Kwaree Blog

Duran Duran – MGM Grand at Foxwoods

Saturday, December 13th, 2008

As I wrote in my last post, we did a bunch of stuff this weekend, but what I didn’t mention was what we did exactly.

Do you know of Duran Duran? If you are over the age of…let’s see…4 years old, you probably do. Duran Duran is one of those groups that everyone loves. They have been around forever and have tons of great songs. Believe it or not, they are still rockin’ and rollin’ and traveling all over the place making people go nuts.

There was a day a few months ago when Laura told me that she would be satisfied if she could see just one more band in concert. That band is Duran Duran. I kind of half listened because she has seen about a zillion bands in concert throughout her lifetime. I am guessing that she has made this claim many times. I did tuck the thought way back in my head though.

About a month and a half ago, I was lying in bed one morning, debating on whether or not to get up. I know I was awake, but I wasn’t too sure if the person I was laying next to was. The radio/alarm was sounding and I knew I had to so something soon, or else I would fall back to sleep.

A few minutes later, the DJ started talking about how Duran Duran was going to be playing down at MGM Grand at Foxwoods on December 12. My ears perked up, because I am always looking for a good surprise to spring on someone. I hopped out of bed to check out the MGM Grand website and sure enough, Duran Duran was scheduled to play that evening.

I didn’t just go ahead and purchase the tickets. I waited and tried to learn if we had, or were going to have anything planned for that time of year. Who knew if we were doing something important in December. I kept my mouth shut and cleverly began my investigation. Oh, I was good…asking questions here and throwing out ideas there. I was executing all sorts of strategy to get the lowdown on December 12. It was like a game of cat and mouse.

It took me all day to get the facts, without giving my grand plan away. You should have seen me; I kept rubbing my hands together like I was an evil magician.

The next day, Laura walked up to me and told me that she bought three tickets to see Duran Duran down at MGM Grand at Foxwoods. What?

I guess she was awake.

Okay, so yesterday was the day. I won’t rehash the story I told you the last post. I will just start with the fun stuff.

We arrived in the parking garage of MGM Grand. I was a little nervous, because I have never been there before. I have driven by, but have never gone inside. MGM Grand is actually only a few months old. Foxwoods built it right next to the original casino. I had no idea if the parking situation was going to be far away in some secret parking lot somewhere or what.

The parking was great. It’s very light and safe. The parking garage is probably close to 10 levels. I am guessing here, because I didn’t walk up to all of them, but the garage is pretty high.

We did our thing and hopped out of the car, but first, I grabbed my camera. I always forget to bring my camera to concerts like this. I think they are going to stop me at the gate and make me put it back in the car. Then, after I get in, I see thousands of people snapping away with their cameras all evening. I get so mad because it happens every time.

This time, I had planned on hiding it in my sock, but the gate was very informal and we weren’t frisked like we usually are.

Let me tell you about dinner first.

We decided to get to the casino at 6PM, so we could have a nice dinner at Shrine restaurant. This was important to us, because it wouldn’t be a really great evening if we didn’t eat and get a little drunk first. I will bypass all the food mumbo jumbo and get straight to the neat pics I took inside the restaurant.

The dinner was great, but let me warn you…it’s expensive. They have you as a captive audience and charge like it. It’s pretty good food though, especially the appetizers.

After dinner, we had about an hour and a half to burn before the show started. To use up the time, we decided to do a little gambling and take pictures of the inside of the casino (some with me in them).

We walked towards the slot machines and got all sorts of excited. I stopped, puffed out my chest and pulled $20 out of my pocket. I handed it to Laura and told her not to spend it all in one place. Then, I said, “Wait, I am coming with you. That’s for the both of us.”

C’mon guys. I’m not an idiot. Does anyone seriously sit there and hand over more than $20 to a casino?

We played the machines. We kept changing between nickle and quarter bets. We felt like high rollers and laughed a lot, which is good. Then, it happened. You have to check this out.

Have you ever seen that before? Yup, we took our $17.63 and bolted. We cashed out and brought the winnings over to get some coffee for $4.25 each. Well, we didn’t exactly win, as you can tell from the $17.63, but we did come back from being way down and knew when to get the heck out of there. Yee haw.

We had some time left, so we decided to walk around a bit and take some pictures. The ladies had fun with the camera. So much fun in fact, I had to delete many less mature shots.

That was fun. I think I had 75 pictures on my camera and narrowed it down to 5. Nice job.

After that, we went in to grab our seats in the theater. As I mentioned above, nobody hassled me about having my camera on me. Inside, they did tell us that flash photography wasn’t welcome and one time, a guy came over to tell me that I couldn’t take pictures during the show. Whatever. Here they are.

The group put on a good show. I’ll leave it at that, because I am sure you have all heard about how great bands are when they perform. They are all pretty good.

One thing that surprised me was how many times I kept saying, “Oh, that is their song too?” I kept forgetting how long these guys have been around and how many songs they have out there. It’s not very difficult for them to pick the good ones.

After we got back to the house, we had a few sips of the wine Laura’s friend bought us. That made us all tired and we went to bed.

I think I need a nap.

Related posts

• Sam’s Point Preserve – A Christmas Hike (3)
• Panda House in Danbury, CT (1)
• Raccoons In The Attic (4)
• Installing A Water Spigot In The Garage (3)
• Washing The Car On A Nice Winter Day (0)