My Middle School Dreams Came True!!!

Last weekend while we were at Mullet Toss, I had to do a double take at a flyer hanging outside of Vinyl Music Hall.  I was convinced I had to be day dreaming.  There was no way that what I was seeing was really happening.  But it was true:

O-TOWN.  IN CONCERT.  IN PENSACOLA.  THE FOLLOWING WEEKEND.

A little backstory in case you don't know.  I was completely and utterly obsessed with O-Town in middle school.  While most people were debating between Backstreet Boys and N*Sync, I was covering my walls with O-Town pictures cut of Bop magazine, throwing joint birthday parties (Jacob and I have the same birthday), and listening to Liquid Dreams on forever repeat.  I was convinced that the two times I saw them in concert (at Kings Dominion!) had to be the greatest days of my life.  Like I said, OBSESSED!  So it was a given that we would be heading back to Pensacola for the concert.


The concert was on a Sunday night and luckily Rob wasn't scheduled to fly on Monday.  We spent the morning at the beach before heading back to get ready.  The concert was taking place in Vinyl Music Hall, which is a small, standing room only venue on Palafox Street that is much more likely to play a heavy metal show than a teen pop band.  We decided to head downtown to grab a couple drinks before the show.  {Is it acceptable that I was jittery? Probably not!}

5 1/2 is a cool mixology bar, connected to Vinyl.  They actually play the warm ups and most of the shows on the TV screen behind the bar. (Also perfect for monitoring how crowded the room gets!) We were the only people in 5 1/2 so it felt like we had our own private bar.  We watched them warm up, had a couple drinks (The west indes paint brush is fabulous!), and ordered Hopjacks pizza to the bar.  The bartender Brittany was super sweet and we had a great time hanging out while the opening DJ played his set.

When the opening act finished, we walked through to Vinyl to grab a spot up front by the stage.  O-Town opened with Liquid Dreams (of course!) and played an almost entirely acoustic show.  It was a good mix of old songs and new, and they were super funny.  Dan and Jacob both took my phone at random times and recorded selfie videos on stage.  My heart may or may not have skipped a beat when they sang All or Nothing!  After the show, they stuck around to do pictures and autographs.  Can you say middle school dream come true!!!!  I think I was just a giddy as I would have been back then ;)

14 years ago, I never would have believed you if you told me that I would go to a concert and MEET O-TOWN in FLORIDA with MY HUSBAND but life has a wonderful way of keeping things fun!  You just never know what's to come :)

Were you an O-Town fan? Can we still be friends even though I am a total dork?! ;)