For my (early) birthday present this year, Matt bought me tickets to see Glee! Live in Cleveland, OH, which is not too far from where we live. It is about a two hour drive. I was very very excited when he showed me these tickets. :) Even though Cleveland is not that far, we did decide to spend the night just because we knew we wouldn’t feel like driving home after the concert.
Before the show, we checked in to our hotel and headed over the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner, where we discovered, that yeah, they did change the veggie burger chainwide and now the whole chain has been ruined for me. Such a sad sad thing. It was perfect the way it was, why did they have to change a burger that was delicious and swap it out for Boca? Why? Why? Why?
What can I say about the concert? It was AWESOME. Here is the view from our seats:
That photo was taken with my iPhone which makes everything seem further away, so to see how close it was, well it is remarkable. It had also been so long since I’ve been to a concert that I had totally forgotten that we are allowed to have cameras, so of course I hadn’t taken mine and all I had was my cell phone and got some rather bad photos, and should have given up, but I kept taking them. 
So the concert. The warm up act was a dance troupe Legion of Extraordinary Dancers, that I really didn’t find to be all that interesting. I just discovered though that it a group that Harry Shum, Jr (plays Mike Chang) is involved with. Everyone else was screaming and yelling, so either they enjoyed it or they were faking it. :)
While we were waiting for the real act to start, they showed photos and quotes from the show on the big screens to entertain us. Also, we were the last row before a big aisle there on the floor, before the next group of rows of chairs. Behind that group of chairs was another stage – which we discovered would be used during the concert – as would that aisle. Right before the performers, who will be in character, complete with Artie in a wheelchair, come out, cheerleaders come out and start to rile up the crowd and are passing out little bags. I had no idea what they were, as I wasn’t given one. I guess I wasn’t cheering and carrying on enough. The big screen lights up and Jane Lynch as Sue Sylvester comes on and explains to us what is going on and it is her Cheerios passing out puke bags for the concert. Oh Sue. What are we going to do with you. Turns out, I didn’t need that bag, eh?
Finally, the cast comes out and starts to sing. They open with “Don’t Stop Believing” as expected, even though that was a Season #1 song. At this point, I don’t remember everything about it in sequence, so I am going to just spill my thoughts. :)
I loved the back stage because I was so freaking close to it. I am not a crying because I am there with the performers live kind of fan. Maybe cause I am old. But I just really liked seeing everyone up close. The Warblers sang in the back. The first person to sing in the back was Puck. The young girls really flipped out over that. He walked through the aisle in front of me. Again, I didn’t die. I’m just old, I guess. :)
Throughout the performance, they would put vignettes of Mr. Shu and Sue Sylvester on the big screen interacting with the “kids”. Problem with that is that is that the dialogue got drowned out by the real kids screaming and yelling. I didn’t really understand that. It wasn’t like they were actually there? Again, I didn’t get it.
I had heard a rumor that when they sing Born this Way, they switch their shirts, but they didn’t. I heard a rumor that Gwyneth Paltrow toured with them. I guess Cleveland wasn’t exciting enough. :)
The only thing, besides Mr. Shu not being there, (I know, I know, he is on Broadway) that disappointed me was that they didn’t sing any of their mashups and, to me, those are their best songs which shows the creativity of this group. Fiddler on the Roof/Umbrella (c’mon, that is creative genius) does require Gwyneth and Matthew, I know, and they weren’t there, but there are plenty of other mashups that could have been sung. Surely, those are better choices than Big-Bottomed Girls? But, whatever.
But it was a great show, lots of talent, good music and good dancing (except from Finn) and even Matt, who doesn’t watch the tv show enjoyed the concert. Here are some of the photos I took. And these are the good ones.
This was when they first came out
Puck singing – yeah, lovely picture, but look how close!
iPhone perspective
Kurt and Rachel – back stage
Mercedes – backstage (no flash)
Artie – safety dance – big screen shot
Safety Dance
Single Ladies (Encore) Back Stage
Complete song list (from internet, not me) not including encores:
“Don’t Stop Believin’”
“Dog Days Are Over”
“Sing”
“Slave 4 U”
“Fat Bottom Girls”
“PYT”
“I Want To Hold Your Hand”
“Ain’t No Way”
“Born This Way”
“Firework”
“Teenage Dream”
“Silly Love Songs”
“Raise Ur Glass”
“Happy Days”
“Lucky”
“River Deep Mountain High”
“Don’t Rain on my Parade”
“Jesse’s Girl”
“Valerie”
“Loser Like Me”