Jacksonville!!

[ShangriLaTroubl]

Ok so I got back to Atlanta today around 3pm...My trip to Jacksonville started out rocky, but fortunately turned out to be literally the most incredible experience of my life.


First off we left significantly early for the show (around 9 am)..It's only a 5hr drive from us. We decided (my sister and I) to take my mom's van, since it is generally the most reliable, being that it is pretty new. So about an hour in, the van starts making horrible noices and I pull off to the first exit, and it is totally dead. I am like devastated..We are broke down in the middle of nowhere on the way to the Fleetwood Mac show. So some guy we met looked at it, and decided "it doesn't look good." So we decided to call my mom and she said she would have my stepdad follow her, and she would bring us a car and they would deal with the van -- THANK GOD!

So she got there around 1: 00, and we said hello, and left...I felt kinda bad about abandoning them with the problem but HEY It's Fleetwood Mac!!

So of course I am nervous the whole way...and we had to move our FLEETWOOD MAC OR BUST sign to the new car (this sign actually had some significance now that we were having these problems). We arrived in Jacksonville at about 4:30 (we mustve been speeding b/c it only took us 4 1/2 hrs)...and looked for a hotel, which we couldn't find anywhere...and Jax is the weirdest town I think. It was so odd, I dunno if it was because it was a Sunday or what, but it's this like huge city (with all one way streets by the way!) and huge skyscraper buildings, and we are the only people driving down these lonesome streets that look like they should be bumper to bumper..very odd. The streets also had yellow paw prints on them, I don't know why, but ok.

We found the arena about 4:50, after getting lost a few times, and ending up on the wrong highway. We parked for $5, and got out to see an SUV with "rock on GDW" painted on their window, blaring Mac music...so that got me pumped.. I needed to change into my Stevie Nicks Chain t shirt (a fan group I'm in, we had t shirts made). We found these neat restuarant right beside the arena, called The Amsterdam. The restuarant was packed, so I changed and we took a seat. Before we ordered I see the bartender turn The Dance video on, and we got to watch that on about 8 tv's, which was WAY cool...so I ate some expensive chicken tenders, and magician guy comes to our table to show us the coolest tricks...
I met another from the Chain with the same t shirt on at Amsterdam, and about 6:35 we left an headed over to the arena...The crowd had already began to gather, including one lady who's outfit was out there, but still cool. She had on a white Stevie dress, a white shawl, white platforms, and a white tambourine--and a feather in her hair..Many people were starring, but it was kinda cool to see people set for the show..Some lady got on the loudspeakers and said "no cameras are allowed, if you have one take it back to your car" about 9 times, she was annoying...and FINALLY at 7pm they let us in. We saw a few others wearing Stevie attire, which was neat, one lady had the Stand Back cape, dress and boots, as well as others...
I didn't get anything to drink because I didn't want to have to pee during the show, and I didn't buy any merchandise because I can just get that stuff from the fan club store..
We took our seats in the fourth row, at the very end of the row on Lindsey's side (seats 1 and 2)..and began anticipating as we saw Cory Buckingham (who is VERY HOT by the way) putting the roses on Stevie's mic stand, and roaming around the stage. I started to take to a security guard, who told me the first 5 rows would be allowed at the stage, but not till the show starts..that got me really pumped (I've never been in the front!!)..So about 8pm, the guy comes up to me and says we can go ahead and go to the stage if we want...oh boy was I happy.. I found a nice spot beside Lindsey's mic, RIGHT beside a speaker (and let me tell you today I cannot hear ANYTHING--Seriously--well except for this buzzing noise)--but we saw a bunch of others from our row crowd behind us, and I felt very lucky to be in the front in perfect view of everything, FINALLY for my 6th and probably final show of this tour..
We chatted, and the guards checked everyone's tickets to make sure we were all from the first 5 rows, and the crickets began about 8 :25...whew at this point I can literally hardly breathe..The band came up the steps onto the stage, and Lindsey and Stevie came up on a lift in the back of the stage, which was very neat to see...

I could not believe how close I was..It was phenomenal, and the show had just begun. Stevie graced the stage in her black dress, reeboks, scarf and black gloves and looked stunning...Lindsey had his jeans on and white button up shirt. I could see now what everyone is saying about John's hair being brown now, IT IS..
The Chain was full of energy and Stevie welcomed JACKSONVILLE FLORIDA!!!! I'm not going to go through every song, I'm just going to try and touch on the highlights for me.
"I Know I'm Not Wrong" was very fun, Lindsey was glad to see everyone was into it. I got some faces from Lindsey which was way cool, old news to some I suppose, but this was my first time at the stage!! Stevie was banging her tambourine and they did the "bum bum ba bum" parts so great..I LOVE this song live, I'm so glad they added it.
I noticed a lot of people in the front singing along to "Peacekeeper" which was good to see, and Stevie did the brush move with her hands again. "Second Hand News" was fun as always, and Stevie was doing all her air guitar and hand motions, and Lindsey was really rocking it out..It was probably during this song that I really realized what an experience the front row is. It's TOTALLY different, not just because you can see better, the whole show is different. You don't feel like you are in a huge 12,000 crowd,you feel like it's just you and the band --AND a few others squeezed beside you..

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