After two drinks he's a loser, after three drinks he's a star, getting all nostalgic as he sings "I Will Survive"

Unbeknownst to many, I've been boycotting the Las Vegas House of Blues for the better part of a year. I've only truly enjoyed two concerts there: The Wallflowers when they were on their Red Letter Days tour, and Tenacious D on the Pick of Destiny tour. Those were the only two shows where I wasn't surrounded by the buzz of people who were there to be seen, and not to hear the music. The problem with those types of people is that they're too busy talking to each other at the bar, or talking on their cell phones throughout the show. Seriously, why bother going to a concert at all if you're just going to talk all the way through it? This is a problem with just about any event in Las Vegas, but it seems to be especially bad at HoB.

As annoying as idle chit chat during a show can be to deal with, that wasn't the deal breaker for me. The bigger problem is that HoB management always seemed to have too many events going on the same night. I understand that people are in it for the money, but there's something inherently wrong with following a concert up with a lame-ass karaoke event. I have an even bigger problem with that when you're basically kicking bands off stage so you can start setting up for said karaoke event. I've been to several shows where HoB management has made bands stop playing for that very reason.

On one occasion, during a show that the crowd was really into, the lead singer stopped and said, "They're motioning that I have to take a break now, so we'll do that and I'll be right back out to play some more." He left the stage and the house lights immediately came up. Needless to say, he wasn't allowed to come back out and play, even though the crowd wanted an encore performance.

The last concert I saw there was Camper Van Beethoven and Built to Spill (I forget who the other opening band was). Each band was allotted 30 minutes of playing time. Each band said that if were up to them, they'd play a lot longer, but it wasn't up to them. They expressed their disgust about having to play a short set so that a bunch of drunks could sing '80s songs, badly. As soon as HoB management started motioning for Built to Spill to wrap it up and get off the stage, all the band members stood facing the center of the stage, closed their eyes and jammed for an extra ten minutes or so. I can only imagine they were saying "eff you" to HoB management. I decided that night that I wasn't going to go back to HoB for any more concerts.

Well, you'll be happy to know, that HoB has supposedly stopped doing their karaoke night. Sure, it probably has more to do with contractual issues, and possibly bands refusing to play there anymore than it did with my one man boycott, but can't a guy have his moment in the sun?