Friday Night Kurt Cobain Birthday Celebration feat: Smells Like Nirvana at The House of Blues – 20180223
My friend Claire offered up some free tickets to this great show (listed above) so we took the train in for a night to remember.
We had some ‘mixed drinks’ during the train ride and arrived in Chicago totally ready for an adventurous night.
Once we exited Union Station it was just a short Uber ride to the House of Blues.
We immediately hit the restrooms 🙂 It is not as easy to ‘hold onto it’ as it used to be after surgery you know!
After that we found the coat check. Next to the coat check counter, the lead singer for Smells Like Nirvana was selling T-Shirts. We asked him to take a selfie with us..
We went back by the front door to meet some of the other friends Claire had invited. Once we were all together she lead us all to about the 4th row on the show floor.
Here are links to two videos I recorded from this viewpoint at the concert as well:
http://arianadanielle.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/20180223_213134.mp4
http://arianadanielle.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/20180223_214023.mp4
Claire ‘talked’ her way into getting us access to a VIP box as well! Apparently she had a little history with doing this in the past 🙂 So, we took our little crew up to the box seats and had our own waitress.
The guy to my left was a random guy that also seemed to have swindled his way upstairs.
^^ VIP Box Selfie ^^
^^ VIP Box Groupie ^^
^^ VIP Box Groupie ^^ – my friend said I was doing my “Posh Spice” face.. I think I just didn’t want to make the face they were making.. I was like, “Ari, don’t do it!”
At the top center of the stage there reads these words.. “Unity in Diversity.. Who Do You Love.. All Are One” – go House of Blues!
My friend Megan arrived late but found us up in our box. She later joined the mosh pit below and cleared everyone out. She is tough as nails.
As the concert winded down we asked the bouncer about the after party and he told us to go right up to the third floor. There was a DJ playing some great music and the room had a very chill atmosphere (video link below):
http://arianadanielle.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/20180223_235210.mp4
There was also a mysterious room that we were not sure we were supposed to be in.. but we explored it anyway.
After some quick googling.. this room is called the Foundation Room VIP Suite – so yeah.. I probably was not technically supposed to have gone in there. Oops!
This night all happened with last minute plans I made with Claire that day. I had a bunch of little excuses in my head to talk myself out of going. I was short on money.. the train ride can be scary for a transgender woman.. and you name it, I thought of it. However, I learned well over the past two years that 90% of the best times of your life will happen when you just choose to show up. Well, I did.. and I will never forget nor regret it on this occasion.
-Ariana