Vegas Life — From Smith’s to T-Mobile

Modern Life

The T-Mobile Arena before the concert.
Photo by Diane Taylor

True story: On the Friday night before Easter, I was shopping at a Las Vegas Smith’s. The lines were long and I was in the check-out line behind a father and his teenage son. At one point, the father said to the son,”Go get your mother and the ice cream; tell her to hurry because we’re next in line.” The son left and a few minutes later was back in the area. The father asked, “Did you find her?” The son said, “I texted her.” The father went ballistic and I started laughing. The father said in a loud voice, “Go tell her in person!” A little while later the wife and the ice cream showed up.

Mob Museum

Two weeks ago, a friend and I attended an evening program at the Mob Museum. “The Media and the Mob in Las Vegas” was the subject of a panel discussion featuring reporter Linda Faiss, former mob attorney (and former Las Vegas Mayor) Oscar Goodman, reporter George Knapp, former Nevada governor Bob Miller and media pioneer Robert A Stoldal. The “living history” discussion was interesting from beginning to end and a reason to pay close attention to Mob Museum announcements of evening special events. I loved this quick interchange between Oscar Goodman and George Knapp. (See attached video.)

My First T Mobile Concert

A week ago Friday, courtesy of a friend, I attended my first concert at the year-old T-Mobile Arena. We were lucky in that we had bus transportation to the Arena from the Tropicana Las Vegas and didn’t have to pay the rather hefty event parking fees at the nearby parking venues.

George Strait in concert.
Photo by Diane Taylor

We arrived early so had plenty of time to walk the enormous halls and then to watch the 20,000-seat Arena come close to filling up. I was surprised to see a beer vendor in the audience just like at the ballpark, and I marveled at the horizontal lights around the arena changing colors and carrying advertising. (Lots of advertising is in the arena, in the hallways and on the video screens.)

The artist that night was country singer George Strait whose 8 p.m. concert really didn’t start until 9 p.m following a 45-minute set by another singer and the tear-down of her band and a new set-up for Strait.

Clearly the audience was “into” George Strait. When he entered the area, the crowd stood and cheered as if a God-like creature had arrived. Strait climbed the stairs to the stage, strapped on a guitar and made an announcement. He said he was going to sing 30 of his 60 number-one hits and he proceeded to do just that.

Because Strait was appearing in an oval venue, but on a square stage, he sang two songs on each corner of the stage then moved on. Four corners: eight songs, not much patter except to announce songwriters. When Strait changed corners, the audience in that area stood and cheered.

A visitor enjoying the lounge chair on a beautiful day in Las Vegas.
Photo by Diane Taylor

Clearly Strait has a great voice, but because I am not a country music fan, I didn’t recognize any of his songs until he sang, “All My Exes Live in Texas” which was accompanied by the entire audience.

Sadly, the sound in the Arena is quite full of echoes and I could not understand all the words to the songs I didn’t know. For me, the venue was not one I would recommend for individual singers. We have the Smith Center and many small showrooms that would have been much better for a single artist (in my view). However, I couldn’t help but multiply all those seats times $50 or so and figure just what Mr. Strait would take home from a night at the T-Mobile. I did rather enjoy the loud crowd and figured that rock ‘n roll bands and sports at the T-Mobile would be great.

Doggie Day Care

This past week I have been pet sitting for a friend. The pet in question is 14 years old, is hard of hearing and I fear can’t see or smell quite as well as some younger dogs. And yet? BoBo is loving and has learned to follow me everywhere and even joined my two dogs on the bed. Haven’t had that much action in the bedroom in quite a while.

Comments

4 responses on “Vegas Life — From Smith’s to T-Mobile

  1. I will definitely have to keep an eye on those mob museum announcements. I would have loved to see that conversation.

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