Motown Philly Back Again

Well, I can add Sean from Boyz II Men to my random list of celebrity encounters, which by the way, includes some BIG A-listers like Billy Ray Cyrus, Naomi Judd, Rudy Guilliani and more. (Okay, maybe not really more, but you get the idea.) But, I did see Mike Myers last summer in Kyoto. 

Anyway, I'd like to take a moment to tell you right now about a time when I bumped into one of the Boyz at Hard Rock Nagoya. 

We went to Hard Rock to celebrate our good friend, Lorie's, birthday. While there, one of our friends noticed a man and woman sitting in a booth near us. He mentioned he thought he was one of the singers from Boyz II Men, and we shortly confirmed by comparing a photo on his iPhone. We also realized it was highly likely because Travis had just listened to an interview with Boyz II Men on a local radio station. We quickly began to wonder if there was a concert that night. We discovered that there was going to indeed be a concert. So, we began scheming and thinking about whether or not we should drop some serious dough to hear "I'll Make Love to You" live. 

Shortly thereafter, our theory was confirmed. After the exit of the first alleged Boy, we saw Sean, another of the Boyz, snuggling with his lady friend at a booth across from us. Everyone kept encouraging me to ask him if there were anymore tickets available for their show. I was way too big of a chicken, and he appeared to be laying some sugar on his lady friend so I felt far too awkward. But, we soon noticed he had disappeared. Uh-oh, we lost our chance. But wait, no, we didn't. I got a little burst of courage and decided to approach him while he was paying his bill with my friend, Ayako. I simply approached him and told him I was interested in purchasing tickets to his show and asked if he knew whether or not any were left. He responded by asking my name and said he would give me and my friend, Ayako, free tickets to the show. Awesome, except for the fact that we were there with a group of 13. So, I mentioned that we were there to celebrate a friend's birthday and that there were actually 13 of us there. He took my name and phone number and mentioned he would have his manager call me. Right...

Well, about two minutes later, he called! I never thought I would hear someone say, "This is...., Manager of Boyz II Men," on the other end of a call. But, sure enough, they hooked us up with 13 free tickets (the most expensive ones, too), which actually ended up being 14 free tickets because we forgot one person. Oops. 

Here we are with Sean from Boyz II Men. He was super nice. I never dreamed he would give us free tickets. I just wanted to know whether or not the show was sold out because no one was answering the phone at the ticket office. Just goes to show that sometimes you just have to go for it, I guess.

The show was set to start only about an hour or so after we had finished our birthday lunch so we rushed over to the venue. While standing outside, we quickly began to notice that everyone entering the building seemed really dressed up. They weren't exactly wearing what I expected to see at a Boyz II Men concert. Well, that was because the concert was not exactly what we anticipated. It was actually a Boyz II Men concert in collaboration with The New York Symphonic Ensemble. Ha! It was great, though. They sang all the classics, and we had a really fun time. Especially considering it was free!

Here's a picture of Boyz II Men performing with the symphony on-stage. I realized I must have been way out of the loop for a long time because I didn't even know there were only three of them left. I was still expecting there to be four. Oh, and did you know they've been singing together for 18 years? Crazy! Their voices were absolutely amazing, too. I couldn't believe how great they sounded live.

The best part of the entire show was when they decided to end it with "Motown Philly Back Again." I don't know if that's the actual title, but that's what I'm calling it. It was great! We all went down to the front of the stage and boogied down. It was a great and unexpected night!