Las Vegas and Madonna
The masses have been clamoring for a writeup of my trip with beckyboo83 to Las Vegas two weeks ago to see Madonna's Confessions tour.
It went well, though we ended up walking so much that our feet were killing us Saturday night after the concert. I don't think either of us were wearing the proper shoes for that much walking, though, so that was probably a major contributing factor.
We stayed at the Stratosphere on the far north end of The Strip (that's what's in the picture above) because it was the cheapest hotel that got decent reviews online. It turned out to be a pretty nice place to stay, though I suspect it's old enough that it's got some mold or something else that I'm allergic to in it, because I was sneezing the entire time I was there and woke up congested Sunday morning. I sneezed much less during the day on Saturday when we spent most of the day on the south end of The Strip, and my congestion had cleared up by the time we got home on Sunday. We had a $60 (for two) lunch at their Top of the World restaurant on Saturday before we trekked off to the southern end of the Strip; the service and view was excellent, the food was good, and we enjoyed our chocolate Stratosphere dessert way too much. A couple pictures from up top are below the cut (down below). Definitely worth doing if you have the money to blow on it -- we were glad we'd chosen to have lunch there instead of dinner, though.
The concert was worth making the trip for. I was amazed by their lack of security, though. It being Madonna, I was expecting security to be really tight, so I'd left my camera and my cell phone (which is a camera phone) in the hotel room all day -- missing out on many opportunities to take pictures during the day as a result -- since the tickets clearly said "No cameras." We got to the show, and all we had to do was walk through a metal detector. No searching of our bags, no patting us down, no nothing. Inside, cameras were all over the place. As we were leaving the show, we walked past two girls who'd handed their camera to an usher and were having him take their picture for them. I grumbled.
For the show, she performed most of the songs from her newest album, interspersed with one song from most of the rest of her albums (except Ray of Light, where she did two -- Ray of Light and Drowned World). I don't know if you've heard anything from the new album or not (singles so far have been Hung Up and Sorry), but Hung Up uses a sample from ABBA's Gimme Gimme Gimme (A Man After Midnight). For the finale of her show, she started out with Lucky Star, sung over that sample from ABBA, and transitioned that into Hung Up. Amazingly, it worked. Overall, it was definitely a "show" -- it was all very choreographed and worked out ahead of time -- but very well done. There was no encore.
You can read a review/description of the show here: http://www.teenhollywood.com/d.asp?r=124318&c=1038
That link goes to a review of the Los Angeles show, which was the first one for this tour, but it's the same show she did in Las Vegas.
No ifs, ands, or ....
Butts outside of the Riviera
It's windy in Vegas
Other than the strange things the wind was doing with my hair, this is a good picture of me.
Have you seen my thong?
The sexually oriented advertising all over the place amused me.
The Strip
As seen from the Stratosphere's observation deck.
Vegas Skyline
The MGM Grand (where we saw Madonna) is the elongated grey building off to the left.
Sisters
beckyboo83 and I on the Stratosphere indoor observation deck.
You can see the full gallery of pictures here: http://pics.livejournal.com/cifarelli/gallery/00015xbw
It went well, though we ended up walking so much that our feet were killing us Saturday night after the concert. I don't think either of us were wearing the proper shoes for that much walking, though, so that was probably a major contributing factor.
We stayed at the Stratosphere on the far north end of The Strip (that's what's in the picture above) because it was the cheapest hotel that got decent reviews online. It turned out to be a pretty nice place to stay, though I suspect it's old enough that it's got some mold or something else that I'm allergic to in it, because I was sneezing the entire time I was there and woke up congested Sunday morning. I sneezed much less during the day on Saturday when we spent most of the day on the south end of The Strip, and my congestion had cleared up by the time we got home on Sunday. We had a $60 (for two) lunch at their Top of the World restaurant on Saturday before we trekked off to the southern end of the Strip; the service and view was excellent, the food was good, and we enjoyed our chocolate Stratosphere dessert way too much. A couple pictures from up top are below the cut (down below). Definitely worth doing if you have the money to blow on it -- we were glad we'd chosen to have lunch there instead of dinner, though.
The concert was worth making the trip for. I was amazed by their lack of security, though. It being Madonna, I was expecting security to be really tight, so I'd left my camera and my cell phone (which is a camera phone) in the hotel room all day -- missing out on many opportunities to take pictures during the day as a result -- since the tickets clearly said "No cameras." We got to the show, and all we had to do was walk through a metal detector. No searching of our bags, no patting us down, no nothing. Inside, cameras were all over the place. As we were leaving the show, we walked past two girls who'd handed their camera to an usher and were having him take their picture for them. I grumbled.
For the show, she performed most of the songs from her newest album, interspersed with one song from most of the rest of her albums (except Ray of Light, where she did two -- Ray of Light and Drowned World). I don't know if you've heard anything from the new album or not (singles so far have been Hung Up and Sorry), but Hung Up uses a sample from ABBA's Gimme Gimme Gimme (A Man After Midnight). For the finale of her show, she started out with Lucky Star, sung over that sample from ABBA, and transitioned that into Hung Up. Amazingly, it worked. Overall, it was definitely a "show" -- it was all very choreographed and worked out ahead of time -- but very well done. There was no encore.
You can read a review/description of the show here: http://www.teenhollywood.com/d.asp?r=124318&c=1038
That link goes to a review of the Los Angeles show, which was the first one for this tour, but it's the same show she did in Las Vegas.
No ifs, ands, or ....
Butts outside of the Riviera
It's windy in Vegas
Other than the strange things the wind was doing with my hair, this is a good picture of me.
Have you seen my thong?
The sexually oriented advertising all over the place amused me.
The Strip
As seen from the Stratosphere's observation deck.
Vegas Skyline
The MGM Grand (where we saw Madonna) is the elongated grey building off to the left.
Sisters
beckyboo83 and I on the Stratosphere indoor observation deck.
You can see the full gallery of pictures here: http://pics.livejournal.com/cifarelli/gallery/00015xbw