The Wiggles Concert

The concert started at 5:30, so we left the house at 4:30 and got to the Nokia Theatre in time to stand in line for souvineers. Corbin now has a new khaki hat that says "The Wiggles" on the front. There were lots of other things to buy, like t-shirts, toys, and CDs. It was very hard to get Corbin to be patient, because he wanted to run around and explore the whole lobby.

On every chair when we arrived inside was a sticker sheet and big picture of the stage. Corbin did really well putting all the Wiggles characters onto it. I didn't even know he could use stickers like that. He's still playing with it a day later, so the stickers must be intentionally removable. Henry is now missing most of his legs, though.

Since we were a little early, I was relieved to see that they were showing Wiggles episodes on the big screens to either side of the stage. Corbin enjoyed watching those until they interrupted for some logistics announcements. Stuff like, tie your balloons down low, and stay with your child at all times. Don't videotape the show. They did say not to use cameras, but absolutely everyone was taking pictures.

Most people seemed to be there with their entire families. I didn't notice any other single parents, although I also didn't notice any other children without at least one sibling in tow. The people beside us and in front of us both had babies who had to suffer through the loud concert. We had a great seat on the aisle, about halfway back and slightly to the right side.

Corbin was a little freaked out by the whole environment. He was fairly happy until the announcements were made loudly and the lights started flashing. Then he told me that he was "all done" and wanted to "go" now. When the Wiggles finally came out on stage, he was watching the screens instead of them. When Jeff came out into the aisles to wave at kids, he came right by our seat! Corbin did get excited about that and started to pay more attention. Their first song was "Big Red Car," but Corbin was still unsure whether he liked the loud music.

Mommy offered him a sandwich, which was treated like a security blanket. He was fairly content while he was eating it, even though he couldn't do any dance moves while holding it. On a couple of his favorite songs, he'd put it down so he could groove along, but he nibbled on it throughout most of the concert. Many times he wouldn't start dancing until the song was almost over, then he protested for "more."

During the second half of the show, he got very wiggly and cranky. I'm sure some of it was just about being confined to one spot, but he wanted to climb up and down Mommy's lap, into and out of his chair, on and off the floor. I was very glad I'd purchased two seats, even though he spent 80% of the time in my lap. Thankfully the show moved at a very fast pace, and there was constantly something new to distract him. The guys didn't do much dialogue between songs, and it was always kept short.

The show didn't actually start until 5:50, twenty minutes after we expected. So it was about 7:15 when it was over. I was suprised that so many families got up and walked out as soon as they announced the last song. Their kids must have been pretty upset with that decision. We were busy waving for a long time and gathering our stuff together. In the lobby we were going to get a balloon, but there was a very long line and the balloons were $3, which I thought was too high.

We knew all the songs, which I was concerned about. The whole thing was very similar to the Hot Potato concert video, with just a few older songs mixed in. Overall, it wasn't an awful experience, but it certainly wasn't worth $90. Of course, there was really no way to know ahead of time how he'd react. But in another year or so, we'll be looking forward to their next tour.