Vegas Baby!

I just got back from a fabulous weekend in Las Vegas. Girls only. No kids. No husbands. No cooking, cleaning, picking up or dropping off. Just girl talk, good food, 85˚ weather, shopping, and less than 8 hours of cumulative sleep. It was amazing.

These are the girls I got to spend time with:


And this was the reason for it all:


This was my fifth time seeing Rob Thomas. It only takes once to realize that the guy is freakishly talented, and he puts everything he's got into each performance. This time was no different. It helped that we had second row seats, and that the Pearl (in the Palms Casino) is an amazing smallish venue. I didn't keep track of the set list, but luckily the lovely Tiburon of Shark Bait did it for me in great detail. She got lots of great video and much better pictures than my iPhone can produce (one of these days I'll get a compact digital camera - my Canon EOS never gets past security, which is a bummer, because I could get some pretty sweet shots with my long-focus lens. Oh well.) Here's the best shot I managed to get, during "Fire on the Mountain."



And another kind of cool one, I think this was during "Sunday Morning New York Blue."


I did get some pretty OK audio, although it takes me a few seconds to start recording so I cut off the beginning of these songs. (Also it took me a while to figure out that it was loud enough that I didn't need to hold my iPhone up to record. Just holding it in my lap while recording worked much better. Duh.)

My favorite moments of the evening were, predictably, the acoustic ones. He covered Tracy Chapman's "Baby Can I Hold You," which was a welcome surprise - I have always loved that song. He more than did it justice. If you listen closely you can hear Tiburon professing her love for Rob, and you can hear me singing along. I like to pretend I was up there on the stage singing with him. I'm weird.

"Baby Can I Hold You"


Rob explained that he had run into a couple that day who told him they got engaged at one of his concerts a couple of years before. They were in Las Vegas on their honeymoon and were at the concert that night. "Ever the Same" was their wedding song, and he dedicated it to them. It's a really sweet version.

"Ever the Same"


He also played "Smooth," which isn't quite as awesome without Santana, but is still one of the sexiest songs ever if you ask me. I like the classical guitar action on this one. (This video is from his Soundstage performance, not the show I was at, but it's almost the same arrangement. He had Zach Filkins, the guitarist from OneRepublic* accompany him.)


And I just have to post this because it highlights his best dance moves: the hip circle, the chest pat, the jump up and down in place, the crouch, and the point at the audience.


Although it is missing the finger twirl, demonstrated here (at around 1:04).


Seriously though, I love his dancing because he puts his entire body into his performance. The amount of passion he exudes is incredible. (I mean passion for music. Ahem.)

Sing to me Rob. Sing in my ear.


Thanks so much for an unbelievable weekend ladies! Thanks especially to the gorgeous Mindi of Word to Your Mother, whom I've never met but who let me have her ticket. I hope your generosity comes back to you in spades. Or in the form of free concert tickets. Or whatever you wish.




*Speaking of OneRepublic, they were the opening band. They were AMAZING. Ryan Tedder, the lead singer, has one of those voices that is even better live than recorded. He was jumping from microphone to keyboards to guitar and back, crooning and belting and generally blowing me away. I will be buying their new album for sure. Check them out, they are way more than just "Apologize."

Flight of the Conchords Live

Last night Eric and I went to see Flight of the Conchords perform at Constitution Hall. It was so much fun. Eric's not as big a fan as I am, but he loved the show, and we were both laughing from start to finish.

Kristen Schaal (Mel from the show) was the opening act and she was hilarious. This is her tribute to Law and Order SVU.


Bret and Jemaine came out (inexplicably dressed as robots) and gave a rousing rendition of "Too Many D*#$s on the Dance Floor" - adult language notwithstanding it was hilarious. Then they removed the robot costumes and settled down into acoustic mode for a long setlist, not in this exact order but including:
"The Most Beautiful Girl (in the Room)"
"Stana" this one was new to me - it's a Johnny Cash-style story about a man whose name is an anagram of "Satan." Really funny.
"Hurt Feelings (Tears of a Rapper)" - the clip is from last night's show and opens with dialogue about how they've been wondering how DC is doing since they were here last year, but they've been unable to find out since we're never all in the same place at the same time. Best line: "The day after my birthday is not my birthday, Mum!"

"Bowie"
"If You're Into It"
"Carol Brown" - girls in the audience got to sing along with the chorus
"Motha'uckas" (with Bret on drums)
"Not Crying"
"Robots"
"Jenny" - one of my all-time Conchord faves

"Hip-Hopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros"
"You Don't Have to be a Prostitute"
"Bus Driver's Song" (this was new to me too)
"Business Time"

On a lot of the songs they were joined by what they referred to as the New Zealand National Symphony Orchestra - otherwise known as a guy named Nigel who plays the cello. The cello added a lot to the arrangements of the songs and sometimes doubled as a bass. Well done, Nigel!

Some of the funniest parts were the banter between songs. At one point lots of people were yelling out requests and Jemaine went into baby-talk mode to tell everyone to shush. (I took this video on my iPhone, which is why the quality is so bad.) He went on like this for a while, and Bret finally said "Seriously, if you don't listen to him he'll carry on. He did this for 45 minutes in Orlando."

Later in the show Jemaine said "Hmm, this isn't going very well. We shouldn't listen to you when you tell us what to play. Sometimes democracy doesn't work, DC." Several people cheered and he continued, "Ah, I see we have quite a few fans of dictatorships here tonight!" Another time when people were yelling out requests someone yelled "Free Bird!" Jemaine said "I've always wondered - is there one person in every town whose job it is to yell 'Free Bird'?" Bret: "Or is it the same guy, following us around?" Jemaine: "Do you even know 'Free Bird'?" Bret: "Never heard it."

And my favorite of the night - a medley of "We're Both In Love With A Sexy Lady" and "Sugalumps." It was not only hilarious but also really cool musically. Near the end Bret reached out into the audience to touch the hand of a girl near the stage - but right before she got close enough he jumped back and called the bouncer over to get her. So funny!