Vegas Reprise

I was ill last Wednesday but still made it out to wander the strip. Roman, Danny and I stopped at the La Salsa in Luxor and started with a yard of margarita before wandering over to the New York, New York again. We found Jon and continued on down the strip and eventually walked to Caesars. After checking out the Forum shops and whatnot we crossed to the other side of the strip and eventually settled at the Barbary Coast. Our ears were treated to the sounds of 70s funk performed by an ALL ASIAN BAND. I reckon the reggae playing Eskimos were booked at the Aladdin…

In any event, some two dollar Captain and cokes were about enough to get me feeling right again. While waiting for my drinks, I noticed a guy practically molesting some poor blonde. The blonde was clearly hammered and was probably going to bunk down with SOMEONE that night but it clearly wasn’t this fellow. He was rubbing her shoulders, holding her in an intimate way – never noticing (or at least never caring about) the look of disgust on her face every time he’d touch her. Nothing she tried shook him off. Not even the time she ate the face of the guy sitting next to her at the bar. Nope – he just patiently waited until she was finished making out with the random and resumed rubbing her shoulders. That is persistence. Or desperation, I’m not really sure…

Thursday was a pretty mellow night compared to the others. We spent most of the night in the Mandalay Bay Island Lounge listening to the house band play their covers. When they took a break we could hear music coming from the House of Blues so Roman and I headed over to investigate. Some 80s cover band was playing in there. We watched them for a bit and when they took a break we headed back to the Island Lounge to catch the first band again. I bring this up because both bands had solid guitar players. The lounge band’s guy played super clean – never fretted anything poorly and hit his bends spot on, etc. The 80s cover guy was also decent; nailing the rhythm parts and solos from many a well-known song/guitar hero. I got to thinking how hard it actually is to score a record deal and become a known commodity. It was pretty obvious that these guys had ability. Granted, I haven’t heard any of their original stuff so maybe they just eat balls as song writers but still… Given the state of modern rock today, I wondered how many people with an artistic voice and actual talent are laboring away as unknowns while asshats like Good Charlotte and their ilk are scoring recording contracts. Then I got drunk and lost more money.