Sunday, September 27, 2009

2009 09 16....27 NV, Las Vegas!

Yeah, yeah, we know - it's hot in Vegas this time of year - but it's a dry heat...right?

We thought we'd change things up and vist the Strip. Wow! quite a change from 30 years ago. The Casinos are dazzling and the lights fantastic, but the fake Eifel Tower, Gondola rides and a Statue of Liberty in the desert...a bit much. We recommend seeing the real thing. But hey! it's Vegas - Disneyland for gamblers and those looking for, well, you know the other big thing Vegas has to offer and I'm not talking about the shows! But we were there for the shows.

On Friday, we went to the Mirage and saw Love, a Cirque du Soleil production of music by the Beatles. It was fabulous! Incredible music, great costumes, amazing acrobatics - the production was clever, whimsical, really well done, brilliant!

Saturday night we were back at the Mirage to see Ron White...aka Tater Salad. We've watched him several times on HBO and enjoy his schtick. We were hoping to hear some new material, but he was still perfoming his old routine and we were a bit bummed! The audience was really into his routine, and from the people seated around us, they were enjoying their Scotch right along with Ron! I guess we needed some of our own! A lady next to Nancy had an ice bucket and a bottle in her purse! Now that's funny...

On Monday we flew to Nashville to see Jon Hiatt open for Boz Skaggs at the Ryman Auditorium. Boz sounded as good as ever and we really enjoyed the concert. Tuesday was Merle Haggard! The Hag's had a rough year, and this may very well be his last - but he was fantastic and we had a wonderful night. In fact, we're planning to see him again in Santa Barbara next week!

Wednesday we flew back to Las Vegas and saw Penn & Teller at the Rio. They are neat magicians and to top that, they are soooo funny. We really enjoyed their show.

Thursday was another Cirque du Soleil production - Chris Angel. A lot of hype in Vegas for this show - but we were not that impressed. Just so-so.

The highlight came on Friday at the Palazzo - the musical Jersey Boys. Absolutely the best show we'd seen and right up there with Broadway! The Frankie Valli story is amazing and the music brought back so many memories. The actor playing Frankie was really talented and man, he could really belt out those notes! All the singers were great! We would see it again in a heart-beat!

We wrapped-up Las Vegas at Ceasar's Palace. Cher was performing at the Coloseum and the show was getting a lot of hype. We wondered about this one - but hey! remember Sonny and Cher from TV? what the heck! The show was was something else alright! Gays were abundantly in attendance, some of them dressed in costume, a few putting on a show of their own! Cher managed to change costumes every 5 minutes, and they were fabulous, but the music was just so-so. She started the show with a dramatic entrance from a cage that dangled over the audience. After her entrance she rambled on about the Teamsters working her show. We weren't sure what point she was trying to make....not a promising start. In all fairness, she ended the show strong with a couple of really great songs. She looks fantastic - ass tattoos and all!

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