D I went through like 1 and a half rolls of film on him. lol. Then came Greg Raposo...i never was a huge fan of him, but he's nice in person. He's got a better personality when you meet him than he does on stage. When he's on stage he shows off a lot by slowly lifting up his shirt and showing his stomach. I guess it's the "famous greg strip" lol A lot of the girls like that, but i just find it annoying when people are like "Oh look at my body...now SCREAM!!" lol ah i hate it. But that's just my opinion. But he wasn't bad...he had some cool music. He sang to my friend Amanda (she's a Dreamstreet fan) so that was awesome, i was happy for her. He also posed for the camera with her. :) It was special. Then during his next song Greg sang right to my face so i have a picture of that, hehe. Next was Jump5 (Jump4 cuz as everyone knows, Lesley is still ill) They of course were great. They opened for Aaron last summer during his Rock, Rap, & Retro Tour, too so a lot of Aaron fans are familiar with them. They do tons of gymnastics while they perform, so they lip-synced some of the songs, which you can't blame them for because they're constantly doing back hand-springs and they have to be out of breath. They sang quite a few songs...some old, some new..that will be on their upcoming album, "Accelerate". They taught the audience the Chorus of one of their songs called "Do Ya" so we all sang a long. It went like this, "Do ya, do ya, do ya love me...do ya, da-da do ya love me....IIIIII I'd like to think so". It was fun. Then there was a short intermission while the stage crew prepared for Aaron's set. Then...shortly after...what everyone was waiting for.....AARON bursted on stage in his white Elvis costume singing "Don't Be Cruel" by Elvis. He also sang "Jailhouse Rock" and "All Shook Up"...it was so fun to watchhhhh!! i loved it! Then he went off stage for a brief costume change. I'm not gonna be able to tell the rest of the concert completely in order cuz half the time i was just completely in a daze...it happens at Aaron concerts...all the excitement and everything just kinda overloads and you're just like 'wow' and watch in amazement. Anyway..throughout the concert he sang songs of the Beatles, Monkees, Earth,Wind&Fire, Micheal Jackson, Bee Gees, Stevie Wonder, Beach Boys, Queen, Rolling Stones, KC & The Sunshine Band, and more. At the very end of the show he sang six of his old songs. During the concert i handed Aaron a few more gifts i had for him that i didnt bring to the Meet & Greet. First..when he was walking along the stage touching peoples hands, i put a Krispy Kreme hacky sack in his hand..and he looked at it, held it in his hand for a while, then through it up to Craig, who was sittin up in the balcony near the stage. Craig caught it and held on to it for the whole concert lol. I also handed him a note. He looked at it like he didnt know what it was then put it in his pants for second while he had to do a dance move, then crinkled it in a ball and threw it up to Craig. Craig opened it and read it...HAHAHA i was laughing so hard. lol..Also when i handed Aaron the Cheesehead, aaron danced with it on for a while, then threw it up to Craig. Except he didnt throw it high enough, so some girls got it. Then Craig signaled for aaron's bodyguard to get it back, and throw it to craig. So he did, and Craig had it. Haha. i love that kid, Thanks craig! It was weird though because Aaron only kept the presents that i gave him! lol. I saw Craig after the concert in Aaron's tourbus wearing the Cheesehead! hahah. I also gave Aaron a bag of Jolly Rancher Lollipops while he was singing "How I Beat Shaq" and he said "how'd i get a jersey with the name...Jolly Ranchers??!!" haha instead of "Oneal". The concert was soooo awesome...Aaron can really sing...he improved so much, too! He didnt play the piano to "Overjoyed" by Stevie Wonder because the stage was too small for the piano at this theater. :( During Aaron's 2nd-to-last song, "Do You Remember" i was trying to hand Aaron my second bouquet of flowers. Towards the end of the song when he finally reached for them, i pulled them back towards me so he didnt grab em lol, because he wasn't close enough for what i wanted to do. I felt bad, though. But then during the last 20 seconds of his very last song, "Baby It's You", he came close enough to me, and i handed the flowers to him, stood on my seat, leaning towards him and put my hand on his face and kissed him on the cheek. hehe. After the concert I went and got one more t-shirt, that i didnt have time to get before the concert, and headed out by his buses. We got pictures with his dancer Misha, and saw his other dancer Tony. The opening acts already went on their buses, so we didnt see them. Shortly after, i was running back and forth in the middle of the street when ashley said "TESIA!" and i ran over there and aaron was coming. He was getting PUSHED LIKE CRAZY by the stupid mean people..they're like "come on! come on!" and this one guy YELLED at all of the fans, "BACK UP!" reallllly really mean and loudly. urgh. I tried taking pics of Aaron, but got 2 of his bodyguard, and one of the top of aarons head..(his blue bandana) lol...we were getting shoved around too much that i couldnt see what i was taking a pic of. After Aaron got on his bus, they made him go to the back of it..but i could see Craig towards the front. This is when he was laughing and wearing my Cheesehead haha. The bus drove off right away. :( Then we went and talked to Stevie Brock. He was signing autographs out of his bus window. I got a picture of him signed, and my hand. :D It's still there..i keep re-tracing it, hehe. He's really nice to his fans, and so is his mom. I talked to his mom for a while, she's cool. Then i went over by the window Stevie was by, and handed him a piece of paper. He looked at it and went "Oh! Oooooooooh! Thank you." and winked and smiled at me. Hahha..it was my phone number. Aaron's dancer Misha was also kinda talking to fans out of their bus, but the windows weren't open so they had to mouth the words lol..it was funny. I got Misha's phone number, and he has mine. Kailie, one of Aaron's other dancers saw me through the window and came out of the bus and said "YOU! I saw you!! you were the girl in the front row with the yellow flowers! you were holding them and holding them until FINALLY you gave them to Aaron at the VERY END. ahha" and i laughed and i'm like "yeah, that's me!" She's cool. We talked to Mark and her, and one of aaron's crew guys...to see if we could get meet and greets for the Minnesota show. and they said they'd remember our name. That night we stayed at a hotel by the theater. you could see one of aaron's tourbuses from the parking ramp...we were directly above it. Mark and the rest of the crew was on it. Also Greg Raposo was on it talking to some crewmembers for until like 1am..when he finally got picked up by a car. I talked to some of Aaron's crew guys, and gave one of them a note to give to Aaron. We asked if we could get a tour of the tourbus (lol) but they had to leave. I taped that part..i have Greg on tape too. After everyone left we went to the hotel and i didnt sleep for at least 3 hours. I couldnt believe my dream come true and everything happened so perfectly. And i was gonna see Aaron the next day, and possibly meet him again!
So, the next day in Minnesota we went to the Will Call window of the grandstand, where Aaron was performing. They looked up our name to see if we had Meet & Greet passes, and we did!! Mark set them aside in an envelope with our name on it! AHHH. i couldn't believe it. Ten minutes later they started the Meet & Greet backstage. Sooner or later it was my turn! First i gave Aaron a hug and then asked him if he remembered me from the night before, and he said yes! Then i asked him to sign my shoe and he's like "Your shoe!?" and i'm like "hehe, yeah" so he did. After that we posed for a picture. (You can see all these pictures at www.picturetrail.com/aaron4ever7 ) Then i looked him straight in the eyes and said "Thank you, Aaron. I appreciate everything you do." then i got teary-eyed and almost about to cry and i said "I love you." and gave him a huge hug. I didnt wanna let go. Then he said "AWW, thank you so much, sweetie!" Uhhhh, it was soo wonderful!!! Just to have him looking in my eyes, listening to what i had to say...was beyond amazing. I love it. It was so unforgettable, a single detail will never escape my mind. Aaron is a wonderful person and he deserves more respect than he gets. Thank you Aaron, for making my dream come true.