Day 7: Las Vegas, NV
Welcome
Yesterday we played a show in Las Vegas and won the New Zealand Silver Scroll award.
We awoke to find some nice messages arriving onto our phones. Overnight the awards ceremony had taken place for the APRA Silver Scroll - New Zealand’s version of the Grammys if you will - that recognises excellence in song writing. Expert in a Dying Field had won this award, and we were extremely happy and proud, as well as sad that we’d had to miss the awards ceremony. The surprise had actually come several weeks earlier when we were booked to do an interview and then had the Silver Scroll sprung on us; a process that was filmed to capture our reactions which could then be broadcast at the ceremony. Since then, it has been a tough secret to keep but finally the pressure has been relieved.
All of us were in good spirits when we climbed into the tank at 8am to begin the drive to Vegas. Tristan was behind the wheel and eased us gently and swiftly out of Phoenix, heading northwest up Route 93. As we left the city and began to cross the state of Arizona the roadside transitioned into a desert landscape dotted with boulders, cacti, and Joshua Trees. After a couple of hours, we stopped for breakfast in Wikieup, where a diner called Luchia’s stood out from the bunch with vibrant, colourful signs adorning the front of the building. We walked in through a gift shop that sold a wide variety of trinkets and then seated ourselves out the back in a yard that was roamed by peacocks and scattered with old tractors, carts, and machinery. A friendly waitress arrived, and I ordered a breakfast of huevos rancheros which arrived a little while later, a collection of earthy-toned foods that comfortably matched the brown border of my plate and the brown vinyl surface of the table.
I had to fight of the temptation to purchase a large amount of turquoise jewellery as we departed through the gift shop and remounted our vehicle, Jon now behind the wheel as we got back onto the desert highway. The scenery was grand as we continued north, crossing jagged lines of mountains and descending across wide open plains, the road remaining straight as an arrow on its way to the next waypoint. As we neared the Nevada border, we decided we could afford a quick stop for some sightseeing and Jon took the next exit, marked with a sign announcing the Hoover Dam visitor centre. We left our vehicle in a busy carpark and wandered up towards the lookout, a bridge that crossed over the awesome Black Canyon and provided a fantastic view of the dam and the azure waters of the Colorado River while they waited their turn to fall through the seventeen turbines of this massive hydroelectric power plant.
Las Vegas appears rather suddenly as you crest and begin descending the River Mountains and it is striking, this glinting line of enormous hotels that stretches out in a long line, an alien plantation in the middle of this desert basin. As we got closer, we could make out the iconic buildings: the MGM Grand, the Mandalay Bay, Caesar’s Palace, and of course the brand new Las Vegas Orb which has just begun its life hosting a series of concerts by the band U2. Our first stop was for Tristan who was picking up a new case to house his drumming equipment. Hours of research had gone into choosing the perfect product and hours more had been devoted to choosing the colour pairing that contributed both uniqueness and efficiency.
Then we headed to the venue, a theatre located inside Virgin Hotels Los Vegas, a Curio Collection by Hilton, a kilometre east of the strip. We found our greenroom and Tristan immediately got to work, taking the foam inserts from inside his new Pelican case and carefully cutting out slots for each piece of equipment, a process that looked deeply satisfying. The results speak for themselves. This metronome could survive a fall from the greatest of heights or a trip to the depths of the ocean.
There were a couple of hours for us to relax and then at 5pm we were back to work, heading down to soundcheck and get ourselves into a state where we could perform seven songs with a high degree of accuracy. Tristan was still hard at work having had to perform a spot repair on his bass drum after the hoop had suffered a catastrophic failure in transit. Some superglue was employed on the troubled area, and he was able to have the drum back in service just in time for our line check. Everything felt good to us up on stage and the only thing I had to worry about was the ominous blood splatter on the crowd barrier in front of me, which I hoped wasn’t a regular occurrence at these Vegas shows.
At 8pm we walked out to find that the theatre was almost full and the crowd were in a good mood. As usual we did our thirty minutes and then quickly packed down our gear so we could hurry out into the audience and watch Deathcab for Cutie play the powerful opening notes of their album Transatlantacism. This Las Vegas crowd were on fire, screaming and dancing and bringing a ton of energy to this Wednesday night event.
After the show we celebrated. We began in the casino of the Virgin Hotel, just outside the theatre and then walked to the main part of the strip to get a closer look at the Vegas landmarks like the Bellagio Fountain, the Eiffel Tower, and the Arc de Triumph. Money was won and money was lost and though some band members fared better than others overall it is safe to say that Vegas came out on top. When we had completely exhausted ourselves we headed back to the hotel and enjoyed the view of the strip where the Vegas Orb shone tirelessly into the night.
I’ll leave you with a special treat, the latest video update from Tristan Deck.