Thursday, August 23, 2007

INXS


I just left Harrah’s Rincon Casino and am sitting in the passenger seat of my parents’ Mazda SUV while they drive me home from what was actually, quite a great night. I have to admit, when my dad told me he had free tickets to the INXS show, I told him I wanted to go for the novelty…free tickets, checking out a venue I hadn’t experienced, seeing a band that I once called my favorite (when I was a “tween”), seeing what kind of crowd a casino show would get, and what a band is like fronted by someone who won the spot on a reality show 24 months prior.

I am not even kidding, the show was really, really good. I looooved Michael Hutchence, I really did, and 20 years later, I thought I’d be loyal to Michael, judging JD as the bratty kid who was on Rock Star: INXS. But seriously. He was great. My mom just told me to add “hot”. And that he was, too, and drunk, and cursing, and smoking and drinking and aerobic and dancey and serious and heavy and everything the front man of a band should be when they’re playing a casino in the boondocks to old fans, new fans, casino fans, and people just there for the free shit. And that’s not to say they didn’t have a lot of fans. Most were women who fell somewhere between my 30 years and my mom’s 50 something years. The one woman I saw jump onstage looked about 46 as she was escorted past me out of the venue. Our tickets had a face value of $40, but I’m sure the reserved seating cost more and as far as I could tell, those were not the freebie seats.

The venue itself was cool, pretty standard outdoor venue… stage and bleachers like the embarcadero, bleachers on both sides for the “giveaway” gen admin seats, then reserved seating in the middle. What I did notice was how cozy the floor seating seats were, compared to say, Humphrey’s.

I have a lot more to write, but since I just got home, I think I can go catch another show. Off to the Casbah, or maybe Pink Elephant, with more to come. Seriously, and surprisingly, I've got a ton of adrenaline pumping through my veins and I feel like the night has just begun.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I saw then at the casino here in town (capacity 700) about six weeks ago. What an invigorating band! They really get the blood pumping and the pulse racing. I was front and center about three feet away from JD for most of the show - what a glorious lap-dance!