| Vegas, Baby, Vegas
BNL, Hard Rock Casino, Halloween 1998
I can't imagine a better way to spend Halloween than in Las Vegas with my favorite men,Barenaked Ladies. Any time the Ladies are on stage, you know something crazy is pending,on Halloween, you can be sure for a silly, good time. This was also a notable showbecause it was the first I had been to on the fabulously successful Stunt tour. I had beenpatiently waiting while BNL toured the Northeast and Midwest to finally get my turn to seethe new material done live. So I packed up my costume (devil girl from One Week video) andheaded out to Sin City.
Upon arrival with a few minutes to kill, I quickly unloaded $20 in a nearby slot machine."This is no fun" I thought. I might as well just light up 20's and smoke them.I'll never understand the Vegas draw. The Hard Rock Casino has a younger, hipperatmosphere and much cooler music than the standard strip casinos, but the objective isstill the same, give your money to them with the outside chance that you will hit big.They have all the same slot machines, games, etc., you just get to do it to Rock &Roll rather than Tony Bennett or a disco revival. The Hard Rock does have some neatdisplays with rock memorabilia, so I occupied myself by glancing at Prince's tiny outfitand Eddie Van Halen's guitar.
The Joint is the Hard Rock venue. I had been to see BNL there once before (read that review), and the set up had been theater style. Tonight'sshow was standing GA, a sign that they would be packin' them in for BNL.
The show starts off with opening act, Getaway People, a great group from Norway, that hasa funky, almost hip hop sound, in a rock context. I wasn't quite sure if they were dressedfor Halloween or not. I still believe the lead singer was masquerading as Mojo Nixon. It was a very enjoyable set and a nice warm up by some guys who really appeared tobe having fun on the road with BNL. A song of theirs was even featured on a recentFelicity, "She Game Me Love". I highly recommend your checking them out.
A big curtain is hoisted down covering the stage while the roadies set up for the Stuntshow. Then, a little animated movie is played on the large monitors to the side,showing the Stunt guy and a Samurai battling it out. Eventually, animated versions of eachof the BNL guys falls out of the sky. The curtain falls down and BNL opens the show with"It's All Been Done", the new single from Stunt. BNL has arrived and I am filledwith the joy and happiness that one can only get from knowing that the next two hourswould be wonderful. The crowd is dancing and singing from the first chord. But, BNL comeson and they are in regular garb, the typical black pants, shiny shirts that they guys havedonned since their rise to the top. Where are the costumes? Knowing BNL as I do, I knew tobe patient and all will be revealed (little did I know that that would be taken literallyeventually).
The show is awesome. They banter about the Backstreet Boys, they talk about the gongs onthe walls and try to identify them, Tyler saying he recognizes Chuck Barris' (Gong Show)dents. I think I was the only one who laughed when Ed said that he knew of a dentalpractice with that name (Chuck Barris Dents). OK, I think Steve laughed too. A newfeature, called "Meet the Secuirty Guard" has Ed moving to the edge of the stageto get to know one of the guys protecting the stage. This security guard's name was Jay,and Ed got him to strum his guitar to Van Halen's "You Really Got Me" while Edplayed the chords. Jay really rocked and the crowd was so into it.
On several songs, Tiny, Tyler's percussion assistant, joined the band on the tambourine. Iunderstand this is a normal part of the new BNL set, but on this night, Tiny graced us inhis underwear and bunny ears. Very cute. Other members of the crew had on the bunny ears,but Tiny was the only one who stripped down to his tightie whities. By the way, Tinyis a misnomer, he's easily 6'4" and not tiny at all.
They played mostly stuff from Stunt, One Week is huge, and for Alcohol, a giant lightedBNL sign is lowered. Can we say "Big Budget"? My how the boys have grown. Thenew material is brilliant live and the guys are really enjoying themselves. They stillpull out some of the old favorites like Crazy and Great Provider. The regular show closeswith $1M and the rap which now consists of the stuff from the MTV awards"Jiggy", "Benjamins", "Ray of Light", "Bitter SweetSymphony", and "The Boy is Mine", and the "Memories" closing.They go off stage, and I am sure they are getting into some sort of costume for theencore. Am I surprised when they appear in full showgirl attire, complete with skimpysuits and giant headdress. Try to imagine the unique body styles of the boys of BNL inthose outfits. It was hysterical. I really laughed when Ed bent over to tickle Steve'sbutt with one of the feathers on his headdress. I really didn't expect Steve or Edto jump around much, because of the potential for "hanging out", but theyproceeded to put on their normal high energy show. Ed told Jay (security guard) that heshouldn't be too worried about the crowd, but that his nuts might break free at anymoment. They played "Nutshell" and "Brian Wilson", went off stage, andthen came back out for one more, "What a Good Boy".
The Stunt show is awesome. I'm not at all put off by the "big rock show"touches, because it is still all BNL. They still manage to make everyone within earshotfeel great and they are having a great time themselves. No one does a live performancelike BNL. Next weekend, I have one of those wonderful TX weekends for BNL shows in Dallas,Austin, and rapping up at home in Houston. 4 BNL shows in less than 8 days, definitelymore fun than I should be allowed to have, but just try to stop me.
By the way, with a few minutes to kill at the airport the next morning, Idecided to try my luck at the slots one more time, winning back the $20 I had lost the daybefore. Feeling like I had conquered the beast that is Vegas, I boarded my planehome. On That Note, I'm outta here...... C |
