One thing that totally rocks about Wellington is that with it being the capital of NZ you get some of the most amazing gigs played here. Never have I attended so many shows, back in the UK it would have taken many hours of travelling to get to see anything, meaning I would never bother.
I must say though that sometimes things were worth travelling for and some of my most amazing memories are being part of Ozzfest, seeing Papa Roach literally a sofa length away, and meeting Bowling For Soup. Rock chick at heart, all the way.
Here though we have some of the most amazing performers at the 'local' and for it to be our local is truly amazing. Sometimes however we lose out to Auckland as the major stars bypass Wellington, probably due to it's smaller population. The Alicia Keys show in Auckland the night before the one here in Wellington was overwhelmed by the star guest Kylie! We would like to think the performers were doing it for their fans and not ticket sales...but...
So one day I had a call from Stef - she had noticed Alicia Keys was planning a trip here to little old Wellywood and wondered if we wanted to go. With a big thumbs up from me and a big thumbs down from Mr D (who was then nominated as the nights babysitter) we booked up.
Now lets get one thing straight, these were the most expensive tickets I have ever bought, a whopping $120 each, but I was pleased they were seated (being old now seats are always welcome!), and it was Alicia Keys after all.
As we drove into Wellington we saw the queue!! It tailed from the entrance of the TSB Arena right along the waterfront, must have been at least 300 people in that queue! Panic aside we obviously realised that this was the standing tickets queue and so we headed to the pub for a drink instead. We watched the queue grow and grow. Finally a security guy came round and ushered the seated ticket people at the other side of the building, so we headed off excited we would be in an exclusive queue....erm, not quite!
Doors opened at 7pm, at 8.15pm we finally graced our seats. On the way in we were searched and all bottles were taken off us. I had just bought a new bottle of water to take in (plastic bottle) but it was thrown in the rubbish bin. THEN we head to the bar (where they sell alcohol) to have to buy a new bottle of water for $5.....go figure???? 
We ended up with seats at the side which meant we had to turn to see the concert, no biggy but a little bit annoying when we paid the same as the other lucky people who were closer and forward facing. As the first note played this is the view we were treated to:
Note to brain: be quicker next time when buying tickets! After a moan so the girls in front knew we were serious about not being able to SEE, and the big guy next to us was prodded by Stef with a 'er, 'scuse me but can you move back a bit?!' I think they got the message as the scared looks on their innocent 15 year old faces showed. The big guy moved two seats along too - sweet!! From then on in it was views all the way!!
Jordin Sparks supported Alicia and she was also amazing. 
Finally just a little after 9pm Alicia took to centre stage. 
The show was truly phenomenal. Alicia sung her heart out and you could really feel the passion. Thank you to Stef who took all of the lovely photo's and the videos which I put together below for your enjoyment. A fantastic night out, Wellington certainly does rock and so do we!
Posts
