glasses & grenades: Lorde: Royals for the Night

Lorde released her second album 'Melodrama' last June and I was all about it from the start. I loved that it was a little more upbeat and poppy compared to 'Pure Heroine' but still 100% Lorde especially in the lyrics. The minute she announced her tour right after her album release I was scrambling to buy tickets because I kicked myself for not seeing her on her last tour. I was so pumped when Katie agreed to go with me. I knew we weren't at the same level of Lorde love so it meant a lot. But then a few months after we bought our Lorde tickets we also bought Lana tickets which worked out perfectly because I liked Lana at the time but I wasn't on Katie's level. The funny thing is now that she and I have seen both in person we are full on fans of Lana and Lorde. I've been on a Lana kick ever since seeing her in concert back in February and Katie told me today she's been on a Lorde kick since we saw her last Wednesday. Seeing someone live can really change your perspective for better or worse of a musician but I'm just glad this time around it was for the better.

Katie met me at my place and we left for Tampa a little after 4PM on April 11th. We hit traffic around downtown and of course the dreaded Disney area. (How do people do the whole annual pass thing? I couldn't do it based on traffic alone. What. A. Nightmare.) As soon as we got through that mess we stopped for coffee because Katie was fading and we had barely gotten out of Orlando and I needed my partner in crime to be alert. The rest of the trip was smooth sailing - kind of. We stopped for dinner at a four star Taco Bell. The minute we turned into the parking lot I spilled ice cold water all over my crotch. It straight up looked like I had pissed myself but what are you going to do? You're going to go into that Taco Bell and own that wet crotch. I'd say the four star location lived up to the hype because the woman behind the counter sang my name when my order was ready.

We got to Amalie Arena and had a little issue with a detour but parked in the garage without further issues. I helped Katie with her face tatts and she helped me conceal some chin zits with shape tape (aka my new BFF). We go hard for Lorde what can I say. We did some parking garage double snapping and were on our way. We got right in without crazy lines unlike at the Amway. We walked and walked and at a certain point we were like "How the hell do we get to our section?" because all escalators were blocked off and we were up in the 300s (top tier). So we asked a beer guy who directed us to Guest Relations. The guy told us that the "top level was closed tonight" (for the Stanley Cup playoffs) but told us to see some guys at the bar for new tickets. Umm ok. So I handed over our original tickets which were in section 317 and the guy took them and in exchange handed us tickets in section 116. Not only did we get tickets for the best level other than floor seats BUT our seats were in the second row. It's the closest I've ever been to the stage for any arena concert I've been to. Katie and I were like "Is this real life?!". And we'll never be royals...except for maybe tonight.

We sat down right at the tail end of Run the Jewels set. They are a rap duo and not really my kind of music but they had a lot of positive messages in between songs so mad props to those guys. While waiting for Lorde to take the stage a group of three people sat next to us on my side. The guy right next to me spilled his beer on my left leg but given our upgraded seat situation I didn't even care. It could have rained beer. Whatevs. Katie and I laughed about it and made small talk with the guy. I noticed he was wearing a Senses Fail shirt and the back read "I'm a millennial son of a bitch" which I complimented. I haven't listened to Senes Fail since high school but goddamn did I love his shirt. I have even gone to Senses Fail's website and googled the hell out of it but it must be one of those tour only shirts because that sucker is no where to be found. Although I will say they have some other badass t-shirts. Also according to this kid (I call him a kid because he looked young but was probably like mid-20s) their new stuff is a lot better than all the middle music they put out. I'm going to have to give it a solid listen.

Lorde finally came on stage around 9PM and it was everything. I loved her dancers. I loved the glass shipping container that was raised into the air now and then. I loved her cover of Frank Ocean's 'Solo'. I listened to the original after the fact and I was like ehh nope. The Lorde version is way better. I loved that she played a fairly long set. I loved that she went into the crowd to collect an amazing fan-made quilt. I loved her stories (falling asleep in a Tampa movie theater to Isle of Dogs, drinking a frozen drink on the beach, enjoying the swamps, etc.) She is just as lovely and down to earth as I expected her to be and I just want to be her BFF because she's just all around bad ass. I often forget how young she is (only 21!) because she is so wise and talented beyond her years and also so damn successful because of it.

Thank you Katie for checking this one off with me.

Thank you Amalie Arena for the incredible upgrade.

Thank you Lorde for killing it as I knew you would.

Thank you Cheeto and Olive for letting me sleep past 8AM on Thursday to recoup.