AVMAs (edited)

My initial post was written shortly after arriving home from the awards, and with the benefit of hindsight, I shouldn't have posted straight away, so here's a rewrite of the night.

I arrived at the Superdome in time to see the likes of the Veronicas (I know that's not their real name, but it's easier to call them that), Russell Crowe & Lee Harding, to name a few.
After watching the arrivals for a while, my sister arrived, so we went in, as by the time she arrived, the doors were open (or so the ticket says). However, the doors into the arena were being opened later then expected, so we had a wander around, and found that our entrance was near the red carpet entrance to the Superdome, so we watched more celebrities walk in.
We were let in at 7, and picked our seats, which were in the second row in the upper concourse. That gave us a birds eye view of the stage. The stage consisted of 2 sections - a traditional stage, and a satellite circular stage, which was linked to both the main stage, and the VIP seating area.
As we were one of the first people seated, we watched the stadium fill, including a whole lot of people on the floor.
Roughly 15 minutes before the ceremony started, the producer briefed everyone, especially the people on the floor. The spiel was unmemorable, apart from what seemed to be a quota of 1 swear word per sentence.
8pm finally came & the ceremony started, with The Darkness singing "One Way Ticket," followed by Ashlee Simpson being introduced to the crowd, who promptly went berserk. Then the next 2 hours & 40 minutes flew past as one celeb/band/presenter after another made their appearance on stage.
I don't remember everything in order, so I'll mention some random comments:

Ashlee Simpson, apart from sounding horrible when singing live, seemed to be nervous when hosting. She also went through a few costume changes through the night
Jessica Simpson was there somewhere, but was elusive, as sightings of her were few & far between
Snoop Dog towers over most people
The Veronicas (both sisters) are very short
Scribe, a NZ Hip Hop group, seem to fit the stereotype well - they would not look out of place as replacements in D12, and seem to swear every second word in their "songs"
Russell Crowe isn't a bad singer (a la Chris Issak)
James Blunt seemed to be popular with the ladies - I have no idea why
Gretel Colleen?!?!?!?
The acoustics in the Superdome at times were horrible, with mushy bass and occasional feedback
Some smart person on the floor wore an orange shirt, so when the lights went to performance mode, his shirt stood out
The backing choir to End of Fashion had the easiest performance - walk on stage in the last minute of the song, sing 3 lines & sit back down.
When Lee Harding sang, 4 large balloons were released into the crowd. However, none managed to reach the stage, as they all popped pretty early on.
Reg Regan presented the award for spankin new Aussie artist, but he got his w's & sp's mixed up, with hilarious results (especially since the Veronicas won the award).
Peter Garret won an award for his work in making the world a better place, an award which seemed to be popular with the audience.
Lara Bingle left her brain on stage, as she forgot what past tense was.
While the televised version of the awards were on ad breaks, they showed short films of weird things (like an iron left on a shirt, or a man shaving/eating hard boiled eggs) or old MTV ads from around the world, which were amusing.
They flew a DJ from San Francisco to Sydney via London, and all he did was stand there and play music during the breaks. Hopefully he earnt his money at the after party.

The ceremony finished at 10:40, which meant that I didn't have to rush for the last bus home. What was interesting was that the particular bus route I was on was full by the time the bus left, but other bus routes had very few passengers, and I noticed a buzz on the bus, as everyone discussed their favourite bits of the night.

It was a fun night, and for the price I paid for the tickets, was definitely worth it :)