Vegas Vacation - Part 3

One item I forgot to mention about night #2 was “invasion of Joose”. When we bought beverages at the hotel convenience store (that is what I call a true Vegas experience) they had these “Joose” drinks on sale. The two varieties were Dragon Joose and Panther Joose which both came in obnoxious Ed Hardy decorated tall cans. I could best describe them as a failed attempt to justify what a douche bag tastes like. We tried to class it up by drinking it out of wine glasses. FAIL! Still awful and gave me the worst hangover the next day (it was like fist pumping my head). What should I expect from something made from real bits of panther.

We also ran into the boys’ shirt twins. All five of us were in the elevator and there was an uncomfortable silence while the two sets of guys checked each other out. It was like they were the same…just smaller. Thankfully they laughed it off and let me take a picture of the bizzaro group.
By day three, I was sick of all things Ed Hardy and Chris Angel. We chatted with a woman who actually at the Chris Angel shown and she said “the only magic he does is make your money disappear”.
The main focus of day three was the 311 concert. I’ve never been to a 311 day before, and I can say the description preparation I heard doesn’t do it justice. The sheer number of people there…it was like a river of people that extended a half mile. I think it took us 45 minutes to progress into the theater from the hotel lobby (which is only about a football field in length). The crowd was so amped that I couldn’t help but be super excited. Everyone had homemade 311 day shirts that were awesome and one guy even walked around with a 311 balloon hat (jealous). The entire place was packed shoulder to shoulder with die-hard fans who could (and did) sing along to EVERY song! One couple even got married to Amber. When the house lights went down, the crowd stood up and unleashed cheering that would rival Oregon’s football stadium. I admit, I had chills when the first chords were struck.
Our seats were high up so I had a great view of the entire arena. Everyone was on their feet (even those with seats)…and they stayed standing the entire concert! Did I mention it was 5 hours long!!! I guess they play something like 60 or 70 songs. Granted I think a lot of 311’s songs sound the same (same with Nickleback and my fav Offspring), so two hours in I was like “did they play this already…oh wait that was a different song…sort of”. I think they play every song they ever released and jammed a few times to segway from an intermission. Yep three intermissions, it was that long!
During the concert, I couldn’t help but smell weed. I don’t partake in the recreation but have no problems with those who do. After about an hour, I could tell the affects of second hand smoke. There was so much smoke that it literally saturated every part of my body (like down to the eyelashes). Thankfully I was being fed liberal amounts of beer so I couldn’t care less. I did have a thorough scrubbing afterwards.
During one of the beer runs, I ran into a guy wearing the keyboard cat three wolf shirt. I demanded a picture and it was the second most impressive thing I saw that night.
The first being the concert. I couldn’t believe the amount of energy the band put in. I mean 5 hours, they were still dancing, jumping, shouting, etc. Granted, I thinking they’ve done this before, but I was still impressed. Some concert goers didn't even make it that long. The band also sounded fantastic live. Say goodbye to robot voice, these guys really delivered. Plus the light show and effects were awesome (okay say it…I’m a total dork but it was really a well put together piece).
After the concert, we tried to find the party. There was a ridiculous line for the hotel restaurant (hmmm, maybe that is somewhat related to extreme amount of pot consumed) but all of the other bars and clubs were empty. I guess after jamming for over 5 hours, everyone called it a night.
The next day, we recovered on Fremont Street which is the old school Vegas strip (think Sinatra and the Rat Pack in lieu of the white tiger show).

I took close to 100 pictures during the concert. Here are a select few.