The Road to One Direction (and 5SOS)

It all started quite a few months ago when tickets for the third leg of One Direction's Where We Are Tour. I had quite possibly the worst week of school ever, one where it seemed that every assignment was due and I had an exam in almost every class. It was awful, I got little to no sleep, and I was exhausted in every single sense. I was awaiting Saturday anxiously, the time I would finally get to sleep in, at least a bit. Tickets went on sale at 10 AM and I liked to be awake when my mom ordered them to talk about what seats I wanted (though for those kinds of shows, you do best seats available and just deal with what you get). Of course, I slept through my alarm and didn't wake up until 11. My mom had frantically texted me quite a few times telling me that she didn't know what tickets she was supposed to get or if she was even supposed to be getting them. I burst into tears and refreshed the ticket website until noon. I came out empty handed and totally gutted.

Every few weeks I'd randomly check to see if any tickets became available for either of the Toronto shows, but nothing was coming up. I was trying to accept the fact that I'd have to go another year without seeing them, but it's really hard when they're literally everywhere (it probably doesn't help that I follow a dozen or so 1D blogs on tumblr…but still). I got even more upset when they announced that 5 Seconds of Summer were going to be their opening act. If you've been reading this blog for the past couple of months, I've been writing about them quite a bit. I really liked their Youtube covers and am so happy that they're doing so well while being so young. Ugh, those Aussies have a special place in my heart. I digress, I had no tickets up until a few days ago.

Tuesday and Wednesday my radio station was doing this contest where they'd announce 6 twitter handles each day who tweeted a certain hashtag. Those 12 people would be entered somehow to win front row seats to the One Direction show in Toronto. I was babysitting my little cousin Katie on Tuesday and she was really excited about the contest and kept asking who was going to go with me when I won (as if I'd win anything) and I, of course, was going to ask her because 1. she's adorable 2. she loves concerts 3. she loves One Direction and 4. I miss her so much when I'm at school and it was a great way to hang out with her and bond. Tuesday's contest came and went. Wednesday morning didn't work out so well for me either. I have no idea what possessed me to look at the tickets page around 3'clock, but I did and lo and behold, I got a set of limited view tickets. Then proceeded to lose these tickets because I was flailing for a solid 2 minutes. Then I called my aunt frantically asking if I could take Katie to Toronto on Friday or Saturday to see One Direction with me. When she said yes, I tried again. I got another set of tickets in the 100 level in the back…and my debit card wasn't working like usual. I called my dad, got his credit card information, and tried for 15 minutes and ended up scoring two seats on the floor for normal price, not a ridiculous resell price. I jumped, bought them, and shook for the next 24 hours.

I surprised my cousin with them that night, she screamed, I screamed, we hugged, it was really adorable. I was going to drive us, see the show, and come back home on our merry way. Then there was a horrible accident on the QEW and my aunt, who was going to drive up on Saturday to take my cousin to a friends house outside of Toronto anyways, decided to just drive the both of us, hang out at the friends house with the mom, and come back at pick us up at Rogers Centre. I, being paranoid after hearing horror stories of people being late to One Direction concerts because of traffic, said that we should leave at 1:00 (for a 7:00 show). We left my house at 1:30, spent about 1.5 hours at the border before even getting into Canada. The traffic was so horrible and we took 3 detours to get to the arena. What shouldn't have taken more than 2.5 hours took 5.5 hours and we made it just in the nick of time. Literally, we were running down the stairs during 5 Seconds of Summer's opening song.

Onto the actual concert, I would just like to say that I was in this indescribable state of happiness where I just sort of lost myself in the moment. I don't remember a lot about what they said or did on stage. I was so focused on dancing and hanging out with my cousin and just truly enjoying myself.

5 Seconds of Summer were incredible. They are such a great ROCK (yes, rock) band and I think everybody really enjoyed them as well which was great for them! They played a lot of their hits ("Don't Stop", "Beside You", "Amnesia" and, obviously, "She Looks So Perfect") but also added a few new songs from their album and and killer cover of "Teenage Dream" by Katy Perry. A lot of people weren't very happy with their decision to join One Direction on tour again because their genres don't exactly align (in 1D's defense, they really tried to make their new album a lot more rock based), but I think it was a great way to expand their fan base, get exposure, and just have a great time because they're all friends. That's just my opinion though.

Then One Direction…where do I even start. I'm going to start with their clothes, because I like fashion, and am interested in dissecting their outfits (and ripping Harry's off of his lanky body…what?). This tour (including the other 2 legs) they opted not to wear the same outfits/uniforms each night with the outfit change about halfway through the set. They each just where whatever they want and I love that. It makes it more exciting and gives them a bit more individuality. I have to point out that Niall's biceps looked fantastic in his cut-off flannel and Harry's sheer chiffon shirt gave me life.

Proof of Niall's incredible arms at the moment. 

Their set list mostly included songs from Midnight Memories, presumably because they're trying to break away bit by bit from that "cookie cutter boy band" sort of music and because they're proud of this album and wrote almost every single bit of it. Honestly, they could have sung anything and sounded amazing. They looked like they were having so much fun on stage and just truly enjoyed every second of what they were doing.

I would also like to note how absolutely delightful and polite these boys were. Every single one of the One Direction boys took the time out of their performances to thank the fans profusely and tell us that they loved us and were beautiful and just all sort of sweet things. Maybe I'm naive or biased, but I just thought it was so genuine and heartfelt.

I don't think I can stress how happy this concert made me feel. I find it fascinating how people can find joy in so many things, and that on Friday night, the entire Rogers Centre (I'm assuming) felt the same amount of joy as me. That's a lot of happy people in one place!

Not many photos were taken because they are rambunctious boys and like to move around and also because I wanted to dance (#Shocker) and just enjoy myself with bobbling around a massive camera the entire time. I managed to snap a few (I use that very literally) photos that are probably sh*t, but still make me smile. I hope they do the same for you. And if they don't...I dunno, google pictures of bunnies.

Niall was, by far, the easiest the photograph because he wasn't running around wild on stage (at least for the whole time) or grabbing himself inappropriately *ahem, Harry* (It really wasn't that bad) (I sort of loved it).

So. Many. People. 

My face. The lipstick is by Covergirl and I literally didn't have to reapply it all night and wore it for 12+ hours.

Harry's cute lil' bum and his chiffon shirt...and stupid hair that I am fighting not to love.

And for fun, here's a gif I made (it's awful, but I was determined to make it) of Harry Style being naughty during Niall's solo in "Better Than Words", as usual. You can't see his face because I think I was hyperventilating. 

Maybe I'm silly for adoring some random foreign boys who sing well and dance like sh*t. I don't want to get into a boyband debate or the difference between a boyband and a band of boys or any of that nonsense. Music is music, whether it is sung by attractive European boys put together by Simon Cowell on the X-Factor or a group of friends from high school forming a band or people meeting by chance on the street and being compatible. Music is music, it's honestly that simple.

And that's what you missed in my life. See you next time!

P.S. I go on vacation in a few days. I think I'll still be able to queue some posts up, but if not, apologies in advance!