Ironman By Thirty

Last night, Jennie and I went to a Michael Bublé concert at the Van Andel Arena.  I bought the tickets for Jennie back in September because she is a big fan and knew she would enjoy it.  For those of you unfamiliar with Michael Bublé, ask your wife/girlfriend because I am sure they know who he is.  Urban Dictionary defines Michael Bublé as, “Very talented singer who just might destroy every other guy’s chances of getting laid.”  He has a Sinatra-esq voice and sings lots of the standards as well as some of his own material.  He is a Grammy award winner as well as a Juno Award winner (help me out Canadians – is that like a Canadian Grammy??) from his native Canada.

We got downtown around 7:00 for the 8:00 concert and proceeded to cram into the lobby of the Van Andel Arena.  It was packed in the lobby and nobody really knew where to go.  We had “paperless tickets” from Ticketmaster which I thought meant we would have to pick up tickets at the ticket window.  After waiting in that line, we found out that all we needed was out credit card and they would swipe it at the entrance.  It seemed like a great way to slow down the line by having to swipe credit cards for everyone.

Anyways, after a long wait, we finally made it to the front of the line and made our way to our seats.  On the way, Jennie spotted a poster with a picture on Michael on that you could pose in front of.

While waiting for the concert to start, they played a slideshow of other people in front of the poster.  It included women pretending to kiss him, a dude grabbing Michael’s junk, and a woman pretending that she is flashing him among them.

After, that we headed down to find out seats on the floor.  That’s right, floor seats!  We ended up in row G, only 7 rows from the stage.  They were the best seats either of us have ever had a concert.

Opening Act

The opening act was a group called Naturally 7.  They are an a cappella group that performs what they call “Vocal Play”.  Essentially, every sound you hear on stage is created by band members.  They don’t have any actual instruments and make all of the instrumental music their voices.  Skeptical?  Check this out.

Simply amazing!  You know it is good when the opening act gets a standing ovation.

They ended up playing about a 40 minute set that include both some music as well as showcasing each of the musicians talents.  The member that “plays” the bass is Armand "Hops" Hutton.  He is this tall, skinny dude (reminds me a bit of a non-nerdy Steve Urkel) with the voice of Barry White.

Here are a couple more videos if you are interested. The first video is especially cool because it breaks down each of the “instruments” as solos.

The Main Event

After the amazing opening act, there was a 15 minute break before Michael Bublé came on stage.

He started off with a song and then talked to the audience.  He had a really great stage presence and was fun to listen to.  The funniest of his quips was when was recounting how he spent his day off in Grand Rapids of Friday.  He talked about going to the mall and then to the movies.  The girl who sold him his tickets was really calm and collected, but he could that she recognized him.  When he got to the concession stand, he heard one of the other worker’s radios blaring, “OMG! OMG! Michael Bublé is here!!”  He must have gotten her free tickets to the show because he had her stand up in the audience.  Anyways, after the concert, he went back to his hotel and got a massage.  He must have gotten the masseuse tickets as well because she was there too.  After having her stand up, he said the massage was good, but “I’m hoping that tonight’s ending is better than last night’s.”  The crowd erupted in laughter.

Before starting his next song, he encouraged the audience to get into the music.  Sing along, stand up and dance if want, and remember that you’ll probably never see the person next to you again so don’t worry about looking like a fool.  And, if anyone sshh-es you, “Tell them to go f*** yourself.”

One of the songs played was Everything, one of Jennie’s favorites.  It is actually my ringtone for when Jennie calls me.

Note the blonde woman in the lower left of the video.  She was with her boyfriend/husband who seemed less than thrilled to be there.  The woman ended up eventually ditching the dude to join a crowd of screaming women at the front of the aisle.  Poor guy.  One of many ditched for Michael Bublé.

After singing a few more songs, he ventured off stage and down the middle aisle.  He was only about 5 feet away from us when he passed.  Cue girly screams!

As you can see, Jennie was thrilled.

Michael Bublé “closed” with I’ve Got a Feeling before coming back for a 4 song encore.  During the encore, they dropped confetti on the audience. 

For some reason they dropped the confetti during the Me and Mrs. Jones song rather than Let It Snow which I thought would have been more appropriate.

It was a very eclectic audience at the show.  Mostly couples or groups of women, but pretty much age group was represented from the teenie-boppers to the teenie-bopper’s grand parents.  There was two middle aged women behind us that were a riot.  This was their third Bublé concert.  After the concert, the one woman held out her hand and said, “This is the hand the touched Michael Bublé! Do you want to touch the hand that touched Michael!”  You would have thought they were Jennie and her friends teenage girls at an N-Sync concert.

Overall, it was a great concert. Michael was a great entertainer and it made for a very fun evening.

After the concert we hit up Tavern on the Square for a couple of drinks.  Jennie had a fruity pink drink and I went with Bell’s seasonal Christmas Ale.  A perfect way to close out the evening.

Thanks for reading!