Monday, July 12, 2010

Kings Of Leon - Hollywood Bowl

First off Happy Birthday to my sister, Lisa! It is number 30-something for her, but who's counting :-)

Tonight I took Natasha to a sold out performance by Kings Of Leon at the Hollywood Bowl. You really can't beat the great Southern California weather. I live close enough to the Bowl so we didn't have to drive or deal with parking and the weather was between 60-70 degrees the entire night. We left around 7pm and got home around 11:30 and spent the entire evening outside.

The walk takes about 20 minutes and we were inside and seated towards the tail end of one of the opening acts, Built To Spill. Another band, Futures, played before but we missed their set.

It's hard to believe I saw Kings Of Leon play the first show of the day in a tent years ago at Bonnaroo and now they are headlining and selling out the world famous Hollywood Bowl. They played 4 new songs tonight and surprisingly they went over well for being unfamiliar material for the audience.

Highlights for me included The Bucket, Use Somebody and the new songs Immortals and Southbound. And the surprise of the night they saved until the very end. Pyro!!!

Kings Of Leon
July 12, 2010
Hollywood Bowl
Hollywood, California

Crawl
Taper Jean Girl
My Party
Be Somebody
Immortals
Molly's Chambers
Fans
Milk
Closer
Mary
Four Kicks
The Bucket
Radioactive
Sex On Fire
Notion
On Call
Southbound
Trani

Encore
Knocked Up
Manhattan
Use Somebody
Black Thumbnail

Saturday, July 10, 2010

A mini Vacation

A couple of weeks back my friend Ron hit me up and asked if I'd be willing to meet him in Las Vegas the last weekend of June. Let's call this required minimal arm twisting considering I was wrapping up my job at Virgin/Sprint and I'm always looking for an excuse to head to Vegas. I drove out Friday June 25th and we met up that afternoon at the Palms. Since I had stayed at the Palms the last couple of times in Vegas I was able to get our room comp'd for the entire weekend.

After a few drinks in the room we headed down to the pool and then out for some dinner at SW (see my last Vegas post) and some late night gambling. Nothing too crazy and it was great to catch up since we hadn't just been able to hang out as two guys in many years.

Saturday we took in some more drinks, some more time at the pool and then was able to see a special concert at the Paris hotel with Cheap Trick presenting The Beatles Sgt. Pepper in it's entirety. The show featured a small backing symphony, background singers, an Indian Ensemble (for Within You Without You) and of course Cheap Trick.

The set started with I Am The Walrus, ran through all of Sgt. Pepper, Cheap Trick were able to play a mini greatest hits set and closed with some additional Beatles songs. We got tickets last minute and due to some extra seats in the front section the ushers upgraded our seats so the front section would be filled.

And the remainder of Saturday was left for more gambling.

Sunday ended up being the highlight of the trip. After a late night of gambling the night before we were eating breakfast and Ron suggested instead of hanging at the Casino all day we venture out to the Grand Canyon. The drive is a little over two hours and takes you over the Hoover Dam. However the directions failed to mention that the last 13 miles of the road is dirt up to the top of the West Side of the Grand Canyon. My car made it, but definitely was making some strange sounds on our way back.

I had never been to the Grand Canyon so this was quite a treat. The journey was also a bit touching because the day before my grandfather died he told me about the Grand Canyon and how amazing it was. He was actually driving out to the Grand Canyon when he died.

We went to Grand Canyon West and did the Sky Walk. This is a horseshoe walk way that goes out over the Canyon so you can get a birds eye view into the Canyon through the see through floor. A great time and definitely an unforgettable memory. They wouldn't let us take pictures on the Sky Walk but they had their own photographer and here are a couple of those photos.

Sunday night ended with more gambling and almost got ugly for me. Let's just say I had put my very list chip on to the table for the night and ended up rallying for five hours to break even on my trip. I wrapped up around 3am and by the time I left the Casino, I had a VIP card and also the business card of a Casino Host. I guess they want their money back next time I come. :-)

We both headed out early Monday morning, Ron a little earlier than me, and after a little get away I was back home by 2pm on Monday. Considering the close proximity to Los Angeles it was nice to have a spontaneous getaway with a good friend that resulted in a trip neither of us will ever forget. Good times!

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