Facts of Existence: From Groupon-ies to VIPs

The whole saying "from rags to riches" always bothered me...not sure why, just thinking of rags kind of grosses me out. But I had a "rags to riches" experience last night...

A couple of months ago, Groupon had a deal for Ke$ha tickets - $15 lawn seats. Pretty good, right? Well we thought so too...so Andrea and I bought them.

After sleazing it up at Andrea's house, we headed over to the NC Music Factory. Hundreds of 18-20 year old girls were lined up to get in the doors...thankfully, there was a beer garden nearby.

VGBG is probably my new favorite place! Very laid back atmosphere, HUGE patios with nothing but long picnic tables lined up. Think Oktoberfest...but outside and - with what I would assume - way better music! This place has nothing but craft beers from all over. If you walk in here and order a Bud, you'll probably get a weird look. One of the coolest things I've seen - bordering the bar area, there's a frost rail that serves as your resting place for beverages. It's refrigerated, so you set your beverage there and it stays cold! Brilliant!


VBGB Beer Hall and Garden

Ok, so back to the story. Oddly enough, Andrea and I were sitting at the very bench that is in the photo above. Lots of people watching - good stuff! So this guy comes and sits at the corner of the bar next to me and starts reading the long list of beers, and asking the bartender which one he should try. They decided on one and then the bartender asks "what size? We have 12oz, 17oz, and 24oz - she's (points at me) got a 17oz." Without hesitating, I looked at the guy and said "Well you have to at least get a 17oz - otherwise you look like a sissy" - or something along those lines. We laughed and didn't really talk much more.

He and his friend were getting ready to leave and I asked him how did the 17oz-er treat him. He said "not as well as the free ones in VIP will be". I told him "you win". Next thing I know, he's asking me to write mine and Andrea's name on a piece of paper and that our names will be on the list for VIP in the concert.

Holy crap! That JUST happened! At this point, we have no idea where or what VIP is at this venue...so I just walked around flashing this guy's business card and being directed to different people. Finally we found the VIP check in and headed up - it was the bar inside the Fillmore.

Upon walking in, LMFAO was sitting there - knocking back beers with who looked to be their parents or grandparents. Weird. For being such a party-rockin' band, they were really laid back! We found Ron, the guy from VBGB, and he ordered us beers.

Turns out, Ron is the Vice President of key accounts for Live Nation. Basically, this guy sweet talked Time Warner Cable into sponsoring the amphitheater we were at. He's kind of a big deal.

So, there we are in VIP, chattin' it up with Ron...watching the crew get LMFAO's crazy props set up to take out onto the stage...drinking free booze, in the AC!

Ron asks "Where are yall's seats?"...I replied "See that crazy girl dancing in the back of the lawn area?...yea, we're right next to her I'm sure". Ron says "You guys got Lawn seats?" (as if it were the worst mistake of our lives). Then we told him how we got the tickets on Groupon...he then started calling us Grouponies. Haha! He says, stay right here, I'll be back in a few.

About 10 minutes later, Ron comes back in and says "follow me". LMFAO is ROCKING it at this point! Ron slaps some wristbands on us and leads us to a VIP box section. Yea, that JUST happened! Andrea and I looked like we had just been taken in off the streets and put up in the Ritz! We were stoked!

We danced, and danced, and danced to LMFAO - then headed back to VIP to get more beers between sets.

LMFAO

Ke$ha was AMAZING! It was basically a HUGE party with thousands of people!

KE$HA

Ron came down to the VIP box and sat with us for a bit, and when it was time for him to go (first encore) he asked us "You two wanna go see Tim McGraw and Luke Bryan tomorrow night?" Um HECK yea we do! He and Andrea exchanged numbers and just like that, we made a new friend!