What a great night in Las Vegas tonight at the Alan Parsons Live Project at the Westgate Resort and Casino. Toni and I decided to take a quick weekend trip to Vegas for me to an iconic singer/songwriter/composer and to Toni to relax away from the house. What a fun weekend.

The weather was incredible with a high around 68 degrees and clear Skys, it was just beautiful. We arrived around 1:30pm or so and were able to check right into our room at the Pallazo Hotel…we love that place…

After having dinner I headed off to the show around 4:00pm to make sure that I had enough time to get there and be ready for the 5:00pm meet-up for the VIP activities. My ticket was supposed to be at will call, but when checking in, the attendant indicated the tickets were to be with the VIP host at the entrance to the venue, so off I went. Once there, they seemed to know nothing about the tickets and besides that I had somehow lost my ID which was going to make it difficult to prove who I was to either get my ticket or my VIP credentials…what a drag! There were a few other people looking for their tickets, so the VIP representative went over to will call to try and figure out where the tickets were. Fortunately when she came back she not only had my ticket, but also me ID…whew!

We were let into the venue to queue up for the meet & greet which started at 6:00pm. Meeting Mr Parsons was incredible. He was so nice and initiated a conversation asking me if I had ever seen his show before…we talked for a few minutes about the last time I saw him up at a small casino in Bow Washington…such a nice guy. Once the photos and autographing was done, we were all ushered into the seating area of the venue for the sound check…these are always so much fun as the artist/ musicians seem so relaxed but yet professional about getting the sound and stage just right. They played many “bits” of various songs which was just great to see and hear.

The show started about 8:45pm and finishing up a little after 10:00pm. They played so many old favorites as well as new music from their new(er) album The Secret released about a year ago. My favorite of the night was Breakdown / The Raven, I Wouldn’t Want to Be Like You, Prime Time and Don’t Answer Me. 

Great night and great weekend!

What can I say about The Who…other than what another great show! This was the 6th time I have seen them over the last 20 years with my first being August 2000 which was one of my more memorable shows with the way that unforgettable organ/ synth sound echoed and reverberated off the back of natural outdoor amphitheater…it was just mesmerizing and hypnotic…

I had a great seat for the show too…I splurged for the VIP package so that I could not only get a good seat in the gigantic T-Mobile Park, but also get in early for march shopping and low stress entry into the venue. I was also able to sit in on their sound check which was very cool to see them casually perform chunks of songs as they tuned up the sound.

They performed all of the hits that you would expect them to play including Pinball Wizard, Who Are You, Eminence Front, Substitute, I Can See for Miles, You Better You Bet and the performance of Behind Blue Eyes was just incredible. This tour was special as they brought out an orchestra for a big part of their set. The orchestra put a fantastic element to both Love, Reign O’er Me and Baba O’Riley.

The end of the show even brought out Eddie Vedder who sat in singing with Roger Daltrey on the song The Punk and the Godfather. Seems that Eddie and Mike McCready always end up on stage when someone big comes to town in Seattle.

I will continue to see The Who as long as they tour…they always put on a memorable show.

Doing a little catch-up before the upcoming concert season…it’s been a few months since my last update, however have see a few shows in that time that I hadn’t had the time to post on until now. One of those shows was Brian Wilson and The Zombies.

Kind of a strange pairing, but they called the tour the “Something Great From ’68’ Tour”. Brian Wilson will primarily performed songs from two of his favorite Beach Boys albums, 1968’s Friends and 1971’s Surf’s Up, with sprinkles of other rarities within the setlist. His former Beach Boys bandmates Al Jardine and Blondie Chaplin also joined him on stage for this show.

Their SetList: California Girls, I Get Around, Don’t Worry Baby, Darlin’, Meant for You, Friends, Wake the World, Busy Doin’ Nothin’, Wouldn’t It Be Nice, Sloop John B, God Only Knows, Feel Flows, Long Promised Road, Sail On, Sailor, I Can Hear Music, Little Bird, Diamond Head, ‘Til I Die, Surf’s Up, Lookin’ at Tomorrow (A Welfare Song), Heroes and Villains, Good Vibrations, Help Me, Rhonda, Barbara Ann, Surfin’ U.S.A., Fun, Fun, Fun, Love and Mercy

The Zombies set featured Rod Argent and Colin Blunstone reuniting with fellow co-founders Chris White and Hugh Grundy, who performed alongside the current iteration of the Zombies.

I was able to do a short meet and greet with members of the Zombies, although I am not sure why everyone wasn’t there and it was just Hugh Grundy (Drums) and Chris White (Bass)…especially Rod Argent and Colin Blunstone who were the two primary founding members were there…kind of a bummer, but you never know with these meet and greets who wants to actually meet.

The Zombies SetList: Tell Her No, Merry Go Round, Edge of the Rainbow, She’s Not There. [Odessey and Oracle]
Care of Cell 44, A Rose for Emily, Maybe After He’s Gone, Beechwood Park, Brief Candles, Hung Up on a Dream, Changes, I Want Her She Wants Me, This Will Be Our Year, Butcher’s Tale (Western Front 1914), Friends of Mine, Time of the Season

Another wonderful performance by the Stones. This is probably the 6th or 7th time I have seen them going back to the Steel Wheels tour in 1989. I saw them in L.A. where Guns and Roses opened up for them…what a show that was.

Opening for them last night was Lukas Nelson, Promise of the Real…wasn’t familiar with him until the person next to me told me that he was Willie Nelson’s son…then it clicked and there were a few songs which if you closed your eyes you would swear Willie was on stage, he sounded so much like him. Not really my kind of music, but he was quite good and put on a good set.

The Stones came on around 8:45 or so and opened up with Street Fighting Man and the hits just kept coming after that. Some of my favorites early in the show were Beast of Burden, Honky Tonk Women, Miss You and Midnight Rambler. The show kept getting better and better as it went on and the second half was even better than the first with song like, Paint It Black, Start Me Up, Jumpin’ Jack Flash and Brown Sugar. They even did a short acoustic set where they played one of my all time favorites, Dead Flowers. The encore brought the house down with, Gimme Shelter and (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction, followed by a firework show above the stadium.

Mick and the guys were not running and jumping around the stage as much as they used to, but they put on a super show and still are one of the best live performing bands in the world. I will plan to see them when the next tour comes around.