Concert Experiences

if you been to a inxs concert, tell us about it

Okay...I'll start!

My daughter and I saw them in June in Albuquerque, New Mexico (we drove 5 and ½ hours from Lubbock, Texas). We had VIP tickets which meant we could attend a Meet & Greet!! The concert was 2 days before my daughter's 14th birthday and going with me was her gift.

During the course of Rock Star: INXS JD wore a shirt that said "JD Loves Chili" which we always thought was funny – so we went and had a shirt custom made for my daughter that said "JD Loves Chili" which she wore to the concert.

We picked up the tickets from the "Will Call" box and received instructions on where to go for the meet and greet. Okay, now panic starts to set in - we are really and truly going to meet JD & the crew - yikes! They line us up and give us instructions: the guys will come out and line up for the pictures then after pics they will chat with us. We were told to walk quickly to the X on the floor, smile and move on - after everyone has their picture taken with the band the mingling will begin. One very important instruction was to be very careful not to bump into JD's right leg because he recently hurt his knee. The guys come out and they look so HOT -- all of them! They were smiling and friendly from the start. JD was carrying a cigarette and a plastic cup with beer in it, and he was using a cane because of his hurt knee. My first impression of JD Fortune is how unbelievably tall and skinny he is! TV doesn't do him justice. Finally it's my turn to take a picture with INXS!! I am focusing so much on not touching JD's bad leg that I'm looking down instead of up at him, and he and I turn at the same time and I hit his hand and I SPILL HIS BEER! Not a lot, but enough. If embarrassment could kill I would have died immediately! I of course apologize over and over and he says "it's cool", but I don't feel cool at all after that. So, I try to smile, the photographer takes our picture and I slink off, still wishing I could die.

But here comes the good part -- my daughter comes along after me and the minute JD sees her shirt he goes crazy for it. He asks her where she got it and she tells him she had it custom made, as she's walking away he yells "Do you know the meaning behind that shirt?" and she says no. The minute the pictures are done JD comes straight for us, he can't wait to tell her the meaning behind the shirt. I wish I could tell you the story word-for-word, but the man was thisclose to me and looking at right at us, and I'll be damned if I can remember much of anything he said. Basically it has something to do with Mark Burnett's sister and some friend of either hers or JD's (that's the part that's fuzzy) whose nick-name is Chili and this guy gave JD a custom made t-shirt that said "JD Loves Chili" (I had wondered about the chili part since JD is a vegetarian). He signs my daughter's shirt (his name plus an X and an O) and my "Switch" CD insert, then we give him the gift we brought for him - a candle holder shaped like a drum with the words "Rock Star" on it and a bracelet made of miniature handcuffs that we wrapped around the candle. He was so sweet, he smiled at us and said "Thank you very much" in that way of his (if you watched the show, then you know what I mean ) and then he moved on to chat with the other people. Before we even have a chance to process what just happened the others are there - talking to us, shaking our hands, giving us autographs and just being ABSOULTELY WONDERFUL!! Garry and Andrew were both pretty quiet, friendly, but quiet. All I could do was stammer out how thrilled I was to meet them. Tim came over and was so nice, when he heard my daughter's name he jokingly remarked "That's my wife's name too, not that I can remember what she looks like", he was smiling and laughing and we loved meeting him. Jon came over, stuck out his hand and said "Hi, I'm Jon" (as if we didn't know ). He chatted with us for a while, he even signed my daughter's shirt "Happy Birthday" - I was completely smitten with him, he seemed so happy to be there. And Kirk, what can I say about Kirk? So friendly and so much fun! When he heard it was my daughter's birthday he said "So, you're a Cancer? Me too, my birthday is July 4th", we told him that we would be sitting on his side of the stage and that we couldn't wait to see him up there. I was so proud of my daughter, she knew everyone's name, she shook their hands and asked them to sign her shirt and talked with them as if she had always known them. They were all so gracious and friendly, and if I hadn't spilled JD's beer, it would have been perfect! They really appreciate their fans, it was so obvious that they were happy to meet with us; I was blown away by how available and open they were. It's just plain as day that they are doing what they love. I just can't get over how great they were!!!

So, just as I've made my new best friends - they were gone - bye, bye - time for the show.

Scott Stapp, former Creed frontman was doing his thing when we got to our seats (3rd row - yea!) the view was awesome and he was really good. (I saw Garry Beers watching him from the side of the stage.) His voice was awesome! The crowd gave him a standing ovation. He exits and we wait, and wait, and wait... (okay, it really wasn't that long, it just felt like it). Finally the lights go out and the guys are on the stage! WOO HOO! Then the music starts and the lights come on and the party begins! We got on our feet and started clapping, singing, and dancing and didn't stop until it was all over.

JD used that cane for all of 30 seconds then suddenly he was dancing and jumping around - it was almost impossible to believe that he was hurt; but there were a few times I definitely saw a look of pain on his face. That didn't keep him from jumping down into the crowd two different times. All of the guys were smiling and having a ball. We smiled and pointed to Kirk and he pointed back. JD's voice sounded amazing! The band sounded amazing! It was almost too much to handle.

You can read concert reviews on INXS and/or JD fan sites - I'll just give my personal highlights (in no particular order, and any quotes from JD may not be 100 percent correct, I just put them in quotes for clarification):

• JD had a chain dangling from his belt loop and at one point during the concert my daughter became nearly hysterical, yelling "Mom, Mom that's our handcuff bracelet hanging from his belt loop!!" I took a closer look and OH MY GOSH! She was right! It was the bracelet we gave him!
• JD took a drink from a bottle of water and then sprayed the crowd with it and we got splashed pretty good, which was nice because I was sweating like crazy from all the dancing, he then threw the bottle into the crowd
• JD handed out plastic cups to the people standing against the stage and poured champagne into the cups for them
• JD threw his very sexy black and white striped tie into the crowd
• At one point two girls got into a huge fight! Seriously - hair pulling and everything - right in front of JD (I think it had to do with the aforementioned tie). He finished the song without missing a beat, and then said "There's no need for fighting or violence. We are all about peace and love. Any more violence and we are out of here." **There were no more fights after that**
• We stayed at our seats (but not in them!) except during "Pretty Vegas" when we got as close to the stage as we possibly could. I carried my daughter piggy-back so we could be up close and personal to sing it with him. We were all about all of the members of INXS except during "Pretty Vegas" - that one was for JD only.
• We were mostly graced with Kirk and JD's presence, but Tim and Garry both came over to our side several times and we had fun yelling and pointing at them. Kirk threw out a few picks, but they weren't anywhere near us (and I didn't want to get beat up trying to get one)
• Jon did an awesome drum solo during "Taste It" and threw his drumsticks to the crowd after the concert
• Andrew didn't get too close, but he looked like he was having fun
• My daughter dropped her sunglasses which I tried to convince her to look for during "Taste It", but no luck, so she got a little sex-ed from JD (I had warned her before we went, so she wasn't totally shocked)
• JD wore someone's cap (the kind we fans affectionately call an "asshat") then gave it back
• He wore someone else's cowboy hat; then he put it on Kirk who wore it for the rest of the concert. At the end of the concert, but before the encore, JD got the hat, went to the crowd and said "Who's hat is this? No, seriously, who does this belong to? Is this yours? This isn't yours." Then spotting the owner, "Its yours!" and he gave it back. (How sweet was that?)
• After the encore - after the rest of the band had left - JD stopped right before he left the stage, turned around and just stood staring and smiling at the crowd (which was on its feet). It was so sweet.

The absolute #1 highlight (in my book): my daughter was standing on her chair with her arms crossed over her head making the peace sign with her fingers (JD had everyone do that earlier) she blew him a kiss and he crossed his arms over his head, made the peace sign, then smiling, he blew a kiss right back at her!!

We made our way to the car and just sat there waiting for the parking lot to clear; my daughter didn't stop talking about the concert for at least 30 minutes. She got out the camera (which we left in the car - we were good girls) and made a video for JD telling him that he is her hero. Although it was very late, it took forever for us to wind down and fall asleep. It was truly an experience we will never forget. Hands-down the best concert I've ever been to! I don't think I'll ever be able to top my daughter's 14th birthday!

My daughter's shirt:


Autographed by INXS:


JD's autograph:


My daughter with INXS (note the beer puddle on the ground...thanks to me!):

It was a "once in a lifetime" experience that's for sure!!

Here's the review I wrote for my blog on MySpace.



INXS- HOB- Myrtle Beach, SC - November 18, 2006
(Written November 19)

What an awesome weekend the hubby and I experienced! Safe travels, nice oceanfront suite approximately 1 mile from the HOB, the most wonderful husband in the world, beautiful weather, great shopping and INXS. What more could a girl ask for?

We had tickets for a “Crash the Barricade” dinner prior to the show. This event was scheduled for 7 PM and we arrived at 6:40. We thought this would be plenty early, but alas, there were around 75 persons ahead of us. HOB served hot dogs and hamburgers on the back deck of this event. The food wasn’t anything to write about, but at least this put us in the show doors prior to all those with just show tickets. There were about 100 of us total who were allowed into the show room before all those lined up at the door. You should have heard the hoots and boos from the waiting crowd when were escorted by security past them into the show. Since we wanted to be on Kirk’s side of the stage, we ended up with about 4 people deep in front of us, yet still approximately 8-10 feet from the stage. Not too bad considering it’s a smaller stage and there were about a hundred of us staking our claim to a spot. The total turn out for this event looked awesome to us. It was packed with people as far as you could see. We asked the manager afterwards about the turn out and he said wasn’t capacity, but not too bad either.

We were in place on the floor (no seating at the HOB unless you go upstairs) by 7:55 and the opening act, As Fast As took the stage between 8 and 8:30. As Fast As is an ok band. We jammed on a couple of the tunes they played and thought the drummer was superb. They played about a 30-45 minute set. The roadies were out moving away the equipment of As Fast As and hooking up Kirk and Tim’s equipment. There appeared to be some technical issues with some of the equipment so we stood through a lengthy delay between acts.

Around 10:15 the lights went out, the countdown began, TNT begins to play and I was ready to party! As soon as the first chords of Suicide Blond began, I knew I was in heaven. The lights came up and there stood Jason, Kirk, Andrew, Gary, Tim along with Jon on the riser! OMG! I’m seeing INXS! I wanted to pinch myself to be certain I wasn’t dreaming. Jason was wearing a black cowboy hat, a long dark coat, dark pin stripped pants, a dark shirt with a white preacher’s collar along with a long gray scarf. Everyone else looked great too, but to be honest, I can only tell you that Kirk had on something with pink, Andrew something with brown and Gary something with gray. (Sorry guys, but our boy had me mesmerized from the first minute. No matter how hard I tried, and I did try to watch the other members of the band, my eyes kept being drawn back to Jason. You know, like a moth to a flame.) The set list as best as I can recall was:

Suicide Blonde
Devil’s Party
Mystify
Disappear
By My Side
Afterglow
Taste It
Original Sin
Hungry
Never Let You Go
Need You Tonight
What You Need
Kick
Devil Inside
Pretty Vegas

Encore:
New Sensation
Folsom Prison Blues
Never Tear Us Apart

This was my first INXS show and it was absolute heaven on earth. Jason was so visible and spent quite a bit of time right in front of us. (I think speaker/monitor location helped contribute to this.) We were close enough to read the 448 tattoo on his neck. Someone had a sign wanting to see “the little bastard”, so he gave us a nice view of that, too. The band was tight and I never stopped dancing through the entire set. Jason had some spectacular jumps and spins during the show. The hand movements I so loved during his RS performances were there and so many were right in front of me. His eyes and face were so readable and so touching, that I can’t even find words to try and tell you just how mesmerizing this man can be. I can’t help but believe he made everyone in that show feel his love for music, the band and the fans with those eyes. The crowd reaction to every song was great, but I believe every single person was singing every line with him during Pretty Vegas. It was awe inspiring and I think he was overwhelmed. His reaction afterward is beyond my descriptive words, but it caused Tim to come over and mock him on it. From out viewing angle, we could spot the members of As Fast As watching the show from an upstairs lighting room on the right side off stage. Just watching their faces while they watched the band and the crowd reaction was so telling of the show and the crowd reaction. Their faces spoke volumes for just what a show INXS put on.

The show ended after midnight and I was about dead. It was hot on the floor and I refused to leave my spot for a drink of water. My mouth was parched. My body is still tired and sore today. I think I used muscles I haven’t used in quite some time. All told we were standing from around 7:20 until 12:45, no drink, no cigarette, and no restroom break. I would do it all again tomorrow if I could see such a performance again.

If INXS hits NC, SC, VA, TN, or GA anytime again, we’ll be there. I knew I’d love Jason on stage, but I wasn’t sure the hubby wouldn’t find him lacking in some way. (The hubby was a huge INXS fan during his early twenties.) No worries there… he was blown away with the whole show, too! INXS rules! I wish you all could have been there with me. It was one of the most memorable nights of my life. I can’t provide pictures because HOB doesn’t allow them. We tried getting the camera in, but security ran a wand over us during the “Crash the Barricade” line-up. The hubby had to return ours to the car. Hopefully the next time we see INXS, that won’t be an issue. I might be unable to share the adventure with pictures, but it’s burned in my memory and heart forever.