When I found out that Usher was coming to Oakland I got very excited as I'd always wanted to see him in concert. I asked a friend if he wanted to join me and he agreed readily - although he would like you to believe I twisted his arm and had to convince him to go, that's just simply untrue. Anyway...on with the story...
Our adventure began at the Hayward Wingstop. There was nothing inherently bizarre about it to start with...we ordered, sat down, watched a lot of people come and go then finally got our wings. After we'd started eating a girl strolled in, pulled a cell phone charger out of her bag, plugged it in and sat down at a table. And then the fun began. She started singing along - badly I might point out - with whatever music was playing, and then she started talking to someone on the phone. And wow. She was a treat. Here are some snippets of the conversation with her mother. Yeah. HER MOM!
"So are you gonna come and get me or what? I'm at the Wingstop. Because I got angry and left. I don't let him treat me like I'm one of his ho's."
Oh yeah. She also threw down the N word a couple of times...as in, "He's my N...and something something MFN..."
Super Special.
She left shortly after and we could only shake our heads.
We then headed to BART to begin our actual journey to Oakland. That's where we saw this little guy...and a smaller friend of his darting underneath the tracks:
So yeah. Before we even left Hayward, we got the Wingstop Ho and the BART mini mouse.
We got to Oakland without any real adventure on BART, but then we began our walk to the arena. Wow. The outfits, the attitude, the boys trying to pick up on the girls as they walked by, the pre-concert tailgating...it was all a treat. I was never so excited to get to my seat in my life.
Side Note: The Oracle Arena in Oakland is the absolute worst place to see a concert. I don't know why I keep giving it a chance, but I think this was it for me. It's a horrible design and I'm certain if there was an earthquake or a fire, we would have died inside.
Anyway...the concert started right on time, 5 minutes early actually, with Miguel. I'd heard of him before the show but didn't really know anything by him. Wow. He was just not good. At all. I took one picture...enjoy.
The crowd was ridiculous...people sitting in seats that weren't theirs, someone actually smoking, people standing on the stairs, blocking aisles and generally being annoying. Seriously. We would have died had there been any sort of emergency.
Next up was Trey Songz, and he was fantastic! I'd heard a number of his songs and liked him from those, but he proved a great performer who could actually sing!
We really enjoyed him, but the crowd continued to annoy, drenching my friend in beer from behind. Not yay. Finally, an usher (not THE Usher, but an arena worker) cleared people out to prepare for the main event, but we were already a bit annoyed.
When Usher finally did arrive, he made quite an entrance, complete with theatrics and a flying platform. There's no question that he can sing and wow, can he dance, and when he did those things, he was great. He played most of my favorites and definitely knows how to put on a show. What I didn't bargain for though was the simulated sex scene on stage with the microphone stand and then a woman. I mean really. It was just so not necessary and it rather tainted the rest of the show. Overall he was good, but I was just disappointed that he had to resort to that when he could just sing and dance and be awesome. Anyway, I'm glad I finally got to see him, but I don't think that I need to do that again.
Two more concerts this year and I can assure you they will be vastly different than this one: Lifehouse w/Kris Allen, then Todd Carey w/Josh Hoge. Until then...
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