I’m not a romantic guy, but every decade or so I’ll come up with a good idea. In this case that was tickets to see Van Halen at Mohegan Sun Arena. It’s a very pretty place.
We went early. I wanted to play poker. Helaine went exploring on her own.
The most popular poker game nowadays is $1/$2 no limit Hold’em. The $1/$2 represent bet floors, not ceilings! Sometimes people push in their whole stack of chips.
It’s not like the Wild West. You’re only liable for what you post on the table. I bought in and sat down.
The tables are an interesting cross section of humanity. It is the United Nations. It is the DMV.
Some make like they’re on TV with sunglasses. I think that ploy is vastly overrated.
Tables have personalities. A few are passive with lots of calls. Others are aggressive where few bets don’t get raised. The dealer makes a lot of difference. A good dealer makes the game flow smoothly. There’s lots of math going on and the dealer is doing it all in his head by following specific routines in how he moves money around the table.
I walked away up. I won’t say how much, but I was pleased. I played again in the evening and broke even then. Very good day.
We had dinner at Ballo. Though new it is in the older part of the casino. Think outdoor cafe, but it’s indoors. Our table had a view of the passing crowd. Good people watching.
Helaine ordered spaghetti and meatballs. I had a skirt steak. Everything was very tasty and the service attentive.
We headed to the show.
Mohegan Sun’s arena is modern multipurpose facility. There are seats on the floor and a few more levels up.
We sat down in Section 15. We were off to the side of the stage, a few feet forward and slightly above it. Excellent view. Pretty close.
Van Halen came on around twenty five minutes late. It was just the four on a mainly bare stage with an immense metallic mesh behind them which turned into the largest video screen I’ve ever seen!
They were loud! Does that make me sound old? So be it. You could feel every note via your internal organs.
Van Halen went through the hits and a few new songs. They were mostly good, though they looked older (except Wolfgang who is Eddie’s son), especially David Lee Roth. He’s in incredible shape, but you see age in his face.
David Lee Roth is is a showman. He is personable on stage. That’s important since he fronts every song.
At one point he played a solo acoustic guitar while narrating beautiful footage of his exceptionally well trained border collies. Unexpected and amazing.
It was interesting to see all the people with their cellphones recording video or still shots.
The smell of pot wafted by. If it was coming from nearby I didn’t see where.
We stood the entire show.
We played in the casino a little more after the encore and headed home well after midnight.
I passed two State Troopers stealthly parked perpendicular to the road. Probably running radar. Glad they were on the other side of the highway.
Long day. Lots of fun.
Sounds like a good time all around Geoff! And you are only as old as you feel – LOL.
Mohegan Sun’s arena is a great place to catch “big” shows. I was there a week ago to catch Glen Campbell’s Goodbye Tour. Great sound, understated stage (limited use of video, which was fine by me), easy access to the seating bowl.
Just curious, which camera did you use? I got hassled trying to bring in my Canon DSLR. I had to show my ID from the broadcast companies I work for and convince the guards I was a legit reporter doing a story in order to get the camera in. You’d think they’d have less objections to that than a point ‘n’ shoot whose flash goes off with every shot.
All my shots were taken with my cellphone. I didn’t think they’d let the dslr and lenses in!
All I had was my cellphone. We were fairly close and the cellphone had a feature where the accelerometer doesn’t allow the shutter to fire if the camera is moving!
Great report;motivational to see casion after seeing two casions in Florida last month in Hollywood and Ft. Lauderdale areas.
You felt every note “via your internal organs”? I laughed out loud at that! Too funny…
Glad you had a great time and thanks for giving us the tip that section 15 has good seats! As always? Great blog!
Did you get a babysitter for Doppler ?
Doppler had a sleep over at our local puppy hotel. She seems none the worse for wear.
Just more people to tell her how cute she is.
Glad to see that i am not the only one who still likes rock music after all these years. and my teenagers like Van Halen too so it is multi generational music.
Glad you had a great time!
Because of some damage from seeing too many loud shows earlier in life, I now take cotton with me. I put it in my ears before the show; I can still hear everything just fine, and I don’t have the annoying ringing in my ears when I leave.
A friend and I went to the Wolf Den Hall Of Fame concert about a week ago. Even with the cotton, some of the acts were too loud to hear. People were leaving becasue it was so loud.
Why, oh why do they have to turn it up to 11? If I can hear it, I can enjoy it more!
I’m guessing you and Helaine were yelling at each other after the show – and not because you were angry. Just because you couldn’t hear!
Debbie,
Besides the noise issue how as that Wolf Den Hall of Fame show? As a fan and friend of Little Anthony and the Imperials, I’d love to hear your thoughts on their set.
Little Anthony and the Imperials and Jay Black were the best part of the show. They both did great sets. Wasn’t too happy with the rest of the show. But that’s just me.
If Geoff had gone to see Van “Hagar”, I would have been there with my cotton-stuffed ears, fist-pumping into the night!