Las Vegas, NV
Zappos Theater
I hate Las Vegas. Anything beyond about 36 hours is too damn long to be in Vegas. So I'm sure you can understand how thrilled I was to be going to Las Vegas for our annual company conference/trade show -- for six straight days! Now, don't get me wrong, I actually enjoy the opportunity to go to the event -- it's a great way to get to know my co-workers better and meet some of the other people in the company that work at other locations. I'm new enough at my job to still be learning a lot about the company and what we're doing and where we're going, and this conference is a great opportunity to learn more. It's just... Las Vegas... for six days. Ugh. Fine, I can deal.
Then Rob Thomas announced his summer tour dates. I checked the calendar for the Bay Area show -- Sunday, June 16. Damn, day after I arrive in Vegas. Well, let's see what other West Coast dates there are, maybe I can grab another show. What about Portland, I can visit friends/family there... June, 14 -- day before I need to leave for Vegas, nope that's not gonna work. How about LA? June 18 -- still in freaking Vegas. Keep scrolling.... oh you have got to be kidding me! June 21, Las Vegas -- the day AFTER the conference ends. Well, someone else was paying for my flight and I could pay for an extra night at the hotel, it won't kill me to spend another day in Vegas (maybe.) So I bought my ticket and resigned myself to spending a solid week in Las Vegas.
June rolled around and it was time to head off for the conference. The conference started on Monday, but I had to be there on Saturday to help set up the booth for our group. Keeping a long story short, set up was a headache and due to circumstances beyond our control we weren't able to finish setting up by the 7:00 p.m. deadline to be show-floor ready on Sunday evening. That meant having to finish set up Monday morning -- the one day the show floor opened late. When the floor opened at 10:00 Monday morning I was already pretty tired having unloaded a bunch of boxes and generally doing a lot of physical work that I don't normally do, and now I had to stand on the floor until the early closing at 1:00. Tuesday through Thursday were full 8-6 (or later) days of standing on the show floor in our booth and dealing with whatever issues came up. Whee. Thursday was tear-down after the floor closed at 3:00. It was worse than set up... one by one the team members who remained behind to help pack up had to leave to catch flights while one co-worker and I remained behind waiting on our misplaced packing boxes. It was nearly 8:00 by the time we got out of there -- 5 hours of sitting in a convention hall in Las Vegas with no air conditioning (the bays were open to the outside to bring things in and out) and no water. Yeah, fun. I grabbed some dinner before heading back to my room because I knew I'd never leave my room if I went there first.
Fortunately, I knew ahead of time that I'd be physically exhausted by the end of the conference and as I've said, I'm not a huge fan of Las Vegas, so that combination had me pondering what to do on Friday since I'd have the whole day to kill before the show. Spa day! I figured the hotel would have a spa or somewhere I could get a massage and a mani/pedi, and I was right. Made sure to book my Friday day of pampering early in the week and was pleased to discover that there were discounts for those of us attending the conference. I hadn't gotten the coupon when I checked in on Saturday morning, but since I was still wearing my conference badge when I dropped in to make my reservation the gal at the counter let me know. It was still expensive, as most things in Vegas are, but it was sooooooo worth the expense. It was great to have my tired legs and back worked on and then a nice bright red polish on my nails to welcome summer and a Friday night in Vegas.
I was staying at the Venetian Palazzo and had not left the resort since I arrived on Saturday. The Zappos Theater is in the Planet Hollywood Hotel that had been the Alladin the last time I'd been to that theater. I grabbed a cab and headed over about 6 to grab a bite to eat before the show. I'd looked at the restaurants on the hotel website a bit before and sort of knew where I wanted to go, but I wasn't sure where in the hotel it was located. That led me to wandering around a little bit looking for a place to eat. I took an escalator up from the casino floor to where I saw a couple of restaurants and tried to see if the place I was planning to go was up there. I wasn't really paying much attention to what was going on around me as I was looking for a place to eat, so when a guy bumped me as he passed on my left I was startled and turned towards him. "Sorry ma'am, gotta keep moving." I instantly realized he was hotel security and at first I thought he was directing traffic for the line to another show that was on my right, but then I looked in front of me and saw three more hotel security guys surrounding another guy in a jean jacket with a big number 20 on it. Oh my gosh! It's Rob Thomas! I've been to shows in Vegas before and know it's possible to run into the performer(s) you're seeing at the hotel and even thought to myself before I left "wouldn't it be funny to run in to Rob Thomas?" Well, whadda ya know! I was already heading in the same direction as he was because I'd noticed a restaurant ahead and while it wasn't the one I was looking for I thought I'd check it out, so I essentially followed Rob and his security all the way to the restaurant. It was an upscale steakhouse and a little more expensive than I really wanted to spend, but I did consider going in for a minute longer than I normally would have! Ah well, close encounter of the rock and roll kind.
Passing on dinner with Rob, I went back downstairs and finally found the restaurant I'd been looking for and had a nice Mexican dinner with a tasty margarita. I headed over to the theater afterwards and planned to buy the usual concert download that I usually buy at Rob Thomas/Matchbox 20 shows. This show had an opportunity to buy an actual CD of the show! The money was going to Rob's Sidewalk Angels foundation which is an animal rescue organization and I was more than happy to hand over my $40 for a CD and a good cause.
The Zappos Theater looks much the same as it did when it was the Aladdin, but they've reconfigured the main floor seating somewhat so it's not quite as semi-circle as it had been and the seats were facing forward more than I remember them being the last time I was there. I wasn't on the main floor, but a section behind in the second row. Pretty decent seat to the right of center stage. The one thing I was hoping was that folks around me would be sitting down. Normally, this bugs me as I like to stand and dance while listening to live music, but after six days of standing, I was perfectly fine sitting and chair dancing for the show. Fortunately, the people in front of me were a bit older (they were talking about having seen Elvis in Vegas back in the day!) so I figured they'd sit.
The opening act was a gal named Abby Anderson, and she was pretty good. I was really paying more attention to her female drummer. You don't see a whole lot of women playing drums and I always love to watch and see girls get down. She was pretty good too.
Rob finally took to the stage about 9:00 and opened up with a track off his new album "I Love It." It's a good uptempo song and an energetic way to open the show and I did a little chair dancing as it kicked into gear. One thing I always enjoy about seeing Rob Thomas with or without Matchbox 20 is that he really wants to make sure the audience is having a good time and his shows just have a real strong vibe of positivity. As expected , the set was a good mix of songs from his new album, other solo material, and a few Matchbox tunes. Personal highights include my new personal theme song "One Less Day (Dying Young)" from the new album and "Ever the Same" which is one of my favorite solo tunes of his. "One Less Day" has really hit home since turning 50 and is a really positive song about life (the title is a bit deceptive -- the hook is "I'm not afraid of getting older, I'm one less day from dying young.") and something I've really appreciated this year. 50 is just one of those birthdays that makes you think -- huh, I guess I'm not really young any more am I? But as the saying goes, age is just mind over matter -- if you don't mind, it doesn't matter.
While I did sit for most of the show and chair dance, there were a few points where I just had to get up and dance. Having Rob wander out into the audience during "One Less Day" was definitely one of them and when he covered David Bowie's "Let's Dance" well, you gotta get up and move. After the show I picked up my CDs and headed back to the Palazzo. Being a Friday night in Vegas, I knew taking a cab back would be ridiculous because of the traffic on the strip, so I decided to walk back. It was a warm evening, but not so hot that walking was unpleasant. The sights on the Vegas strip at 11:30 or so on a Friday night are their own form of entertainment in and of themselves!
All in all, a pretty good way to end a very long week in Las Vegas (though, 7 days is still 6 too many!)
Set list:
I Love It
Mockingbird
Give Me the Meltdown
Lonely No More
Her Diamonds
Heaven Help Me
Can't Help Me Now
If You're Gone
Streetcorner Symphony
One Less Day (Dying Young)
Little Wonders
Fire on the Mountain
Let's Dance
The Worst in Me
3 A.M.
Ever the Same
Someday
I Am an Illusion
Encore:
Pieces
Unwell
Smooth
This Is How a Heart Breaks
