The “Before They Kick It” Tour

This is going to be a little departure from running, because, face it, I don’t love running that much that it’s the only thing I (would) do (come to think of it,  a lot of my blogs the past few months have been a departure from running). In fact, I’m going to expose to the whole world just how twisted and dark my sense of humor is…

One of the things on my bucket list is to see as many classic rock acts from my youth as I can before the artists kick their own bucket*. I’m being pretty selective – not so much about the acts – but about where I see them. In my youth I saw most of the mega groups in the large stadiums/outdoor venues, but time and time again, the most memorable concerts were those in the small venues (Elvis Costello at Millikan High School, Peter Gabriel at Crawford Hall (UC Irvine’s gym at the time), The Tubes at Crawford Hall, The Runaways at The Whiskey a Go Go, etc.).

So, last Thursday I was incredibly lucky and was in the right place at the right time on Twitter to win a couple tickets to see Meat Loaf Friday night at Casino Morongo! I like playing poker at Morongo, but don’t make it out there too often because it’s a bit of a drive (close to an hour and a half or so). So it was a double win for me!

Now, I’m not a big fan of rock ballads, but Meat Loaf is a guy who has cheated death a couple times already, so he has at least an honorable mention on my list. He’s been having a bit of a rejuvenation lately with his appearance on Celebrity Apprentice. Not to mention, who could turn down seeing Eddie**?

I showed up 10 minutes before the scheduled start to some awesome seats:

And, sure enough, right at the scheduled start time of 9 PM (well, okay – five minutes after) the show begins!

If you understand the Eddie reference above, you’ll like this song.

And for all you real Meat Loaf fans:

Meat Loaf’s signature hit. 5th best selling album of all time.

Yes. His voice is shot and he doesn’t move around as well as he used to, but hey, who from our generation does?

And as should be expected at a casino, right at 11PM on the nose, the last drum thunders, the house lights come on and the casino gets what they were after!***

* I can add Meat Loaf to Tom Jones at the MGM Grand, X at the Orange County Fair, KC and the Sunshine Band at the Orange County Fair, ZZ Top at House of Blues, and George Clinton at House of Blues. Up next? Bob Dylan is supposed to be playing at the OC Fair this summer. Hmmm.

** So who remembers Eddie?

*** The one thing that casino management understands is the value of a bunch of people *not* gambling. As a result, concerts tend to start on time and end on time. A casino is *not* going to let a room full of a few hundred people sit around doing nothing for half an hour while the band “preps” for the performance. They *especially* aren’t going to allow an act to end late!