The Brian McKnight/Boyz II Men concert last Tuesday was great. It was an intimate setting out in a park with only about 500 seats under the stars. Boyz II Men opened with a 50-minute set, with one or two songs from their new album and the rest from their classic albums from the 90s. I did miss the fourth member of the band who, according to my gym trainee, had left the group to pursue a solo singing career. I didn’t know which one was missing until the older songs that I’m very familiar with were performed, then I realized it’s the guy with the deep sexy bass voice who had gone. So all the speaking parts of the songs were missing. The remaining 3 members more than made up for it as far as I was concerned by the obvious fun they were having onstage, playing “guess the song” games with the audience, telling us to take out our cell phones and wave them in the air like lighters after calling our mothers on them, as they sang the song “Mama,” having us sing along with their classics and fill in the lyrics, making us laugh with their jokes and spirited performance. Oh yes, like Vanessa said, they each took out a dozen long-stemmed roses and threw them out one by one to the groveling women in the audience as they sang “I’ll Make Love to You.” Then there was a 15 minute intermission that ended up being more like 35 minutes as we waited for Brian McKnight to come on.

I took advantage of intermission time to go to the concession booths and buy my gym trainee a Brian McKnight t-shirt. She had told me that Brian McKnight is looking “real fine” since his divorce, so I got her a black T with a photo in the front of him lounging on a chair with a smoldering “come hither” expression. While I was selecting the t-shirt, two women to my left asked the guy behind the booth about the backstage passes you can get with purchase of an overpriced “limited edition” shirt, and he informed them, as he handed two passes attached to lanyards to two lucky guests to my right, that he had just sold the very last two to these people, sorry. The two women looked enviously at the couple forking over inordinate amounts of cash in exchange for the lanyards, then walked away. I waited patiently for the guy behind the booth to get to me, and made my shirt purchase. By this time, all other customers had left so it was just him and me. As I paid him, he paused then asked, “Did you want to see Brian?”
I said, “Oh, no, it’s okay, I overheard that you’d sold the last passes.”
He pulled a small stack of paper passes out his front shirt pocket, and said, “I have these — I was saving them for some friends, but now I don’t think they’re coming.”
Instantly in my head I pictured having to stay behind and fight the crowd instead of getting out of the parking lot early and beating the traffic. I pictured meeting someone who’s waaaay iconic and I had no idea what I would say or do, it was easier simply to not be in the situation. I said, “I have a tendency to be starstruck and I’d rather not make a fool of myself in front of a celebrity,” and laughed.
He actually looked a little rejected, and said, “Oh, it’s pretty quick, he just signs an autograph for you. I don’t have any uses for these anyway, like I said, my friends didn’t show.”
I smiled gratefully at him (or I’d hoped it was gratefully altho in retrospect it was probably retardedly) and said, “Nah, it’s okay, but thank you very much.” The passes disappeared back into his pocket.

I told Mr. W about this encounter after he came out of the port-a-potty, and he looked at me a little bit in surprise, and said something complimentary about me being alone and looking pretty. But he was probably wondering why I’m such an idiot.

Brian McKnight came out, gave one hell of a performance, showed his charismatic and very humorous, very sexy personality and I was just kicking myself. I sooo wanted to be his friend. He would be a blast to hang out with, this man making goofy faces at the audience, making fun of his own romantic failures and pathetic phone-stalking weepy moments in between songs. He announced that he’s doing something special this year, he’s been bringing his sons along with him on tour, and introduced his 14 year old and 19(?) year old, who proved they are as talented and well-sculpted as their father is as they performed a few songs they wrote with their dad. The 14 year old is kick-ass on the electric guitar, and blasted out my ear drums playing a Prince song while their dad rested backstage for a few minutes. I’d never heard the song before, but Mr. W has and said it was extremely well-played. The entire experience was fun and actually, very romantic.

After the concert, a small line formed at the back of the staging area as the rest of the crowd shuffled out the front entrance where we’d entered. Mr. W and I milled about with the short back line at first, hoping it was a way out that avoided the main crowd, but then realized it was the line to see Brian McKnight and Boyz II Men on backstage passes. “We would’ve been one of the first in line here,” he made sure to note as we walked forward and joined the large exiting herd.