11-12/08/17 Shawn Mendes Concert X2
- Kaylin M
- Sep 5, 2017
- 8 min read
Aug 11 - Concert #1
There aren't many musicians that I would pay big bucks to go see in concert ... let alone twice ... but I am very much a Shawn Mendes fan, so this was an exception. Let me give you a little backstory as to why this concert was significant for me. A year (or so) ago, Shawn Mendes was coming to perform in Toronto. I SO wanted to go and I had convinced my college friend Katie to attend with me. We had planned to meet up the night before the tickets went on sale so that we could tag-team the attempts to buy tickets. The next morning we were up bright and early, all technology on hand and ready ... and the tickets instantly sold out! We refreshed the page the absolute moment the tickets went on sale (and for the next 10 minutes afterwards) and we couldn't even get through. "No tickets available" kept being displayed on our screens. I was so disappointed. So, a year later I was even more determined to get tickets. Not only was Shawn Mendes the headliner, but Charlie Puth was the opening act! I would have just been ecstatic to see Shawn Mendes, but to ALSO see Charlie Puth, I absolutely HAD to get tickets!! I originally had plans on August 12, so I 100% had to get tickets for Mendes' Aug 11th show. Luckily for me I had the morning off the day tickets were early released. I wanted semi good seats as Katie and I were both employed so we could actually spend more than money on a ticket. And … no luck! Damnit! But I wasn't giving up so easily this time ... and yes I'm ashamed to say it ... I bought resale tickets. What made things worse was that the resale tickets, although good seats, were sold in USD (USA dollars for those that don't know the acronym), so you can only imagine how much I ended up paying for them. I'll spare you the shock (over 300$). I have to say though, that I don't regret spending the money as I had a great time! Both musicians performed their asses off and absolutely killed it! The concert was at the Air Canada Centre (ACC) so I was able to meet up with Katie and still have plenty of time to get in line for the show. I was planning to stay overnight at Katie’s so I had packed a backpack that I was not looking forward to carrying through the venue, but fortunately there was a free bag check so it made everything a lot easier.
The show started at about 7:30 pm and opened with Charlie Puth coming onstage and performing for maybe 30 minutes. I could have listened to him sing all night, but I guess people were there too see this Mendes guy so Puth had to give up the stage eventually. Charlie (do I have to keep typing his last name? You know who I'm talking about) sang 5 songs:
Marvin Gaye
Attention
Suffer
See You Again (sorry I’m singing the Miley Cyrus oldie in my head right now … it’s not the same song … they are totally different)
One Call Away
Little known fact about Charlie Puth is that he has the rare phenomenon that is "perfect pitch". You'll have to look it up because my description just won't do it justice, but long story short - he's an amazing performer. I wish he was onstage for longer because he has so many great songs that I love. I guess I'll just have to see him when he's headlining - any volunteers to attend with me? I mean, I am totally fine with going alone, but it would be nice for someone to come with me so I don't look like a total loser ... anyways, we have time. Just have your people call my people (me).
Next up: SHAWN MENDES! It would be impossible to bottle up the magnitude of shrieks that my ears had to endure that night … the bottle would surely shatter. I’m surprised that I was able to maintain most of my hearing by the end of the evening. Katie and I were seated stage right with a great view of the front stage and an even better view of the middle stage that Mendes performed a few songs on mid-concert. He started the concert with his newest single “Nothing Holding Me Back” and the concert was going great until I had the awful realization that I didn’t know half of the songs he was performing! Here I am claiming how much of a big Shawn Mendes fan I am and realizing that I’m a complete imposter! Katie was singing and dancing along to all of his songs and I was standing next to her feeling like a con, so I mumbled through the choruses once I memorized a line or two. I’m the type of person that can attend a concert of an unfamiliar performer and still have a great night, but the stress to impress was overwhelming and I was so embarrassed, so it definitely hindered my enjoyment of the show. Lucky for me, my throat was quite sore that night so I had somewhat of an excuse for not singing. Mendes’ performance was still amazing and the show definitely got me excited for the second night … and gave me time to rush back to Katie’s condo and immerse myself in an overnight Shawn Mendes musical crash course.
Here's a picture of Katie and I at the concert:
Aug 12 - Concert #2
Like I said earlier, I originally had plans on August 12th, that's why I had to get tickets to the August 11th concert, but those plans ended up falling through. About a month after I had bought the tickets, my friend Kristen texted me saying that we had bought tickets for the Saturday show to surprise me because she knew I liked Shawn Mendes. It was such a thoughtful gesture, but at that time I couldn't make it and it killed me to turn her down, but I told her to try to go with someone else. Lucky for me, she didn't end up finding anyone else to go with and gladly re-invited me when I told her a few months later that I was now free for that day. By the way, Kristen is one of the most amazing and kind people I know. You are truly lucky if you ever get the chance to meet her. So, the morning of August 12th, I spent the morning hanging out with Katie watching reality TV and going for a quick swim. I hadn't seen her for a year and she recently just got engaged so we had a lot to catch up on. At about 4 pm I headed back down to Union station to meet up with my friend Kristen for Shawn Mendes night #2! Kristen and I went to elementary school together so we've been friends for a very long time. It was so nice being able to spend an evening with her because we both live relatively busy adult lives now and don't get to see each other as often as we'd like. We originally had plans to eat at The Loose Moose downtown but it was a 45 minute, so we ate at an Italian restaurant just further down the street. The food was good enough and there was plenty of it. The restaurant got our order wrong once and our receipt wrong twice so we were there for longer than we had planned, but we didn't mind. Afterwards we headed over to the Air Canada Centre for the show. Our seats were directly across from where I had sat the night before except we were seated just a few rows lower. We got the lighting guy to take our picture (see below) then headed off to the washroom to begin our 15 minute wait before the concert started.
The ACC had converted the men's washrooms into women's washrooms which you would think would decrease the wait times, but when there's only 2 stalls and one is flooded it really doesn't make much difference. Anyways, we rushed back to our seats and were giddy with excitement. I had informed Kristen the previous night that I hadn’t originally known half of Shawn Mendes’ songs and she assured me that we would have fun no matter what. In fact, she didn’t even know who the opener was! It hurt my heart and soul a little bit that she didn’t know who Charlie Puth was, but I got over it and she did end up knowing some of his songs so she was still able to enjoy his performance! We had a blast! I think I had more fun the second night because I knew the setlist so I knew what song he was going to play next and (thanks to my crash course) I could prepare to somewhat sing along! Also, because I had been there the night before, it was like I had an inside scoop into the depths of the show because I knew what was going to happen and when. I definitely recommend if you can go to a concert twice that you should do it because I thoroughly enjoyed it and felt it was all totally worth the money!
The concert finished at about 10:30 pm which meant that we JUST missed the Eastbound Lakeshore train home, but it wasn’t too long of a wait for the next one. Kristen commutes into Toronto twice a week so she knew which side of the train usually opens first and headed us towards that platform so that we could increase our chances of getting seats on the ride back to Whitby. We were so excited when the doors opened immediately in front of us that we hopped on the moment the doors opened; causing us to break the train etiquette of letting the train passengers exit the train beforehand. Whoops! On the plus side, we got seats! Yay! It was pretty dark out so we ended up chatting a bit before sitting in silence after our adventurous evening. At about 11 pm we had arrived at Pickering Station (Random Fact: Pickering is Shawn Mendes’ hometown) and I noticed that we had been stopped a while. I assumed that someone had mistakenly pressed the yellow emergency bar and it had stalled the train, but it had been 20 minutes and no one had announced anything. Kristen joked that if the train is delayed for longer than 15-20 minutes due to train-related issues, that you can get your ticket reimbursed. I was staring out the window when I saw 4 police officers in full gear walk along the platform. Again, I didn’t think much of it and casually mentioned it to Kristen to look out the window. Keep in mind for the next part that the train was very quiet and I have been blessed with a projectile voice … I said “Oh my god Kristen did you see the one with the huge gun?!” Yes, I shouted that one a train, at 11:30 pm, on a train filled with young Shawn Mendes fans. On the plus side, I later discovered that no one believed me so I didn’t actually alarm anyone. That is until that officer and his partner searched the train and walked past everyone without uttering a single word. Again, no one has announced anything and there were now 10 police officers in and around the train with K-9 dogs and riot shields, obviously looking for something or someone. Everyone fell into full panic mode. Children were scared, parents engaged protection mode, and I was trying to keep Kristen calm. The whole ordeal lasted about an hour before they announced that we had been given the green light to move onwards and that the delay was due to a “passenger conflict” … I think that was putting it a little lightly. The funny thing was that everyone on the train became friends for the rest of the journey home by bounding over the traumatic experience. We actually all laughed about the it after the fact and jokingly blamed Shawn Mendes for putting us through the whole ordeal. It really made the day extra memorable.
(If anyone is wondering what actually happened on the train, it was released 4 days later, that a man wielding a disposable razor had begun threatening passengers. They never ended up finding him to arrest him.)
Anyways, I’ll post all my pictures of the nights below in an album so that you can flip through it. Enjoy!
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