Sammy Brings SoCal Beach Party Fun to Vegas

The one bitch I have about Webster’s dictionary is that if you look up the word “fun”, Sammy Hagar’s picture is not there.  It really should be because he is the very definition of fun!  Sammy Hagar put on a free concert Friday night at his Cabo Wabo Cantina which is located in the Miracle Mile of Shops on the Las Vegas Strip.

For me, a Sammy concert takes me back to the beach parties where I spent my latter teen years in Carlsbad, California.  Maybe it is too soon to tell, but if you owned a house on the beach there in 1975, leaving your kid in charge of it when you went on vacation was probably a mistake.  Flyers were distributed and word was passed along all day at the beach.  Generally, the band set up on the sand next to the fire pit, but no matter what the kid in charge said, we had to go into the house. We only sometimes puked on the carpet in the living room, made out in the bathroom, and stumbled through the house with our plastic beer cups – usually looking for that bathroom.  The music was a brand of rock that Sammy Hagar plays.  About a hundred of us rocked out until the cops came around 11pm to make us all go home.  We considered that last call.  They considered it noisy underage drinking.

Now, many decades later, Sammy plays and I am transported back in time to those awesome California summers. Good times, man!

The Cabo Wabo Cantina was letting people in freely and the place wasn’t full until after 9pm.  Sammy was scheduled to take the stage at 9pm, but was a little tardy. (Sorry my talking alien abduction with him took so long.) At 9:02pm, a guy started yelling in the crowd, “Sammy! Get your ass down here!”  A little “Sammy! Sammy!” chant started but didn’t last.  These are pretty mellow people and besides, it takes a bit to get your beer cup, find your good spot in the crowd and prepare to PARTEEE.

Shortly after the guy demanding Sammy’s ass yelled again, the Red Rocker came out and took the stage.  Everyone cheered and arms went up to express their loyalty to their favorite party guy.

Sammy Hagar and his Waboritas cranked it out playing all your favorites.

I was concerned that being in the photographer’s pen in front of the stage was going to be too close to get any good photos.  What do I know?  I’m a writer, not a photographer. My awesome Nikon knew what to do, though.  After the photos were done I was told I could stay in the spot so I pushed the security guards leg off the stool that was there and sat down to enjoy Sammy.

Being that close to the action was a weird experience for me.  I’ve been close before, but never before close enough to actually be able to count the hairs on someone’s guitar playing arm. I was trying to just stay out of the way.

Sammy seemed to have an endless supply of Cabo Wabo Tequila. Periodically he’d take a swig out of the bottle and sometimes pass it along to the screaming crowd.  People were handing him hats, CDs, T-shirts, and other items to sign in between songs. He’d grab one, sign it, pass it back and start playing again seemingly without missing a beat.  I swear I saw him sign a photographer’s man boob at one point.  The photog’s back was to me, but I’m pretty sure that was what was going on.

People were hanging over the barrier trying to touch Sammy, but they were just out of reach.  Given I was crouched down on that stool between him and them, I had some interesting things falling on me and bumping my head.  I considered it my little job to hand the stuff back and fetch guitar picks that didn’t quite make it over the barrier.  Everyone needs a purpose…

The music was great and Sammy was ‘on’ as he always is.  He talked to the crowd a lot between songs and it kept everyone in rock and roll ecstasy.  At one point he reached out to me with his palm out for a low five.  I slapped back and realized, hey, I’m here, this isn’t TV.

The huge security guards that were around, and a lot of times in every photographer’s way, really didn’t have much to do with this crowd.  They needed to be there, but there wasn’t anything too interesting for them to handle.  People of all ages in the crowd just adored Sammy, swaying to the music, cheering, screaming their love for him, swigging tequila and singing along.

Earlier, when I interviewed Sammy, I asked him to play “Where Eagles Fly.”  Well, okay, I begged.  He didn’t think the song would fit the club atmosphere, but left the idea open.  No, he didn’t play it, sorry to say.  It didn’t matter though.  He put on an awesome set and everyone had a blast.

Shortly before he ended the show, he asked the crowd how many people were Vegas locals.  Most people waved and cheered.  He declared these free concerts he does periodically at his Cabo Wabo Cantina as a party for the locals that keep Vegas going.

The last time I spoke to Sammy it was the grand opening of Cabo Wabo Cantina.  He promised at that time that he would have a free concert there every year on its anniversary.  That means, come December, we can all party with Sammy once again! I’m checking off the days on the calendar!