Date of Visit: February 25, 2016
Five years later and Mik still has only been to two NBA arenas, but he has now seen his first concert at one (and probably last). I had been trying to see The Swon Brothers for over a year including going to the Opry when they were supposed to play and then their date to play there got changed to another month. When they were announced to be opening for Carrie Underwood I was tempted to get tickets. However, I don't like arena concerts and wasn't really interested in seeing Carrie Underwood live, although I like her music. When I told Mik he got all excited because he loves Carrie Underwood, so we decided to get tickets.
We had tickets in the wheelchair row of Section 416. Finding the elevator was a little confusing, but there were plenty of staff to help direct. We actually would've found it from the first person's directions as he said it was over under the Green Turtle sign, but when I told Mom and she went over there she didn't notice because it's an entrance to the arena and easy to miss with the security there. The second person we asked actually escorted us over to it. On the way down we found a closer elevator that is more obvious right on the concourse and I definitely recommend avoiding the Green Turtle one because it's just too crowded of an area with people coming in and not being any space when someone was trying to exit elevator before we could get on.
Our seats in Section 416 were actually surprisingly good. The view was good and Mik especially liked how they showed the performers on the screens. What was really cool, though, is they cover the rows in front of the handicap section, which means they don't sell those seats to keep people from standing up and blocking your view as tends to happens at concerts. The usher wouldn't even let people stand there for a photo more than thirty minutes before the concert started. He also tried to keep people from exiting the section through the handicap area, which really was annoying because the stairs end right by the seats so they should be turning to the regular aisle to exit but they would come past whenever he wasn't watching.
Only thing Mik didn't like was there were no cup holders in the wheelchair section, which he was aware of from going to Wizards games, but this time I noticed that the regular seats do in fact have them, which is when the lack of cup holders at sports venues really annoys him. It was also is a little awkward with them having black curtains blocking the entrances to the sections, but I get it serves a purpose for the lighting effects of the show.
We both really enjoyed The Swon Brothers and it was worth going just for them, but we really should've left when Mom joked that now we can go when they were done (Her and I did that after Mickey Guyton last year.).
I like Easton Corbin's music, but we both found his performance just mostly bad. It sounded bad for a the majority of it and he wasn't as entertaining. Mik said it was so boring that he almost fell asleep. We both agreed they have the opening acts in the wrong order.
All along Mik wasn't exactly planning to stay for the whole concert. He just wanted to hear Carrie Underwood perform at least one song. After the first song, he was ready to go. Mostly he was ready to go early because he was tired and also didn't want to deal with the post-concert crowd on the metro.
Mik said that he may have lasted longer if Easton Corbin hasn't been uninteresting, but mostly the lights were just way too much once Carrie Underwood went on. Thus, he's never going to another big concert except maybe for just the opener. However, he has been reminded he likes live music (He used to spend the whole WIT Grand National rallies listening to the performers.) and we're going to take him to our favorite venue, The Birchmere, to see Brandy Clark in a few months. Of course, another Nashville trip with balcony seats for the Opry is on our to do list, too.
Destination Info:
Verizon Center
601 F St
Washington, DC 20004
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