And here I am 3 months later, for the second leg of the residency.
I was looking forward to the show even more than usual, since I've had rough times in life of late, and knew a couple hours of Rob's "showing off" would be just the thing for it. I landed in Las Vegas Thursday afternoon, checked into my hotel room, and went straight back out for a Starbucks visit and a wander around. But after getting blown in the face with a hot wind (it was 39 degrees C and windy, WTF is that about?!), I went back to the Wynn in search of more swag featuring my friendly neighbourhood pop star, and air conditioning.
On the way over to the gift shop for said swag, I walked past 4 of the guys from the Robbie Williams band, and started to feel a little bit more amped about the gig. Then when I bought stuff, the woman working at the store was all aglow telling me about her interactions with Rob and that "He's SO NICE!!" which made me feel even more excited about the upcoming show, as I headed back to my room. And then who should be riding up the elevator with me? None other than Poppa Pete Conway himself! We didn't talk... because I don't normally speak to strangers in elevators, and couldn't think of anything clever to say to Pete anyway. The only things I could come up with were Hey, I follow you on Twitter and Your son's a good fella, which didn't really seem worthy of bothering the man. But after 26 floors standing next to him, I was beyond impatient for the show to get here, and I still had 24 hours to wait!
When the hour finally arrived, I got all dressed up -- making sure I wore heels I could stand in for the entire 2 hour show -- and headed downstairs to the theatre. Some of the other superfans were meeting up in a bar at the Wynn beforehand, and I was planning to head over and maybe make some new friendly friends... but when the time arrived I was stricken with anxiety and skipped it.
By the way, I could write a whole other piece about the annoying return of social anxiety that I thought I'd beaten over 20 years ago, and maybe I will. Later. For now just know that I'm irritated that it keeps getting in my way and we'll leave it at that.
Where was I? Oh yeah, showtime! This time I got a much better seat: orchestra left, 5 rows from the stage. Of course I knew it was way closer, but I still had that WOAH moment when our boy came out and it really hit me. The gig, as always, was beyond description. Rob changed up the set and the banter a bit this round, and put on his usual incredible show. I danced around. I lost my voice from singing and cheering. I put one hand in the air, two hands in the air, bounced, bounced, bounced bounced bounced bounced. I took way too many pictures, but I also remembered to put the phone down and enjoy it for real most of the time too.
I'm beyond glad I came back.
I also happen to be in London just in time for the Hyde Park show next month, which will make it a record 3 Robbie shows in a year. If I'm super lucky, maybe I'll even get to go to a fourth...
I realised a while back that I bought my first Robbie Williams CD in 1999, so this is my 20 year anniversary with the man. I think I'm definitely spending it the right way so far.
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