My girl Monika messaged me at 4pm on a Wednesday night offering me tickets to the Enrique Inglesias and Ricky Martin concert. I quickly jumped at that and invited my new friend who a couple of weeks ago, hooked me up with my new brows by telling me about Andrea.
I haven't been to a concert in a while, and I definitely haven't been to a concert in El Paso, so I was excited and nervous. It didn't help that my new friend has never been a concert, period. So there we were, 2 old farts, dressed in the most comfortable going out clothes we had. We were too old to give up on comfort. We quickly drove to UTEP and parked at the parking garage. I couldn't figure out why everyone else was circling around trying to find parking at the Cappriotti's lot or the ones next to it. I mean it was like $10 for the parking garage; if you're gonna spend $100+ in tickets, might as well just splurge on parking and not have to worry about being towed since there was an active police and security presence.
We quickly met up with my generous friend Monika and got the tickets from her. She and her friend looked amazing, as well as everyone in the elevator down and in line. I love how everyone was dressed up and smelled great, it made me regret not taking a shower beforehand though. Hey it was last minute and I had to take care of the kiddos before heading out. That's my excuse and I'm sticking with it. Speaking of lines, there were 4 regular lines that I could see and 1 extremely long VIP line. I'm not sure if VIP was worth it because our lines moved much more quickly since there were more lines dispersed.
Since the line wasn't moving, and my friend remarked that she misses Thanksgiving food, as she isn't getting together with family this holiday and that big of a meal wasn't justified, I decided to treat her to a Bobbie sandwich at Cappriotti's which was right across the street. The Bobbie, if you didn't know, is Thanksgiving in sandwich form. It has house made turkey with stuffing and cranberry sauce all in a bun. I ordered 2 kids meals which came with Capri Suns and Craisins. I ran back and we proceeded to stuff our faces with the sandwich as the line moved along.
When we reached the front, I discovered that I misplaced my ticket. I checked the trash can (where we threw the leftover sandwiches) and the entire line floor, but couldn't find it. My friend remarked that I should give Cappriotti's a call just in case, and I did and lo and behold, they found it there. I ran, back, profusely thanked the worker who found it and was honest enough to give it back. The security guards were gracious enough to let me pass with the ticket after they wanded me and checked my clear bag without having to wait again since my friend was waiting in the front for me. I must commend UTEP security for keeping things moving and very organized.
We made our way to the nosebleed section and honestly, Don Haskins auditorium was small, but the way it was designed, you can see the stage from almost every angle. Well done. We were there around 7:15pm and the concert was supposed to start at 7:30pm. Well, it seemed that it was empty, but suddenly around 8:45pm the concert began and the stadium was filled! Everyone was so excited and the energy was palpable, especially when Enrique spoke Spanish to the crowd. He played a lot of hits and crooned his way back and forth to 2 different stages. He wasn't a dancer or entertainer, per se, but he tried and I felt like he was having a good time. He was earnest and it was a good performance, about an hour long. Ricky Martin's set was definitely a lot more bombastic, with larger sets, a lot more feathers and dancers. He still had the moves and I swear he changed costumes twice with each song. He was clearly having a blast and the crowd ate it up.
The crowd was very excited and the energy didn't let up all night. There was a mix of ages, from a very young elementary school kid who fell asleep around 9:30pm in her father's arms to the little wizened gray ones in wheelchairs. I don't know how but those older aubelas and tias had more energy and was bouncing around even after the concert ended. The only bad parts were the guy behind us who wouldn't stop speaking/screaming a whole conversation while we were trying to listen to music and the people in front of us that kept on standing in the aisles and standing up and blocking the elderly who couldn't stand up. I did end up asking a couple to please sit down as they were blocking an elderly couple right behind them and to their credit, they did sit down for one song. Other than that, everyone was polite as they came and went to get food and drinks, and there weren't any shoving or rude displays.
I thoroughly enjoyed the night, more so as it could've ended in disaster with my ticket lost. Enrique and Ricky put on a show and I'm glad I was able to see them live. Thank you Monica and Cappriotti's staff for making the night happen. The moral of the story, if you get offered tickets, just GO.
