Las Vegas: Apparently nothing but love, sex, and death (and a whole lotta lights)

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LA to Vegas, via some OC action
Liz Toms WOW WOW WOW. So, we're in Vegas now, via Newport Beach to do a little OC action (it was nice to see Orange County and the now famous town thanks to the drama filled show that I used to love). We've been here since Friday. We're here for two Dave Matthews Band shows, which are kind of the reason for the whole trip as a whole .When we found out that the shows would fall on the last weekend of our spring break, it was a no-brainer how we would spend it. Going to BYU and California were just additional bonuses to fill the time before the shows, provided we got to them. It took a long while to get here, thanks to both the infamous traffic on the 405 (this time thanks to an accident), plus hardcore, unexplained traffic on both 91 and I-15. If it weren't for the fact that the shows were to start an hour later than they normally do out in the midwest, we would have been screwed Night 1. We basically got to our hotel to check in (I was worried about losing our reservations if we didn't check in that night), and then walked a good 15 minutes to the MGM Grand, where the shows were being held. It took a while to find our way to the Grand Garden Arena, but once we did we had a good time. Friday's show was good, a nice way to start off the weekend . The highlights were defintely Say Goodbye (the intro between Carter and Roi was just sick) and I'll Back You Up, and three covers: Time of the Season, The Maker, and Down By The River. The set as a whole was, in my opinion, a little strange with the way it flowed, but overall was a solid show.

After we got out around midnight, we decided to do a bit of gambling. I had never gambled before (I haven't even bought a lottery ticket), but all I wanted to do was pull a slot machine. It was kind of fun. I also was introduced to video black jack, and after getting the hang of it, I got to lose $10! Obviously, I can't say I'm much of a gambler, though I'm also quite convinced that the video machines are rigged. Who knows.

We got back to the hotel around 3AM completely exhausted but excited for the next day. We made our way to the Strip around 2:30PM and decided to grab some lunch and walk around. We got down to the Bellagio just as the water fountains were starting their performance. It was quite impressive. I don't recall having seen them the last time I was in Vegas (almost four years to the day). We stuck around for the duration of the song (some Celine Dion song I think, I swear that woman is everywhere in Vegas it seems) before heading into the casino. Our luck was no better here. It's a good thing that I'm not addicted to gambling (I was quite surprised by it, since I tend to have a borderline-obsessive personality), because I could have easily lost a lot of money pressing those little buttons.

After a couple of tries at blackjack and the slots at the Bellagio, we decided to stop and head over to Caesars Palace. I have to say, out of the three casinos we went into, I was least impressed with Caesars. It took forever to get our drinks, the casino layout was a bit confusing, and I think we had our worst bout of luck there, not to mention it's really cold in Caesars. I think that my opinion of Caesars could have improved if there were gladiators walking around, but I didn't see any. We did get to watch Kansas lose to UCLA, so that was a plus; I was real glad to see Bill Self lose. When we finally got our drinks, we left the casino in order to head back down to the MGM for the show. Since we didn't get to see The Fray open the previous night, Keith wanted to see them the second night. But before we went in, we tried our luck again at blackjack, and I came out ahead this time, in fact I tripled the $4 I put it! Yeah, I'm a big gambler, but nevertheless I was excited at the win.

By this time though it was time to go to the show, so we cashed out and made our way back to the Grand Garden Arena for The Fray. I can't say I'm too big of a fan of them, especially since all their songs kind of sound the same to me. I guess you could say that about most bands you don't listen to frequently, but I doubt I'd take the time with The Fray. I do know they played their hit songs all in one night, so I'm especially glad I didn't see them both nights as I'm sure the set sounded quite the same each night. Plus, it's real hard to get into an opener for me when I know in an hour and a half I'll be seeing the band I've seen more times than I'll repeat here, a.k.a. the band I came 4,000 miles to see. And let me tell you... the second night alone was worth the time traveled. Wow. I know this gets said a lot, but I can't remember a better show. At least, there are few show I'd rank this high. It was absolutely sick. The show started off quite surprisingly with Crash Into Me as the opener, and the whole entire deal was pretty energized. Dave kept making remarks about "sex, love, and death" or how a song pertained to Vegas. They even pulled out a pleasing rendition of "Sweet Caroline," which goot the whole Arena really into the show. The rest of the main set was superb and went on about four songs more than I think anyone expected; they just didn't stop! The encore itself was worth the price of admission, what with Halloween closing. When Carter started on the drums right after American Baby Intro, I thought I'd die. It came out of nowhere and to close was a dream. I can't even complain that I didn't hear Two Step (my favorite song by far). We knew that night 2 would be absolutely incredible, but there was no way we knew it'd be this amazing.

We left the arena completely on a high, although it was bittersweet because the trip was fast ending. We gambled a little bit more, though I think all of our luck was used up on the setlist (though after a set like that, it's hard to mind losing money). We called it a night around 2 and ended up taking a taxi back to the hotel since I didn't want to walk. I kind of wished we had gone back to the Bellagio to catch a night performance of the fountains, but I guess we'll just have to come back to Vegas. Maybe after I've learned how to gamble a bit more. It's going to be a real sad day tomorrow having to leave and head back to Illinois, and a long day at that. Vegas, thank you... you've been (mostly) good to me.

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