At first, the Lexus sedans threw me off.

But when I got past the gleaming IS350 parked outside the Blaisdell Concert Hall last Friday, I found what I was looking for.

Free food.

Kidding.

I found a bunch of very excited Chris Botti fans — some with CDs in hand — waiting to meet and mingle with the jazz trumpeter at Backstage Pass, a pre-concert party for music lovers who want to do more than sit in a concert hall and clap politely.

"The symphony can certainly be perceived as being highbrow, and that's not what it's all about," said pops conductor Matt Catingub, who was milling about. "When you get someone like Chris Botti here, you put a face on what we're doing. And this is the best way to do it."

During the one-hour wait before the spiky-blond Botti emerged from the concert hall, donning dark jeans and a black leather jacket to sign autographs and take pics, dozens of Backstage Passers dined on nigiri and kalua pig, idly sipped merlot and listened to Norah Jones waft over the outside speakers.

"I saw (Botti) on the 'Today' show, and I literally ran out that day and bought his CD," said Libby Lum-Erickson, a 31-year-old real-estate woman who attended the concert with her husband, John. "I like any music that I can envision drinking a glass of wine on a couch to."

To my surprise, though, many of the guests weren't waiting for the self-described "sexiest trumpeter since Chet Baker."

They were actually here to see the new cars.

Seriously.

Friends Dayna Lazarte and Dezsanna Mateo, both 17 and seniors at Waipahu High, had no idea who Botti was.

And what? The symphony is playing?

These two Lexus fans — Lazarte drives a white RX330, Mateo, a silver IS300 — came specifically to check out the latest sport luxury sedans.

"They could have made it less old-looking," said the trucker-hat-and-denim-skirt-wearing Mateo about the new IS350. "It should be more sporty."

"Unless they put a 10-speed manual shift and all-wheel drive — oh, and took the traction control completely off — then I'd consider it," said Lexus owner Ian Takenishi, 22, who had never been to a symphony concert before.

Or a jazz concert, for that matter.

"We're just here for the experience," Takenishi added. "Just to see what it's like."

But Kathleen Munoz knew exactly why she was here.

The 38-year-old graphic artist excitedly showed off Botti's autograph on her concert program.

"I'm so into how smooth his playing is," gushed Munoz, who drove in from Wahiawa for the concert.

And with her 71-year-old mother, Nelly, who was just as thrilled. If not more. If that's possible.

"I hugged him," she said, beaming. "I'm old. He has to hug me!"

Reach Catherine E. Toth at ctoth@honoluluadvertiser.com.