The Script @ The Paramount Theatre

When I found out The Script was coming to Denver a couple months ago, I couldn't be more excited. The problem was, we had already planned a trip to the Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque which had us leaving New Mexico the same day as the concert. I was actually really bummed because the last time they were here in the US, I didn't get to see them. Because I have an amazing husband, he ended up buying us tickets and had it planned to where we would leave New Mexico super early and go to Denver that evening for the show. Unfortunately, I became incredibly sick last month and it has taken it's toll on me. I didn't let it stop me from getting to the concert. I saved all my energy the day of and took a nice long nap on the way back home from New Mexico. We timed it just right and got back into town around noon. After a quick shower and change of clothes, we were off to Denver!

 

  

 

We've been to Denver numerous times for concerts and sporting events but we hadn't ever been to the Paramount Theatre. I am so glad that they chose this venue to perform in because it was such an intimate experience. It's an older venue but it had really great acoustics and made for an amazing location. We took our obligatory photos in front of the sign and even though I was exhausted, I was incredibly excited too. The Script helped me through some really tough times while going through chemo. Breakeven was put on repeat so many times.

 

Still alive but I'm barely breathing.

Just praying to a God that I don't believe in...

 

And then came remission. And then came a relapse. And then came all of the long term side effects. Their music kept me going. Hall of Fame turned into my theme song. Anytime I heard it, I felt like I could keep on going. I used it for any situation that I needed a little bit of motivation.

 

You can go the distance
You can run the mile
You can walk straight through hell with a smile

 

Whether it was dealing with the pain from neuropathy, being in the hospital, or training for my 1/2 marathon; I listened. Their music literally always spoke to me. So this night. This concert!

 

  

 

I paid attention when they first got to the US and found out that they all of my favorite songs! I was also even more excited because The Script is someone that my husband actually enjoys listening to. He was going to enjoy this concert way more than going to see Backstreet Boys in Las Vegas on our anniversary. Don't worry, he did enjoy that show just not as much as me! But this is one where he knows the words and enjoys the music! The interesting thing was, neither of us paid attention to the opening act until the night of the show and had no clue who Tom Walker was. Until he took the stage that is.

 

  

 

Tom Walker is an up and coming artist and we were really excited to see him perform. Not as excited as the two girls sitting beside us who kept making inappropriate comments at a louder than usual volume. One of the names of his songs was "Leave A Light On" and whether it is rude or not or somebody gets offended, nobody would want to leave a light on with them. Sorry girls! But regardless, his music was actually really great! My husband was sold from the moment he came on and wants to get his cd now. He put on a great show for an opening act! Actually, Danny, the lead singer of The Script made a comment when they came out saying why do they get such great people to put on a show before they come on. Regardless, Tom Walker is going to be a regular in our house now and we can't wait to see where he is going with his musical career. And just to add in a plug, his new song, "Leave a Light On" which he performed for us, came out yesterday.

 

You can find out more about him on his social media:

 

https://www.facebook.com/IamTomWalker/

https://twitter.com/iamtomwalker

https://www.instagram.com/iamtomwalker/

 

 

 

We Rocked The World (Opening Song)

 

After a quick stage set-up for The Script to come out, they hit the stage song singing one of my favorites from their new CD, Freedom Child, called We Rocked the World. I screamed to my hearts content when they came out! With some concerts, the bands don't sound good because of all the work they put into changing their voices on the CD. This is not the case for The Script. Their voices were incredible and they made for an incredible concert. The crowd went wild for the entire show. Plus, we had pretty amazing seats! I'm not sure there was actually a bad seat in this venue.

 

 

We Rocked The World

 

 

Nothing

 

Then came the songs that really hit home for me. As I said in the beginning, I've been through cancer twice as a young adult and still have to fight side effects that put me in the hospital often. Last month, I was plagued with what is called c diff. This isn't my first time dealing with it, but this is the worst time. A month later, I am still fighting this infection that is causing even more problems. My intestines are bleeding, I have massive infections that make me cringe in pain. I had a CT scan recently that shows I now have diverticulosis and something is going on with my right kidney which has to be checked out further. Had I never had cancer, I would never be going through everything I am today. But at the same time, I would never be with my husband; met the friends that I have met; or gotten some amazing experiences like rock climbing with other young adult cancer survivors. But that doesn't mean that I don't get down and have days where I feel like I am falling apart at the seams.

 

Superheroes

 

When you've been fighting for it all your life
You've been struggling to make things right
That's how a superhero learns to fly
(Every day, every hour, turn that pain into power)

 

 

Arms Open

So when you feel like you can't take another round of being broken
My arms are open
And when you're losing faith and every door around you keeps on closing
My arms are open

  

 

Hall of Fame (Encore)

 

You can go the distance
You can run the mile
You can walk straight through hell with a smile

 

 

 

When they played these songs, all the emotions came rushing back. Not in a bad way, but more so in a way of here I am, still alive. No matter how many struggles I have gone through, I am still here and still kicking. I'm not that person that gets all emotional because of a song but I do still think about the times when I didn't think I would be here. Times when I doubted myself. And yet, here I am.

 

Am I better of dead? Am I better off a quitter?

 

  

 

This concert was absolutely what I needed. I may have used up every bit of energy I had in order to enjoy it but it was worth every moment of it. Without any doubt, we will see The Script again in concert. They sang 15 songs that night and every one of them was amazing. I was also incredibly surprised at the different age groups attending the concert. There were younger kids with families, elderly husbands dancing with their wives. Twenty some things like me who grew up listening to their music. Every walk of life was watching. Which made it important to see how one thing can bring so many people together during times when we feel like we are falling apart.  Each one of us their for one reason or another, not knowing a thing about the person on the other side of us; enjoying one night without any worries. Thank you to The Script for giving us all this moment...

  

 

The show finished with Hall of Fame (already posted above) and we all headed on our respective ways, going back to our non-ordinary lives. My husband and I left feeling excited but super tired making the drive back home after being on the road for almost a week straight the week of the concert. We also have a new artist to follow along. I'll never forget this night and the fun we had!

 



Backstreet Boys Larger Than Life Residency

      

 

Months ago, my husband did something totally amazing and probably what will go down in history as one of the best nights of my life; he bought us tickets to go see Backstreet Boys in Las Vegas. Being born on the brink of the 90s, it's no surprise that I was one of those teeny boppers that had an obsession with Backstreet Boys, or BSB as those of us still know them as. So you can imagine the freak out I had when I found out we were seeing them in concert. Not only were we seeing them in concert, but we were seeing them on our anniversary which just so happens to be opening night. Did you hear me?  WE WERE GOING TO SEE BACKSTREET BOYS ON OPENING NIGHT!! I mean, what more could a girl who grew up in the 90's ask for?

 

 

The time had finally arrived and we were hitting the road for Las Vegas. It wasn't our first rodeo. We got married in Vegas and had been many other times just for trips or stops along the way for our road trips. But this time around we planned for a longer stay as we were there for almost a week. We hooked up the travel trailer and made the 12 hour drive 15 hour drive. Thanks to the Good Sam membership we got with the trailer, we found a pretty awesome RV resort just off the strip for way cheaper than one night at a hotel. The best thing about this hotel... an adults only pool AND hot tub. If you know me, you know how big of a deal this is. But i'll go into that more on another post. Regardless, the time had arrived and we headed to Planet Hollywood where the Axis Theatre is located. Skip ahead and there was the massively long line to enter the theatre followed by the short line for us to get to our seats. We didn't want pit tickets because previous experiences from other concerts we have been to meant we want to see the entire show and enjoy it. Our tickets were central to the stage and just a handful of rows from the main catwalk. It was awesome!

 

Since it was opening night, nobody was sure on what was going to happen and how they were going to come out. It was all a big surprise but oh was it worth it. They played a bunch of 90's music while we waited and then a screen started playing with this really cool remix of all the popular BSB songs (you can find my video of it HERE) That went on for a good 10 minutes or so before the lights went out and the curtains went down! I don't know how to explain the shear excitement that went through me right then and there but I was a kid in a candy store with a theatre full of others feeling the same way. They opened with Larger than Life which makes sense due to it being the name of the "tour".

    

They played through song after song with some skits in between. Of course, they are older now then they were when I was younger so the moves have slowed down a bit but they still did a hell of a job in keeping the crowd entertained. AJ was on top of it with a big welcome to Vegas and the opening night of the residency speech. The guys all joined in with their own input making everyone laugh before they moved into other songs like The Call, Drowning, and Show Me The Meaning of Being Lonely, just to name a few. They all made fun of themselves a little bit with their age. But as far as the dancing goes, Kevin has not lost his moves. There was one point in the show where they ballroom/swing dance and he was really the best one out of the group. So age hasn't slowed them down too much. Brian talked about how soon they would be singing "Oh My God, they're still here"... or "Backstreet Men". They made it entertaining that's for sure. It was pretty amazing being at opening night though because not only did we get to say it was the first show, but we were the first ones to see it and hear what they were saying. And they can't say opening night at any of the other shows!

 

I think the entire crowd stood up for the full show. Not a single seat was sitting except for the occasional husband or boyfriend who bought tickets just to make their spouses happy. My husband on the other hand was standing up with me. He may not have been singing along but he did say it was entertaining. I'll take it since that is coming out of the mouth of a 40 year old who makes fun of me for getting excited just hearing BSB on the radio. They had a few wardrobe changes in the show which is expected. While they changed (rather quickly) they had their backup dancers putting on a nice little routine in between. Chicks in provocative clothing and guys dancing around them. It is Vegas so it was expected as well.  

    

 

    

 Halfway during the show, in one of the wardrobe changes, we went photo crazy. Ok, I went photo crazy. But I was having the time of my life and I was going to enjoy every second of it. The only thing I found a little distracting was the girls who were there who didn't know any of the words to their songs. I think daddy paid for their tickets to go out or something. It didn't seem like they were actually fans? But the other thing about that was there were so many people who DID! I was actually amazed at the variety of people attending the show. From the teeny-boppers who are now grown up (so other late 20 year olds like me) to 30 somethings at their bachelorette party. And let's not forget the OLD guy who brought an 18 year old escort to the show. Totally not joking about that one.

         

 The other really cool thing was that at one point, they disappeared and ended up coming into the crowd. Nick was on the left of us and Kevin was just about in front of us. All the lighting made taking photos a little difficult since the spotlight was on him but you can tell that he was close to us. They stayed there for the entire song singing and dancing like it was the 1990's all over again. I know a couple years back Brian had talked about how he had vocal problems but you couldn't tell at all from the high notes he was hitting. You can tell it was coming straight from the heart still. And he was always my favorite growing up, so I'm not bias AT all!

    

    

 

After 18 songs (21 if you can the 3 songs that were combined into a medley) it was time to call it a night. They finished the song and then the lights went out. Of course, we all knew they were not leaving without singing "Everybody" because why not have the excuse to say "Oh My God We're Back Again" one more time. The music queued back up again and sure enough, there they were. They finished up the song, said some thank yous and shot out confetti. I was hoping for another 3 hours but unfortunately the set was over and it was time to go.  I seriously had the best time and can't even really put into words how much fun it was.

 

 

 

Although this was a lot of words and was very photo heavy, so apparently I can do something with it. But if you had any liking of the Backstreet Boys, I highly recommend going to the show if you get a chance. The only thing I regret is not going to the after party. The only reason we didn't get to was because of a) they said there wasn't going to be one for opening night and then b) they decided to have one and sell tickets 2 days before the show which is when we were driving to Vegas. Had they not announced it so quickly, we would have totally gone because the videos from the after party looked so fun! Maybe I can convince hubby to take another trip to Vegas this summer for a second show? Wink wink? I wish, but we have too much going on this summer for that!

 Backstreet Boys Las Vegas Residency Set List

 

“Larger Than Life”
“The One”
“Get Down”
“Drowning”
“Incomplete”
“Quit Playing Games (With My Heart)”
“Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely”
“I’ll Never Break Your Heart”
“Anywhere For You/Darlin’/Undone Medley”
“As Long As You Love Me”
“The Call”
“We’ve Got It Going On”
“Get Another Boyfriend”
“More Than That”
“All I Have To Give”
“Shape Of My Heart”
“I Want It That Way”
“Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)”

Check out my Youtube Channel and watch the rest of my videos from the show!

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