worth the wait

So last December, I spent two hours of my life in a virtual "waiting room" on the AXS Ticketing website waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting to get let into the "room" to purchase tickets to one of six nights Adele was going to perform at Staples Center this month. 

As an LA Kings season ticket holder, and someone who as spent more money than I care to admit at Staples Center since it opened in 1999, I was more than slightly annoyed by this "waiting room" process put in place by the owners of the Kings, Staples Center and the craptastic AXS Ticket purchase site in an attempt to beat online ticket purchasing bots. 

An hour in, I actually started to hate them even more than I already hate Ticketmaster (which is a LOT). But I finally, miraculously got out of the waiting room and my max of four allowed seats popped up... in Section 314, row 8. I haven't sat in the 300 level of Staples Center since 2001. For those that haven't been to Staples Center, that's the top section of Staples Center, about 20 rows and three levels of luxury suites above my excellent Kings seats. Yes, I am a Staples Center snob. I was NOT pleased. And I now really hated AXS' ticket system more than I hated Ticketmaster (have I mentioned that is a LOT?). 

But I bought the tickets anyway, and tried for another hour to get better seats on another night. No luck. Lots of people complained on social media they couldn't get tickets at all... in addition to also proclaiming their hatred for the AXS "waiting room." So I buried my rage and downloaded my tickets and waited eight months for the concert to happen... hoping that Adele wouldn't blow out her vocal chords again and have to cancel the tour like she did on her last tour.

Well, August 10th finally arrived and here was my view from section 314... 

... and while I was very, very far away from the stage, it didn't end up mattering because Adele sounded AMAZING (of course) and the concert was AMAZING and I had a great time with my parents (who I took for their Mother's and Father's Day gifts) and my Adele fanatic-friend Daryl.

A lot of these vocal divas camp in front of a microphone and just sing. And Adele freely admitted she doesn't dance (while telling a story about why she's not performing at the next Super Bowl). But what she lacked in dance moves, she made up for with storytime... she had a story about almost every song she sang... some funny, some serious. (Fun Fact of the Night: The producers of Skyfall convinced her to do the theme song by asking her how old she was at the time. [Reminder: Her albums to date are all named after her age at the time she wrote them.] Her answer: 23. Their response: This is the 23rd Bond movie. Deal done!) 

Her fun personality won the night. She called three young girls up on stage to take a selfie with her early on after she noticed them trying to get photos of themselves with her on stage in the background, and also posing for three different photos for their three different moms' cameras. She was super-chatty (even apologizing for being so chatty) throughout the whole show. She smiled and waved to fans in between belting out lyrics. And it all just made everyone who already loved her love her more. 

This is the stage in the back of the floor that Adele first appeared on, rising up through the center at the beginning of the concert (singing "Hello..") and was lowered down below at the end of the regular set. She was smuggled under this mini stage and out from under this mini stage in a large rolling equipment case. I saw it roll in and 2 minutes later the show started, and I saw it roll out when she finished singing "Set Fire to the Rain."

The woman sitting in front of me thought I was crazy and the case wasn't big enough. Then I reminded her we were sitting four stories above said equipment case and of course it looked small from where we were. She realized I was right. (Duh.)

This is from the acoustic part of the show.. Adele performed "A Million Years Ago," "Don't You Remember" and "Make You Feel My Love" with just 2-3 musicians on strings and her amazing voice.  Beautiful.

And here are some of the videos I took to remember the amazing-ness. Enjoy! (Thank goodness for giant video screens... even if her head is half cut off because we were so far above the top of the stage  ;)

The Finale..

Here was the set list:

• Hello
• Hometown Glory
• One and Only
• Rumour Has It
• Water Under the Bridge
• Skyfall
• Million Years Ago
• Don't You Remember
• Make You Feel My Love
• Send My Love (to Your New Lover)
• Sweetest Devotion
• Chasing Pavements
• Someone Like You
• Set Fire to the Rain

Encore:

• When We Were Young
• Rolling in the Deep