Yesterday was chore day, so Pammy got out the vacuum cleaner and we all took quadrants to clean. In the course of moving things about, I discovered that Pam owns way too many bottles of fingernail polish. Sadly, this isn't even the entire inventory. There are another nine bottles in the fridge.
It's not right to have all work and no play on a Saturday, though, so in the evening we went out to Caesar's for the Rod Stewart show. Before going to The Colosseum, we cut through the Forum Shops (those high-end stores with the bouncers in front of them), and I couldn't help but wish that money were no object.
Money is an object, though, which is why I ended up going to the free Rod Stewart Show and won't be going to the one night only Placido Domingo show in September. (Nosebleed seats start around $225.)
I've never been a Rod Stewart fan. I can think of a few of his songs that I won't switch the radio station if they come on, but that's the most I can say for the guy. As a concert performer goes, he's ok. Just ok. In the beginning he was hard to hear because the guy just doesn't have that much of a voice left. He joked that it was the dry Vegas air that was killing him. Not sure what excuse he has for his thin voice outside of Vegas the rest of the time. He warmed up eventually, and while his singing isn't my thing, the production value of the show was high and the backup band was completely awesome.
At one point he did a few acoustic cuts, and again it's the backup band that interested me more than Rod. The violinist in purple to his right also played mandolin and did backup vocals. She was a really impressive performer. The blonde violinist in black in the back row plays at Fremont Street on Friday nights. I'd seen her through a haze of fried twinkie before.
Rod also had one of his daughters come up and sing a few songs, and I know Mom would be cringing at the nepotism. The girl could sing, but it is a heck of a boost to one's act to be given an open mic night at a Rod Stewart show. The show clocked in right at an hour and a half, which means that Mariah Carey gives you thirty more minutes than Rod and she does it in ridiculous heels. Still, not a terrible show by any means.
The second part of the evening I'd almost rather not mention. We went to a blues bar (complete with "soul food") cooked up by a really awesome woman named Vanessa. I've never know a fried chicken and mac'n'cheese meal I could resist.
The place was a total dive, but the band was excellent and the dancing pleasantly comical. You can see a sample of both below. I could kick myself that I didn't have my camera ready when a tipsy woman got out to dance and completely fell on her butt. She'd danced earlier with the guy she came in with and apparently refused to dance with her any more. She ended up grabbing some other random dude, who was with her when she fell. After it was all over, he slipped by our table and muttered, "That's my good deed for the day."
Everything was going splendidly until a random, vagrant musician started hitting on me and wouldn't buzz off. I'm sure he's nice enough, and some of the other musicians said he's harmless, but seriously, leave a girl to her fried chicken! After a while he announced he was leaving and gave me an unpleasant kiss in (not on) my ear. I thought that was that until he came back ten minutes later to extol my good looks. Come to think of it, Vanessa said she gave me two breast halves (as opposed to a breast half and a couple legs that the meal was supposed to come with) as a special treat just for me, so I guess I must have been having one of my "on" nights in which I overpower the crowd with my good looks and winning personality. (Oh brother...) Good gal pal that she is, Pam announced to the guy that we were leaving and to push off. He apologized for being out of line....and then he started with the same lines as before. Too bad we had to retreat--it was a good club otherwise.
