As you might expect, every time we used to go to Las Vegas 2001-2009 which was quite a lot in the first decade of this century, we’d see all sorts of bands. But, as was our habit, we’d carry a couple of flasks with wine or gin and tonic with us so we didn’t have to queue vat the bar or pay bar prices.
This was a trick we came across at the Edinburgh fringe a few years earlier. We used to see so many shows that there wasn’t enough time to go to the packed bars, so we carried a wet bar with us everywhere we went. Consequently by the time we’d finished them, we were seven sheets to the wind.
So it was in Las Vegas. We saw the Neville Brothers in Las Vegas supported by Dr John about 20 years ago. I’m sure it was at the Hilton but I suspect drink must have been taken because I can’t remember anything about it. Similarly we saw an 80s rock show called Monster Circus with Dee Snider singing, Rudy Sarzo (Quiet Riot, Ozzy Osbourne, Whitesnake) on bass John Corabi (Mötley Crüe, Ratt) on guitar/vocals, Bruce Kulick (KISS) on guitar, Fred Coury (Cinderella) on drums, Tony Montana (Great White) on guitar. As I recall there were scantily clad women climbing up and down and doing gymnastics with what looked like bed sheets as the band played. We got hammered that night as Dee stormed around the stage.
Then there was Elton John at Caesars Palace during his Red Piano residency. That was quite a show I think but we’d taken in a bucket or two of beers in, so it's a bit fuzzy. We saw Spamalot too, that was good, as was Queen’s We Will Rock You and the Four Seasons Story.
We saw Buddy Guy at the House Of Blues but all I remember about that is how loud it was. Saw Joe Bonamassa with Mountain there too. And we saw Joe again after consuming a $35 gin and tonic that was about half a bottle of very strong gin. Felt no pain.
Believe it or not, we also saw Tom Jones at the MGM Grand. He was great and played a blues set in the middle of the show. In the arena at that hotel where they hold the boxing, we went to a Country Music Awards show. I mostly remember the audience who, to put it politely, were not exactly sympathetic to our mindset or had even met anyone from another country.
At Tom Jones we met a nice couple from the Midwest whose level of ignorance was staggering. Never try and explain the UK's geopolitical set up, its complicated! They thought we were living under a Communist regime because we had universal healthcare! And the idea of flying to another country was anathema to them and they seemed to think we must be part of an international jet set and were surprised when we said we were just ordinary people like them minus the evangelical zeal.
If you were a customer in the days 2006 to 2009 I probably spoke to you while doing admin from my bath in a suite at the Aladdin, now gone, just to say I had. We got that suite because the guy checking us in was a racist who upgraded us because ‘you guys are the only white people today’. I was shocked and thought I must’ve misheard. But as he gave us the keys he said ‘we’ve got to stick together’. Ironic as one half of Dawn’s ancestors are all black and were originally slaves in St. Kitts, even though she is ostensibly white. That’s the narrow-mindedness of racism, I suppose. But we took the upgrade nonetheless!
We were both the youngest and as XLs, the smallest of people to see Barry Manilow in Elvis’ old room at the Hilton. I've never seen bigger people and the seats were equally big to accommodate them, being about one and a half people wide. They all took food in, we took booze. Cultural differences. It was great fun and during Copacabana, he gave the guitarist room to solo like Carlos Santana for five minutes.
We would no more return to America now than go to Hell and would probably say the wrong thing and end up deported to an El Salvador jail. I also don’t think I’ve the time it’d take to ‘clean’ up my phone! We were there the day Obama was elected, eating in the Harley Davidson cafe. No-one cared. They didn’t even look up at the TV when it was announced.
Velvet Revolver played at the Hard Rock hotel and it was so loud that I could barely make out any music; it was just blasting white noise. And I’ve never seen so many hookers during the gig. The hotel had employed security just to shoo them away from the lifts!
I don’t think post-stroke, they’d let me fly without insurance and it’d be expensive, so I think our Vegas days are behind us now as are the days of being drunk in the morning and pushing $20 dollar bills into poker machines!
Photo by
Florian Stangl from Bayern
Creative Commons Attribution 2.0
