Standing outside on a chilly, blustery Sunday evening isn't exactly fun.
But when you're outside Van Andel clutching a ticket to see *N Sync, the cold can't cool the anticipation of seeing the hottest show in town, even for the thousands of patient fans who got in 30 minutes later then expected.
Arena officials originally said doors would open at 6 p.m., an hour before show time. However, the show's start time was changed to 7:30 p.m., and that meant doors did not open until 6:30 p.m. But once the waiting fans made it inside, they were happy again.
Well, most were happy.
A handful of stranglers stood outside with two fingers up in the air, not in a gesture of peace, but signaling, "I need two tickets."
Dick Truskoski, with his 10-year-old daughter, Terra, by his side, wasn't about to give a scalper $80 to $100 per ticket. But, as luck would have it, *N Sync fan Terra didn't go home disappointed.
"I was about to ask a guy how much he wanted for his tickets," Dick Truskski saidd, holding two second row, side-section seats, "when another guy tapped me on the shoulder and handed me these tickets. I don''t know who he was, but he said they were compliments of *N Sync."
Two other young *N Sync dies hards had the night of their lives Sunday.
Stacy Stehouwer,16, and Callie Heath,16, travled from Muskegon to see *N Sync for the third time- and ended up sitting on stage with eight other girls while the five much-adored pop stars sang the number "For The Girl Who Has Everything."
"We have a friend who knows the bodyguards, and they let us on stage," the excited Stehouwer said.
"It was totally a last-minute thing," Heath added. "And they were really nice to us while we were up there. They talked to us while they led us off the stage."
Other female fans, however, weren't so nice according to Stehouwer.
"The girls in the crowd were jealous, and yelling at us to get off the stage," she said.
The girls chosen for the stage weren''t the only lucky ones Sunday night.
Ashley Converse,12, of Wyoming, her sisters, Amanda,11, and Christina,10, and their mother, Donna, waited overnight and won backstage passes for the show from radio station WSNX.
So how big a fan of *N Sync is Ashley Converse?
"The biggest, like I stood outside in line for hours and hours and hours," she gushed moments before the show began, adding that Justin is her favorite "'cause he's so hot."
When the majority of a 12,000-seat arena is filled with teenage girls expressing their admiration for Joey, JC, Lance, Justin and Chris with ddog-whistle shrieking, you get the sense that the *N Sync phenomenom is almost an entirley new level of fanaticism. Signs held by fans outside the arena proclaimed "Lance is hot" and "*N Sync I <3 U." One car in a parking lot sported a sign saying, "We're on our way to see *N Sync at Van Andel Arena-and to see Justin rip his tank top off!"
All the screaming was muffled inside the arena's parent room, where roughly 50 moms and dads gathered to watch television, read or type into their laptops while their kids enjoyed the show.
"*N Sync should at least come in here and make an appearance for all of us poor parents," said Romona Stambaugh of Sunfield, who sat, sense of humor intact, while their 13-year-old daughter watched the show. "After all, they're getting rich off of our money, and we're dealing with these girls' mutant hormones."
But Stambaugh, who said her duaghter was "in love" with *N Sync,seemed, at the least, tolerant of her duaghter's obbsession.
"I've seen their videotape a million times-and I'm ready to choke those five guys," she joked
Also in the parents' room was Darla Montague of grand rapids, who seemed more accepting of *N Sync and what many parents consider the group's more wholesome entertainment.
"I'd rather see my kids go to see this than what was here last night," she said, referring to Saturday night's concert featuring the decidedly more profane heavy metal acts Korn and Rob Zombie.
For that reason, Sally Sorensen of Caledonia didn't mindd shelling out some cash for her 14-year-old daughter to buy a T-shirt
"Yeah, it's probably a ripoff, but its giving her memories," Sorensen said. "In my day, it was Bobby Vinton."
"For me, it was new Kids On The Block," piped in Sorensens daughter, Becky Rodriquez, whose 11-year-old stepdaughter also attended the show. "And these guys are better than New Kids On The Block."
Sorensen and Rodriguez, who went shopping after dropping off their duaghters at the arena, didn't have a problem letting the two young girls attend the concert alone.
"It's the safest place to bring them, because there's no boys here!" Sorensen said, laughing.
