HEY, I STILL DON’T HAVE A BAE, BUT MY VALENTINE’S DAY WAS FILLED WITH SLAY!
(I’ll stop…. but probably not actually!)
On Tuesday February 14th 2016 I went to Ariana Grande’s Dangerous Woman Tour at the Bridgestone (known in my head as that-arena-I-hugged-Demi-Lovato-in-the-basement-of,but that’s a different story) Arena in Nashville Tennessee.
STAY TUNED TOO! I have an extra Little Mix story!
Ariana Grande is one of the most wonderful, magical, insanely-talented pop vocalists of our generation, (and I saw her Honeymoon Tour in 2015 and IT GAVE ME MY LIFE!) and Dangerous Woman is a QUALITY album, so when she announced this tour and then added EXTREMELY-UNDERRATED British Pop-Queen SuperGirlGroup Little Mix, I was like DONE, (Middle-Floor) TICKET IN CART, SHHHOOOOKK!
Seeing the annoncement, going to get tickets like:
(Not exactly, because I always wait to buy tickets for good prices/in case I try and win them, but I freaking knew I’d get this!)
Victoria Monet was the first opening act. I haven’t really heard of her besides that she wrote No Way for Fifth Harmony. And.. I can’t do any further commentary, because I ran into a problem and missed most of her set so all I really know is she was there and probably trustably good based on the 5H song . SORRY!
(LIT)tle Mix! Oh Man, they know how to put on a fun show! They grabbed my ATTENTION! (I bet you’ve clicked off this blog by now..) by opening with Salute -THAT CATCHY-ASS FEMALE-EMPOWERMENT BOP!
BRB I JUST GOT DRAFTED INTO THE LITTLE MIX DANCE ARMY!
*gets killed within 5 minutes because their level of dance ability is IMMENSLY higher than mine*
They then did Hair *EXTREME BOP OF POP BOPS* next and their first ever straight-outta-X-factor single Wings (did not expect that throwback!) and basically knocked the crowd senseless with DANCE SKILLS with a straight-up side of vocals! If you see these ladies live, they don’t play they WORK that stage to an almost-Beyonce-notch level of choreography!
Which, THOROUGHLY gets me in Saterday-Night PJ dance party mood on a Tuesday!
I saw LM open up for Demi’s
Here’s another thing about seeing Little Mix live, UNEXPECTED EXTENDED SING ALONG PARTS, BECAUSE YOU HAVE TO ADD FLARE SEPARATING IT FROM THE STUDIO VERSIONS! YAASSS!
Studio track= Vanilla Ice Cream, Extra Vocals/Audience participation= Hot Carmel, Choreo (done properly) = Sprinkles!
Ballad time! The fourth song they did was Secret Love Song, which is definitely in my top three favorite Little Mix songs! They did the thing where they have the audience put up their phone lights (Perrie actually messed with us by having us put the lights up, then back down again LOL!) , and they sang it with the spotlights on each individual members and it was (Black) MAGIC!
HERE, WITNESS IT!!
TAKE A SIP FROM MY SECRET POTION, THAT’S HOW THEY PICKED THINGS UP!
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BOY, YOU BELONG TO ME, I GOT THE RECIPE, AND IT’S CALLED BLACK MAGIC!!
Okay Little Mix, you’re literally feet away, AND YOU STILL CAN’T TELL ME HOW TO WORK YOUR MALE-ACQUIRING BLACK MAGIC! It’s an adorable, fun song, but CUT TO THE CHASE, GET ME A GUIDE, THEN A GUY! Please, it’s Valentine’s Day!
The stage did have a rectangular runway, so they opened current-single Touch acoustically, THEN KICKED IT UP TO THE STUDIO VERSION ON THE CHORUS! I had the honor of hearing this single-thirst-jam live for the first (and second!) time live on Valentines day! BEST THING EVER!
They finished with Shout Out To My Ex ! Can’t relate but it’s still FUN AF!!
Ability for fans to jump-around-while-playing-it-live should be a criterion for almost every artist when picking a single tbh!
FUN TO SHOUT LYRICS ARE ALSO A HUGE PLUS!
Love you Little Mix Queens ! You’re so freaking fun!! SEE THEM LIVE, BUY THE ALBUMS, DO IT!!
Next came the pint-sized (despite her last name), LEGEND/Dangerous-Baby-Bunny-Rabbit-Pretending-To-Be-A-Lion from Boca Raton Florida, with VOCALS from somewhere outside of planet earth… MISS ARIANA GRANDE!!
Well, after her ANNOYING-ass countdown, that is.
I wanna know who’s brilliant idea it was to give us TEN ENTIRE MINUTES of her playing with her top, hair, and the camera, BASICALLY DOING NOTHING OF INTEREST! TEN. MINUTES.
Worst. (STUPIDEST). Countdown. EVER!!!! (At least you’re pretty Ari *EYE ROLL* )
She lead in with Be Alright and hit us with that same EPIC as-seen-on-SNL CHOREO THOUGH!
I have a love-hate relationship with INSANLY-HYPED energy and screaming during the first song in basically any concert! It walks a line between fun and overwhealming and ALSO FORGET TRYING TO GET ANY PICS OR VIDEO AT ALL UNTIL SOME POINT IN THE NEXT SONG!
During this particular concert, I also had girls in front of me (and who I assumed to be their mom, part-funny/part-annoying) that would dance and block my view. FUN, NOT!
Ariana are you wearing that black jacket with orange straps over your black dress to make it easier for people towards the back to see you?? ….. That’s actually clever. A fashion risk, but clever.
Next was Everyday, her new single, a bullshit jam because it’s catchy-without-any-other-value! Here’s a performance-redeeming factor though! PYROOOOOOO!!!! Nothing says CONCERT MEGA-PARTY to me then FLAME CANNONS!
No Nextflix and chilling this V-Day for me! More like Bad Decisions and Bopping!!!! YESSS!
I guess chilling insued though, because it’s as if I was playing a dance-platformer video game WITH ENOUGH POINTS TO UNLOCK THE BEST CHARACTER ARIANA THE MIGHTY!
You play around her as she’s singing to you though. We aren’t worthy enough to play AS her.
(She also has dancers around her doing most of the actual dancing work,which is weak especially compared with Little Mix, but it’s near forgivable!)
For her first interlude THERE WAS A CLIP OF HER SINGING AND I’VE NEVER HEARD THE SONG BEFORE! I mean, she is a fan of releasing unreleased tracks, but I’M HOPING IT’S A TASTE OF AG4!! (Aka the next album!! See, you should know that nowadays, before fans know the title of an album, they call it the artists initials and the album number it will be BC easier to talk about!)
Okay, if you insist, here’s a clip of that! (recorded for my own listening pleasure!)
Outfit change! Okay Ari, now you really look like a fluffy white rabbit! I’ll give you some carrots if you sing to me!!! *throws carrots at stage* OKAY GREAT!
Knew Better/Forever Boy has the best beat of any album filler track I’ve ever heard! I’d also like to say that Knew Better Part 2 is immensely better BECAUSE OF ARIANA’S ADORABLE RAP! Oh my gosh! It’s even more precious live!! I need more of it! Forever Boy had a cool trick, I’ll admit! Drummers and glowing lit up pillars! Even AriTheDiva herself played with the glow sticks!
Visually, one of the best performances of the night!
I might put the video to this one, if only the freaking bass on the audio wasn’t too strong! That’s not cool! (it’s not the only video this happens with either)
I can’t say I ever get tired of One Last Time and, just like on the Honeymoon Tour, it really doesn’t need anything besides just her singing it! (Except maybe some colored lights! That’d be cool! C,mon, in that music video, the world is ending!)
Cue photo gallery of Ari’s gorgeous face, because #BETTERQUALITYBITCHES!
DOES ANYONE NEED A TOUR PHOTOGRAPHER?!
I COULD HANDLE THAT FOR YOU! (Especially for closer tickets!)
GOSH DARN IT, I UNDERRATE TOUCH IT! It’s probably actually one of my favorite Ariana songs and that chorus kind of blows me away! She had some type of heart monitor lines on screen that moved with the song and it was amazing!
For (another fave of mine!) Leave Me Lonely, there were pink lights on each side of Ariana with a big white one down the middle and there was smoke on the stage which added to the warning tone of the song like quite a bit! It’s kind of surprising how much something like a lighting trick, or adding smoke can add to a performance.
Oh, and…. VOCALSSS! Delivered. As. PROMISED!
Here was another notable interval! AN ADDED EXTRA PART OF LEAVE ME LONELY! SO GOOD! One thing to know about Ariana’s concerts, is that she knows how to PROVIDE a notable interval!
Do you wanna know what else she freaking PROVIDED?!?
Side To Side, EXACTLY. LIKE. THE. MUSIC VIDEO!!!
GIRL HAD THOSE EXERCISE BIKES OUT!!!
I’ve never seen a performance where it literally felt like you were in the music video before this one! IT WAS SO LIT, I WAS HARDCORE DANCING AND EVEN RAPPING NICKI’S PART!!
She followed that up with Bang Bang, which had me going JUST AS HARDCORE!
I thought she would have continued the party with Greedy, but it felt underwhelming to me, I was calmed down, there were people jumping in front of me, and I wasn’t paying enough attention to HER KEY CHANGE which is the best part in the song!
But, I just learned that she apparently has money falling down during that performance that has her face and signature so THAT’S DOPE!
I’m here for Moonlight though! I love the concept of adding a beautiful backdrop to a ballad and having the artist sit down. The stage looked like a galaxy and the cell phone lights were up and it fit with the sky theme because the lights would be like stars! This song is also the cutest thing and I loved hearing it on (Cat) Valentine’s day even though I’m too single.
Break Free (along with another song) had LASERS and it was some type of remixed. The lasers and the pyro for this show were THE COOLEST THINGS! Break Free only underwhelmed me because I saw it on the Honeymoon Tour and I was closer and she was doing ALL KINDS OF EXTRA AWESOME VOCALS on it! It was still good. it just can’t really compare to that experience!
Sometimes is the chillest song but it’s still awesome! At the end of that performance she had huge pink balloons rain down from the top of the arena. That’s a definite upgrade from confetti! I wanted one so badly but I couldn’t manage to get one because I was too far back! 😦
Thinking Bout You was BEAUTIFUL!! Both of Dangerous Woman‘s love ballads were served justice on this tour! Ariana started with a lovely smoke heart on screen behind her, and as she sang, the screen would show colored smoke images of straight, gay, and lesbian couples hugging/kissing each other and AGAIN, EPIC VISUALS!
I kind of had a problem with Problem. Her dancers held up some blue strobe lights and I didn’t get it. Bring the black and white swirls, bring the lasers back, I want something else!
Into You was AS MUCH OF A JAM AS EVER! I need to get just as excited (if not more!) when I hear my ABSOLUTE JAMS live and this one delivered as much as a song with “baby come light me up” in the chorus should!
I NEED to talk about this EPIC finale!!!
DAAAAAAAAAAAANNNGGGGGGGG!!!!
Dangerous Woman, Stunning long black dress (No rabbit ears unfortunately!), THE WHOLE STRETCH OF STAGE ON FIRE, AND SHOOTING EVEN MORE!!! (Hope she’s alright the whole tour, we don’t need another Michael Clifford incident with the fire!)
It. Was. EVERYTHINGGGG!!!!! YAAAAAASSSS!!! I won’t forget seeing this one EVER!!! That’s probably the most epic concert finale I’ve seen yet!
(Sorry about the bass)
Concert Experience Rating: 7.5/10 I love some vocal slayage, and I love some cool, secret, performance tricks (she’s really good at that!)! I’m going to say this again, THE PYRO WAS SOO COOL, THE PYRO WAS SOO COOL!!! Another amazing thing is SHE DID THE WHOLE Dangerous Woman album and if the entire album is AMAZING enough to do in its entirety live, then the artist (s) should definitely do it! Not enough artists do! Dangerous Woman is also such good album. I gave it a 9/10 in my review, and I probably spent at least 4 hours with it again after this concert! Some of the performances however seemed just ok though and I felt like maybe they could have added things to them. I also believe that I liked the Honeymoon Tour better overall when I saw that. She didn’t speak to the audience nearly as much with this show either (just a cute “Happy Valentine’s day!” really) and I missed that, because A) I didn’t feel as connected with the show and B) ARIANA IS PRECIOUS and we missed out!
Still, Ariana continues to be super amazing, I thank this tour for getting me to revisit that whole album, and I COULDN’T THINK OF A BETTER WAY TO HAVE SPENT MY VALENTINES DAY! (Well actually, that same day/experience, only with a bit more chocolate, because I didn’t eat as much of it as I usually do on V-day!)
…………………
And if THAT concert experience wasn’t enough!
If you’re a fellow pop music nerd, it’s truly best to check on your local top 40 station on a regular basis!
BECAUSE THEN YOU FIND OPPORTUNITIES SUCH AS THIS, A FREE, UP-CLOSE AND PERSONAL, ACOUSTIC, MINI LITTLE (haha!) MIX SHOW!
Earlier that day on Tuesday February 14th 2016, I went to local radio station 107.5 The River’s Bash Your Ex Ball with Little Mix, at the Wildhorse Saloon in Nashville Tennessee.
Need I mention that I waited about an hour outside in the rain to get into this? Well it was free, it was only sprinkling out, I had an umbrella (eh eh), and Little Mix are worth it!
It was a general admission show, aka standing in a tight area! BUT THESE ARE ALWAYS WORTH IT FOR THE PROXIMITY TO THE ARTIST!
Thankfully, before the show started, I got to move in front of the tall guys that were ahead of me.
The station had a contest where if you brought a picture of your ex (I brought a picture of one of the more obscure youtubers I watch, since I don’t have one!) they’d shred it, and there was a raffle to get Little Mix Meet and Greet passes! I didn’t win at that, nor through trying hella hard through the station in other ways! I would have REALLY LOVED to meet them, but you can’t win everything, and there is still hope for someday!
The funniest thing about the ex shredding thing, was that someone brought in a photo of One Direction (post Zayn) and I was offended when they shredded it! Still funny though! I can’t get too butt-hurt! It’d be funnier though if it was just Zayn because this was a Little Mix show and because of the whole Zayn-Perrie thing!
Little Mix are so cute! Jade’s little pink cowboy hat was ADORABLE!
They sang Black Magic first. I really liked this crowd and being part of it, everyone was singing along, having a good time, and occasionally, yelling positive messages to the girls!
They ripped up someone’s sign between songs! Super funny! I feel like they really fed off of the audience, and everyone there was having such a good time!
Next was Shout Out To My Ex and I videotaped Perrie in the beginning of the song. Like…. Who’s side am I on with this whole Zerrie thing again! I don’t know, BUT Perrie’s kind of my fave in Little Mix! She’s SO TALENTED!
Touch is such a bop! Everyone was still singing the words and it’s VERY GOOD ACOUSTICALLY!
Personally, I don’t have an ex to shoutout to, but I’m thirsty for a touch of boyfriend love so I LOVE IT MORE!
I like how the audience reacted when Jesy added extra vocals to her part!
They did touch fans hands at the end and this is probably the closest I’ve ever gotten to getting trampled when I rushed forward, but I was fine, so I didn’t feel scared like I probably should have been, oops!
Concert Experience Rating: 9.7/10 (.2 deducted because I wasn’t RIGHT AT THE ABSOLUTE FRONT, and .1 deducted for not being longer) Only 3 songs and all singles, but one of the best intimate GA shows I’ve ever been to! The crowd was super fun to be a part of, it really did feel like a whole, everyone was singing along, and talking to the girls, and overall enjoying themselves. This show really did have a strongly connected energy to it. Their singing was also spot on, and Little Mix really are very fun to watch! I definitely have more love for Little Mix now!
Oh, and I also tried to wait by their van until they came out after the m&g. They came out after a couple minutes and there was only about 10 fans along with a dog, so I really wish they could have meet us, but at least they said hey!
It did drive me kind of crazy that the van they were in was right in front of me and I still couldn’t meet them!
Better luck next time I guess!
Drop of Pop Culture 