Matt turned the Big 4-0 on March 2nd!!! For his birthday, I got us tickets to attend Viva Las Vegas... a rockabilly weekend in Las Vegas. He mentioned awhile back that he had always wanted to go to this event, so that and the fact that he has never been to Vegas (amazing considering he's traveled the world and grew up a 4 hour drive from Vegas!) made this the PERFECT gift! He was so excited when I gave him the tickets because he had forgotten all about it! I had already contacted his work and made sure they didn't schedule any patients for him on the Friday of that weekend, so we were set to go! 
Inside at the Bellagio
Friday night was our first chance to be at Viva Las Vegas. We saw some bands and watched while a few people danced. Rockabilly comes from "Rock" and "Hillbilly" so it's a combo of rock and old country. It's mostly early 50s rock n' roll (early Elvis, Chuck Berry, etc). I could hardly keep still listening to it... Later in the evening we saw Marti Brom who Matt really likes. She's got this great raspy voice and I had so much fun watching all the dancing. Makes me want to take some lessons so we are ready for the next time we decide to go!
Saturday was the main event of the weekend. It started with a Car Show with some of the most unbelievable cars... some were literally works of art.
The evening we headed back to the car show and saw Chuck Berry perform... 85 years old and the man can still rock! He sang "Johnny Be Good" and a few others I knew. We left after nearly an hour and he was still going... so impressive! We headed back inside to catch Deke Dickerson... a guy that Matt has seen several times and is a favorite. He puts on a "Guitar Geek" show where he brings musicians to play a few songs each. It was a great way to see a lot in one place. I was so impressed with the musicianship. I even developed a little crush on one of the guys that played! We both really enjoyed the show.
l to r: Joel Paterson (my new crush), "Crazy" Joe, Sugarballs (drummer) & Deke
Then... onto the Burleque Show! It was interesting to see this... it wasn't exactly what I thought it would be. I always thought Burlesque was more of a teasing strip tease, but instead most of these girls did a lot of dancing. There still was stripping involved, down to very little, but there was also a story and theme throughout. It was entertaining. Next we headed upstairs to catch the end of Wanda Jackson. She was popular in the 50s and even used to date Elvis! She's in her 80s now, and still sounded great.
One of my favorite parts of the weekend was checking out all the fashion! Rockabilly fashion is a real contrast of 50s Pin Up Girl (Bettie Page) with the pencil and full skirts, the wavy styled hair, black eye liner/red lips, but then they are covered with tattoos on most of their bodies! For me, it was such an interesting and cool look. The guys had slicked back hair, rolled up jeans and had a very 50s style, again with tattoos everywhere!
Sunday we slept in after getting back to the room at about 2am (such a late night for us!!) We headed our for a Sunday brunch buffet and checked out the Wynn and Venetian hotels. Finally it was time to head home. It was such a great weekend. I had a lot more fun than I thought I would. Matt didn't really love Vegas as much as I do, but he had a fantastic time at the event, which is all that really mattered to me.
You can see all our pictures at our "View Our Photos" link above on the right!
1 comments:
Great summary of your trip and wonderful pics. Thanks for taking the time to share it.
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