Googoo for Gaga or Beiber Fever?

First, I'd like to start this blog off by saying this: the Panthers make my heart cry.


Little did you know, thanks to an awesome lady at work, I have a side gig selling merchandise at concerts held at the Time Warner Cable arena. The 2 big ones this summer: Justin Beiber and Lady Gaga. Let's start with the little guy first...


Apparently, 90% of the female tween population in Charlotte has Beiber Fever. My job is to stand in the lobby and sell programs, glowsticks, and whatever else we've got with Beiber's name or face on it. As soon as the doors opened, hundreds of girls literally came pouring in eager to see some Beiber. I tried to count how many homemade t-shirts were present, but I quickly lost count. I was really disappointed with the majority of the t-shirts because they lacked creativity (unlike the Gaga fans, but I'll get to that later). Anyway, you know how on TV you see clips of girls screaming and crying over their favorite celebrities? Did you know that REALLY happens? I witnessed girls screaming and shaking with excitement from looking at the pictures of Beiber I showed them. Entertaining? Little bit. Unnecessary? Definitely. I was asked if I had any control over fans meeting Beiber backstage. I guess that Bobcats t-shirt made me look really important.


I was surprised at how many adults were there without kids. The cougars really came out in full effect that night. I felt a little sorry for the dads though. Programs were $30, glowsticks were $10, t-shirts were $20+, hoodies were $50 and they bought it all. We almost sold everything. One guy had 3 girls with him and was forced to buy tons of crap. Seeing those men dig into their wallets and shell out cash to keep their ladies happy just made me not look forward to having kids. If I have a girl, I know I'm going to be a sucker for buying them useless things. In my experience with the kiddos, it's just easier telling boys no.


Beiber had 3 other acts with him. Sean Kingston was the other big name on the tour. There were actually 2 opening acts. This isn't a professional blog, so I don't need to remember their names (because I don't) They weren't that important anyway. I liked Sean Kingston. He has catchy songs. He didn't seem to be on stage very long, but he was still a good prelude to the headliner. Overall it was a pretty good show. He had some terribly corny lines, but they were elegant, sweet nothings to the thousands of screaming girls. One more thing. I think this concert was held when he was supposed to be taping for the Nickelodeon Teen Choice Awards. I tuned in to see if he recorded his Charlotte performance for the Awards show, but alas, he recorded a different show. I was heartbroken.


She has many haters, and even more followers, but it doesn't matter what you say about her, Gaga can put on a show. What's crazy is everything/everyone there for the show was almost just as entertaining as the actual concert. Unlike the homemade t-shirts for Beiber, these people were CREATIVE. You see how I used all caps there for that word? It still doesn't truly emphasize what I saw that night. Picture yourself in a wild, homosexual, transgender, extremely happy club on Halloween night. What you envision is probably very close to what went down at the TWC. This was one of the few times I just didn't mind staring at people. There were lots of males in women's clothing. That was probably the majority of the costumes. There was also an insane amount of women in just their bras as a top. A lot of times, that's a great thing... but not so much that night. Lots of underwear as bottoms too and some worn on the outside of clothing (Quailman style). Needless to say, these people were definitely wearing costumes and not every day clothing. I was impressed with some of the things people created themselves to wear. Those guys had some skills and really, they should've been proud with what they produced. Gaga should also be proud of what her "little monsters" were able to create. I could've done an entire blog solely on the costumes worn that night, but this paragraph was probably enough. I would also like to note that I did get some pictures from the night, but for some reason they won't show up when I try to post them here so once I get that figured out, I will post them ASAP.


As I stated before, Gaga put on quite a show. It had a story line which was nice and made the transitions between songs have a little more meaning. She played both the piano and bass while performing to show off some of her musical talent. Her show was filled with energy and non stop movement. The dancers were all over the stage which gave your eyes plenty to watch while listening to the heavy bass thumping repetitively. I can tell the audience was more than pleased with the show. Gaga also talked a lot about being proud of the way you were born. Not going to get into the many discussions and arguments that can open up, but it's amazing the power she has. Couple thousand people in Charlotte, NC show up for her concert and are in love with her, believe in her and what she preaches and believes in. Now, imagine that same group size but in at least 47 of our other states in the country. That adds up to a whooooole lot of little monsters. She's reaching Oprah status for the homosexual, transsexual, transgender, etc. group.  Better watch out if she starts a book club.


Two huge concerts for me this summer. Honestly, glad I got to experience both. Gives me a taste of life outside of my bubble. And in case you were wondering, between these two, I went googoo for Gaga.