Wed Nov 29, 2006 5:29 pm

For my first concert in 2 months, I was all fired up for this one! It was my mom and I, Dannel, and Melanie (2 of my mom's friends). My sister, Whitney, was gonna come with us because she is just insanely obsessed with Dierks, and she loves Miranda too! Unfortunately she was sick, so she had to stay home.

Right before we were ready to go, we found out that it was freezing rain! Greeeaaat. Sioux Falls is a 5-hour drive from where I live, so not very good news! Anyway, the arena was connected to the Sheraton, so we didn't have to go outside and freeze! We entered the arena again at about 6:00, and we all got our tickets and Meet & Greet passes. I felt so special because my M&G pass for Miranda had MY name on it instead of my mom's this time!! LoL because this time my pass came from the fan club.

Mom and I found our seats as soon as we walked into the arena, 3RD ROW!! We sat and chatted for a few good minutes, but we had to leave shortly after for Miranda's M&G!

Miranda Meet & Greet - The wait in line seemed like forever. I was nervous and shaking, but I have no idea why. Hey, at least I wasn't crying =P I told my mom how awesome that would be be if Miranda remembered her because of the dog treats she was gonna give her dogs! I was going to have Miranda record a answering machine voice message for my cellphone, but it didn't seem like it'd turn out well anyways, because the Randy Rogers Band started playing while we were waiting in line, and all the sound cover we had was a curtain! When we were next up for our turn, we were still waiting outside the curtain, and I peeked in and Miranda was wearing camouflage, just like I was! Hahaha and I started jumping up and down like a screaming little girl. It was great =P Our group of 4 went inside the curtain, and they all wanted me to go first, so I handed the guy my camera, and I walked right up to Ran and I said "Hi Miranda" and I gave her a hug right away! I swear I can never remember right away how much prettier she is in person. Even compared to any M&G photo, she's just gorgeous. And she was so sweet as always! She said "I love your shirt!" And we were both giggling. And I asked her if she could record a voice message for my cellphone, and she said "Sure I can make it quick!" But I got all my stuff out, and I think it was the camera guy who said she couldn't, and she gave me this sad expression, and she said "I'm so sorry, honey, I can't do that. =(" And I was totally fine with it, I just said "Oh well that's ok!" And she smiled and she said all happily "I can take a picture though!!" And I laughed and I'm like "Ok good!" Haha that was so sweet. We got our picture taken, and I told her thanks so much again, and she said "Your welcome, and I'm so sorry!" And I said "Oh no problem!" And we both said "It was nice meeting you!!" I was completely fine with her not being able to record the message. the M&G was so rushed anyways, and with the loud music in the background it probably wouldn't have turned out. And anyone could tell she felt bad, and she wanted to do it, but she was so nice about it! I love that girl!!

My mom told me about her M&G with Miranda when she caught up with me. She told me that Miranda said "I remember you! I have your picture in my bus!" Because my mom gave her dogs dog treats again like she did in Albert Lea this summer! I'm jealous! Hahaha. And mom showed me the action shot of me giving Miranda a hug, and that made my night!!

We stepped out into the arena and watched Randy Rogers Band without sitting in our seats, because they were nearly done with their show by the time the Meet & Greet with Ran was over with. Their stage presence is so much better than I even imagined! And their song "Kiss Me In The Dark" is awesome. I haven't heard much of their songs before, but now I love their music!

Dierks Meet & Greet - The 5 of us were all waiting in line forever again. And in the arena, we heard the announcer present Miranda, so we were hoping we wouldn't miss too much of Miranda's show! She started out with "What About Georgia?" so I was just singin' along in line, lol. I handed the gal my camera, and I walked right up to Dierks and I said "Hi I'm Hayley! Nice to meet you" and all that =) At times in Meet & Greets, you're the one who does the question-asking or most of the talking, but right away he said "Oh I see you got a Miranda Lambert shirt on!" And I just laughed and I said "Yep!" And he said "I like that!" Haha that was cute. He's so observant which is great about him =) He's adorable! Then when he was finished, she told me "Thank you very much" and I said "Good luck tonight!" and and "Thank you!" and those, haha. He's wonderful!

Ran's Show
When my mom was done with her M&G, we headed out of the curtain and we got something to drink, and with Miranda still performing on stage, and me memorizing her set list, I told her "Hurry! 'Me and Charlie' is next!" Which is my all-time favorite song from Ran. We got to our seats about half way through the song, and this is where all the jumping around and screaming comes in for me! Next she sang "I Wanna Die", then "Bring Me Down", a brand new one called "Gunpowder and Lead" (AWESOME!!), then "New Strings." When she played "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" next, I think I was the only one singing along and mimicking all her actions on stage! I hope this song will do well on radio...nothing beats it!! Her last two songs were "Hillbilly Highway," and last but sure and hell not least..."Kerosene." This song is always the highlight of her whole show. She was runnin' around and stomping her feet and all her fun stuff! Everyone around me was standing and clapping and singing, but if you happened to see a girl who was psychotically jumping up and down and screaming her head off...that would've been me!! My favorite part of the whole song is "I'm holdin' up my smokin' gun," (of course!)so I had to throw in that action too! It was great! During the end of the song, all of the band members came up to the very front of the stage, and I was waving, and Alex nodded and winked at me. So sweet =) Miranda's performance was over, and we sat and waited for a bit longer. I don't think I've ever had thee biggest headache as I did then, ouch! All that screaming! While mom and I were waiting, we looked through pictures on our cameras that we took, and my mom started freaking out at this one picture, and she said "OMGosh Hayley she looks just like you in this picture!!" And out came my screaming-little-girl-ness again! Pretty much shocking, haha.

Dierks' Show
Dierks' show started at 9:00, and he had the coolest introduction! All the lights were off, some music was playing in the background, there was a steady drum beat, then all of a sudden the beat started speeding wayyy up, and there were purple lights flickering, and it was all loud and crazy, then it ALL stopped, and all we could hear was the opening acoustic guitar chords to "Every Mile A Memory." The crowd went ballistic. It was an awesome opener!! He played not one bad song. "Settle For A Slowdown" is my all-time favorite, which was amazingly played! And his new upcoming single's called "Long Trip Alone" and he said it has to be one of his favorite songs he's ever written, and I completely agree! Gorgeous song. Some moments I will never ever forget from this guy...there was a girl in the front row who was holding up a sign that said "16 and Never Been Kissed by Dierks," so at the end of Dierks' song, he bent over and gave the girl a kiss on the cheek! I was so cute!! And there was a gal and her friends at the end of our row who were holding up a sign that said "We Wanna Come A Little Closer," so when Dierks was in the middle of singing "Come A Little Closer," he actually jumped off the stage and walked over to the pile of girls who were over there!! We were so close to that section, and I was gonna climb over everyone to make it, but it was so impossible, lol. That was crazy! I loved it! Dierks also played some new songs off his brand new ablum, and some of his great old ones: "What Was I Thinkin'," "That's How I'm Doin'," "My Last Name," and they were all awesome! And I was snapping a few pictures of Dierks, and my camera busts on me! Just luckily it didn't happen during the Meet & Greet! Of course Dierks came on for an encore at around the end of his show, and he played Johnny Cash. Then about in the middle of the song, Miranda and the Randy Rogers Band came back up on stage to sing with him!! And Miranda was wearing a white Blake Shelton hoodie, and we noticed that she was wearing the bracelet that my mom gave her at her M&G! So of course my mom was flippin' out, and she was telling everyone standing around her, "OMG Miranda's wearing my bracelet!!!!!!!!!"

it was an AMAZING show!!

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