MCI Center

Total Serendipity!

I'm still in shock over my night last night, we didn't get home til around 1 am... it was surreal!

My husband Kim surprised me with Coldplay Tickets at MCI Center in DC. Because this was a last minute deal to a sold out concert, he ordered the tickets online through RazorGator and he paid a lot, $350.00 and had them over-nighted. (The tickets said $80 a seat on them.) He asked for the left side of stage, on level one, which is even with the stage and the tickets were suppose to be in the middle of the arena. So that's where we thought we were sitting...  ->

The serendipitous part of the story doesn't end there. We arrived around 7:50 and the show was supposed to start at 8:00. A few minutes after we arrived... a man and his teenage son come in and we stood up to let them by and the man sits down next to me.

The man looked sooo familiar... was he a politician? A neighbor? Why do I know his face? Kim figured it out... it was Mr. AOL himself.... Steve Case ! So I rocked out to Coldplay until 11pm sitting (and standing) right next to Steve Case for 3 hours! LOL, it was wild!

Fiona Apple opened the show, she played for 1/2 hour, it was terrible, eh,  I don't like her screechy, weird version of music at all.  The good news was that Coldplay played for the next 2 hours. It was an incredible concert!

Plus, it was lead singer Chris Martin's Birthday and they handed out HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRIS flyers for the front section to wave around. The energy in the arena was incredible, a packed crowed, with 20,000 people!!

I did talk to Steve. Shortly after he got there and we figured out who he was, I touched his arm, so he'd turned to look at me and as soon as I did that, he offered his hand to shake --as he knew he'd been "outed" and he said "Steve". (A gentleman!) I said to him "You looked so familiar, I thought you were a politician but my husband said it was you".  He said; "One up for your husband".

Then I asked... "How many people say this to you? I signed on to AOL back in 1992!" Steve said "You among our first 200,000"... I said "Yeah back then, it was a toss up between AOL and Prodigy and I dumped AOL briefly and then I got a letter from you, but it was probably automated... "And he quickly replied "... and I begged you to come back ?" "Yes!! That was it! And I did!" (We both laughed.)

Some other small chit chat and then the concert started. He seemed nice, low key, classy and normal. No body guards in view, just him and his kid. I thought that was cool. (He may have had them, but I never saw them.)

Anyway, it was an incredible evening. I had my camera cell phone and did manage to snap some pics before the battery died.

Robin

We really didn't eyeball the tickets until we were inside MCI looking for our seats... I opened the envelope and said ...."Hey look! These tickets say FLOOR on them! I don't want to sit on the floor!" I was imagining being stuck in the way back floor, far from the stage and all those people standing up, in my way, waving their arms around. I'm 5'2 so all I'd be doing is sniffing armpits the whole evening, unable to see the show.

We entered the arena and I walked up to an MCI staff woman to inquire about where exactly these seats were and to see if we could change them and get seats up higher on the levels above the stage.

The woman replied, "These seats look pretty good, I suggest you go down to the floor and ask those attendants exactly where they are before you try to change them..."

So we did...we walked all the way down the steps to the floor and I hand a woman my ticket and start following her.... and she guides us up to the FRONT ROW! Kim was as much in shock as I was, he had no idea that RazorGator did that. So we had surprise Front Row seats to Coldplay!!!
<----

The picture above, my husband took.  I said "Take a pic w/ Steve Case behind me." (Good job, dear.) I lightened it up as much as possible (below) and it sort of looks like me --or an alien!