Big Time Rush concert turns into big-time disappointment
By Casey Toner ctoner@southtownstar.com August 6, 2012 10:56PM
Updated: September 8, 2012 6:17AM
Seeing the boy band Big Time Rush at the First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre in Tinley Park on Saturday turned out to be a big-time disappointment for some people.
That’s because many patrons were told at the venue’s gates that the show would be rescheduled due to a power outage. Then the power returned 10 minutes later and the concert went on two hours later.
“I posted on Twitter that four boys from a boy band were the first ones to break my daughter’s heart,” Valerie Skupien said. “You go through it, and you’re like ‘this really sucks.’ ”
Skupien made the six-hour round trip from Rockton, Wis., with her 11-year-old daughter, Erika, as well as her sister-in-law and her 8-year-old daughter. She said Erika is a devotee of Big Time Rush, a boy band featured in a sitcom on the Nickelodeon television network. The show follows the adventures of four young hockey players from Minnesota who were picked to be in the group.
“Her friends all think she’s the biggest Big Time Rush fan who ever walked,” Skupien said. “Her locker is covered with Big Time Rush stuff. She made a tie-dyed shirt. She made a hat. They made posters. They went crazy thinking about trying to get Big Time Rush’s attention by waving at them or saying ‘hi,’ to them.”
When they were told they had to leave, Skupien said her daughter and niece were hysterical. Luckily, Skupien said she bought her tickets on StubHub and the ticket service exchanged them for tickets to the Big Time Rush show in Moline, Ill., in September.
Jason Wright, Live Nation senior vice president for booking, said the snafu was due to a major power outage that occurred before the show. Venue officials were told about 5:45 p.m. that electricity wouldn’t return for several hours.
“We made a decision to postpone the concert,” Wright said. “Within 10 minutes of making that decision, we got our power back.”
Wright said people initially were told the show was rescheduled for a later date and then Live Nation announced on Twitter, Facebook and on some radio stations that the concert was set to go on.
Wright said those that missed the show are being offered full refunds among other options. He did not know how many people missed the concert.
Oak Lawn residents Julie Sullivan and her 15-year-old daughter Micayla were among those that were out of luck. They have seen Big Time Rush three times including a CD-signing event in October 2010 when they camped outside of a Schaumburg bookstore for 15 hours to meet the group.
Sullivan said the latest setback won’t stop her and Micayla from seeing the teenage crooners a fourth time. On Monday, she called First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre’s customer service, and they agreed to give her comparable $100-a-seat tickets to the Moline show, which is about 2 1/2 hours from her home.
She will have to take a day off work and take Micayla out of school to make the event.
“As a mom, I’m doing what I want to do for my child,” Sullivan said.
