NKOTBSB in Geneva

Well I'm finally recovered from my trip to Europe. It was absolutely incredible.

Italy

Italy was just beautiful. Here is the super cliff notes version:

• Saw the Colosseum
• Did touristy poses in front of the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
  
• Watched Blue Bloods in Italian. Couldn't understand a word but Donnie is just as hot in Italian so it didn't make much of a difference.
  
  
• Stumbled on the movie premiere of The Avengers where I saw Scarlett Johansson, Mark Ruffalo (Hulk), Chris Hemsworth (Thor), and Tom Hiddleston (Loki).
  

  

  Thor is my new favorite superhero
• Spent the evening in a hotel in Venice with limited wifi shrieking when we found out that AJ is going to be a dad, Kevin is coming back to the group, and the boys are recording a new album in July. It was tough to be away from home for all this excitement.
• Left the country with a BGC (Blood Gelato Content) hovering around 25%

Geneva & NKOTBSB
So now for the fun stuff. Concert day. It was really neat to be in a foreign country seeing BSB. I was officially one of THOSE fans and I loved it.

Apparently this show broke the record for the lowest attendance. I think they only sold 2,000 tickets and the venue held 8,000. Once I heard that I had hoped that would translate into a smaller VIP group, but sadly that wasn't the case. Though I don't want to get too far ahead of myself.

So the day started off with sound check party, which was an entirely different experience than other sound checks I've been to. Apparently their truck broke down en route to Geneva which meant they didn't have the stage set up yet. So the sound check was held on the steps outside the main auditorium where they performed. This meant some good news and some bad news. The bad news was they didn't sing. The good news was they opened it up to a rather long q&a session.

I didn't waste anytime and my hand immediately shot up when the boys started asking for questions. So Nick called on me. On the inside I was totally doing the happy dance. On the outside I tried to remain as calm and composed as I could. I essentially asked them what was on their rider. They took a good few minutes to answer and had me laughing along the way. Here's the video of them answering my question.

 The boys answering my question!

What was so special about that was that Brian looked at me dead in the eyes for the duration of his response. It was so nice and it made it rather difficult to actually concentrate on his answer. Glad I had enough sense to record it (even though I hate hearing the sound of my own voice) because I wouldn't have been able to recall what he said otherwise.

So the sound check continued on and I actually learned quite a bit. I learned the real reason they don't have a show in France and Spain.  Learned a little bit more about the break they took after Black & Blue. I also learned a lot from some of the local fans on how concerts differ in Europe vs the states. Fun fact- Apparently in Europe they have laws to keep the volume of concerts below a certain level. It was actually nice leaving a concert for once without my ears ringing.

Anyway, after the Q&A it was time for the meet and greet. I feel like an old pro by now, but yet I still seem to get those butterflies in my tummy every time. I've also realized I'm quite lucky when it comes to not having a barricade in my pic, because this is my fifth group meet & greet and not one time did I have a barricade. Let's hope that trend continues indefinitely.

So I really didn't have too much to say to them this time around. I still find it super intimidating to meet all 4 guys at once so I try not to overdo it. Thus I quietly took my 4 handshakes and said "its so nice to see you" or something along those lines to each guy. When I got to AJ he said "I'll see you real soon," officially confirming he'd be the tour guide. Queue my already growing insane excitement. Then Justin snapped our picture and I'm super happy with how it turned out.

Me and BSB in Geneva

Platinum VIP with AJ

So after the group meet and greet it was really the moment I had been waiting for. A backstage tour with AJ. I was so giddy. I also felt it to be a little extra special this time because it would be the first tour he gave after his announcement that he was going to be a dad. He gave us some info that Rochelle is due the end of November and that the baby was a surprise. He also shared how Rochelle broke the news to him.

The tour was probably a good 25 minutes or so. I thought his tour was far better than Nick's. He did a great job of answering a variety of questions. Made a lot of good jokes. He had me laughing the whole time, and I didn't even care that he probably makes those same jokes for every tour.

I also had a chance to ask AJ another question backstage. I had a list of about 15 questions I wanted to ask him, but alas I couldn't ask them all. I thought back to my post on general admission shows and just how stressful they are to us fans. So I wanted to ask him what his view on a GA show versus assigned seating and also what exactly they do differently in terms of stage setup. Basically he says that it stresses out his body guard and he knows that it has its limitations, but a "show's a show."

Then of course he offered to do "non-prom poses" for our pictures. Well since I'm not creative enough to come up with a good pose, I thought it would be a fun idea to ask him to pick the pose for us. Risky move for sure, but I was willing to chance it. I gently asked AJ, "I was hoping you could pick a fun pose for us to do." Without hesitation he replied "butt to butt." Did AJ really just instruct me to touch my behind against his. Yes, yes he did. I thought the pic came out just okay. It's nothing I would've ever picked, and I think I look so goofy. I clearly don't know what the heck was going on. But its still a picture of me with AJ and I really like the idea that he came up with the pose, so that makes it extra special for me.

"Butt to Butt"

On a related note, I'm going to need to scrounge up another $1000 to see how Howie and Brian's backstage tours to see how they compare. Well...probably $1500 for Kev as well. That's it. I'm officially starting the 'Laura BSB Platinum VIP Fund'

The Concert
The show was general admission, but since I did the platinum VIP I was able to score a front row spot. Woohoo! Now I can cross that off the Backstreet bucket list.

Front row baby!

Pretty standard show, with slight changes from the North American leg. The only major thing our of the ordinary for me was that I managed to get a pic with Danny during Tonight.

And the award for the most awkward picture with a member of New Kids goes to...me

Note to self for next time- Must. Remember. To. Zoom. Out. At least it was only Danny that I goofed for. Is that awful to say? Now I feel bad...kind of. You know what I mean.

Even though Danny was so sweet to offer a picture with me, this show was still a Nick/AJ show for me. I tend to focus on 1 or 2 boys for each concert, just depending on who might be spending the most time near me or grabs my attention for one reason or another. Every show is someone different. I could've sworn that Brian wasn't even on stage that night because I feel like I barely saw him. Its funny how that happens. But I noticed for this show my camera gravitated primarily towards AJ and Nick. Well I'm starting to ramble and I don't really have too much else to say about the concert. I'm sure you all know how it goes down by now. So instead I'll just post a few of my fave pics I took. Enjoy!

 

 

So ends another one of my Backstreet adventures. The next one will take place a little closer to home- MixTape Fest in Hershey. Can't wait!