Mandalay Bay
Las Vegas, NV
July 5, 2002

The babbling continues! You can read it all or skip to the show or the set list now. Whatever floats your boat. The parents in the house might find the Post Show stuff amusing. Or horrifying. I dunno.

The drive from Tucson to Vegas was fairly uneventful. I’ve said this before, but I just adore this part of the US. Can’t get enough of those saguaros! North of Phoenix you get to see some Joshua Trees too. Very cool.

I didn’t have a lot of staring out the window time, though. Most of it was spent entertaining Zach. Man oh man, does that boy HATE his car seat. LOL!

Because I was in the backseat with him, Tim was in charge of CD selections. At one point he popped one in and said, "In honor of the show tonight, I’m gonna play this…" So I got all happy thinking this meant CT 97 or sumpin’. But oh nooooooo… Mr. Smart Ass had put in a Journey CD. :P

Tim: I like them! I don’t know why…

Lisa: Me neither, laughing boy.

Zach: Ahhhhhgooooooooo Fffffffffffffpht *Burp*

We pulled into the Mandalay Bay around 2 pm – just in time for me to catch some folks at the HOB restaurant. Great to see old and new friends. Kim and Sam had made it in and I finally met Gregg from Phoenix. We’d missed each other at the Tucson show. I guess I hoofed it out of the park so fast that night that he couldn’t catch me. LOL! He, Terry and I talked the show – they’d had a fun time and had gotten into the Red Zone too…

Patricia from Chicago and Elliot from Scotland were also on hand plus good ol’ Danny Saint was across the way. It was nice to just relax and hang out with so many folks with such good taste in music. ;)

Kim, Sam and I roamed around the beach area a bit after that. Ran into Daxx before we went outside. Finally got a chance to tell him in person how cool it was to see him play with CT last year. He was gracious and thanked me, commenting on how fun it had been. He told us that HR would be opening for the CA shows but not Vegas. Doh!

I’d tried to convince Tim that we needed to go on to San Diego after Vegas but that didn’t fly. Oh well. On our way home he did say that if CT plays SD next year we could go. He wants to play Torrey Pines. LOL! Guess the idea for a golf/CT trip wasn’t so bad after all!

Not long after that it was time to do the line up thing. There I ran into lots of other friends from CT shows past. One of the best parts of going to shows IMHO… I’m sure I’m forgetting someone but – as I rack my brain right now, I’m remembering Shoandra and her family, Rhonda, Carolyn, Dawn and her sis… It was there that I also caught up with Flis and she was good enough to walk with me to will call so I could get my ticket.

Once again let me state for the record that I hate, hate, HATE Ticketbastard. They take a $25 ticket and turn it into a $40 one in a heartbeat. :P Plus this time they’d failed to send me mine for Vegas so I had to spend a whole mess of time on the phone sorting that out. Let this be a lesson, kids: always keep your confirmation number!

Let me also state that I do believe that Flis and I can get more words in per minute than anyone else on the planet. Whenever we were together that weekend I don’t think was a moment of silence. LMAO! About the only other fan I can think of who makes me laugh more is WRon. (I hope you know what high praise that is, Flis!)

Back in the line, Kai spotted me, so we chatted for a bit. I met his beautiful girlfriend a bit later. I think I can pronounce her name now but I sure as hell can’t spell it, so from here on out she shall be known as KGF: "Kai’s girlfriend" :)

We could hear sound check – "Mandocello" and I think I heard snippets of one of the new ones…

Gates opened 15 minutes early (!??!) and we all hustled into (onto?! Someone call the Grammar Police!) the beach and claimed our spots… Out there I ran into more CT buds like Nance and Stacy. Met some others… there was a very nice couple from CA and 2 cool guys from Seattle that I talked to for awhile… Can I remember names though?!?!? Aw heck no! Sorry…

THE SHOW

Although this isn’t my favorite venue, one of the cool things is the long walk the guys have to take to get to the stage. Everyone sees them and starts cheering. I love it.

FASHION REPORT

SET LIST

I don’t think I have this in the right order but here goes….

RANDOM NOTES

Great show, just over too soon. I’d been hoping against hope that some of the new tunes would show up, but no such luck. I figured that this show and the one in Tucson would be more of a "greatest hits" kinda thing. Oh well. Just means I’ll hafta make it to some of the club gigs later this year. ;) (NOTE: Just cleared the Anaheim HOB shows with Tim and booked my flight to LA – woooo hoooo!!!!!!!!)

Reviewing the set list, I’m struck by the fact that there were no songs played that were recorded after ’89…

Robin Jr was sitting off stage left for the show – you could see him walking back with dad afterwards. Too cute.

I thought we were a good, fairly well behaved crowd – especially considering the hazards of standing in a pool with folks who’ve been drinking. Seemed like the place was packed. There were tons of people who waded out and from the looks of things the beach was full, too. I know Carla has commented that they keep doing this gig because it always sells out.

RICK SEZ

Rick did the kid parade again. I couldn’t believe they got those kids hoisted all the way up there! One of the youngest committed the "I don’t know who my favorite group is" faux pas. Rick stepped away from the mic and mouthed "BULL$HIT!" to the crowd. Dave brought out t-shirts for all and escorted them to a path back to the audience that didn’t require any climbing. ;)

I think his name is Brad? He’s a fan from Boston and had brought a sign that he tossed up on stage. Rick read it for all: "BEC is back, but not in Boston. WHY?" Rick’s only reply was, "Because we’re in Las Vegas, dumbass!"

Some dude named Chris was there celebrating his 40^th bday. He even had special t shirts made for the occasion. After tossing one up to Rick, he read it and wished Chris a happy bday… Later in the set, I guess Chris himself was down front screaming and clamoring for Rick’s attention. RN looked down and said, "You’re Chris? Oh. Here’s a pick. Now go away." Bahahahahahahaha! One of my favorite moments of the night.

He mentioned that some folks were in from Rockford and pointed out some of his relatives and Tom’s that were in the crowd. After he scanned the crowd, I got a shout out along with Kim and Kai. My friend from Germany told me afterwards that when I held up my Homer sign, he stood right next to it so Rick would see him. LMAO!!!! Kai’s so tall that when I hold up my stupid sign I’m sure it is right there at face level for him.

Rick also pointed out the merchandise table and told us again that the new album was complete and would be out again later this year. Speaking of merchandise, I forgot to mention my CT purchase from this trip: one of the ladies t shirts with the sparkly gray CT logo... because I needed another black CT shirt. LOL!

Speaking of merch – the new laminates have John Candas on them. How sweet is that? It’s the photo that was taken on the last tour of Japan: John’s wearing shades and holding Rick’s 5 neck guitar.

If memory serves, Rick talked a bit about John passing away and that he was watching us from that merchandise table in the sky.

POST SHOW

Subtitled: Confessions of a bad mom/wife!

I was ready to sit down after standing on concrete all that time! Several of us met up at the "blue sky" bar. Saw Zandergal there and met Sayuri from Japan.

Although I intended to be back to our room by midnight, I didn’t quite make it. LOL… I was having too much fun, so I went with Elsa, Lisa, Flis and Rusty to the MGM. This required a tram ride to Excalibur, which was probably more fun than humans should be allowed to have.

Rusty was swinging around on the bars like a monkey, so I suggested that it would be amusing if he hung upside down as we pulled into the Luxor stop. I guess he agreed, because that’s just what he did. So then this cute little old couple gets on and he climbs down to ask them if they were just getting back from the Cheap Trick concert. LMMFAO!

Maybe you had to be there, but I wouldn’t trade that walk/ride for anything…

It was during this trek that Flis heard my cell phone. Lil’ Miss Clueless had missed 3 calls from her husband. Oops. Apparently Tim woke up at 1 and when I was nowhere to be seen he got worried.

Bad, Lisa, BAD!!!!

I swear to god, around midnight I’d thought about calling, but I worried I’d wake up Tim *and* Zach. Thought I was being nice but instead I freaked Tim out. DOH!

Then to make matters worse, when I finally dragged my butt to our room, I fell asleep so hard that Tim had to do the 4 am feeding. Double DOH! Poor Tim. Oh well. He got some well-deserved time off on Saturday. He played golf and blackjack to his heart’s content.

Even though I woke up in the doghouse, Saturday morning was cool because several of my CT buds met Zach. While his dad was on the links, I met up with Flis, Kim, Sam, Kai and KGF for brunch at the Luxor. Nice to spend a little more time with all those good people. Zach charmed the ladies, I must say. Thanks to all of them for watching him so I could get something to eat!

Afterwards we said our goodbyes… Kim was good enough to get me a copy of Harmony Riley’s latest. Great listening material for the ride home… They re-recorded "Falling Away" with the "live" ending that’s not on their 4 Songs CD. Tim laughed at me when I yelled "Yeaaaaaaaaaaaa!" while we listened to it.

POST POST SHOW

Most folks left Vegas that day, but we stayed on another night before making the trek home. We broke things up with a stop to visit relatives in Phoenix. While at my aunt and uncle’s, we had a couple great firsts with Zach:

#1 - His first swim (i.e. mom walks him around in the pool for a couple minutes)

#2 - His first laugh.

I always knew my son would be a great laugher – it was just a matter of time until we heard it. Call me cheesy and dumb but as much as I adore CT, Zach’s laughter was the best music I heard on this trip.

<insert "awwwwww" here>

THANKS!

Wow - another great CT trip… Thanks to CT & Co. for 2 more wonderful shows…

Most especially though, thanks to Tim & Zach for making this trip possible. Never thought I’d have *2* guys in my life who'd put up with my crap! ;)

This page © Copyright Lisa Jebsen, 2002