So yesterday I got to go to a Glee concert. It was Mom's birthday present to me. (I don't care if you hate Glee. I have a good time watching that show, dammit.) It was originally supposed to be on Sunday, but then they moved it to Monday for some reason. Monday night concert? So weird.

But anyway, you know what I got a kick out of? The outfits. Because people really dressed up and it was adorable. I kind of felt like I was going to Rocky Horror, there were so many outfits. Some were cheerleaders, some were Warblers, I spotted one Bully Whip. Some people had crazy fan shirts with quotes or their favorite guys on them. One girl came dressed for prom. I thought about buying a shirt, but they were $35 or $40 and I thought, "fuck that, I can find cheaper online if I want to." Some of the shirts were pretty inventive though, like a fake Warblers blazer T, some of the "Born This Way" shirts (Brown Eyes, No Weave, I'm With Stoopid, Can't Sing), one shirt featuring the now-dead Pavarotti.

I don't actually own any Glee merch that isn't all of the CD's, but man, I wished I had dressed up or something. Maybe next year, even though I don't resemble anyone on the show. Unless I borrow Dad's old wheelchair, dress up in nerd boy clothes and cut off my hair.

While waiting for the show to start, they were showing quotes from the show. I... could easily identify about 80% of the speakers. Ditto the Glee quiz they printed in the program (my one souvenir of the night). I was surprised that they were mentioning plot lines from as late in the show as "Funeral," though when I got home and checked, we were the second city on this tour. I guess that explains why.

The opening act, which went for about 25 minutes, was The LXD. For those of you who haven't heard of them, their dancing is AMAZING. They ain't called the League of Extraordinary Dancers for nothing, folks. I was very excited to see them live, even from the nosebleed seats (happily, they had camera screens for this show). Best opening act ever. I wish it was longer, but given the extraordinary dancing I'm surprised nobody passes out by the end or something.

Then there was more waiting... Seriously, what the hell are people doing in between opening acts and the main act that takes so long? I'd really like to know, because once the stage is set up, I seriously wonder. Though eventually a bunch of cheerleaders came out, handing out...something... to the people on the floor. Sue Sylvester came onto the video, announcing that those were barf bags, because we were going to need them. After a little intro between her and Will, here came the kids!

And the show was AMAZING. The kids perform in character (though Artie did get out of his wheelchair to do "Safety Dance", I wondered how the people in wheelchairs at the show felt about that one. He's my favorite character, but I have issues with that sort of thing), and while there were a few little interludes here and there, mostly involving Brittany (she came on to Blaine), mostly it's just the songs you love, with big booming vocals and fireworks and smoke and confetti. They are every bit as good as you've seen on television, but it's even MORE. It was amazing. I forgot all the nasty crap going on in my life for a few hours and was blown away and chair dancing the entire time, even to the songs I'm not normally as into. Worth going kinda deaf for awhile afterward, lemme tell ya. I also saw some sign language interpreters in my area, so that made me happy to watch.

Probably the biggest surprise of the night for me was Kurt's "I Wanna Hold Your Hand." It's done very simply and elegantly and heartfeltly on the show, but to hear it in big surround sound in a giant arena? HUGELY powerful. Second biggest surprise to me also involved Kurt-- they did a 5-song "encore" (after about an hour of performing, which is odd) and the first song up afterward was Kurt and some ladies do the "Single Ladies" dance. Which was hilarious. Though I still think it's odd that they do NOT seem to be allowed to sing that song. Did Beyonce only give them permission to use the music but not sing to it? I'm still wondering.

Also awesome: full on Warblers performance for 3 songs. Blaine came out for a few songs later on, most notably "Friday." That amused people. There was a duets section ("Lucky," "River Deep, Mountain High," "Get Happy,"), a few solos here and there (Lea Michele, of course, Finn got to do "Jesse's Girl", and the aforementioned Kurt solo, and Puck, Mercedes, and Brittany.), some big group sing numbers like "Don't Stop Believing" (of course) and "Sing" and "Someone To Love." I enjoyed Artie and Mike and Tina and Brittany's "PYT", with Michael Jackson costuming. It wasn't a big costume show, I think the most elaborate one was Brittany doing "Slave 4 U" in that outfit. I kind of found that funny since I guess Britney is touring through here next month. They did "Loser Like Me," not with a fake slushie machine, but some Cheerios did hand them all cups of confetti to pitch out into the audience. Which were accompanied by a metric asston of confetti being shot all over the place. They had 2 stages for the show-- the large one shaped like a capitalized I and a small one across the room where they had "Single Ladies," some of the solos, the Warblers, etc. That ministage was SOOOOOOOOO covered in confetti by the end of the night.

If you like Glee, it's worth going this year or next.

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