08/22/10 Dallas Texas Verizon Theater

Alright where to start, so awhile back when COM was first announced like any other Sdaholic I was super excited and pumped for the show. I waited and waited for the dates to be released as the dates kept being released I waited for a Texas show I was determined to go so long as it was in Texas. Finally one date popped up for Dallas, Texas (Grand Prairie) man was I excited. So I quickly saw the prices for the packages and I knew I would really love the Platinum Package but it was really expensive for us at the time. So I had my heart set on the gold package. I talked it over with my wife, at the time we were really broke and I knew there was a chance I might not be able to go to the show. Well lo and behold my wife knowing my passion for all things Sd said YES. Awesome I opted for the Gold Package cuz I said "f**k the silver let's go straight for the Gold hey hey". So now we fast forward to August 21st, 2010 I had to work Saturday morning at my new job but I had worked out a deal with my boss that I could leave my noon on Saturday. I didn't really get much sleep the night before because I was excited for the Shinedown show on Sunday. :) Well work went by really quick I was out of there by 11am sweet. I raced home and picked up some Wendy's a Baconator for me cuz that's how I roll and a Large Drink for my wife cuz she wasn't hungry. So we have our quick lunch finish packing and on the road we go traveling to the Shinedown Show. Yay. I promised my wife that we would stop at the Outlet Stores on the way up to Dallas, Texas. She really likes to go shopping there and I like a few of those stores as well. It was a long drive up there but we got off stretched our legs a bit and went off to shop we found some good stuff and I purchased some nice shoes that I can use at work for my new job. My wife was able to get some nice clothes for herself as well.
After we left the Outlet mall I had scheduled a stop about 3/4ths of the way up to Dallas so that we could sleep for the night at a really nice hotel and then drive up to Dallas for the show the next morning after a good nights rest. Well we ran into some traffic on the way but it was all good working together we managed to get through it safely and we arrived at our hotel. We really like the hotel and they have wi-fi available for their guests which is really cool.
After a good nights rest the next morning we were loaded up in our car and our way to Dallas for the big show the day I had waited so long for. It was a nice drive up to Dallas and after stopping first at the wrong hotel we finally found our correct hotel luckily it was only a mile away. We were unloaded and into our room but it looked a bit unclean some of the towels were still thrown on the sink and there was hair on them. The bed seemed to have been made in a hurry. So I went over to the customer service desk and spoke to the manager she immediately apologized and gave us another room. She explained that on the system the room we were in showed up as clean so that is why she had given it to us. So we move to our new room and it was a whole lot better very clean and very organized. So we got some quick rest before the show and my wife has an uncle there in Dallas who stopped by to pick up a few things that her mom had sent him. We exchanged our hellos and soon our goodbyes since we had to be there early at the venue for the meet and greet yeah.
So we arrive at the venue which was fairly close to the hotel. We get in there and we gravitate over to the merch table. After looking around at the merch my wife decides she wouldn't want anything but rather would like me to get as much as I want of Sd merch lol. I opted for the hoodie the Sd affliction shirt and an Sd keychain. Having that in hand I stashed in my Barnes and Noble bag that I was carrying with my copy of Guitar Edge Magazine that I had for Zach to sign for me. I also carried with me five bandanas. Anyone who's read or heard of my reviews for the meet and greets knows that I take with me white bandanas on which I write personal messages to each one of the guys. Simply because the time is so limited and I want to make sure that I can let them know how much I appreciate them and what they mean to me. This time I brought one along for Jake he's been so cool to me for the three times that I met Shinedown so I just had to write him a message as well. Well we waited around for a bit cuz things looked really unorganized so we didn't know where to go and wait for Jake to come out and get those for the meet and greet. Finally around 3:50pm or so I spotted Jake I got all excited was like yeah it's time he walked by and said hi and he looked pissed at the event staff though. Apparently they had let the general public into the venue ahead of time so now those who had purchased early entry tickets were going to be going in later than those who had general admission which really stinks for them. But I was interested in the meet and greet so I wasn't too concerned with that. So Jake comes over and calls out our name for roll call for early entry and meet and greet. He then tells us that meet and greet will be at 4:15 and for us to wait there for him. So we wait for an eternity and finally 4:15 rolls around and Jake was right on time. He comes out calls our names again gives us our VIP Laminates for COM which by the way are very cool my wife got hers signed with silver marker and it looks really cool. So we form this huge line for people going to the meet and greet and head down to the blue room where they would be bringing the guys to meet with us. So after we all pile into the small room Jake explains the rules and says he is going to bring out the rock stars, lol which to me they are. So after a few minutes he returns with posters in hand and says one rock star is still in the restroom so he will pass out the posters and then go back for them. So he passes them out and a few minutes later he returns with the guys, Barry comes out first followed by Eric and Zach and lastly Brent who asks that we all get loud and he screams "Come on" "Yeahhhh" super loud lol it was awesome it gave me chills. So we are in our line and my wife tells me go to first so I do and right away as soon as Barry sees me he's like "Hey it's good to see you it's been a while" both Zach and Eric immediately recognized me as well and started saying hello. I gave Barry his bandana and he was very thankful for it and said "as always" lol. He likes to take time and read the messages I give him. As I went down the line and got my stuff signed they were all very cool and appreciative of me and my wife. Zach was looking at himself on the magazine and wondering what was up with his elbow cuz it looked like it had blood on it. When I got to Brent he told me how much it meant to him to see us there again and he thanked us. I told him I thanked him for his words and their music. When it came down for the picture time the guys were all excited and laughing cuz it was mine and my wifes turn Brent kept calling my wife "darling" and seemed to really take a liking to her. It was really cool we went right in the middle of the guys and as we left we told them to have a good show and we would be watching them.

I think I'll wait and post part two later on of the actual show and I'll post up some pics as well.