3 Doors Down

Last Saturday night, Jay and I had a great date night. Kendall stayed with her old TA from Patterson Road School and we drove to Bakersfield to see 3 Doors Down. We dropped Kendall off at about 1:30 and she was so excited to be with Mrs. Flores and to see some friends. Mrs. Flores arranged for two of Kendall's good friends to come and spend the night and the next day they had a pool party with some of the teachers and staff from Patterson. It was so comforting for us to know that not only was Kendall safe, but she was going to have a great time while we were gone.

We stopped at Blenders in the Grass for a smoothie and started on the road. The drive to Bakersfield was about 2.5 hours long and the first part was beautiful. We were surrounded by rolling hills and I was just so excited about the concert that I could hardly stand it! We listened to 3 Doors Down pretty much the whole way there and got down there at about 4:00 and checked into our hotel. We were going to just drive back that night, but the concert didn't start until 8:00 and we knew it would be a really late night if we tried to drive home, so we got a room at the Holiday Inn, which was right next to the Rabobank Arena where the concert was. We went up and got settled into our room and went down to the restaurant in the hotel and had dinner. We had to be at the Will Call window by 6:30 to pick up our tickets, so we didn't want to take a chance of being late if we went out and went exploring. We had a really nice dinner in the hotel. Their portions were outrageous, but the food was very good.

After dinner, we headed over to the theater. When we were walking over there, we noticed a lot of young kids and found that odd, considering we were going to a rock concert. We started to question ourselves, because Kendall really wanted to go and we didn't bring her because we didn't know what the crowd would be like and when we saw all of these young kids, we thought maybe we were way off base. When we got to the will call window, we understood what all the kids were doing there. The Rabobank Theater has two arenas, and one was having a hockey game that night. We were at the wrong window, we had to go to the other side and the crowd over there was much more what you would expect for a rock concert. There were no young children and we were behind a girl with long spiked hair that went up at least 12 inches and she had 5 spikes on her head, along with buzzed sides and rainbow bangs. We had to wait about 30 minutes for the doors to open after we got our tickets and we were very entertained the entire time. I love to people watch and there were plenty of people to watch there! Everyone was pretty polite, but there were some people that were a little obnoxious. The security folks came out and told us that if we had a camera, take it back to the car because there were no cameras allowed. I have been to plenty of concerts with that same rule, so I hid my camera at the bottom of my purse and told Jay if there were people all over the place taking pictures, I would take it out, but if not I would leave it in my purse.

We got in and explored the place and found that our "seats" were not seats at all, we had pit passes. I have never been in the pit, other than at the Ventura County Fair, so I was very excited. We went up and grabbed our spots in the front and saw a 12 Stones banner and were perplexed. There was nothing on the website or tickets about an opening band and we didn't realize that 12 Stones would be touring with 3 Doors Down. I turned to Jay and said, "Kendall is going to kill me!" She's a huge 12 Stones fan and I was already questioning whether or not it would have been ok to bring her. After we got settled into our spots, I went to the restroom and to get a t-shirt and saw that not only was 12 Stones selling shirts, but Red (another band that Kendall loves) was also playing. Both 12 Stones and Red are Christian bands and we had no idea either of them would be playing. I got back to our spot in the pit and told Jay, "You're not going to believe who the other opening band is, Kendall is really going to kill me now!"

At promptly 8:00, 12 Stones started their set. It was our second time seeing them and they are very entertaining. We had a security guard directly in front of us and directly behind him was the stage, we could not have been any closer. Unfortunately, there was no way we were getting any pictures and I was pretty disappointed to be that close and not get any pictures, but it was still a great experience to be able to watch the show from that spot. After 12 Stones, there was about a 15 minute break and then Red started. I was a little nervous about Red because Kendall always tells me, "Trust me Shannon, you would not like Red, they would scare you." But you know what? They didn't scare me. I don't know that I am going to run out this second and buy their album, but they were not half-bad. The sound in that theater was really good and even the screaming wasn't too bad ;). After Red there was another 15 minute break and 3 Doors Down came on at about 10:00. They only played for an hour, which was really disappointing, but they sounded great! They played 4 songs off of their upcoming album and they were so gracious and just kept thanking their audience and they had a very simple setup on stage. I have a feeling this was a special performance and was not part of their normal tour. I know I won't have seats like that again, but I can't wait to see them live again! It was a great way to celebrate the end of my first tax season. I'm thinking next year we'll take a cruise.....