Location, at Home, CA
Another busy week completed!
On Sunday we drove to Tehachapi and spent the night with friends Budd and Brenda. Monday morning about 10 AM we left Tehachapi and drove to Las Vegas to meet our son Tim and family. They were driving from Houston while on spring break.
We met late in the evening at the Silverton Casino where we will be staying for 4 days.
The next 3 days were filled with seeing the sights and included lots of walking as we visited Casinos, malls, and other tourist sites. Matthew and Ivy were intrigued by the spray can artists on Fremont Street. They rode the zip line at Fremont Street, and the roller coaster at New York – New York.
Tim and Matthew with a couple of "Show girls" on Fremont Street.
Ivy with her dessert.
Matthew and Ivy waiting at the top of the zip line.
In the air!
Texas family at New York-New York.
Ivy's painting in progress.
While Tim and Family toured Hoover Dam on Wednesday, Clyda and I paid a visit to O’Sheas Casino which will close on March 31st and be demolished to make way for a project called Linq. It will be a shopping and entertainment area located between Imperial Palace and The Flamingo Casinos. It is always sad to see all the old casinos demolished to make way for something new.
On Thursday night Tim and I attended an Umphrey’s McGee concert at the Silverton.
(From Wikipedia)
Umphrey's McGee or UM is an American progressive rock jam band based in Chicago whose music is often referred to as "progressive improvisation", or "improg" (as per a progressive sampler released by the band in 2009). Although the band is part of the jam band scene, like Phish and the Grateful Dead (with ever-changing setlists, improvisation, two sets per night, open taping policy, etc.), they are much more influenced musically by progressive rock bands such as King Crimson, Yes, Pink Floyd, Dream Theater, Frank Zappa, and early Genesis, as well as heavy metal bands such as Iron Maiden. The band also identifies The Police, The Beatles, and Led Zeppelin as primary influences.[1]. UM experiments with many genres including progressive rock, funk, jazz, blues, metal, electronic, bluegrass, and everything in between.
Tim has been following the band for several years. One of the reasons he came to Las Vegas was to see the band perform. Diane decided she would rather not see the band this time so Tim invited me to attend in her place.
The venue was a large semi-permanent tent in the Silverton back lot with standing room only, no chairs except for handicapped people. The band played from 9 PM to Midnight with a 25 minute break. The first song lasted 15 minutes while the second lasted 40 minutes. The music they played was a harder rock beat than what is featured on their released music.
Several people at the concert asked me if the “music was what I expected?” I knew going in what the music was going to be as I have some on my iPod. I think what they were really asking was “how come a white haired old man like me was at the concert”.
I did enjoy it as it was loud but not too bad and really had a beat. Also, the improvisation with each song was intriguing. I listened to Satellite Radio channel 29 called Jam-on on the way home and caught 2 songs by Umphrey’s McGee. The songs were good but not as good as in person.
On Friday, we drove home arriving about 5:15 PM.
It rained about an inch Friday night with scattered showers yesterday. This morning the snow on the mountains is about 2000 foot level which makes it cold here.
