Put My Thing Down, Flip It and Reverse It

This is the blog in which I describe our "amazing" experience at a free concert on the beach in Abu Dhabi.

I don't know where to start...

I'll start in September.

Nicole told us about a free Missy Elliott concert way back in September, but it was on Casey's birthday so we didn't even consider it (because who wants to work all day, drive 3 hours and stay up all night on their birthday, especially when they have to work the next day?  Nobody, that's who).  

Weeeeeeeeeell, then Frankenstorm happened and Missy's flight was delayed.  Kelly and I were enjoying our amazing day at MAKE, and we got a text from Casey asking if we wanted to go.  I said no at first because he had to work the next day, but then we were on a megahigh from MAKE and realized that we did, indeed, want to go.  Team Missy Mission was formed.

We went home to rest up a bit, got to the beach around midnight and could NOT find a place to park.  Luckily, Kelly's blond hair charmed one of the police officers who gave us his parking spot.  He literally had a friend move his police car so we could park.  How nice is that?  We gave him two awkward high fives (I don't think Emiratis high five often) and strolled down to the beach totally pumped for some live music.  

Then Cee Lo happened. 

I've been to some embarrassing concerts in my life.  Creed.  Vince Gill.  Mandy Moore.  Some D-list boy band in the 90s at Six Flags (they were so bad I don't even remember their name).  I'm sure there are more I can't think of right now, but Cee Lo was BY FAR the worst.  I'm not the biggest Cee Lo fan to begin with, but I still expected him to be entertaining.  We tried to get into it the first two songs.  We danced and pretended to know the words, but his voice was mediocre and he had absolutely no energy.  His songs were a mix of 90s and bad disco, two things you don't want to mix.  We "watched" the rest of the concert on our bums in the sand.  

A few songs after we got there, he realized nobody was into it and started skipping words and even entire verses.  Then he pretty much gave up and sang only when he felt like it, which was never.  He was obviously expecting Abu Dhabi to love him and couldn't take it when they didn't.   THEN, my favorite part, he quit singing in the middle of his last song and just walked off stage.  No, "Thanks for coming, see you again Abu Dhabi!".   Nope, just walked off the stage and left his DJ spaceman guy to finish the song by himself.  Pouty baby.  

My overall grade for Cee Lo's performance - a big fat F.

We were completely relieved when his set was over because it was that bad and it meant that Missy Elliott was coming on soon.  She sounds like a fun concert, right?  Awesome 90s rap, sweet dance moves, someone other than Cee Lo.  

When she came out the crowd's energy instantly increased.  They were jumping and waving their hands in the air, Missy had tons of energy and sounded good, her dancers were awesome, all good factors in the formula for a good concert.  

And if she kept doing what she did the first song, it would have been.  

Instead, she kept yelling at us, trying to get us to scream and get louder, but I don't think that kind of crowd exists here.  She spent about 3 - 5 minutes between every song trying to make us louder and it totally killed the energy.  If she had just kept rapping the whole time, I think it would have been awesome because when she was rapping, people were pumped, but in between songs the energy level sank.  Yelling at a crowd probably isn't the best way to pump them up, but in her defense, she's probably used to crowds that know every word to every song, and that's just not how it was.  

Missy gets two grades - a B for actual song-singing (I only save the As for my faves like DMB and David Gray :)) and a big fat F for between-song pump-ups.  Overall it was a joke of a concert. 

We took a whopping 4 photos, all of very high quality.

The Missy Mission Trio.  This was before we decided we hated Cee Lo.

Waiting for something good to happen.

Nicole and Sam went to one of those murder mystery dinners before the concert.  Can you guess her costume?

Kelly's sweet dance moves.  

Aren't you jealous you didn't stay up until 4:30 last Saturday to experience this amazingness?  You should be.  Casey says he's never going to another concert in Dubai, but Kelly got a free ticket to Eminem last night and said it was amazing.  I think it just depends who you see.  Isn't it funny how our concert standards have gone down because we don't have access to good concerts?  Katy Perry and Usher are coming in December, and we actually considered spending 450 dirhams to see them.  I don't think Casey's down for that anymore...

P.S.  I totally just wrote this blog at MAKE!  I love MAKE!