Trip Report Part 2

We arrived at Hardrock 2 hours before the concert - I absolutely love that place. MGM Garden Arena and Mandalay Bay Events Centre are terrible venues - Really bad seats and even worse employees - I will be fairly desperate before I go to either again - but the Joint rocks - my vote for the best music venue in Vegas.
I spent 90 minutes revisiting all of the memorabillia in Hardrock - what a treat - then went into The joint.
Ded Flatbird opened for Def Leppard. Did a 45 minute set which was fabulous . Def Leppard usually tour and are on a really tight schedule - now they have a residency they can be more playful and creative. I have met Joe a couple of times and didn't take long to realize that Booty Rueben - lead singer of Ded Flatbird - was Joe. It was pretty cool that Def Leppard opened for Def Leppard. A great 2 hour 20 minute concert - all the new stuff, most of the hits. 3 amazing encores - they absolutely rocked the Joint!

Back to LVH - favorite cocktail waitress was on so lots of top-shelf stuff - went to bed $110.00 up on the session.

Saturday
Drove to Red Rock to meet out good friend, pro poker player John Curry, and his wife AnnaMarie and son James. Had a great visit over lunch, then drove to the canyon for a few photos - light was lousy so didn't keep much. Gotta say I don't like Red Rock Resort. No personality or character - very sterile kind of place - I would not stay there - but I did walk out with $20.00 more than I walked in with.

Back to LVH - played VP for a couple of hours - up $60.00 - occurred to me that I haven't lost on any session since arriving. I can handle that. Went for dinner - LVH had given us a $25.00 bottle of Merlot for $5.00 - we went for that but the waiter could not work out how to use the coupon - so we got it free.

Then on to the main reason for the trip - Raiding The Rock Vault - at LVH. For my money this is the absolute best show playing in Vegas today.

How is this for a Supergroup -
Tracii Guns - Guns & Roses - amazing guitarist
John Payne - Asia
Robin McAuley - Survivor/MSG
Paul Shortino - Quiet Riot
Jay Schellen - Badfinger
Howard Leese - Heart/Bad Company
Andrew Freeman - Lynch Mob/The Offspring
Michael T Ross - Lita Ford

Now add in a special guest - Joe Lynn Turner - Deep Purple/Rainbow (Special guest changes every week)
Mix well and let it roll for 150 minutes - and you have a smoking show.

Back to sportsbook and more VP - met a really nice guy - Eric Willis - limo driver with Presidential. We hung out for an hour - fun guy. Went to bed about 4.00 a.m.

Sunday
Got up LATE - steak and egg breakfast - wnted to drink today so bought monorail passes - took some photos at Flamingo then Sigfried and Roys Secret Garden - that place really, really pissed me off. There was a long line to get into the garden. I walked to the front and saw that the line was for people to gave greenscreen photos with tigers. I told them I didn't want a photo so we would enter through the exit - we were told that we could not for security reasons, the photo line was also security. So we lined up for 15 minutes. When we finally reached the doorway there was no security at all - just someone selling photographs. - Lousy experience and definitely not recommended.

Back to LVH - play Video poker, then ride the monorail to buy a magic trick from Houdinis at MGM Grand - I used to perform magic - now teaching my granddaughter age 6.
Back to LVH - The Easter Buffet was a HUGE disappointment. I hit 2 straight flushes in 6 hands. Only 4 4 of a kind the whole trip - my wife hit about 14. All in all a great trip - won enough to pay for it - 2 amazing shows - really pleased to reestablish relationship with LVH

Monday
Returned car - took all of 30 seconds and shuttle to airport. Uneventful flight home.

Glad you & your wife won & had a great trip. Thanks for writing your report.

Diane

Sounds like a great trip, even better. Thank you so much for taking the time to do the trip report.

Cool report, glad you guys had a good time

J

OK, Ded Flatbird, featuring Joe Elliot as Booty Rueben, opened for Def Leppard, featuring Joe Elliot as . . . Joe Elliot. So I gather they were just playing a joke on the audience, right? Were Joe and the other band members disguised at all? Did the whole audience eventually figure out who they were like you did, or do you think there were folks who never caught on? That would be funny.

Anyway, I’m a Def Leppard fan and would have loved to see that performance. I did find a few recent YouTube clips from their Vegas gig. Looks like they put on a great show.

I’ve also been watching/listening to clips from the other show you saw -- Raiding the Rock Vault. Looks like that was a fantastic show, too. That’s some band they put together!

Man, that’s two great shows. You done goooood.

Also nice to hear that you won enough money gambling to pay for the whole trip. Actually, that’s pretty common, you know. I, for one, do it all the time. Well . . . I've done it a few times, anyway. Okay, okay . . . I’m pretty sure I might have done it once.

Congrats on a fun and profitable trip!

Thanks Tony.

Great Trip Report !!!!!

BTW, I believe there are a few Houdinis Magic Shops in LV, one other that I know of is at the Venetian.
That one has some memoribilia too (next door if I remember correctly).

Rick