It all started out innocently enough. I received a call from a friend asking if I
wanted to go see Van Halen?
Having absolutely no interest is seeing them,
I was about to decline the invitation until I heard it was in Vegas. Not
wanting to miss a chance at some party time in one of my favorite cities, I decided
Van Halen wasn’t sounding so bad after all. I agreed to go along since one
of my friends from Portland, who I haven’t seen in awhile, would be flying down.
Even if the showed sucked miserably, we would still have the lures
of Sin City to fall back on. I figured what the hell? After agreeing
to join in, I was hit with what would become lesson #1 in this story. None of the
other guys had enough limit on their credit cards to buy the tickets.
So good old Jeff came through to the tune of $371 for four tickets in the
second to the last row. Of course I would be paid back in due time. It was about
two months prior to the concert date and everyone seemed excited about the trip.
Well about a month later the Portland friend backed out through
an E-Mail with the hidden veil of reasonable but annoying reasons as to why they
were backing out. Good as in Church Camp appeared to win the battle over
evil as in Vegas.
O.K. now we were down to three with one
extra ticket that would need to be sold to someone or somehow.
The weeks
passed on and only two days to go when the next drop out occurred. Business was
down, parents needed their Meds, blah, blah, blah. Great I was thinking, less
than 48 hours to go with two tickets now needing to be sold.
Friday
finally arrived and Chris and I headed out with the last stop being the Tropicana
Hotel. I should have known at this point that things were going down
hill. While waiting to check in, I noticed that one of the desk clerks sucked.
All the others were making the guests laugh while showing them pics of the various
hotel rooms. One particular desk clerk appeared to be more of a drill instructor.
No laughing, no flipping photo pages, just business. Sure enough, it was
my turn to proceed to the counter as lame dude shouted, next! He told me that
the reservation was for one King bed which was incorrect. I had reserved a two
Queen room in the rear tower. Within a minute he handed me a key to room 214.
I asked why we were on the second floor and the clerk scowled and said "I have
upgraded you to a better room". I asked how the second floor could possibly be
an upgrade? He responded in a hushed voice "the room has an ironing board and refrigerator".
At this point I was thinking "whatever". I just wanted a beer.
Only
2 hours to go before the show and the plan was hatched how to dump
the other tickets. We would go pick up the tickets at will call and then check
things out to see if any others were doing the same. Arriving at the Mandalay
Bay is where lesson #2 comes into play. We got the tickets from will call while
observing many others standing around trying to dump tickets. O.K., no big deal.
It should take only a few minutes to get rid of the other seats and we could
go inside and still see both bands. Soon we learned the our tickets located
beyond the nose bleed section were almost worthless. Most everyone laughed when
they heard me say Section 312.
After about an hour, Chris headed inside
and left me with the dirty work. He called from inside to tell me that the
first band had just finished and to hurry up. I told him five more minutes and
would be in the show with beers in hand. I headed for the doors and noticed
two guys standing around looking lost. I asked if they needed tickets and they
said yes. I told them that it was their lucky day and they could have each
ticket for $30. They agreed and just as I was handing the tickets over, I was grabbed
by a guy in a blue polo shirt. I was busted for scalping. Within minutes
I was escorted to a private area for some verbal assault and intimidation.
Then I was told to leave the premises while also being informed that I was banned
from all Madalay Bay properties for 24 hours. This included the Luxor and
Excalibur as well. During my walk off the premises I was followed by three different
security people. Each time I was reminded that if I came back I would be
immediately arrested for trespassing.
Hours later Chris showed up
at the Tropicana and told me that maybe it was better that I didn’t make it in.
He said Van Halen has now became the family affair with Eddie’s boy Wolfgang joining
in. He didn’t look pleased. So for $371 only one person got to see what
they thought was a lame performance. The Visa bill is already here and I am still
waiting to collect from the two unused tickets. Wow what a bargain!
On
a side note, the new Monorail kicks ass. Traveling from the MGM Grand
and winding over to the Convention Center before heading back to the Sahara
on the Strip, the ride is worth the three bucks. It is even better at night. Also
props to the Silverton Hotel and Casino for a enlightening bowling experience.
Located at the back of the casino in an ultra cool decorated corner is
an old Airstrem trailer. Inside the trailer is two bowling lanes which use wooden
balls about the size of a cantaloupe. The pins are reset in split seconds by
strings. You get all the fun of bowling without the need to rent shoes
or wait endlessly for your turn. At three bucks a game, this was definitely the
best bargain in Vegas.
So hopefully the lessons learned are that you
should never pay for a bunch of tickets for a band you really don’t even
want to see. And lastly if you do have tickets left over, just be a nice guy
and give them to the first women willing to show their boobs. Who would have the
nerve to bust someone for such an ingenious plan?
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