This past weekend we flew down to Las Vegas for a fun weekend of music and escape from the Vancouver winter. We did not get the weather we had hoped for, and the trip ended up being a day longer than we had planned, but the main event, Bruce Springsteen and E Street Band at T-Mobile Arena was everything I have been imagining and hoping for, for the better part of 40 years. There’s lots to cover…
Special thank to Justine for being the primary photographer for most of this trip!
Our home for the next few days - the Signature at MGM Grand.
This trip is one that I have been looking forward to for the better part of 40 years. OK, maybe not the trip to Las Vegas - I’ve done this more times than I can count - but I have been waiting a long time to see Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band live and in concert.
I have been a Springsteen fan for almost as long as I can remember being a music fan. I think that he was one of the first artists that I discovered on my own, after branching off from exploring Dad’s records. Throughout high school, he was my favorite artist, but for some reason I had never seen him live. I corrected that when we saw his Springsteen on Broadway one-man show in New York, but that was a performance piece and not a rock and roll show with the E Street Band.
When this tour was announced late last year, there were no Vancouver stops planned. So when I noted the Las Vegas stop, I decided that this was the time, and I managed to snag us decent seats in the lower bowl for the show. The rest of the trip was built around the concert, but we planned to make a fun long weekend trip out of it.
We flew down from Vancouver on Thursday night. The concert was Friday, so we did not want to risk any travel issues or risk cancelled flights. Which we’ll come to on the trip home, but getting to Vegas ended up going smoothly. We left Vancouver at 5:30, which put us into Las Vegas around 8:00 p.m. So far, so good. We headed over to the hotel which was only a short 10 minute ride from the airport. I had booked us into the Signature at MGM Grand. We were in one of 3 towers, set back from the main MGM Grand casino. After getting checked in, it seemed like a pretty good choice. There’s no casino in the hotel itself, and it was a lot more quiet and laid back. It seemed promising.
After getting settled, we made the long walk from the room out to the Strip. I cannot overstate how long the walk is - it was the only downside to the hotel. But that’s OK - we certainly got our steps in over the course of the weekend! We headed out on the Strip to Brewdog, a brew pub that I have been to a few times that has one of the best patios in the area. We needed a drink and some food, and it provided great views.
We had a couple of flights and enjoyed the evening.
The beer was quite good - they don’t change it up a lot, as I had tried quite a few of the same ones on my trip last year. But they were good, and we got some food to call dinner. The pretzel was particularly good. We stayed for a couple of hours, soaking in the vibe and enjoying the evening. Eventually we called it a night, as we had a big day tomorrow.
As most of you know, I enjoy playing poker and when I am in Las Vegas, I want to play as much as I can. The way I do this when Jus and I are together, is that Jus goes to bed at a reasonable time (tonight it was 11:00), and I go out to the casino and play poker for a few hours. In this case, as we were attached to the property, I thought I’d check out the poker room at the MGM. I’ve played at it before, and had some success. The table I was seated at ended up being quite a lot of fun, and while it wasn’t a huge winning night, I did finish the night up ~$200, after 5 hours of play. Not a huge win, but still a win. I headed back to the room and slept in until about 9:30, so we could head back out for the day.
When I originally booked this trip, I was struck by how expensive everything seemed - unusually so. Eventually we figured it out - this weekend ended up being the first weekend of the college basketball tournament - March Madness. So Vegas, being the sports betting capital of the world, people were flocking here from all over the country. It made things more expensive, but it was a lot of fun. I talked to lots of people that were in for the weekend ot watch the games and bet on them. The bars were all packed, many charging ridiculous rates just to sit at the bar and watch the games.
Friday morning we had a leisurely start, eventually heading out to explore. Las Vegas is always changing, and there was lots of new things going on that we wanted to see. As many of you know, Justine and I are big Formula 1 fans. We didn’t make it to the inaugural race in Vegas last year, but our hotel was basically kitty-corner across the road from the new F1 Paddock, the only permanent bit of infrastructure that comes with the race.
We walked by the F1 Paddock and headed north for a while. We eventually headed towards the Strip, and walked through the newly rebranded Horseshoe Casino to get out onto the Strip. We crossed over and headed into the Bellagio, to check out this season’s crazy display in the lobby.
The Bellagio never fails to impress. I don’t know how often they change the displays, but they are always unique and spectacular. Everything is made primarily with flowers, and this theme was definitely all about spring,
From the Bellagio, we continued down the Strip eventually ending up at Park MGM where we were planning to have lunch. The Park MGM is the hotel we’ve stayed at on the last two trips and is probably our favorite, a combination of location and value for money. And it;s smoke free, which is huge. It used to be the Monte Carlo before MGM bought it and renovated the hotel a number of years ago. They have a big food court called Eataly, Italian themed and has quite the selection of amazing food. We hadn’t eaten yet today, so we stopped there for lunch. Justine had an amazing slice of pizza, I had a sandwich and we shared some deep fried mushrooms. It was all very tasty.
Looking up the strip from the walkway between Park MGM and the MGM Grand.
As it was March Madness, I wanted to watch some of the basketball games. We started off by heading back to Brewdog, but they were playing NCAA Wrestling (????) on the TVs up there, and it was $100/person minimum bar tab to sit on the main floor where they were playing the games. That seemed insane, so we left. Instead we headed back across the street to Brew Haus, a German-themed brewhall that we’ve been to many times. There was no cover or minimum, and while the place was packed we did manage to squeeze into a table where we could watch the games. The crowd was lively and we had a good couple of hours watching (most) of my picks win these early round games. Eventually we had to head back to the hotel to change and get ready for the concert!
Brew Haus is great - even sitting inside, it feels like you are outside.
It was almost time…
We went back to the hotel, got changed and then basically headed back to where had just been, Brew Haus sits on the edge of the plaze out front of T-Mobile Arena, where the concert was happening. Doors opened at 6:30 and the band was supposed to start at “7:30 sharp”. We headed over around 6:00 to see how things were looking. Crowds were definitely starting to form, and I was somewhat surprised to see that the crowd was trending even older than me! Justine and I were bringing the average age down.
Super-excited for the show!
We got ourselves inot a line up for the entrance, which proved to be a good call. While it was a long one, we were inside pretty quickly once the doors opened.
These were the lines we were in outside before the doors opened…
But this is what it was like outside, after we were already in!
We had pretty great seats - we may have been a tad early…
As we had lots of time, we did a lap of the venue, checking it all out. We had been here once before, for the opening of the arena with one of my other favorite bands, The Killers. It really is a great venue - lots of bars and interesting concessions, a far cry from Canadian arenas. They know how to do it in Vegas. Eventually the crowd filled the place up, the lights went out and it was time…
I’ve been waiting a long time for this…
I don’t know where to begin with describing the show. The thing that sticks in my mind is what an incredible, high energy, fun-filled time it was! They hit the stage and basically played without pause for almost 3 hours. Springsteen is in his mid-70s; many of the band members are of a similar age and they’ve been doing this for 50 years. Yet despite all those things, it’s so clear that they are still having fun out there! You can feel the love, every member if an 18-person strong band got time in the spotlight, despite the fact that everyone was there to see Bruce. I have seen some pretty iconic bands and seen many who are consummate show men, but this took it to another level.
They played a mix of old and new - things off the current album(s), as well as most of the classics that everyone was there to experience, from this icon of rock and roll. And they did not disappoint. They played most of the hits, and a couple of the classics, notably Hungry Heart and Thunder Road were all about the audience participation. The minute the opening parts of those songs got played, the crowd roared and started singing. In both cases, the audience sang the first couple of stanzas of the songs before Springsteen cut in to do it properly. It sent chills and is why live music is so special.
Audience participation on Thunder Road - so good
Like I said, the show plowed forward at a frenetic pas, one some after the other with very little banter or stops for anyone to catch their breath. It was amazing. I got most of the songs that I had hoped to hear, with one major exception. The River is one of my all time favorites of his, but we did not get that one tonight. Can’t win them all. As mentioned earlier, I had really wanted to see him play with the E Street Band, and that aspect of the show lived up to the hype. This is arguably the best band in the world, and was amazing to see it live and in person. I can’t do a description of it justice - go check out the Wikipedia page for all the details.
I could go on and on about the show, but I am sure you’re bored already. Instead, I’ll share a whole bunch of photos and you’ll just have to accept that it was an amazing show!
One of the cool sculptures in the plaza outside the arena.
After the show, we were close to a staircase and were able to get out of the arena faster than most people. That was fortunate for us as it meant that we were able to get back over to Brew Haus and steal a atable before the other 15,000 people showed up. It got busy fast, but we had secured a seat!
We had another beer and ordered a little bit of food. The pretzels here were not as good as at Brew Dog, but the deep fried Mac and Cheese bites were pretty amazing! We hung out at the bar for a little while enjoying the atmosphere and having a drink with our “dinner”. It had been anm amazingly fun day, and while Justine was calling it a night, it was time for me to head to the poker table.
Instead of going back to the MGM Grand, I hopped on the monorail and headed up the strip to the Horseshoe. This casino used to be called Bally’s, but was recently rebranded. It’s also home to the World Series of Poker (starting up in a little over a month) and so I had a real desire to play in the poker room.
I had to wait for a little while to get a seat - it was busy - but I eventually got seated and it ended up being quite a fun table. There was a very young guy seated on my left, and a guy about my age one seat over. The older of the two had come to Vegas for the NCAA basketball tournament - he’s been doing it every year for 20 years! Explains why the city was so crazy. I ended up playing there for about 2 1/2 hours and had a very good run. I ended the night up about $300, so could not complain. I think I played well - might have leaked some chips on a couple of hands, and missed some thin value here and there, but all in all, a good night. I walked back to the hotel (as it was pretty late) and slept in nicely the next morning.