7.5.14 & 7.6.14 Q+AL CONCERT THREAD -- Las Vegas, NV USA

So I filmed the whole concert (stage view only) in vegas on night 2 in the balcony... 


[130min Full Show] Queen & Adam Lambert @ The Joint, Las Vegas 2




Picture: 1080P -> 720P HD mp4.
Sound: HQ 96/24 pcm -> 256 bit rate AAC

excellent! Thanks!

In this particular case he was talking about the Live at the Rainbow release.  He and Adam both mentioned about watching this concert footage inspiring what they are doing now.

VEGAS, BABY!

(Sorry. I had to say that. I didn't want to. I had to.)

I had a very quick turnaround trip to Las Vegas, but all that matters is that ADAM was in the middle of it. My former sister-in-law, Sherrie, drove us there on Sunday morning. Significant for me was the fact that I woke up on Saturday morning with a scratchy throat. I thought, Oh, no, I can't be getting a cold. Not this weekend!

I don't get colds very often, probably because I don't have children or grandchildren. (Let's face it--as cute and sweet as they might be, children are menacing little vectors best avoided if you don't want to get sick.) It's been at least three years since I had a cold, maybe longer, and so what were the odds I'd come down with one on this very important weekend?

Well, apparently the odds were pretty good, because when I got up early Sunday to start off on the trip, it was obvious that I had a cold. I hadn't slept that well the night before, partly due to excitement and partly due to my sore, scratchy throat. Now I had a stuffy nose as well. Lovely.

It's about a seven-hour drive to Las Vegas and much of the scenery is beyond boring (although there are some absolutely magnificent rock formations coming out of St. George), and it was a relief to get to our hotel. I had originally signed us up for a room at the Hard Rock, but Sherrie said she didn't mind driving to the venue and suggested I see if I could get a less expensive place to stay. I found a room at the Riviera that saved me over $100. We were a little concerned because there were some negative reviews on the Travelocity website but we figured we could put up with it for just one night. Well, there was nothing wrong with it at all that we could find. The room was large and clean, and the staff couldn't have been nicer. I guess you never know what grudges people might have when they leave reviews on travel websites.

I was excited for Sherrie because she had never seen Adam live before. She was giggling with excitement the whole time we were walking into The Joint. We met with Lorraine from Adamtopia who had sold us the tickets. She was there with her daughter. I wanted to have a conversation with her, but between the noise in the room and the scratchy throat from my cold, it wasn't the best atmosphere for conversation so we just exchanged excited comments about how happy we were to be there and how great Adam is. I didn't want to get too near to anyone for fear of passing along my germs.

Sherrie went out before the concert started to buy me a program as a thank you for treating her to the concert, but she was told they had all sold out the day before. She returned just as the lights were coming up behind the Queen logo'd curtain and we could see the silhouettes of some familiar figures! Everyone jumped to their feet and started cheering and clapping.

I was lucky enough to see Adam at two GNT concerts, and there's just something overwhelming about seeing him and realizing that he's a real live actual human being, not something fictional out of a movie. He's right there! Spookily talented, but real. I felt privileged to be seeing him once again in a smaller venue where his realness was more obvious than in a big arena or stadium.

The show was loud and flashy and cool and triumphant, but the best part, as usual, was THAT VOICE, pouring effortlessly from his throat and filling the room. Who sings like that? Who sings like that for two hours, night after night? Well--Adam Lambert! It's overwhelming. My favorites were the more familiar songs--I danced along and sometimes sang along (but not loud enough to disturb anyone) and did the Radio Ga Ga clap, and for two hours I didn't even think about my cold (except for the occasional hacking cough, which I tried to suppress as best I could for fear of getting death-ray glares from the couple in front of me).

The highlight for me was, as I knew it would be, Who Wants to Live Forever. I think that song belongs to Adam now. I'm sure Freddie was good, but he was no Adam Lambert. (You see what I did there?)

I was also really affected by Bohemian Rhapsody. Knowing that Adam auditioned for Idol with it, and now there he was singing it while on a cross-country tour with Queen--wow. Plus it's a weird, fun song that brings both smiles and tears. I didn't pay too much attention to Queen in their first go-round--I knew about them and liked some of their more well-known songs, but probably didn't even know Brian and Roger's names at the time--but whenever I've seen the videos, and now the live version, of Bohemian Rhapsody, I just want to burst into tears when Freddie appears on the screen. Damn it, I wish he and Adam had had a chance to meet.

I know Sherrie enjoyed the show, but I couldn't help feeling that she would have enjoyed it more if she had just put down her phone and devoted her entire attention to the concert. She was trying to get pictures and videos throughout the concert and it seemed to me that her efforts were distracting her from the music and the fun. But--to each her own. I'm sure she'll enjoy looking through her videos later, but me--I'd rather be there 100% for the event itself.

After the show, we made our way to the merchandise table and bought T-shirts to commemorate the experience. Then we went to the parking garage to get her car, only to realize that in our excitement at being there, neither of us had retained the floor number where we had parked the car. Level 6? Level 2? We couldn't remember! We wandered around for about ten minutes before we stumbled upon the car through sheer luck. Then it was back to the hotel and off to bed so we could get an early start home the next day.

I'm so glad there were so many of you there sharing the experience with me even if we didn't get together, and I'm so very happy that I got to see one of the shows. When I was watching Adam on Sunday, I thought, "I wonder if it's always fun for him, or if sometimes he thinks, 'Ugh, I really don't feel like going out there tonight.'" Well, if he wasn't having fun, he's the best actor in the world. I remember thinking a year or so ago that if Adam and Queen ever toured the U.S., I'd be sure to go, but when it came together, I wasn't sure I'd be able to. Now I have and it will forever remain a cherished memory.