December 30, 2000: DVD Filming

Las Vegas, NV

Mandalay Bay Event Center

Vegas, Bay-beeee!

Three hours of sleep is barely enough for any human being, so this is gonna be a short, quick fyi about last night's show... more, perhaps, when I'm actually awake...

Despite all the hype, there were actually very few surprises in last night's show. The biggest would be the HUGE video screen that was behind the stage all night. Besides showing AWESOME shots of the guys (due to all the cameras that were there -- I could identify at least four) there were some pretty cool graphics going on. Hopefully this is something they're gonna keep, but if not, makes for a very cool video!

In all, I'd have to honestly say the show I saw in Reno last month was better. The energy of the guys was fed by the crowd, and the crowd last night was mediocre. By the time the show ended (about midnight) half the crowd had LEFT! What was really awful is that I had a GREAT seat, and nearly the ENTIRE ROW in front of me was EMPTY ALL NIGHT!!! I know there were people there who would have LOVED those seats too and the security wasn't letting anyone move. 

A quick rundown of the set list which contained exactly ONE surprise...

Separate Ways
Ask the Lonely
Stone in Love
Only the Young
Higher Place
Send Her My Love
Lights
Who’s Crying Now
--JC solo--
Open Arms
Fillmore Boogie
Message of Love (SURPRISE!!!)
All the Way
Escape
La Raza del Sol
Live and Breathe—intro version
Wheel in the Sky
Be Good to Yourself
Anyway You Want It

Encore:

Don’t Stop Believin’
Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin’
Faithfully 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I had a 2 pm flight from SFO to Vegas, so I went over to Mom and Dad’s about 12:45 to catch a ride to the airport and thus save on parking costs. Alas and alack, the plane I was to take to Vegas was coming from New York, so was delayed. I didn’t board until 2:30, and it was 3 by the time we were in the air. So when I landed in Vegas at 4 (30 minutes after I was expecting to) I quickly deplaned and headed for the taxi stand. 

Got to Mandalay Bay in no time, despite the traffic from hell, and went straight from the cab to the Rock Lobster where I was to meet my pals. When I got there, a few folks had already arrived, so we visited briefly while waiting for the others to join us. People slowly but surely trickled in between 5 and 6 while we had dinner. I had met about half of them before and the other half were complete strangers.

About 7 we all headed over to the Event Center for the show. Cheryl needed to pick up her ticket at will call, so I went to the box office with her and then headed back to the arena. We got in and discovered, much to our pleasant surprise, they were selling NEW gear! Woo hoo! So I picked up a white Arrival t-shirt for myself, and we headed off to our various and sundry seats. I had a really nice seat on the side of the arena. One row up from the floor and about 2 sections away from the stage. Jon’s side, aww darn.

photo courtesy of Leslie Forsythe

The row in front of me was empty, and before the show started, my friend Leslie and her 6 year old son came over and sat down to chat. They wound up staying there the whole show since the owners of the seats never showed up. REO Speedwagon hit the stage a little after 8 and played for about an hour and 20 minutes. They were great. It’s been years since I’ve heard them and I really could only remember the BIG hits though there were a few other songs that sounded familiar, but they were quite good. Kevin Cronin is rather amusing, but I can’t figure out quite WHY.

There was about a 30 minute break while the road crew changed the stage, and our boys hit the stage about 10. The cameras that had been sitting at rest during REO got a work out and I was pleased to see that they weren’t going to interfere with my view of the stage. The house lights went down, and behind the stage was a video of an exploding ball that popped up at random locations on the screen while the intro music played. Then the scarab came up and the band took the stage and the place went nuts. They launched into “Separate Ways” and off they went. The screen had all sorts of things going on during the show, mostly band shots, but some cool other footage (e.g.  shots of sunlight reflecting on water during Lights—no guarantees it was sun on San Francisco Bay.) The camera crew did an AWESOME job though…the video screen behind the stage had some very cool shots of the performance. In particular ones of the camera flying in over Jon’s head and looking down on the keyboards as he played. Very cool.

During the show, there was also a roaming camera man walking through the crowd. During “Higher Place”, when much of the crowd was sitting, he came by where I was sitting and got a great shot of Leslie’s little boy dancing in the aisle. He then turned and stuck the camera in MY face. I did my best to ignore him, but not easy to do. We’ll have to see if I end up on the cutting room floor or not. (I haven’t really decided how I feel about it yet. On one hand, it would be so cool to be on the tape, but on the other, it’s a little freaky!)* In any case, this will in some aspects make up for missing that ROR show. 

*Once the DVD was released, there were lots of familiar faces in the crowd, including mine. Not from having the camera stuck in my face, but I show up in a crowd shot during "All the Way."

photo courtesy of Leslie Forsythe

After the show, much of the crowd that met up for dinner wandered back together to chat for a bit, but we soon dispersed into the hotel. Eventually, Cheryl, Rose and I caught up with Caryn (aka JourneyCat) and her husband Tony who were meeting Les (Neal’s stepdad) and Mike (aka Skylord, the webmaster for Journeymusic.com) for drinks. Cheryl and Rose managed to scam some backstage passes, so they took off for a bit. While they were off meeting the guys, Caryn, Tony and I found Les and chatted with him for a while. 

We all broke up around 2 or so and I headed back with Cheryl and Rose to Rose’s hotel room where I took a 3 hour snooze before hightailing back to the airport where I was able to get myself on the 7:40 flight rather than waiting until 9. Was home in my apartment by 9:45 and in bed for some real sleep.

Overall, the vibe of the show was less than the one in Reno in November, which I can attribute to any number of reasons. The energy of the guys is fed by the crowd, and the crowd last night was mediocre. By the time the show ended (about midnight) half the crowd had LEFT! The crowd was definitely not the Journey die-hards that were in Reno, and, as I learned later, the guys had been going non stop for 3 weeks or so with VH1 shooting Behind the Music and rehearsals and the whole DirecTV/DVD thing. They did an entire show on the 29th for the DirecTV cameras so they can have close-ups to cut into the actual show.