Robbie Williams Live in Las Vegas!

There was a time in my life when I went to Las Vegas a lot. For any occasion that needed a serious party, Vegas was a relatively short / cheap flight away, and provided plenty of debauchery. So my friends and I spent many a long weekend dressed up as our Woo Girl and Douche Dude alter-egos, drinking copiously, wearing sunglasses indoors, dancing at the club until all hours... just generally being awful human beings, but having so much fun. Luckily for my liver, that phase didn't last long, and for the past several years I thought the next time I'd be in Vegas would be 40 years from now, when I'm a crotchety old biddy looking to play penny slots in a climate warm and dry enough to ease my aching joints.

But then Robbie Williams announced a residency at the Wynn. Just six nights in March.

I bought my ticket at the earliest moment my presale code would allow, booked a flight a few minutes
later. The shows sold out, so more were added in June and July, which also mostly sold out. I normally wouldn't do more than one show per tour, but after the experience on Friday, I'm now considering going back for one of those as well.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

After flying home from London and taking a day to adjust to my old time zone, I got back on a plane and arrived in Las Vegas on Thursday afternoon. That gave me over 24 hours to fill until the show, and given my lack of interest in all my previous Sin City activities, I didn't know what to do with myself. I stayed at the Encore, putting the theatre that provided the whole point of my visit less than 5 minutes walk away, without even going outdoors. So it's not like I needed to do a lot of exploring to find my way around. I (no exaggeration) went to bed at 10pm Thursday night, and filled my free time Friday before the gig shopping, and enjoying the slot machines at the Wynn. No big wins, but I did get 2 hours of entertainment and left the casino with $3 more than I brought in... which is a good deal, considering the Fashion Show mall got plenty of my money, as did the gift shop selling exorbitantly priced Robbie Williams Live in Las Vegas merchandise.

After gambling successfully and exchanging much cash for goods, as I was walking back through to the Encore, I thought I walked past someone familar... was that Rob's mother-in-law (Instagram star) Gwen? Nah, couldn't be. But it was, which I confirmed at the concert when she came out the VIP door to find her seat not far from me with Ayda Field (her daughter and fabulous woman, who happens to be married to Mr Williams). And their daughter. And Robbie's mom. I am a total Williams family dork, I think they're all fun and entertaining on social media, but I'd never bug them for photos like some others did. I don't remember where I read this line the other day: In the future, everyone will want to be anonymous for 15 minutes. So yeah. I'd rather enjoy the public postings and give them some of that of anonymity when they walk past me. But I'm just Gen X like that, I guess.

As for the show itself... Awesome. No words to describe how good he always is live. It was my 6th time at the Robbie Williams experience, and the Encore Theater was 1/10th the size of the smallest previous venue. The official website says the Encore's capacity is 1,845; the other arenas ranged from 18,000 to over 50,000 seats. Given that Rob could easily fill those giant stadiums with his showmanship, I was almost afraid it would be too small for such a big personality -- the opposite of the way some bands can't grow their performance to fill larger spaces -- but it was perfect. It was just as much Robbie without going over the top. I still got totally into it and put my hands in the air when instructed to -- as did all the people around me.

Rob mentioned online that 70% of the tickets were sold to people coming from the US, and the set list seemed to assume people didn't really know the music, because of that. He only played a few of the big hits -- which everyone did know -- mixed in with lots of covers and standards from the swing albums. If I had my way, the show would have included more of the originals, but the song selection didn't make me enjoy it any less. It was a great time, and I'm still buzzing two days later.

At the end of the gig, Robbie said he might do "a pointless tour of the US," not promoting anything, not even sure if an audience would turn up in any given city. It has been a topic he's brought up a few times lately, half joking, but I really hope he gives it a try. I've taken many long haul flights to see him in massive venues, and will happily continue to do so; he's the best excuse for a trip out of town that I have, and the shows are always incredible. But that being said, spending just two hours in the air to go to a small theatre gig is pretty damn good. So if the Robbie Williams Pointless Tour of North America doesn't get announced in the next couple of months, I just might be back in the desert again this summer, taking this rare opportunity once more before it's gone.