Recap: Selena Gomez & the Scene, Celeste Center at Ohio State Fairgrounds, November 6, 2010: Off the Chain

And so I begin what may be the longest and most heartfelt recap I ever write.

This story really begins many, *many* months ago, in April or May of this year, after I purchased a set of 4 tickets to Selena Gomez & the Scene’s concert. This particular show was such a perfect investment, I didn’t think twice about a) plunking down cash for Selena Gomez’s fan club, in order to be offered first crack at tickets through a preasale, or b) purchasing 4 not-exactly-cheap tickets for the second row. My older daughter Kiersten *loved* Selena Gomez. She loved her Disney TV show, Wizards of Waverly Place, and she loved her music. To only a slightly lesser extent, this love was shared by my younger daughter, Elena. (They are ages 10 and 4, respectively.) Heck, even my husband Eric and I enjoyed Wizards.

Of course, for me there was the added bonus of Selena’s bassist, Joey Clement. I trust that everyone reading this recap knows how I feel about him, so: moving on.

Once the tickets were purchased, and Kiersten and Elena were notified of the show’s existence and of where they would be sitting (commence very noisy, very excited screaming), Kiersten began to daydream aloud of meeting Selena. After a year and a half of concert attendance and noticing the level of security around various music stars, I was well aware of how difficult this might be.

On the other hand, through the magic of Twitter and Selena’s message board, I had discovered that many people who didn’t have such things as formal meet and greet passes had been able to meet Selena. What I had never quite figured out, though, was HOW this had happened. Were they in the right place at the right time, and if so, where were these magical places and times? I knew they had also met band members as well.

This provided a segue of sorts for me. I kind of, well, knew Selena’s bassist. I thought, “okay, let’s just ask him where these magical places and times might possibly be.” I had, of course, NO desire to ask him outright for the personal favor of meet & greet passes; that seemed far too presumptuous to me. So I sent him a message asking just that – where I might position myself and my daughters to have the best chance to meet Selena – and specifying and emphasizing that I was *not* asking for backstage/meet & greet passes.

Joey wrote back and told me, quite succinctly, that he thought it would be “no big deal” to get us on the list for meet & greet passes. The exact thing I HAD NOT asked for, he was offering. I nearly passed out from joy.

You might remember what happened next; the show originally scheduled for July 29 was rescheduled for November 6 when Selena became sick, her vocal chords inflamed, and her voice threatened if she didn’t go on immediate vocal rest. I was devastated, my daughters were devastated. It was a rough time.

But there was nothing else to do but wait. At least we were *able* to wait; 3 other shows had been canceled outright. My heart broke for the little girls who were told they couldn’t see Selena at all.

So wait we did, for what seemed to me like centuries. My daughters, of course, in time forgot there was a concert coming as they went about their day-to-day lives. Their mother suffered the curse of loving this bassist so intensely that she could feel how badly she missed him, and how desperately she wanted that concert to be here ASAP, every single day.

Slightly less than a week before our rescheduled date, I decided to take the plunge and write to Joey again, asking if there was any chance he would still be able to get us those prized M & G passes. I fully expected to hear back from him immediately (he’s usually very good at responding to my messages that make a request), whether aye or nay. Unnervingly, I didn’t hear back from him for the next 5 days.

But when I did hear back from him… the night before the show… the response was, simply, “I got you the meet and greet passes.”

I nearly dropped dead from the shock. At this point I had convinced myself that after this much time, the answer, if I was going to get one, was sure to be no. It shouldn’t surprise me that I’d gotten what I’d hoped for only after all hope seemed lost, lol.

Joey told me the meet & greet was scheduled for 4:15 p.m., and that the passes should be available at Will Call. So a little after 3:45, I arrived at the venue with Kiersten and Elena in tow, eager and excited (and maybe just a little nauseated) at the thought of attending the meet & greet. At the venue, we could hear the sounds of Selena & the Scene’s soundcheck, which of course excited the girlios tremendously.

Unfortunately, we hit a snafu. I went to the Will Call window and requested our passes. The extremely skeptical-looking woman at the window asked me how I had procured said passes. I explained – tentatively, for it really did seem impossible even to me – that, well, actually, they were given to me by Joey Clement.

Her response: “Joey Clement?”

OMG I wanted to reach through the window and slap her. HOW COULD SHE NOT KNOW WHO JOEY CLEMENT WAS??? He was Selena’s very own bassist, for crying out loud!!

I tried to control myself and say, calmly, “Selena’s bass player.”

“I see,” was her response. “May I see some photo ID?”

I whipped out my wallet and handed her my driver’s license, confident that soon I would be getting the passes and we would be on our way. Instead, she returned after checking her list and said, “This name is not on our list.”

Wha? No, that was impossible. No way would Joey tell me we had passes when we didn’t. I asked her if maybe they were under *his* name? Nope. I was struck dumb and horrified as the realization began to dawn that I had promised my dear daughters a meeting with Selena Gomez and just might not be able to deliver.

I stood there for a moment, my brain reeling. I finally said “okay, just a minute,” and did the only thing I knew to do: DM Joey and ask him if, maybe, there was another name the passes were under? Unfortunately, the sounds shaking the venue told me that Joey was a tad busy at the moment and very well might not get my message.

In desperation I asked a nearby venue staff if there was any way Joey could be contacted. Again, the staff had no idea who Joey was. (Talk about wanting to bang your head against a wall…) I asked the woman at the Will Call window the same. Both of them said nope, unless Joey contacts YOU, there’s nothing *we* can do. And of course there wasn’t any additional way for me to contact him. It’s not like I had the man’s cell phone number.

The girlios were getting hungry, and there were some concession booths just outside the venue entrance. 4:15 had come and gone, and it was increasingly looking like this just wasn’t going to work out. So I went to get them a slice of pizza each. I had bought them fries earlier, of which I had had many, so I really wasn’t that hungry.

They ate their pizza while I apologized for what had happened. I felt terrible, Kiersten in particular looked *so* disappointed. My girlios are nothing if not resilient, though, and after I reminded them that the venue doors would open at 5:30 (it was nearing 5 by now), and we would at least get to go inside the venue soon and get warm (it was SO COLD outside), and sit in our SECOND ROW SEATS, they began to cheer up a bit.

Then Kiersten announced she needed to use the restroom. No problem, I knew of a nearby building where restrooms were available. Alarmingly, Elena – my very newly potty-trained child – alerted me that she was about to need the restroom AT ANY SECOND.

I may have panicked, lol. I grabbed Elena’s hand, urged Kiersten to come with, and we RAN to that building with the promised facilities. I even carried Elena part of the way (until my out-of-shape bod and her increasing weight made this no longer possible, lol). We made it to the restroom, thank God, in time and without accident or incident.

While I was helping Elena, my phone buzzed. It was Joey, responding to my DM at last. And he was PISSED. In all honesty, in addition to being flattered that he was so angry on my behalf, I also found his anger rather hot. Lol Anyway, he was obviously upset that my name wasn’t on the list, and he apologized and told me he was “trying to sort it.”

I urged the girls to finish up quickly, which they did, and we returned to the venue as quickly as we could. I returned Joey’s DM, telling him to let me know what I needed to do.

As we approached the venue front doors, where there was quite a line of people waiting to be allowed inside already, I was able to see Joey peering through the glass, obviously looking for me. I encouraged the girls to follow me, quickly, and we raced to the door.

Joey opened the front doors for me (I wondered what the folks in line thought of our being allowed in already – I was now fairly certain no one would know who he was, lol), and after the three of us went inside, Joey held up a roll of pink paper wristbands and said, “Your backstage passes.”

“Thank you, sir!” I said jokingly, and after all three of us had received our wristbands, Joey grabbed me and gave me a big hug. Sigh. He introduced himself to Kiersten and Elena, so sweetly, and he asked them for their names. Oh yeah. The musical love of my life was *wonderful* with my girls.

He told us to follow a security guard, who would lead us to the M & G line. He said it was nearly over, so we needed to go quickly. He also assured me he would catch up with us in a bit.

We followed the guard to the M & G line, which indeed had dwindled down to nearly nothing. Upon our arrival, another guard ran down the rules: No autographs. No giving Selena gifts or, in fact, anything. All our personal belongings were to remain on our own person at all times. I was to give the security guard my camera, and he would take the photo with Selena.

Now to you or I, these rules might seem LAME with a capital L. To my Selena-loving girls, however, the mere opportunity to hug their idol and get their photos taken with her was heavenly.

Joey caught up with us right about the time that it was the girls’ turn to get their photos taken. Kiersten eagerly hopped over to Selena and hugged her; Elena lagged a little, but Selena (OH this was cute) sweetly gestured Elena to come join them. Elena then trudged shyly over. Once Elena had joined Selena. I began laughing because I had only just noticed that Elena’s hair had several leaves buried in it. I told Joey about it, and when Elena turned, he saw them too, and he laughed. (I explained that one of the ways the girlios had passed the time was to play Ring Around the Rosies. ) The guard took 2 photos when he decided that Elena’s face wasn’t quite optimal in photo #1, lol. Photo #2 turned out better, and he handed the camera over to me. We got to look at the photo while the girls squealed with glee.

The M & G ended shortly after that, and boy, I’ve never seen an area cleared so fast. Selena was whisked away (NO idea where she disappeared to, honestly, lol), the backdrop was folded up and put away, and you’d never even guess afterward that anything unusual had just taken place. Once the girls were no longer occupied with Selena, they began running around in circles in the large, open space that would soon hold more chairs for the concert.

I was left, pretty much, alone with Joey. Not knowing how much time I would have with him, I immediately said to him, “I have a gift for you.”

“Oh, really?” he said quizzically. Just then, though, we were interrupted by another group of 3 people to whom Joey had also supplied passes. Joey wandered off a little to talk to them and get photos with them, and I used his absence as my opportunity to dig my gift for him out of my purse.

For those of you who don’t know, Joey’s birthday was in May. I had hoped to offer the gift I made for him at the show in July (when it would’ve been only 2 months late), but of course I wound up having to wait another 4 months. When he returned, I said, “Now, I’m not really sure what to call this now, since your birthday was a *long* time ago…”

“Indeed, it was,” he said, nodding.

“But, since I couldn’t really get it to you then… here we are.” I gave him the plastic baggie that held his gift.

“What is this madness?” he asked. He opened the baggie and pulled out the fingerless gloves I had knit for him (and carefully embroidered on the knuckles: JOEY CC plus a bass clef). “Oh, no,” he said, pulling them out.

And then he said, “Wow.”

And then he said, “WOW. These are actually *really* badass!”

It became rapidly apparent that he LOVED this gift, and I was over the moon with joy. He put them on immediately, and he joked about how hardcore these gloves totally made him look, what with the “knuckle tattoos,” and he even did some posing that I can’t even describe to you, lol. He told me how much he could use the gloves, and he made mention of how he could even play bass in them. I told him that one, the moment I found the pattern I knew it would be perfect for him, and two, that I had seen either photos or video (and possibly both) where he was playing outdoors in the cold, and I had thought, “that boy needs fingerless gloves.” Thus, my decision to knit them.

He agreed that yes, these were exactly what he needed, and they were wonderful. He gave me lots and lots of hugs and kept thanking me for them. <3

This began what I can really only describe as an out-of-body experience, because I cannot possibly explain how I was able to remain upright, in my right mind, and from becoming a trembling, incoherent wreck. Because Joey and I continued to talk for the next half hour… about just about anything.

Any “agenda” I might have had (specific questions, things people had asked me to tell him) flew right out of my mind. 100% of my attention was focused on Joey and the amazingly natural, free-flowing conversation we had. I couldn’t even tell you 75% of what we talked about. It wasn’t like talking to someone I idolized. It was like talking to someone I had known for years. There wasn’t a single awkward pause or a moment when I panicked and thought “oh crap, what do we talk about now??”

What also didn’t happen was any indication that Joey wanted to get away. Oh, no. It seemed pretty clear to me that this was where he wanted to be, and this was what he exactly what he wanted to be doing. In fact, it almost appeared to me that he had two purposes in securing those M & G passes for me. One was to allow my girlios the chance to meet Selena; the other was to talk to me.

I still find this rather overwhelming, and I’m sure I won’t be able to wrap my brain around it for at least a month.

I can tell you two specific things we did talk about. One, he told me that he had played tennis with Andy and David before the latter had gone to Florida. I asked him if he knew David had gone to a celebrity tennis tournament, and he said he hadn’t known that, but he *had* seen the photo David had tweeted of him with Martina. We both kind of geeked out over that (turns out Joey LOVES tennis, like I do), and then he said, “In fact… I tried to tweet something in response to that photo. You know I don’t tweet David very often, so when I do I try to make it *really* good.”

I didn’t have to beg him to tell me what he had tried to tweet. He said, “I tried to tweet, @thedavidcook: Three confirmed lesbians.”

I cracked up. It was so Joey, it was so the kind of joke those guys would make.

Joey said that Twitter was down when he tried to get that tweet through (naturally…) and that by the time he was able to pull Twitter back up again, the joke was too stale to tweet.

Then I kind of whispered, “Joey… I didn’t know Gigi was a lesbian.”

He said, “Well… I’m not sure, is she?”

I said, “I don’t know… I didn’t think she was, though.”

He thought about it for a moment, and then said, “Wait… Conchita Martinez!”

I giggled and said “Yes, Conchita Martinez is definitely a lesbian.”

“Oh yeah, okay,” he said.

Then I leaned in and said, “I’m thinking maybe it was a good thing Twitter went down.”

Joey laughed. “Yeah… that probably could’ve caused a firestorm, right?”

I said, “In this fandom? Uh, YEAH!”

So yeah. LOL

The other thing was… well, we got on the topic of hair. Specifically, his. Lol He told me that his brown hair was not really by design. He’d meant to have the tips dyed to match his natural color growing out, but they didn’t turn out quite right, and as a result “my hair looks brown.” I told him it looked really good, though. And then… I got the courage to ask him something I’ve wanted, well, basically forever.

I said, “Joey… um… could I touch your hair?”

“Oh yeah, of course!” he said.

So I did. I didn’t run my fingers through it or anything, I just kind of stroked it. I was surprised at how soft it was, and told him so. He said, “Redken conditioners!” LOL  (I am SO getting that for the next time I need to super-process my hair. LOL)

After that half-hour of one of the most amazing conversations ever, Joey then told me he needed to get ready for the acoustic set. Actually, I think that was one of the first things Joey told me, was that as a special treat to make up for the fact that the show had been postponed, they were doing a short acoustic set right at the beginning of the show. So he told me he had to go prepare, and then I realized I hadn’t gotten a photo with him yet. I said, “Wait, before you go, could I get a photo with you?”

“Sure!” he said.

Then I panicked. Because all this time, we were more or less alone in the concert hall (aside from various venue staff and security milling about), and there wasn’t really anyone *right there* to take a photo. I was like, “Ack! There’s no one here to take a photo!”

Joey said, “That’s okay, I’ll take it. I have quite a reach.”

“You do have long arms, don’t you,” I said.

“Yes, I do.”

So Joey took my camera and took a photo.

Joey and me. Aka "Joey and the stoned girl."

I saw my expression and was like, UH, NO. I said “Oh, no, I look ridiculous! Could you take another one?”

He did, of course.

This one is actually my favorite, but I said, “It’s kind of off to the side,” and he said, “Yeah, it is. Not good.” So he took a third photo.

Yeah, yeah, I'm clinging to him for dear life. Got a problem with that?

Finally we had the “perfect” photo (though I like the second one better, lol). Joey gave me another hug. I said, “Could I get a photo of you with the girls, now?”

“Oh yeah, definitely,” he said. One of the cutest things ever was Joey helping me round up the girls (they had gone to their seats and were getting all wound up over how close they would be). Elena, especially, he did a lovely job of coaxing over for a photo.

And then this happened.

Please don't hold me responsible for any exploding organs resulting from the viewing of this photo.

Sigh. Just… sigh.

I thanked Joey. He thanked me, again, for the gloves. I said, “Joey, I don’t know how I can possibly repay you for this.”

He said, “You’re here. You came to the show. That’s payment enough.”

GAH.

I passed him one last time before he departed for good, and he couldn’t seem to pass me without giving me another hug. Sigh. Again.

After he left, the girls and I went to our seats. Then I called Eric to tell him about the acoustic set so we could make sure he was there right by 7. He, fortunately, was already on his way, and he arrived maybe 20 or 30 minutes later.

While we waited, I had two very pleasant surprises. First, Dane Forrest (Selena’s keyboardist) came out to us, approached me, and said, “You’re Nicole, right?” I said yes and said “Hi, Dane!” enthusiastically. We hugged, and he told me that Joey had told him I was here, and he said something about my tweeting him more often than anyone (awww, I didn’t even realize that!), and so he wanted to come say hi. I introduced him to the girls, and they were clearly impressed that I knew yet *another* band member, haha! We chatted a bit, and then he gave me another hug and left.

Then, a little while later: out came Greg Garman, Selena’s drummer and Joey’s roommate. He spotted me and said, “Nicole?” I said, “Hi Greg!” We hugged, I introduced him to the girls, and he, again, told me that Joey had told him I was here, and that he had decided to come out and see me and take a walk around and meet people. We chatted for a short time, and then off he went.

Eric then arrived. It was about 6:30 by now, so we had a fairly brief wait until the acoustic set.

LOVED the acoustic set, of course. I was so excited to see Joey playing acoustic guitar (and acoustic bass, for that matter) live for the first time. I knew this was something he really enjoyed, and he was so into it, it was just breathtaking. Selena’s voice actually seems to shine most during acoustic songs, so she sounded really good. They performed Off the Chain, a Cheryl Cole cover called Parachute, and Ghost of You. All beautifully done.  Oh, and when they were finished, Joey came right to the edge of the stage, looked right at me, and tossed me a pick. It fell a little short of its mark, and the two kids in front of me scrambled for it… but good ol’ Kiersten, she came up with it. I told her she could have it. I, after all, already have JC Pick #1.

About 15 minutes later, on came Days Difference, who as you might know also opened for Ryan when I saw him in Dayton. My opinion on them really hasn’t changed, though I did appreciate their music a little more. They clearly have talent, their songs are quite catchy, and the young girls in the audience LOVED them.

Then, another 20 minutes or so later, Selena and the Scene returned to the stage. They were slightly late (which is why I tweeted Joey at 8:17 teasing him about being late, lol). I have to say that live, Selena Gomez & the Scene are absolutely incredible. I’m not going to compare them to any of the other acts I’ve seen live, because that’s not fair. They’re a different kind of band. But they rock, hard, they pull the audience in, they have fun and they show their audience a really good time. Thanks to all the SGTS live videos I’ve seen over the past year, I knew nearly every song by heart (surprising both Eric and myself, lol), and I danced and sang to every song.

I have *never* heard Selena sound better than she did last night, either, aside from maybe her full acoustic show to benefit Unicef. Her voice was very strong, she was completely in tune, and she has really improved her stage presence over the past year. She has developed into a strong and confident frontwoman, which was fun to see.

I was really pretty much right in front of Joey, and I could tell he played to my family & me as much as he could. I really loved being so close to him for the first time in a show. I was able to watch his hands more and see exactly what he was doing on his bass, which was a real treat.

SGTS performed a LOT of songs, which surprised both Eric and me. They performed Round and Round, Kiss & Tell, Crush, More, A Year Without Rain, Falling Down, Rock God, Intuition, Off the Chain (I thought it was pretty cool that they performed this both acoustically and electrically), and Tell Me Something I Don’t Know, plus covers of Mama Do (from a British artist named Pixie Lott), Love Is a Battlefield, and In My Head. That’s not even counting the encore, which started with Naturally and ended with a cover of Magic (which is part of the Wizards of Waverly Place movie soundtrack).

Naturally is my favorite SGTS song, and they rocked it as always. Joey was *really* on fire for this one, and at the end, where he normally jumps right on the last downbeat, he came right out to the edge of the stage for the jump. I KNEW that was for me. : )

Then came the last song of the night, Magic. And then came one of the highlights of the night for me, when I saw *something* on Joey’s right hand… and I realized it was a glove. My glove, one of the pair I had given him. My heart melted, and I thought, “Oh, JOEY.”

Meanwhile, Eric noticed the glove not long after I did. He started laughing… and then he got smart. He put two and two together. “That glove… did you knit that for him?!”

In a very small voice I said, “Yes…”

Eric kind of lost it then. Even moreso than I did, lol. I found it tremendously funny that his reaction to Joey getting us M & G passes was “oh how nice of him,” whereas his reaction to Joey wearing a glove onstage that I had made for him was astonishment and bewilderment at this “connection” between Joey and me. (His word… NOT mine! Lol) I wouldn’t say Eric was jealous, exactly. I think he was just honestly and truly shocked.

I can’t say I blame him.

He took several close-up shots of The Glove. This was the best one.

After the show, Joey stepped out to the edge of the stage once more and tossed a handful of picks out, then departed. Unfortunately, all the picks wound up landing between the stage and the barrier that kept us all *away* from the stage. My clever hubby went to the stage and asked a stage hand for one of the picks. His reward was a pretty white pick. (The other pick, the one Kiersten had nabbed, had been orange.) We gave Elena this white pick.

So now all the ladies of this house have their very own Joey picks. : )

I met up with Lisa (@Rockfan22) after the show. It was too bad we didn’t get to spend much time together (as usual, right, Lisa? : ( ), but it was nice to catch up with her for a little while and chat about the show, about Joey, et cetera. Especially since she was the only person in the entire arena outside my own family that I actually knew.

Aside from Joey, of course.

After we left the show, I was *really* glad that Eric and I had taken separate cars here, because I really needed a moment. Parking lot “traffic” was packed, and I was kind of glad to have a moment of solitude and quiet (Kiersten was in her dad’s car, Elena was in mine, but Elena was actually kind of tired and seemed happy to sit quietly and listen to SGTS’ Year Without Rain CD). I took the time to reflect on the evening, on everything that had happened.

I reflected on how my favorite musician had taken the time to get M & G passes for my family and me…

… on how he came in, guns blazing (metaphorically speaking, of course), when Will Call stubbornly insisted our names weren’t on the M&G list…

… on how Joey had interacted so adorably with my daughters, and had taken the time to do nothing but talk with me for a half hour…

…on how much he loved the gift I made for him…

… on how he had told two of his bandmates enough about me that they decided to come out and say hello to me themselves…

… on how he had tossed a pick directly to me at the end of the acoustic set, put on his best showman self for us during the electric set, and worn the glove I made for him at the end of the electric set.

And it hit me. After 2 years of loving and supporting this musician, this man, and fighting my own insecurities about how and why this incredible person could treat me the way he has treated me… it finally hit me, after tonight, that Joey Clement truly cares about me.

I have no idea how I will ever wrap my mind around this. It’s inconceivable. All I know that I am one of the most fortunate women that has ever lived.

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