free to be bree.

When I last left you, I explained the single most gratifying concert-going experience of my life. Crissy and I planned on hitting up the afterparty following the Columbus, Ohio show, but, alas, there was none. Donnie Wahlberg & Jordan Knight boarded a plane and departed for NYC about 30 minutes post-show. The two of them collaborated on Jordan’s new single “Stingy,” and were flying back to New York for a party where the were premiering the music video for it. So no after party for us. That also meant we were unable to attempt our first Waffle House visit with Donnie. We did, however, stop at Waffle House on our own on the way back to New Jersey on Tuesday morning.

By Thursday, we were itching for some more NKOTB. Fortunately for us, Donnie’s buddy (I think it’s his assistant or something) Johnny tweeted about an afterparty in Atlantic City on Friday night at Dusk nightclub in Caesar’s Palace. If you purchased one of 50 VIP tickets, all proceeds went to the charity Show Your Hearts. We snagged 2 of the VIP tickets, and went down to AC for the night. 

Upon arriving (and after making a mad rush to the bathroom because I had to pee worse than I ever did in my life. TMI? Whatevs.), we checked in with Johnny around 11, got our VIP bracelets, and headed down into the club to the VIP area reserved behind the DJ booth. 

Donnie & Jordan arrived right at 12:30. They entered behind the VIP, stopped to say hello to a few people, and went right to the front of the DJ Booth. Naturally, they got the crowd riled up right away. They had Donnie’s friend Kevin DJing, and he played anything they told him to. They changed the words of “Mickey” by Toni Basil so that we were yelling “Hey Donnie! Hey Jordan!” 

Jordan also performed 2 songs from his new CD: “Stingy” and “Let’s Go Higher.” Immediately following his performance, Jordan came back and wandered around the VIP, mingling with the girls back there, stopping to talk, taking pictures. It was also the point in time where I got some snapshots of hilarious Jordan faces.

Donnie stuck more to the front of the house. He came back through the VIP area once, and gave all the girls close enough kisses. Crissy and I happened to be close enough. He then went right back out front and got down. He was taking his shirt off, letting girls grope him, hung out by the “stripper poles”— just the typical Donnie Wahlberg shenanigans. 

The rest of the night was filled with just having a grand old time. Jordan wandered all over the club, but spent a good amount of time in the VIP area. Donnie treated the party almost entirely as a performance. Jordan took pictures with us (he actually took my camera from me to take the picture of the two of us, was thoroughly confused by my camera, and I had to teach him how to use it), had tons of hugs to go around, danced, everything. He was phenomenal. At the end of the night, Donnie was wasted. Like, seriously wasted. He had to have a number of security guards around him as he went through the VIP area. He stopped to take pictures with a number of girls, but by the time he got by us, the guards were surrounding him, and just trying to get him out so they could close the club. I still managed to get to him for my own picture though.

So that was it. A little while after the Donnie picture, we left the club. We went to bid adieu to Johnny at the entrance, Crissy picked up an autographed copy of Jordan’s CD “Unfinished,” and we made our way back to the car for our trek home. We made it back home around 5am. It was all worth it. What a memorable night!