Viva Las Vegas....Well, Not Really, This Place Is Lame

Well, I didnt have internet access at the ultra classy Sahara Hotel (complete with roller coaster that ran around the place at all hours of the night) so I am going to try and recap all the festivities while I sit here in the airport enjoying the fruits of their wireless network. Ill start by saying this: if not for the bsolutely incredible amount of music that was going on here this week, I would have hated the trip. The city is a dump, it's glittery, it's too flashy, and Kacey and I decided that the mantra among rela estate developers is nothing more than "Make it bigger and glitzier than that one"-so with that said, here is a rough blow by blow of the trip:

Day One: Arrive in Denver, then off to Vegas, where I am three hours earlier than the folks coming from California. Kacey arrives, my sleep pattern is ALL KINDS of wack....We go to the Jimmy Buffett Margaritaville, and watch the strip from the balcony. Interesting, to say the least. Then its back to the hotel, where we kind of set the place up, and Kacey's good friend Emily from SD shows up. Emily is actualy from WV as well, and happens to live in the same complex as Kacey. Really cool girl, and her boyfriend, a Navy Chopper pilot arrives as well. Soon after, Emily's brother Ben, and his lady show up, they live in Johnson City, TN, and flew in from Greenville,SC. Cool people. They go gamble, Kacey and I head off to the Aladdin for a night with Trey Anastasio of Phish. Nothing funnier than dirty hippies standing in casinos trying to score tickets, and whatever else they are looking for. Kacey and I watch Trey, and while Ive never been a huge Phish fan, the man can jam......It was a "latenight" show, starting at midnight, by 1:45, Kacey and I had both fallen asleep....I had been up for what I counted as 27 hours.



Day Two: Up and ready to roll, off to day one of th Vegoose Music Festival....We arrive, set up in the stadium (where the UNLV football team plays) and get set up in time for String Cheese Incident. They jam for a good while, but began to overlap with Govt Mule, so I leave everyone and run over to catch Mule. Win, as usual, they rocked. Kacey and Company left and headed over the stage where Mule was rockin.......cant remember who we saw after that, but we did go see Col. Bruce Hampton shortly after, and as usual, Im amazed at how good those guys are. Makes me feel fortunate that they are hometown ATL boys, and play down the street a couple times a month. After Col. Bruce was done, we headed back into the stadium, and Dave Matthews hit the stage. I said it once, and Ill say it agian, as much as everyone loves to hate on Dave, he is good, and I really enjoyed it-it's a love hate thing I guess. Trey Anastasio came out and jammed with him, those two are two peas in a pod, thats for sure. They rocked out, and then day one was done-Kacey and I and the rest of the crew headed back to the hotel, and Kacey and I hit our next late night show. We were warriors, I gotta say...late nights, and lots of music. This time it was Moe.-Great band, who Jarrett is a huge fan of, and who opened for the Allmans last month. They rocked out for 3.5 HOURS.....They went on stage at 1 AM and didnt wrap up until almost 4:30-So tired would be an understatement.


Day Three: We all head back over for day two of Vegoose, probably the best day of the two-We hit the festival and found Moe onstage, once again, less than 10 hours from the end of the show the night before. It rocked though, as they always do.After some Moe, we headed over and checked out The Meters, funk based guys from New Orleans, who are awesome-They jammed for almost two hours-After the Meters, it was off to a little early 90's alternative with the Flaming Lips, who, not many other than Win may have heard of....They are downright weird but it was quite entertaining for sure. A little Jack Johnson after that, and back into the stadium for the hilight of the day, three hours of Widespread Panic. I had never seen Panic before, and it had been ages since i had been to a big stadium show, but it was the hilight of the weekend. I think it may be a tough thing to admit, but Panic may be the best rock and roll band on tour-after the ABB and Feat of course. Dad, if you like Billy Payne on keyboards, JoJo Hermann from Panic would be your man too, he is an awesome piano player, and of course as Win can attest, Dave Schools on bas is about as bad as it gets. They rocked for three straight hours, wearing all of us out. After the show, Kacey and I had tickets to another late night show, with Galactic, but after Panic, we were so tired, everyone ewnt back and fell asleep, and forgot to get up in time for latenight with Galactic.

Day Four: Emily, Ben, Donnie and Tara, the other folks with us, all left and headed back to California. Kacey and I spent the day on the strip, looking on in horror at how gawdy everything is, and how there isnt an ounce of taste in the entire place. It's madness, pure madness. Walked through the Bellagio, the MGM Grand, the Circus Circus, and were just amazed at how the place is so umm, well, you get the point. Basically we were killing time until the grand finale of the weekend, a Halloween show with Widespread Panic at the Thomas And Mack Center, where the UNLV basketball team plays. She and I were dressed up, I was a doctor and she was a nurse and we looked hilarious. Im gonna try and poste a bunch of pics on here, as soon as I figure it out. Panic once again rocked the entire place, and solidified my opinion that they may be one of the best bands on tour now. Win, I dont thinkyou have seen them yet, and while their crowd is alot of the hippie kids we have all grown to loathe, they are all there for the same reason, and its worth dealing with to see Panic. Rocked the place for three hours, and Dirty Dozen Horns showeed up as well and jammed with them. They covered I Put A Spell On You, and the hilight of the entire night, the old motown classic "Nowhere To Run To" I think by Martha Reeves maybe? Who knows, either way it was way cool, and everyone was in costume. Was an awesome way to end the weekend. So we got back to the hotel, crashed out, and here I am at the airport waiting to get on the plane. Gonna try and post some pics, if I can get it figured out......