Gleeking Out with the Rest Of San Diego

Glee is the summer’s guiltiest pleasure, thanks to its high energy live show.

On Sunday Glee Live! performed in San Diego at the Valley View Casino Center as part of its North American tour. The arena was packed with Glee fans, young and old, gay and straight, collected and rabid.

It’s no secret that I’m a Gleek – my brother revoked my cool card, only to be returned when I take off my new red Glee Live! sweatshirt – and on Sunday, I was at home with my kind.

And I have to tell you, even if I weren’t a fan of the hit Fox show, I would still consider the ticket one of the best money can buy, from start to finish.

When my best friend, Bex, and I arrived at the arena, we noticed we were among the handful of thirtysomethings without kids. We didn’t care – we really looked forward to the show.

We debated which character was our favorite. We agreed not to consider Rachel, played by Lea Michele, a Broadway star with Streisand’s charisma and pipes – she was a gimme.

After half an hour of “But she’s so great, too!” or “I love him as well!” we realized we loved them all. (I have an especially soft spot in my heart for Quinn, who shares the same name as my daughter – thankfully I had my Quinn before Glee or else I’d be accused of being that fan.)

I admit we were working ourselves up into quite a fever over the cast’s enormous talent. It didn’t help that we were talking about fictional characters as though they were our friends – “Do you think Rachel and Finn are going to stay together after high school?” – but we were already having a good time, allowing ourselves to completely Gleek out.

By the time we got into the arena, we were obsessed with buying swag. Bex wanted the black baby tee with the multicolored slushie splash and I wanted the red sweatshirt that so rankles my brother.

Almost as good as the show was the variety of homemade shirts worn by the audience. Some wore shirts emblazoned with their favorite cast member’s photo, some wore favorite slogans – who doesn’t like Brittany’s gem, “Did you know dolphins are just gay sharks?” – and some wore white shirts with black words harkening back to the episode in which the Glee cast wore shirts with their self-perceived fault.

The show opened with performers from The LXD, or The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers. Bex and I were stoked to see tWitch, one of our favorites from So You Think You Can Dance. Although the group was new to us, we were cheering and hooting for the acrobatic dancers, who included Glee cast member Harry Shum, Jr. (Mike Chang, a.k.a. “The Other Asian.”)

Thankfully, I was forewarned by a friend in Las Vegas that the main performance starts about an hour after show time so I wasn’t upset about having to wait it out.

Bex and I used our extra time wisely. We embarrassed teens around us by taking goofy photos with our hands forming an “L” shape on our forehead; disturbed parents around us by singing snippets of our favorite songs; and surprised ourselves by how excited we were to be at this concert.

Finally the lights went down and the red curtain rose to the opening strains of “Don’t Stop Believing,” the Journey song that hooked me from season one. Everyone in the arena stood, screaming like a bunch of Beatles fans.

We never sat down.

Everyone sang and danced along with the songs, even the Glee version of Rebecca Black’s “Friday,” which is really the only reason I felt even mildly guilty that night.

Not all of us were coordinated nor were we professional singers, but that’s exactly what makes a Gleek a Gleek. We’re unashamed in all our Gleeky glory – take us for what we are.

As Lady Gaga says – and the Glee cast sang that night – “We were born this way.”