October 12, 2024: Life in the Sphere, Everything All the Time

Sphere
Las Vegas

In 2022, while heading to the Venetian resort for my company's annual conference, my cab ride took me past a new building under construction. It's odd circular shape led me to ask my driver what it was. A new 360-degree concert venue was his response, and I thought "Wow, cool and that place is huge!" Clearly it was going to be a venue for major acts. Fast-forward a year, and it's announced that U2 will be the first performer to take up residency at the Sphere. I considered getting a ticket to that show, but just couldn't bite the bullet on the ticket price and a weekend hotel rate in Vegas. In June of this year, my company conference was once again at the Venetian as usual, but this time our CEO's keynote and the "celebration" event were both going to be held at the Sphere. Alas, we could only send one support person and I didn't get to go this year, and had to settle for watching the keynote speech streaming at my desk and wait for pictures and stories from my colleagues who attended and got to see the Dead and Company show. The keynote looked cool for a corporate event and everyone raved about the concert and shared some great photos and video.

When the Eagles announced their residency, I took a look a the dates and saw they were playing the weekend before and the weekend following my birthday weekend. Since October 12 is my sister-in-law's birthday, and she and her twin sister usually go to Las Vegas for their birthday, I asked her at a family dinner if she'd be interested in going to the show. She said she and her sister had decided to skip Vegas this year, but thanks for asking. My mom overheard our conversation and said "Can I go with you?" Well, sure! So, I made arrangements to get tickets for the show and since Mom hadn't been to Vegas since the mid-1970s, looked for something fun we could do either the night before or after.

I'll skip my usual ramble about getting to Vegas and Mom's impressions 50 or so years since her previous visit and start with some general information about the Sphere experience beyond the show. Should you plan to see a show at the Sphere and use the Venetian walkway tunnel, know that it's about a 10-15 minute walk from the casino floor to the entrance of the arena, plus any time it may take you to get from your room to the casino floor should you opt to stay at the Venetian. The whole trek is indoors, and one I am particularly familiar with due to attending my company conference (though it was rather odd walking through the convention hall with nothing happening, I'm used to it being much more hectic.) The security is a little slow, but likely because most of the people attending the show are coming via the walkway rather than one of the other entries. It was otherwise efficient and I had no issues with my small-ish concert purse and the "no-bags" policy. We were able to grab a couple of bottles of water from a self-serve stand that had very friendly staff helping people check out their purchases. A quick stop in the restroom was the only "disappointment" as it was very poorly lit -- way too dark -- but otherwise clean and efficient. Off we went to our seats.

Before I purchased the tickets, I did some online research into where the best seats might be. I knew sitting on the floor would be great for seeing the band, but likely not the best viewing point for the immersive video. The general consensus was the 200 or 300 sections, but from the pictures I saw (plus reports from my work colleagues) both seemed to be miles from the stage and the band would be ants. Thus, I opted for section 106 which came with a note of "limited screen" (despite being dead center stage) since I wanted the ability to also see the band and not just "watch TV." (More on that later.) As you can see from the photo at the top of this post, the "limited screen" meant things were cut off a bit on the side, but otherwise the view was terrific. Mom and I got to our seats and were just amazed. The screen showed assorted historical music venues from Los Angeles and other key moments in time from the history of the band. Every so often a blurred car would roll along the screen making it look like someone was driving down the Sunset Strip. The whole thing was amazingly crisp and Mom and I were both dazzled just by this "simple" opening.

This scene would move down
the table and through the door

Shortly before the show started, we discovered we were in the wrong section, so we promptly hustled over to our seats to settle in for the show. Here's where this review gets challenging. It's now six days since I was as the show and I still don't know if I have the words to aptly describe what I saw and heard. The show kicked off with "Hotel California" and as the screen morphed from a misty, foggy background to an animated car driving down a hill in a canyon my jaw dropped wide open and my eyes popped out of my head (and everyone's phone was up taking pictures and video.) Even though it was an animation, it felt completely three-dimensional as the car moved down the hill and then slowly turned a corner to the driveway of a small motel. The doors of the hotel opened and it was as if you were walking down a hallway and kept moving forward through various doors and scenes. I don't think I blinked for the duration of the entire song. I did have enough brain power left to manage to snap a few pictures and grab a few snips of video, but I wanted to stay in the moment as much as I could because it was such an amazing experience. During the ending solo the video became a swirling aurora with the various band members highlighted in the middle.

The next few songs are a bit of a blur. I rather felt like a country bumpkin wandering in the big city for the first time. There was animation of driving along the California coast and it felt like I was in the car along for the ride. I typically get a little queasy on windy roads, so imagine my surprise when I found myself feeling queasy "riding" along the animated coastal road!

About three songs in, the screen changed to a calm star field and Don Henley welcomed us to the Sphere by saying "You'll see a lot of pretty pictures tonight. Some of them will be moving. Hope you brought your Dramamine." Which got a laugh, especially from me after the queasy car ride a few minutes before. He also shared that what the band was enthusiastic about -- the sound system! He informed us that "there are 164,000 speakers. You can hear all our mistakes." I didn't notice any mistakes, but the sound was excellent, though I must admit the quality of the sound was a bit lost among all the stunning visuals.

I don't want to spoil the show too much for people who may be planning to see it soon because it's really an incredible experience, but I do need to highlight a couple of my favorite moments. The first was the trip through space during "Take it to the Limit" -- planets, nebulae in vivid colors with Vince Gill appearing on some of the planets as he sang. "Tequila Sunrise" was a quieter scene of a sunrise over a canyon. Beautiful and peaceful.

But the most surreal moment of the show came towards the end of "In the City." The screen had started off as a bunch of black and white tenement buildings, invoking the feel of a cramped, crowded, dirty city. Towards the end, the scene turned to color and started rotating and moving. Sitting in my seat, I felt like I was slowly rising and floating above the scene. I looked back towards the stage at the band to try to re-center myself and even they looked like they were floating upwards. It was completely surreal. I looked over at my mom and she too was stunned by the feeling of motion.

Fortunately the show would split up the surreal scenes with ones that were more tranquil and would give you a moment to ground yourself. "Seven Bridges Road" was a perfect example with the star field once again behind the band on the screen as they harmonized on that beautiful song, eventually ending with a slow ride down a peaceful river.

Normally, when I'm at a large show I make a concerted effort not to watch the show on the video screens. I want to be in the moment and watch the band. I will often close my eyes to just let the music wash over me. This is absolutely impossible at the Sphere. The full surround high resolution video is so stunning you can't NOT watch it. At a normal show I also try to limit how much of it I take pictures of and record because I don't want to watch it through my phone. That was an extreme challenge at the Sphere. Part of me wanted to have my phone on and recording for the entire thing, but since the only way to really capture everything would be to scan the entire show in all directions I'd be experiencing it through my phone rather than immersed in it. I did grab some photos, but notably most of the video I grabbed was from the quieter sections of the show rather than the visually stunning ones.

One thought kept running through my head as my eyes bugged out of my head -- I've got to buy a video of this, but how the hell do you capture this all in a video that you can watch on a normal television? The small snips of video I captured on my phone did an OK job of getting a sense of what it's like, so I suppose a professional crew could capture it, but I guarantee the feeling won't be the same as seeing it in person.

A few more moments of the show I wanted to highlight. The first was the only time in the show I actually closed my eyes. For "Already Gone" the video screen essentially disappeared and bright spotlights shone through and would rotate out towards the crowd. They were really blinding so I closed my eyes for much of that song. Then later when the band launched into Joe Walsh's "Life's Been Good", the screen was filled with archival photos and video of the band over the decades and it was great to see photos of Glenn Frey prominent among them. Some of the photos of Glenn made it extremely simple to see just how much Deacon looks like him. We also were treated to Don Henley's "Boys of Summer" and the video for that one started off with a shot exactly like the opening shot from the original video and got a huge cheer. It took a few seconds of watching the video before I thought "that's not right -- this is a different video using the same look." I was right and that video morphed into something completely different.

After a brief break, the show closed out with "Take It Easy", "Rocky Mountain Way", "Desperado", and "Heartache Tonight." The first three were backed by some of the quieter, peaceful videos, but "Heartache Tonight" went out with full color animation. All in all a great compilation of the experience of the evening.

I'm contemplating getting tickets again and sitting in one of the upper sections and experiencing it again from that angle. I think it will be less overwhelming a second time, but I would also have an ability to appreciate what I'm seeing rather than being completely gobsmacked the entire time. I will definitely go to future shows at the Sphere should the opportunity arise (and I'm extremely curious about my company's plans for NEXT year's conference and concert since I think there will be a good chance I'll get to attend again.)

Setlist

Hotel California
One of These Nights
Lyin' Eyes
Take It to the Limit
Witchy Woman
Peaceful Easy Feeling
Tequila Sunrise
In the City
I Can't Tell You Why
New Kid in Town
Seven Bridges Road
Those Shoes
Life's Been Good
Already Gone
The Boys of Summer
Life in the Fast Lane

Encore:

Take It Easy
Rocky Mountain Way
Desperado
Heartache Tonight

 

July 17, 2024: You Just Might Find You Get What You Need

Levi's Stadium
Santa Clara, CA

According to legend, the first time I got on a plane to attend a concert was when I flew to Detroit to see Journey for the first time. That's not exactly true. About four months before that memorable night, I was in Germany seeing the Rolling Stones. The key difference between those two trips is that the trip to Michigan was solely to see the newly reformed Journey while the trip to Germany was a vacation with my friend Ana Gloria to visit our friend Barbara and her husband Chris who were stationed there while he was in the US Army. When we planned the trip, Barbara let us know that she and Chris had tickets to see the Rolling Stones in Nuremberg one of the days we'd be visiting. We said if you can get us tickets we'll pay you back when we see you, if not it's not a big deal -- you go to the show and we'll do something on our own that night. They were able to get us a pair of tickets which cost about 50 Deutsche Marks (this was pre-Euro days) and we were set. So a few days after arriving in Europe and visiting Paris (thus missing Journey's debut with Steve Augeri) and Munich, my friends and I were on the road to Nuremberg to see the Stones. It was a memorable show filled with classic Stones hits and thus a legendary band was checked off my list of acts to see.

I was never a huge Stones fan. As a kid born in the late 1960s, the Stones were just that ubiquitous band that had been around forever. I vividly recall people shocked -- absoulutely shocked -- that they were still touring in the early 1980s. These guys were in their forties for crying out loud! Much too old to be carrying on as rock stars! Still, they're the Rolling Stones and a major influence on 20th century music, so of course I paid attention to their music. However, having seen them in 1998, I didn't feel a burning need to see them again in the subsequent years as they continued to tour. Usually whenever a local show was announced, I thought about it for a second then thought "well, I saw them in Germany, I don't really need to see them again."

Flash-forward more years than I want to admit, and my high school friends and I have gathered for our annual Christmas party. After a spending a day and dinner in San Francisco, we gathered back at my friend Isabelle's house for dessert and still more conversation. Somewhere along the line the conversation turns to music and Keith Richards' upcoming eightieth birthday. Now, Isabelle is a big fan of the Rolling Stones and an even bigger fan of Keith Richards and retrieves a painting she made of him back in high school. I instantly remember it from that time and we all laugh and reminisce about our teen-aged selves. We then marvel at the fact that Keith Richards is still alive at eighty and Barbara and I recount the tale of seeing the Stones in Germany.

Once home from the party, I start thinking. Isabelle has never seen the Stones. Mick and Keith are eighty -- there aren't going to be a whole lot of more opportunities to see them and they'll be in the Bay Area in July. Tickets had been on sale for a while, and I knew they'd be pricey but I took a look to see what a decent seat would cost. As I thought, they were expensive, but not more than what I'd be willing to spend to see one of my favorite acts, so on December 18 I texted Isabelle: "In honor of Keith Richards' 80th birthday I would like to treat you to one (1) ticket to the Rolling Stones in July." She delightedly agreed and off I went to grab two seats for the show.

The show date finally rolls around, and Isabelle and I head out for dinner in Mountain View before catching the light rail to Levi's Stadium. We run a little late at dinner, but I didn't expect it to be a problem as there was no way the show was going to start at the ticketed time of 7:00 -- it was still light out for crying out loud! We arrived at the stadium and it took a little longer to get through security than usual -- something in my bag set off the alarm -- but we eventually got inside. I'd forgotten exactly where I had gotten the seats. My brother and I have season tickets for the 49ers, so I knew where to sit and knew I'd gotten seats near to where our season tickets are, but wasn't exactly sure where. It turns out they were in the club section that I'd only been able to see when we toured the stadium prior to the opening season. So our seats were about the 50-yard line if it'd been a football game. I was also pleasantly surprised to find the seats were wider than our seats and had padding. Very comfortable.

When we arrived, the opening act was performing. While there hadn't been an opening act advertised, I wasn't surprised. It was an all-girl band called The Beaches and they were quite good. I did keep laughing to myself though thinking "they're young enough to be the Stones' grandchildren!" Isabelle and I half listened and half chatted through their set while we waited for the main act.

As darkness fell, the stage lit up. Here we go. The first thing we hear is the opening riff to "Start Me Up" because of course that's what you open with! Mick and the boys take the stage like only the Rolling Stones can and my first thought is "Yeah, they've still got it." They've been around longer than I've been alive, but they still have that ultra-cool swagger that screams "We're the Rolling f-in' Stones and you're not!" The crowd was up on its feet and unlike crowds at other shows with acts of this vintage (ahem, old) they stayed on their feet almost the entire night.

The second song of the set was "Get Off of My Cloud" and my heart swelled. Nearly twenty years ago my aunt Diane was dying from cancer and a nurse had asked her what her favorite music was and she replied "rock." This got a laugh from the family who were there at the time especially my uncle Tom. Diane's idea of "rock" was Anne Murray and the Carpenters! She was definitely an easy-listening type person. After her funeral, the family gathered back at my parents' house for what can best be described as an old-fashioned Irish wake (with cosmos instead of old-fashioneds!) Late in the evening, my uncle Tom went out to his car and brought in a CD and re-told the story of Diane telling the nurse she liked rock music. He then put the CD on and cued it up and said "I'm sure this is what Diane is listening to now." He hit play and "Get Off of My Cloud" came blaring out of the speakers. We all laughed and cried and danced. Tom died ten years later, so hearing this song brought back happy and sad memories of them both.

As the set rolled along through classic hits, new tunes, and fan-favorites, I found myself watching Isabelle as much as the show. She was clearly really enjoying herself. She's had a rough few years and I was so happy to see her having so much fun. About half-way through the show, Mick went off stage for a bit of a break and Keith took over and sung a few tunes I didn't know. Isabelle loved it.

Throughout the show, I was amazed at just how much energy they had. Mick and Keith are eighty. Ron Woods is seventy-eight. They were going full-bore the whole show -- and this was the second to last show of the tour. Sure, they're doing stadium shows that pull in huge audiences and have multiple days off between shows which I'm sure helps them keep going full bore on show nights, but I kept thinking about how so many of my favorite performers are in their 70s and 80s and could only come to one conclusion -- music keeps you young.

A few highlights of the show for me included a cover of Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone" (well, duh), "Sympathy for the Devil", and an amazing version of "Gimme Shelter." That last tune had one of the backing singers come front and center to sing a duet with Mick and all I kept thinking was "my god, she's channeling Tina Turner!" Turns out, she had been starring in the London version of the Tina Turner musical before joining the tour. She was absolutely fantastic!

The show closed out with "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" which was absolutely perfect. As I stood there and sang along I couldn't help but think about how glad I was that I had gone to see the Stones one more time. They're perhaps the greatest rock band of all time and can still bring it 60-plus years on.

Set list:

Start Me Up
Get Off of My Cloud
Tumbling Dice
Angry
Far Away Eyes
Like a Rolling Stone
Bite My Head Off
Mess It Up
You Can't Always Get What You Want
You Got the Silver (Keith Richards on vocals)
Little T&A (Keith Richards on vocals)
Before They Make Me Run Keith Richards on vocals)

Sympathy for the Devil
Honky Tonk Women
Midnight Rambler
Gimme Shelter
Paint It Black
Jumpin' Jack Flash

Encore:
Sweet Sounds of Heaven
(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction