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Author Topic: Tracie & Gregg's Magic of Christmas experiences  (Read 2226 times)
Tracie
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« on: December 15, 2019, 11:34:14 AM »

Gregg and I saw the Magic of Christmas tour twice last weekend, in Prior Lake, MN and Denver, CO, and we'll still be seeing the final two shows of the tour next weekend.  We had an absolutely incredible time seeing the shows, talking with the ladies, and being with our friends, so let's get started on writing up our experiences!

First of all, the show is mind-blowingly amazing! I go into every show expecting to be blown away and every time they have somehow even surpassed my incredibly high expectations.  These ladies are truly sensational.  I could rave on and on about how phenomenal they are, so if you have the means to get to one of the shows in this final week of the tour, do it! The music is so beautifully performed and the show is incredibly fun. The setlist includes nearly all of the Magic of Christmas album, minus Amid the Falling Snow (which we heard was in the show earlier in the tour, so bummer!) and minus Wexford Carol.  In addition to the 13 album songs were group songs Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, Joy to the World, Danny Boy, Amazing Grace, Ding Dong Merrily on High (with a bit of It's Beginning to Look A lot Like Christmas intro), the orchestra performing Murphy's Mistletoe, and solos We Three Kings (Mairead), White Christmas (Eabha), The Kesh Inn (Tara, with a lead-in of Silent Night), and It Came Upon A Midnight Clear (Megan).  At my first show in Prior Lake, I literally watched the entire show with my jaw hanging open in complete awe.  Every song was so gorgeous!  A few notes about the show: during Angels We Have Heard on High towards the end where they use a choir on the album, in the show they had Eabha and Megan harmonize while Mairead sang opposite them.  Oh my goodness, it was amazing! For Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, it's just the four of them with Ronan on piano. That one put tears in my eyes both nights. Deck The Halls has such a fun intro, with Tara teaching the very difficult ancient lyrics "fa la la la la" to the audience and then is a very fun sing-along. At the end of that one in Prior Lake, the audience sang the final "la" before the ladies did, like how on the album there's the pause. Mairead shook her finger at the audience like, nope wrong, and then belted out the final "la" in her perfect gorgeous voice. I loved that! That one is followed immediately by Feliz Navidad, which they also request to be an audience sing-along. At the Denver show, Tara pointed her bow right at me like "go Tracie!" and gave me a huge smile, which I loved.

We were in third row in Prior Lake and front row in Denver, so they could see us both nights and we got lots of smiles from them.  The Prior Lake show omitted Murphy's Mistletoe, Ding Dong Merrily on High, and had no intermission, which we found out from our friend Sarah afterwards is because it was in a casino and they are given strict time limits from casinos. Well, good thing we have three other shows on the tour to see the additional songs! We're also going to try to request Amid the Falling Snow to be added back in next weekend. I would love to see that one live! Our front row center seats with a very low stage made the Denver show feel even more personal, plus that we were sitting with three amazing friends, David, Rachel & Tom. We got so many smiles from the ladies, especially at our santa hats and when we all linked our pinkies and swayed to Auld Lang Syne. They loved it! The Prior Lake show was just 5 miles from our house and we had numerous friends, family members and co-workers attend the show from our recommendation. Many of them had never seen Celtic Woman live before but no joke, every single one of them came to us after the show and said "WOW!" Some of them immediately bought tickets to the spring tour. We really love sharing the amazing music and shows with others. Also at the Prior Lake show were Sarah and James, who we had previously met at the stage door for Ancient Land (Sarah is such a great friend!), and new friend Devin, who we met because he messaged me a few weeks ago asking how to meet the ladies, having seen my pictures on facebook. I gave him lots of tips and he got his first stage door meeting with us after this show, so let's get into the meetings portion of this write-up!

Gregg and I kicked off the weekend by going to the Prior Lake venue the night before the show. It was inside a large casino just 5 miles from our house. We went to pick out a restaurant to eat at before the show, to check out the stage door, and thought it would be cool if we ran into any of them since they were already in town for a day off. We were eating dinner in a café and who happened to walk up to the ice cream shop across from it? Eabha and Megan! We chatted with them a little bit and they were excited that the show was sold out and that we were bringing so many people. We seriously have the most ridiculous luck in meeting them in places that are not an official meet and greet or a stage door. We were guessing they would be staying in the hotel inside the casino, but it's still pretty unlikely that we'd actually run into them there. The place is huge!

Before the Prior Lake show, we talked to John in the lobby (he was selling programs). We told him how much we always love the show and how awesome it was at Red Rocks when he climbed up onto the rock during Amazing Grace. After the show, it was quite an adventure getting to the stage door. First, everybody we knew at the show wanted to talk to us in the lobby and take pictures with us, have us wait while they purchased Magic of Christmas CDs, etc. Then we had to walk out through the casino, get into our vehicle and drive to what we were only guessing was the stage door, but we weren't really sure. It was probably at least 45 minutes after the show had ended at this point and we were figuring we had already missed them. But Devin found the correct stage door and messaged me where to go and that he had talked to Lloyd and he said the ladies hadn't come out yet. We drove over to the correct spot and then waited probably another 10 minutes or so until they came out. I told Lloyd that I love how he's always smiling at us when we sit right up front (he loves watching us sing and dance along on the spring tours!) and he said he can always see us. He also said he and John would be flying to Denver the next day, which Gregg and I were also doing, but that everybody else was taking the bus. Mairead, Eabha and Megan came out all together and made their way through the seven of us who were out there, talking, giving hugs and taking pictures. It was freezing cold and they were commenting on how we were waiting in the cold. Mairead adorably scolded Gregg for not wearing a coat ("where's your coat, Gregg!?"). I told Mairead that her voice is out of this world, to which she went "Traaaaaacie!" I told Eabha and Megan that all the people we had brought with us came to us afterwards and said WOW. We then talked to Ronan and he remembered our names even with the last time we had talked to him being Johnstown Castle, so that was super cool. We asked him who the orchestra was and he said this one was just random musicians pulled together. He and Lloyd both said they were looking forward to performing with the Colorado Symphony next. We told all of them that we were flying to Denver the next day. They all got on the bus and then producer Shane told our group we could come up and we started following him. Tara stepped out and stood in the doorway and waved us up. We were looking at her like, we can come in there? She said "come on, come inside, it's freezing", and she brought us into the warmth backstage. She then chatted with all of us and took pictures. She commented on how cold it was and I said we're Minnesotans, we're used to it. She asked, oh you live here? We said yeah, you see us all over the place but this is where we live! I also told her about all the people we brought with us and that they loved the show. We were thinking Tara probably got on the bus and told the others, why were you standing in the cold, I brought them inside! That was so nice of her to bring us into the warmth, and also so nice of the others to stand in the cold and talk with us. They're all such sweethearts!

The next morning we went to the airport to fly to Denver and yep, you guessed it, ran into Lloyd and John! Yet another meeting away from a venue! We talked again about how much they were looking forward to the Colorado Symphony and that Gregg and I had also gone to the Denver Christmas show last year. I was wearing my Best of Christmas t-shirt, so John opened his coat and proudly showed that he was wearing his Ancient Land t-shirt. They told us that they usually take the bus but sometimes they get sick of it and want to fly instead. They asked us if we were on the same flight as them (we weren't unfortunately), and Lloyd took a picture with us since we had already gotten one with John the night before. Let's keep this crazy good luck of meeting Celtic Woman members away from stage doors going, because we absolutely love it!

We spent the weekend in Denver with our three wonderful friends (Tom, David and Rachel) and we had such an amazing time. We all stayed at the same hotel and did pretty much everything together for the weekend - went to the holiday lights parade, had all meals together, went to Gregg's favorite bar, went to a German Christmas market, and just enjoyed each others' company. Being with such great friends really makes the experience of going to the Celtic Woman shows so much more fun and meaningful. We always enjoyed the shows when it was just the two of us, but when we started meeting and becoming good friends with so many other fans, it kicked the experiences up to a whole other level. We love that we have met so many wonderful people through our love of Celtic Woman, and it all started with this forum, so thank you so much! We're already missing our friends so much and can't wait to see them all again for more trips and shows! We love you guys! We all agreed that anytime Celtic Woman is either at Red Rocks or doing a Denver Christmas show, we will all be there together <3

The five of us went to the stage door in Denver of course and we were the only ones out there. We probably waited 20 minutes or so for the ladies to come out. It was quite a bit warmer than Prior Lake, so we weren't freezing this time. While waiting, Rachel was teaching us some Irish dancing, which was really fun. John came out and talked to us again (we had talked to him in the lobby before the show as well). Ronan waved to us and said how much fun the show was as he walked by. Eabha and Megan came out together and Megan was pointing at Eabha and saying "it's someone's birthday tomorrow!" and we then sang Happy Birthday to Eabha. So much fun! Then Megan said "ok, now in Gaelic!" and we were like, umm teach us, so they started singing it in Gaelic while also laughing. Mairead and Tara then came out together and joined all of us. Mairead requested a big group photo (which we also wanted to request, but she said it first!), so Shane took a picture of the four of them with the five of us. We love that picture so much! From the two nights combined, Gregg and I each got a solo picture with each of the ladies, plus our awesome big group picture and our pictures with John and Lloyd. Our picture goal for next weekend is Ronan! We should have asked him for one in Prior Lake. The five of us then kind of rotated around with the four of them of who was talking to who. I'd say this is my favorite stage door experience yet. They spent a good 15 minutes hanging out with us. At one point another fan walked up and wanted a picture with them and Mairead told us they were going to take a picture, but don't leave, they're coming back to us! I told Eabha that when she sings in Gaelic it's one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard and she said it's her favorite too. I told Tara we got meet and greet for the tour finale and that we were excited to get a picture with them in their gorgeous Christmas gowns. I told Megan how incredible the show was yet again and that I kept watching with my jaw hanging open.  I told Mairead that we really want either a Magic of Christmas dvd or deluxe version of the album and she told us to ask Shane, who was standing close by and could hear our request. They need to make that happen so we get all the additional songs, and we have been dying to have this current group on a Christmas dvd! After Mairead, Eabha and Megan went to the bus, Tara stayed out even longer and kept talking to all of us. She told us that they absolutely love the fact that we all met each other and became such good friends because of their music. I think it was Tom who said that four of us had just met for the first time at Johnstown Castle and then I added that we met Rachel at Red Rocks. Tara was really surprised that we had only known each other for a little over a year and said that it feels like we've all been going to shows together forever.  Awwwww how sweet! There were more things that were said by Mairead and Megan that are too personal to even post here, so suffice it to say that it was an incredible night at the stage door and each time we meet them, we feel a growing fan/performer connection. We absolutely love how they basically hang out with us now and know us so well.  Can't wait to spend more time talking to them next weekend! And of course we're super excited to see the phenomenal show twice more, both with Tom! We'll finally meet Glen in Milwaukee! And we have meet and greet for the tour finale so we get pictures with them in their gorgeous Christmas gowns! Just one work week to go until another amazing weekend - bring it on, we're thrilled!

I'll be back with more reports after the final two shows next weekend. As always, please feel free to look at my pictures on my public Instagram account: tracie_dorn

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VegasDavid
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« Reply #1 on: December 20, 2019, 01:38:53 AM »

Nice write-up Tracie!  I had already heard most of these stories directly from you, but it was nice to hear it again, and all in order, and with some extra details I didn't pick up on the first time.  You seem to have a great time whenever you get to chat with the performers, and they like talking to you.  I'm also really glad the five of us got to spend the weekend together.  It was so sweet that we all got to meet up at the airport and then (almost) all of us also went back to the airport together when departing too, so we really were together the whole time.  I think I only went out on the town by myself twice, for a total of two hours. 

P.S. Those pointy Christmas hats we found in Target at the best!

P.P.S. Have a great time in Milwaukee and Cedar Falls, and don't forget to ask Megan why she was bending over with laughter!
« Last Edit: December 20, 2019, 01:40:34 AM by VegasDavid » Logged
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