Re: Ibash '99 (Pixelon @Las Vegas) = LAL 2 (The Wrath of Pete)

[Phil McRevis <legalize@xmission.com>]

I was at the Vegas show with my friend Fred, as well as listers Wes
Biggs and Kent Kimes who gobbled up my two extra tickets.  If you were
at the concert, you may have spotted someone walking around in a green
jacket plastered with Who buttons and that was me.

I concur with the other comments: this show was loud and they just
SLAYED the audience.

Noone has yet mentioned how the announcer guy was being booed MASSIVELY
by the crowd as he tried to hype the ibash internet pixelon hooha.
(They went so far as to claim an audience of "1 billion".  Yeah,
right!  I have yet to see a web server that could handle a billion
concurrent users!)  My favorite part was when half the stadium started
chanting "FUCK YOU!" over and over as he tried to schmooze us with his
corporate schpiel at 10:00 when the show was supposed to start.  (If
they wanted to do that candyass corporate crap, they should have
started it at 9:30, not at showtime.)

After the corporate guy, David Spade came out with some chick with an
after-market chest upgrade who was supposedly some eye candy used to
lure in geeky web surfers to the pixelon web site.  (Speaking of which,
their website crashes on my browser and I never get farther than the
first page.  Another reason to cry out against the dancing baloney
phenomenon.)  After attempting a little bit of banter with the crowd,
David Spade was at least smart enough to realize (unlike the pixelon
corporate mouthpiece) that this crowd didn't give a shit about his
little antics or anyone else and only wanted one thing: THE WHO!  So
after attempting a few little cut ups with no response, Spade just said
"Ladies and gentlemen, The Who!" and promptly exited the stage dragging
Ms. Jello Chest with him.

The set was LOUD and rocked like I've never seen the Who perform
before.  I just bought the Isle of Wight video the other day, and I
think they performed better at Vegas than they did at that show!  No
fuck ups on the lyrics or on the playing.  They were in tune, on time
and in spirit!  Pete looked more energized than I'd seen him for
decades (with the possible exception of the HOB concerts in LA).
Johns fingers blurred on the My Generation and 5:15 solos and just
left me dumbfounded with my mouth hanging open.

Roger's singing was on the money, even with a few minor glitches in
the sound.  The synth in Who Are You sounded slightly updated and
tweaked to me, perhaps just because never heard it played live.  It
never ceases to amaze me how they manage to twist and contort Magic
Bus into new forms.  When Pete opened the song with some chords I was
looking back at Kent and Wes wondering if they knew what song it was
going to be.  I guessed "Magic Bus?" and a few seconds later it was
confirmed!  That Bo Diddley beat must be Borg inspired, its so
adaptive.

Zack Starkey was amazing on the drums; on time, in step and bashing it
out on the tom toms at the appropriate points.  I was a tad bit
disappointed he didn't take the bows with the three amigos at the end
of the show, he deserved just as much credit as the rest of them!
Rabbit was there, but fortunately his droopy sloppy 60s cheesy organ
sound didn't dominate any of the songs, he was just there for a little
filler here and there.  (One review mentioned something about Rabbit
playing the synth part in WGFA and Baba!  Ha!  We real fans know those
are tape loops and not played by the jackrabbit, fortunately.)  I
prefer Tim Gorman's synth sound over Rabbit anyday.  I never really
thought he had the right 'sound' to compliment the Who's playing.

I had a bunch of "play" $20 bills that I was handing out to anyone who
had a decent Who shirt or other attire "in appreciation of their
attire" I would say.  Most people looked at me like I was trying to
pull a scam on them!  People in Vegas are used to seeing it all and
have heard all the angles before.

The chick factor was incredibly high for a Who concert.  MSG in '96
was wall-to-wall testicles by comparison.  And these chicks weren't
just arm trophies they were singing along!

Dumped a good amount of change at the merchandise booth: they had nice
black cloth jackets with leather sleeves that had the words "The Who
Live at Vegas" embroidered in red on the front of the jacket in the
same graphic style as "The Who Live at Leeds" from the LAL album.
Awesome!  Bought one right away upon entering.  They also had some
stylish blue and green T-shirts with the band's arrow style logo on
them (lame ascii graphic, I know):

      ^
      |
    The
      ^
      |
    Who

These were rather smart looking and I picked up one of each color.
They also had a typical black concert T-shirt with the picture from
the "30 Years of Maximum R&B" box set (Pete and Roger) on the front.
I picked up one of those and a nice white T-shirt with the circular
target, the arrow style The Who logo and the phrase "The Kids Are
Alright" on the outer blue circle of the target.  I was shopping for
myself and two friends back east who I know would love something from
the show if they couldn't be there in person.

They also had a shirt with a circular style logo of the band, which
looks to me to be identical to a logo used for some promo material for
the band around '69 or '70, Tommy time frame.  Unfortunately the Who
logo was on the back and the front was splattered with this big
pixelon ibash logo, which was too ugly for me to want to buy that
shirt.  They also had "Who By Numbers" shirts, in that off-white
yellowish tone with the album's front cover art in a nice big size on
the shirt.  There was also a tan shirt with "The Who Live at Leeds" in
the style of the album art with the text placed where the breast shirt
pocket would be and about the same size.

There weren't any posters, programs, stickers, etc.  Just the shirts
and the jacket.  The jacket was the coolest thing, I think, even if it
was a bit pricey ($260).  However, you *know* its a limited
collector's item because they obviously made a small number of these
jackets just for this show and they are unlikely to ever be made again.
If you see someone walking down the street in one of these jackets,
ask them about the show!  They are only a small handful and you never
know, when you see one, it might be me. ;-)
--
<http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/>	Legalize Adulthood!
    ``Ain't it funny that they all fire the pistol,     
      at the wrong end of the race?''--PDBT     
legalize@xmission.com	<http://www.thewho.net>