This is the day my friend (Alanna) and I have been waiting for soooo long. We had bought the tickets in June of last year. What we were really happy about is that we got meet and greets for R5 and their brother, Ryland (who is a DJ and the opening act for R5) only two or so months before. R5 thankfully had released more meet and greets for each of their shows for the rest of the tour which we were so thankful for. R5 meet and greets are really impossible to get unless your fast as lighting. (Side note: R5’s meet and greet was $149 but on Ticketmaster with a ticket, it was $200 plus dollars so we did save on some money. Ryland’s meet and greet was only $75.)

So it’s the day of the concert and check in is supposed to be from 3:30 to 4:15pm. We get to the Beacon there around 2 or so because we had left at 1. We didn’t know how much traffic there was going to be and we were lucky not to get into any. So we get there and wait in line for an hour and half. (Also for two lines for meet and greet and soundcheck and a separate line for just soundcheck. But if you had Ryland’s, you could stay on either.) So eventually about thirty minutes or so about waiting in line, they give out wristbands. R5 had a pink meet and greet experience wristband and Ryland’s was blue. They were colored coded by the different places you were in line and if you just had soundcheck, you had a yellow wristband.

It was 3:40 or so when they let us into the venue. I’ve been to the beacon theatre many times before but this was my first time doing a meet and greet there. For those who haven’t been there, there is a huge lobby with concession stands around it with merch stands and things like that. Then there is a big staircase that leads up to the upper balcony. So they lead us up to the upper balcony and we wait on the stairs until we can see it moving around 4:00 or so.

When it was my friend and I’s turn, we were freaking out slightly but so excited to meet them again and we weren’t expecting them to remember us or anything like. Alanna and I hugged Rydel and Ellington since they were the first to greet us and then I hugged Ross, Riker and Rocky. They asked how I was and thanked us for coming to the show. The first thing we were going to tell them was that we met them on Kelly and Michael and Rydel said “Yeah! That was definitely a fun day.” And they obviously didn’t remember us which is okay because they meet thousands of fans everyday, its hard for just a few fans to stand out and be remembered.

We did a regular pose first and we were going to do the hand heart one but then decided not to do it (even though I kind of wanted too) and the next pose, was to do a pretend selfie. Oh yeah! A girl behind us while waiting in line took a video of us meeting them so we also have that. So Alanna asked for one of them to take the selfie since they’re much taller than us and Ellington took her phone and said “Not actually taking a selfie.” And took like a bunch and of course Riker didn’t know that it was a selfie and was looking into the actually camera instead of the phone (oh Riker…). 

Then right after the meet and greet, we went back downstairs and into soundcheck. You can basically sit anywhere in soundcheck (which I love) so we chose second row center. But for Ryland’s soundcheck, we were up against the stage but the staff didn’t want anybody standing when R5 came on so we all had to sit back down. (I was also in Ryland’s snapchat 3 times it’s was so cool.) Then we can see R5 coming in from the back of the theater and they climb on the stage. Ross had trouble getting onto the stage and it was the cutest thing. (I also recorded all of soundcheck but I have to figure out how to upload it onto youtube because it’s apparently to long to upload for my account.)

The only one that showed up late was Ellington we were all like “Where’s Ellington?!” But until Ellington came, Ross sang a cover of Can’t Say I’m In Love and god his vocals are so perfect for that song, he was killing it. Then Ellington finally came a little bit after that and they started singing Summer Nights from Grease. Rydel was doing the high pitched voice background and it was so cute, I loved it. They also sang their own song called What You’re Missing and I’ve actually grown to a liking of that song (because I didn’t like it at first) and I still wish they had put it on their set but sadly they didn’t.

After soundcheck, a lady was saying into a microphone instructions on where to go to Ryland’s meet and greet but we also had to get our R5 VIP merch. They cut off our R5 meet and greet wristbands and we told the lady in charge that we had Ryland’s meet and greet and she was all panicked and said “Why didn’t you tell me before? I made an announcement about it!” We apologized and said we couldn’t hear it and she rushed us back upstairs to where Ryland’s meet and greet was.

What was a little disappointing was that we couldn’t do the backstage tour and check out his DJ equipment which was part of the meet and greet… but I guess that so many people got the meet and greet more than most cities, they couldn’t allow forty plus people on stage. We were like the second to last people to meet Ryland because there were two other girls that were late as well. Mark, (their Dad and tour manager) gave us our tee shirts.

Ryland was so chill and asked us for our names (but we met him individually) and got to take a selfie with him as well as a regular picture. We were hanging out for a while after that, not really sure what to do but then we asked Mark if we can have some pizza (since there was some left) and he said “Of course you can!” Then Ryland asked everyone if we can get into a group shot but there was so many people the photographer couldn’t fit everyone in (mind this that we are in a middle of a decent sized hallway so he doesn’t have much distance to take the photo.) So he takes a video on Ryland’s snapchat which is pretty cool to me. The photographer also takes the photo but not everyone is in it but Alanna and I were in it which was the good part. 

After the pictures, Ryland did a little q and a with everyone as much as he could and then it was time to leave and we still had our pizza with us. (Also with Ryland’s meet and greet you get a tee shirt that you order with the meet and greet.) Then we went and got R5 merch since we still had time before the concert actually started. The prices were pretty decent, $30 dollars for a tee shirt and $60 for a sweater and they also sold their DVD and CD signed and not signed and a little things as well. I ended up with three tee shirts, a hoodie and a wristband.

We finally get to our seats and they were soooo great. We had isle seats, row 10, orchestra 2 and they were awesome! It was more to the side but it was still a good view of the whole band. It was exactly at 7 o’clock when Ryland came on stage. He literally took the house down. The music was blasting from the DJ booth, playing songs and remixs of Hello by Adele and Hotline Bling by Drake. He also played a lot of popular songs that pretty much everyone knew since they were on the radio 24/7.

The lights made you feel like you were in a night club and it felt like an actual party. Nobody stopped dancing and for Hello, everyone had their phone flashlights out, waving them back and forth and it looked absolutely beautiful. One of the coolest parts was when Ryland stood up from his DJ booth and jumped off it and started dancing. Also, Ryland did play both of his two original songs, Fall Back In Love and Take Me There.

Next up was Max Schiender. I haven’t really heard his music before but I knew him from a couple of movies such as Rags and other things I’ve seen him in. What I was really impressed about Max was his dancing. Even while dancing like a maniac, he wasn’t even out of breath, it was quiet amazing.

Max also definitely has a higher range for a male and sang these unbelievable high notes. He also had these pretty sick rainbow lights that shined down. I don’t remember if he sang his new songs or songs from his current album or both.

After that, we waited not too long before We Are Family started playing around the theatre and you knew that’s when R5 was about to come on. When they finally did come on stage, the crowd eruppted with screams and it was one of the loudest screams you’ll ever hear in your life. They opened up the show with Heart Made Up On You from their Heart Made Up On You EP along with All Night.

One of my favorite songs of the night definitely had to be Cali Girls. It was so much fun and such a popular R5 song. They even surprised us by singing I Want U Bad which hasn’t been part of their setlist for a while so I was happy they sang it. My all time favorite R5 songs are I Know You Got Away, Easy Love and Wild Hearts. I didn’t know what order they were going to be in but having them almost back to back was incredible.

They were so energetic on stage and the whole crowd was singing along, it was great. One of my favorite parts was when their sister, Rydel, sang her song Lightening Strikes because we got the best video of her. Then after Lightening Strikes was Wild Hearts and F.E.E.L G.O.O.D and one of their other popular songs (I Can’t) Forget About You. One of my favorite songs that night definitely had to be Always and Did You Have Your Fun? Always was an old song that Riker had wrote and he sang it on stage with Ross and Rocky while Ross was playing the guitar, Rocky on bass and Riker on the piano. I love Riker’s voice so to hear it in a whole song was amazing. The best though, was when Riker licked his bass during Did You Have Your Fun? and I got it on video and just gah. Why does he have to kill me?

For the encore, in the beginning of Loud, Ross sang it acoustically before the chorus came in and let’s just say it was very loud haha. The next sang they sang was a cover of All These Things I’ve Done by The Killers. I listened to the original, but I really did like R5’s version better because Ross’s voice really fit with the song. Then the last song they sang was Smile and I was definitely smiling throughout the whole song. At the end of the concert, I could barely hear and couldn’t feel a thing it was great.

Overall, the concert was great and I didn’t stop dancing one single moment. If you want to go to a concert where it feels like you’re at one big party with a lot of fun, then definitely go to an R5 concert. Their tour is sadly ending in a few weeks and they said they wouldn’t be touring for a while, so see them while you can! Definitely can’t wait for their next tour 🙂 <3. Below are my videos from the concert such as Cali Girls, Lightening Strikes (Ft. Ellington’s Drum solo) and Did You Have Your Fun? 🙂

–Zoe 🙂