Duran Duran Road Trip 2000

8/25 Events leading up to, including, and after the 1st Las Vegas show

This will be partly off of memory, though I did take a few notes at the time.

The day after the Atlanta show, I decided it just couldn't be my last time seeing the boys, so I decided that I must go to Vegas to see them because it is one of Joe's favorite places and my cousin lives there. I ended up ordering airline tickets, hotel, and car rental through Priceline because they seemed to be the best deal. I did, in fact get an excellent price for The Marriott. When I checked in the clerk asked me how I got that price. It was one of the better hotels I have stayed in, and it was right across from Star Trek-- The Experience. I ended up buying tickets from Sheila for one night and Tracy (who turned out to be the lady from Charlotte & Atlanta) for the other night. Kirsten (Crash) had e-mailed me about sharing a room in Vegas, which was cool.

The only bad thing about ordering tickets through Priceline is that you get the best fare when you change planes and fly late at night. So I arrived in Vegas late Thursday night (technically Friday morning). I was later than I expected because of a weather delay in the connecting airport. I was not a happy camper. I did manage to call my cousin before catching the next flight out and let her know what was going on. I found out that the poor dear had strep throat, but still wanted to go to the show Friday. I said I'd touch base with her the next day. When I picked up my car, I accidentally found out it had satellite tracking, so I quickly pressed buttons to stop it from making the connection because I wasn't lost--yet. The car was quite a nice one I must say. It took awhile, but I finally found my hotel. When I got there I discovered Kirsten hadn't made it yet. I got my weary self to sleep knowing that I had made arrangements with the hotel to give her a key when she showed up. She finally did several hours later--she had a flight delay due to weather as well. I promptly went back to sleep. I didn't realize Kirsten was such an early riser so I didn't get to sleep in like I was hoping to--something I do whenever I can. So, I drove her to Kinko's to get her Hallucinating Elvis sign made at Kinko's and I surfed the web a bit--even e-mailing Danny from the Tender Idols from there. Then we had a lovely lunch, drove to Kirsten's bank, and went back to the hotel. I contacted my cousin and found out she was feeling pretty poorly still, so I suggested that she rest that night and go with me Saturday instead. She took me up on that offer, so I was able to give Kirsten my extra ticket for Friday night (she had originally hoped to go see the "Hunchback of Notre Dame" show that her cousin was in, but it got cancelled). We left messages for Sheila and Sharon at their hotels, then took an all too brief nap, then spent time getting ready. I had bought myself some light blue Hard Candy nail polish, but it was way too thin and didn't turn out right. Oh well.

We had a bit of trouble getting to the venue including some miscommunication--argh! but we finally made it, and immediately spotted Sheila with her group and Sharon with hers. After an all too brief chat we were allowed to get into the line that Sheila, Brenda, and Sharon were in instead of the longer line. Hurrah! Of course, we had a long wait inside the venue, but that didn't matter. While in line we spotted Jennifer, Starr, two ladies from Charlotte, another bubble girl from Charlotte (Jane I think), and the guy from Atlanta. It was amazing I knew so many people. Once we got inside we had a lot of stairs to climb to the reserved seats. There wasn't an opening band for this one. They played a lot of commercials of future acts and the one they did for Duran Duran had John in it, though I initially thought it was Wes. I then said to Kirsten that they were doing false advertising. Hehehe. After a really long wait we at last heard the Elvis song. It turned out that we were on the far left side and couldn't see Nick and Wes a little bit. However, I had an excellent view of Joe and, perhaps unfortunately which I will explain later, a good view of the right side off stage.

We ended up moving down a lot of rows to about the 3rd or 4th from the edge, so I could see Nick if I leaned way over. He was wearing a grey suit and looked quite dapper, Simon had on tennies, dark blue I think, a white shirt with cut off sleeves, and light blue pants. Warren had on his infamous butterfly muscle shirt and jeans. Wes had on a black sleeveless shirt and brown leather pants. Joe had on a silver shirt, but I didn't notice what kind of pants (or I've forgotten). While the show was going on I could see the antics of the techies, rhodies, and Dave. They were quite crazy and funny, though distracting because they were hard to ignore. When Rio came on Dave came up to the balcony and stood by me. I look over to see who it was and I was surprised it was Dave. I said "hello, how are you" and that I'd heard he was given a bubble gun in Atlanta (after I had left with Angie the remaining bubble girls autographed it for him and, apparently, Joe pouted, so they gave him one, too). He said "yes" and smiled, then appeared to look around searching for someone and left. When I saw him reappear off stage, he seemed to be rather winded. In between the regular program and the encores, when the guys left the stage, Dave slapped Joe on the butt, which appeared to initially startle him. On the way back in, poor Nick tripped on Warren's cord.

Set List

Fragment

Kiss Goodbye

Last Day on Earth

Hungry Like the Wolf

Late Bar (by popular request from the audience)

New Moon on Monday ("I forgot the words" said Simon) LOL

Playing With Uranium

Come Undone

Big Bang Generation

Ordinary World (about survival and getting over being hurt--shows what's to build on)

Save a Prayer

Hallucinating Elvis

White Lines

Mars Meets Venus

All She Wants Is

Skin Trade

Too Much Information

Rio (Simon was spitting onto a towel a lot, which was located between Joe and Wes)

Encores

Notorious (played a game of Simon sez. One of the words was "hippie chick", which for some reason he said "sex" and upon the crowd's reaction he said "Yes, well that's what I would have said". Simon then brought out a stuffed monkey from nearby the drums and made him sing "Don't monkey with my business". It was hysterical.)

Girls on Film

Additional Encore

Someone threw a pink feather boa up on to the stage, so Nick put it on, kind of draping it over his head. it looked good on him. That man can pull off anything.

The crowd was chanting the Reflex two which Simon responded "We don't do requests", and then they played it anyways.

The Reflex

At some point early in the show, Simon grabbed his crotch and said "Pack it to the Left", so I had wondered if Sharon had said something to him, but she later said she hadn't, that he must have read it on his message board at Lizard King. He also grabbed himself one other time.

After the show, I thought that Sheila, Brenda, and company had already gotten out and left, so we went to where I had heard they stayed last year and waited around a bit. I had a nice conversation with a lady I had smiled at because I thought I had seen her at the show. It turns out I was wrong, she had just been gambling and losing. I told her about waiting for Duran Duran and she said she liked some of their stuff. After some more waiting and not recognizing another soul it became clear we were probably at the wrong hotel, so we went and grabbed dinner then went to the hotel for some shut eye.