Well this was unexpected. I had the opportunity earlier today to work a promo involving the Verizon Up app which is an app for their mobile/phone customers. The idea is for every $300 you pay towards your bill you are given a credit which can be redeemed for concert tickets, trips, gift cards and more. Tonight all those with a Verizon phone number over the age of 18 were eligible to play a game and win one of many gifts. Because the Lady Gaga show was tonight at the Capital One Arena (formerly known as the Verizon Center) the perks for tonight were catered towards her show. For example, first off there was a hospitality lounge for Verizon customers which offered some food, drinks and charging stations. Now in terms of the game, one would simply walk up and put in their first and last name, Verizon phone number, email and date of birth. Tonight everyone walked away with something and was deemed a winner and the possible prizes included lower level tickets to the show, upgraded VIP tickets, official tour merchandise and a Joanne poster. Now before today using the credits on this app about 15 people played to win tickets (some meet & greet) to see Lady Gaga tonight, and lucky for those of us that worked some of those people didn’t show up leaving their tickets up for grabs.

Now please keep in mind that an attempt was made to contact every person that had yet to pick up their tickets before the start of the show. For most we couldn’t get a hold of  them while others rejected them stating they lived out of town or were sick and couldn’t make it. There were about seven of us that wanted to actually go inside and see the show and what do you know, all seven of us got the opportunity to do just that. Now the question was what to do with our stuff. Now initially our footprint was set to look different and be outside but for our city it was smaller (which I didn’t mind because we were inside). Because we were stationed not too far from one of the arena’s entrances we (or at least I did) made friends with the security of the space and the bartenders (we were stationed right outside of a Bar called Bar Louie in a lobby).

One of the bartenders kept coming back and trying her luck on prizes and she was the same bartender I asked to store our things when it was time for us to go inside which she thankfully did. I didn’t see that many crazy outfits but then again we were no where near the main entrance. Getting down to the floor level was like a maze as we went down so many steps and around so many hallways. Once on the floor all I had to do was look up and you could really see how many people were there; it was a lot. Now all evening I kept hearing, “Gaga is performing at the AMAs” and she did. She wasn’t necessarily there but she performed for it. We got a chance to see her AMA performance live and be a part of it. When they read off the categories for best pop artist Gaga we watched that on the screen as Gaga was amongst them which also included Alessia Cara and Rihanna. Guess what…Gaga won and we saw her acceptance speech and that was a beautiful moment to witness.

In true Gaga fashion she changed outfits to fit her performances and sang some of her hits that range across all albums such as Just Dance, Applause, Poker Face, Alejandro, Telephone, Bad Romance, Perfect Illusion and more. I have to say that she put on a show and her visuals were nice. I enjoyed the fact that she moved around and performed different places. There was the main stage and then there were about 3 other small stages throughout the floor that she moved to to perform throughout the night, so those of us that were towards the back of the floor towards the end of the night we were in the front because she moved to the back (that’s when I was able to get all of the really good clear pictures. I couldn’t stay for the entire show as I just wasn’t really prepared to even go at all but the last train to leave was at 11pm (thanks to it being a Sunday) and I definitely wanted to beat the crowd before the end of the show let out as this arena probably had at least 20,000 people in it (I’m used to going to smaller venue shows with a couple hundred) so it’s better to get a head start and I left at 10:30pm. For someone that wasn’t even expecting to go though I had an amazing time. Thank you and keep the surprise concerts coming (I could get used to this).

I am going to two other shows this week: Moonchild (11/21) on Tuesday and 6lack on Wednesday (11/22).