Kami’s Las Vegas memories…….

 

Exhausted from eating so much the day before (Thanksgiving—I love pie), not sleeping, then waking up needlessly early to get to the deserted airport on time, I boarded my flight for Las Vegas. It was virtually empty. A few guys sitting across from me a row or two back were my closest neighbours, and funnily enough, they were flying out for the show too. After a pleasant flight with the exit row to myself, my good friend John from Australia picked me up from the airport and we deposited my luggage in his room at the MGM. His girlfriend Jill came up from breakfast and gambling and we drove a few miles off the strip to a shooting range. It was packed! Jill and John both purchased packages which allowed them to shoot a few different firearms for 50 and 120 dollars respectively. I’m still technically a poor graduate student on a budget so I just hired one round on one gun, which cost about 25 dollars—not bad if you want to just shoot something a little and don’t care what. We picked our targets—mine was a charming wife-beater-clad stud with a mullet. We had to wait in line with our ammo and our paper targets with the masses. A nice family of Taiwanese stood behind us, and I talked to them. We had a good laugh about life in China, and the father lamented Chinese skills of his ABC children. The father looked almost exactly like one of the ‘bad guys’ in one of the selectable targets, and we chuckled about that, too.

When we got to the front, an instructor introduced himself, had us gear up in noise-cancellers and safety goggles—John was playing shocked at the ease of the shooting-a-gun process and made some snide remarks about American culture and cringed every time he heard an automatic going off in the range. We went back, and our instructor brought us our guns (MINE WAS PINK!), gave us each instruction with our guns, and helped us take pictures with our targets. All in all, it took only about 10 minutes to shoot off all our rounds, although we waited in line for 40. (Still totally worth it.) I shot my target in all the important places – forehead, jugular, and, of course, the nips. John and Jill got free t-shirts with their packages, then we met up with Simon and went back to the MGM to freshen up for the show (I still smelled like airplane). We went to the Rouge bar in the MGM, met with friends, got a little goofy (thank you tequila), and eventually shuffled with the throngs of people into the arena.

 

It was my first time seeing the show again since Philadelphia, and I was excited to see the changes. I noticed a few of the musical changes—I particularly like the new riff in Run Like Hell. I also noticed a much greater passion in Dave K’s guitar playing, especially during the Comfy Numb solo where he noticeably threw his body (and rock-star hair) into his playing. Robbie also showed a bit more “oomph” in his Comfy Numb bit, though I’m still not a fan of his creative warbling in The Show Must Go On. Although it’s been mentioned before, from the first show I saw in Chicago to the show in Vegas (and now, 2 weeks later) Roger has been increasingly amping-up his role of an impassioned fascist dictator during the second half of the show, and I must say, I really love it—more so each show—I’m not sure if he could over-do that to my satisfaction. It was the first time I saw the new animations for Goodbye Blue Sky and Comfortably Numb – it adds quite a bit.

   

I also pointed out the new pictures during Brick in the Wall pt. 1 to Simon – one of them of Roger’s family. (But he doesn’t listen to me, so he didn’t notice them until I pointed them out again in LA) – There was so much that was new, and honestly, while I enjoyed all the previous shows, from Vegas onward, I’m personally enjoying the shows much more—it’s hard not to!

Unfortunately, the end of the show left me completely “knackered,” as present British company would say, and I passed out cold as soon as humanly possible. Don’t worry – it was in a room on a bed and NOT in the middle of the halls of the MGM, although my enduring memory is how incredibly ridiculous leaving the MGM venue was—thousands of patrons funnelling through one tiny corridor. I suppose I’m lucky I made it out alive.

-Kami <3

San Jose, show 2…….

We got to the bar around 5:30 after taking a cab the short distance from the hotel, it was throwing it down with rain and hadn't really stopped most of the day today!

Id had a called earlier on from a guy who had been reading my blog called Brian and told him about the meet up bar and what time we’d be there. he said he would be there between five and six, my old school friend Simon whom id met up with in Vegas was due to show up plus John from San Jose and Eddie and Ellen plus Renate and her friend and a couple of others.

As we got to the bar Maria, Gina, Matt, Renate, and Brian were already there, Brian had recognised Eric from my blog and introduced himself and made friends quickly.

Brian and I                                          Matt, Brian, Gail and I                         Joe, Eric, Matt and Brian

        

Eddie and Ellen arrived and it was great to catch up with Eddie, we’d seen each other at the show last night but hadn't had much time to catch up as it wasn't until we had all got inside the venue that i saw him. My friend Simon called to say he was unable to make it to the meet up in time due to him leaving his house too late but we would meet up at the venue when we got it. The same with my friend John as well, he had left his house 1 hour north of Sa Fran to arrive at 5pm but didn't get to the venue till 6:45! After an hour and a half of chatting and hanging out in the bar we made our way to the venue to pick up tickets for those that needed to.

Kami, Gina and Maria             Gina, Maria and Brain                       Kami,Gina & Maria chatting away

After getting in the venue we found our seats while Gail and Joe waited to find their friends in the lobby. John came along and found us and told us how he had been planning to come to the meet up but traffic was just bad and t had taken him an hour and a half longer than it should have. Michael Simone called as well and we had a chat before the show. We were 14th row on the aisle in the centre section tonight, Gail and Joe were on the other end of the same row, Maria and Brian were at the rear of the venue up off the floor in section 110 and Matt and Maria were in a similar place in section 109. Michael was 2 rows behind us to the left and John was 7th row to the right. I hadn’t heard from my friend Simon so sent him a text but he apparently didn't get it till later on after the show which is a shame as i wanted to meet up with him again, however he’s going over to the UK for Christmas and will be coming down to London so were hopefully gonna meet up at some point. I've written Christmas off this year, I'm gonna sleep for a couple of days when i get home, work the week before and then just catch up on TV programmes over Christmas on my won. This will be only the second time I've been at home in the UK in 16 years!! last year i was with my girlfriend and her parents which i really enjoyed, however this years gonna be the first year alone and at home in the UK! It shame i am up to 88 days of my 90 day visa free entry into the USA otherwise i would stay out here for Christmas and New Year as I've had so many offers of places to stay over the holiday period. Ah well, next years Thanksgiving is more or less arranged already :) thanks Beth:)

ok back to the show, its getting kinda hard to review the gigs now due to their not been much new for the last few shows and the performances all being fantastic with very few if any mistakes! tonight's show was no different, the first half was flawless and the second half was just as good as ever! There was one difference tonight though, the crowd! unlike last night where the crowd were up and down all night and couldn't decide whether to sit or stand tonight's crowd were up on their feet and didn't sit till the end of the show!

I got a few good shots during the random images on the wall section

   

Roger wasn't in as good a mood as he was last night (see my review on show 1 soon) but he was in good humour, his actions during the second IN The Flesh were great, pointing to the crowd telling them to sit down at the sides and using his hand as a gun at the crowd shooting at them then pointing to them and dragging his hand across his throat!

The wall fall at the end was good, better than last night for sure. It still amazes me to look round at the crowd during and after the walls falling and seeing the reactions on their faces, its always too ark to take pictures of people but I'm gonna try real hard the last few shows to capture their faces with a couple of pictures.

After the show we headed back to the Britannia pub to say our goodbyes, Maria and Matt were leaving tomorrow as were Gail and Joe and tonight would be the last we see of them till Europe next year. Gina and Eric will however be in Anaheim so am looking forward to seeing them again down there. We got back to the hotel around 11:30 after walking the streets trying to find some food for Kami, believe me there's no one more deserving to go into the “museum of tolerance” ( yes we did see a sign for one in LA!!) than someone hanging out with Kami when she needs food! We did however find a great little Mexican take out place that did great tacos and chips and salsa just a few blocks from our hotel!

San Jose day 2…….

Gail and Joe called our room around 8am, they were planning on driving into San Francisco today so came along and got the keys for the rental car and headed off around 10am We were just planning on chilling out today, Maria and Matt were down at the pool area so Kami and i joined them for a couple of hours as the weather was about 72` and the sun was out! i laid on the sun lounger and fell asleep while listening to Pros and Cons while Kami and Maria went off to use the spa and the sauna.

The pool at The Fairmont

After chilling out by the pool area Kami and i went back to the room and got ready to go out for “lunch” it was nearly 3pm and we hadn’t eaten all day. We’d mentioned earlier in the day how neither of us had eaten much Italian food on the trip so i looked online for a good Italian place in San Jose. As luck would have it there was a Zagat rated place called “Joe’s Original” a couple of blocks away that had some great reviews and sounded just what we were looking for!

I ordered the Spaghetti with “meatless” sauce and added a couple of meatballs, Kami ordered the half Spaghetti and half Ravioli with a couple of Italian sausages. We also ordered some Garlic bread and regular bread, plus a bottle of Ruffino:)

When my food arrived it was enormous and Kamis was too!

 

The “meatless” sauce did in fact have meat in it, had i known this i would have just had the sauce! the restaurant wasn't even a “family style” one this was just a single portion!

We ate as much as we could and that was too much!! The bread, wine, Spaghetti and meat certainly made up for the lack of Italian food we hadnt eaten during the tour!

Our plates AFTER we had eaten!

We took the left over food back to the hotel however we realised there was no way of re heating it in the room, that was a shame as the next day i was sure i would have enjoyed it, the Italian sausages that kami had were amazing! as were the meatballs that i had. We wobbled our way back to the hotel both of us complaining how much food we’d eaten and how full we were!

Tonight was the first show in San Jose and I'd arranged to meet up with a few friends at an English bar called The Britannia about 1/2 mile from the hotel. I was 4pm when we got back to the room and we both fell asleep for an hour. I woke up laying on the bed sideways and looked at the clock, 8:05 it said!! i jumped up and shouted the time, OMG we had slept for like 4 hours! Kami jumped up and was like “ what, what's wrong ?” i then realised id seen the time upside down as id awoke and it was in fact 5:08!

We freshened up and walked down to the Britannia bar to meet up with Gail, Joe, Matt, Eric and a few others.

Los Angeles to San Jose…

Gail, Joe, Kami and i met in the hotel lobby at 9:30am, long days driving ahead, its about a 6 hour drive to San Jose(and yes we did know the way!) I did however have four drivers in the car, well three as Kami’s always asleep (joking!)

We left the hotel and headed out on the 405 up to northern California.

Sun coming up                                 Kami NOT asleep in the car!!              Gail and Joe driving.

The drive up was pretty uneventful, we grabbed breakfast after an hour and a half of driving, we were all decided on in and Out burger till Kami woke up and alerted us she didn't like burgers! So it was off to Ihop:)

I drove for about 3 hours and Gail took over driving for the last 3 hours when we stopped at a gas station to fill up. Within minutes of being in the backseat i was drifting in and out of sleep! that was until we went through the famous town that grows garlic! i hate the stuff and cant stand the smell, they have a festival every year in the town and every food you can imagine gets flavoured with Garlic! they even have garlic ice cream!

We arrived in San Jose around 5pm, well 4:57 actually due to Gail's speedy driving:) Gail and Joe were at the Ramada a a couple of blocks from our Hotel, The Fairmont. Maria, Matt and Eric had all arrived at the Fairmont a couple of hours earlier as they had all flown up together from LAX. We all arranged to meet in the lobby of our hotel at 7pm and head out for dinner.

Id heard of a place and seen it online that was a BBQ joint called Hi Life. It had great reviews and was well known in San Jose. We all met in the lobby at 7 and i suggested the BBQ place and made sure everyone was good with it, they were so we headed out and walked the 1/2 mile to the place which was just round the corner from the venue for tomorrows show,

Hi Life, was like an oasis in the middle of nowhere                                       Menu, simple, plain but not that cheap

 

As we all walked in we could smell the smoke from the BBQ (i can still smell it on my jeans!) the place was small and looked busy. The menu was on the wall and pretty simple, meat, meat and more meat! this was NOT the place for a vegetarian! There was a box on the wall that had numbers in it, you took a number, you then placed your order with the host that was in the bar area and you then waited for your number to be called out and they took you through the the dining area. It was an unusual way of doing thongs but it all worked out fine. All the food came with a Baked Potato and salad and that was it!

Gail and Joe weren't felling too good when we got in the restaurant so they headed back to their hotel and Kami, Matt, Eric and i all stayed in the bar area waiting for our number to be called. It was funny watching Matt make friends in the bars and restaurants we had been in he loves to talk to people and always manages to have a laugh with the waitresses or the hosts but tonight he found some American Physco that loved his British accent!

I went to the bathroom and heard the words “ Simon, party for four, your tables ready” i did what i had to do quicker than i would have normally and came running out to the bar area only to see Eric, Matt and Kami laughing out loud as Eric had found the microphone for the restaurant and made him own “Simon”  announcement unbeknown to me! Eric, remember when i shook your hand after coming out of the bathroom and i said it was from washing my hands ? well……….. lol

Eric and his girlie drink!                     Kami, Eric and Matt                          Matt and Kami

 

We sat at the table around 8:30 as we had already ordered our food an hour ago with the hostess it didn't take long to arrive at all. I’d ordered the 16oz New York steak, Matt had the smaller New York steak, Eric had some other type of meat and Kami had gone for the baby back ribs, and a full rack!

My steak and potato                           This girl CAN eat!!

     

The food was fantastic, the steak was cooked to perfection and the baked potato had a crispy hard skin and a soft fluffy inside, just how i like it. Kamis ribs were HUGE, we all sat there in amazement when they brought them out to her, she just took it all in her stride saying she was hungry and that she wouldn't have a problem demolishing them!

I helped her out half way through by eating two small ribs however the rest was all her own hard work and she totally annihilated the entire plate including the potato!

Before                                             During                                                After                                

   

We headed back to the hotel after dinner, it wasn't late either, was good to get an early night after a long day of travelling!

Outside the BBQ joint                 On The way back to the hotel      Kami in the hotel lobby

   

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