I went to Vegas for a break from responsibility and to hang out with my sister who was there for the Western Veterinarian Conference. They put on a free concert for the conference each year on the Tuesday night and this year it was Kool and the Gang! Holy crap, was I ever excited!!
The venue was a conference ball room in the Mandalay Bay and we were pretty much right in the front row on the dance floor. I had no idea what to expect because the opening "act" was a pretty bad Tom Jones impersonator. He was all skeezy and lame with his chest hair sticking out and sang "What's New, Pussy Cat" like 4 times. Some people thought he was actually the one and only (they announced him that way several times) but there is just no freakin' way that he was truly opening for Kool and the Gang for a lame-o pre-concert dance contest. We joked that we should have thrown our panties at him but then almost barfed in our mouths at that thought. I decided he was more than likely the one and only "Thom Jones" from Alabama or something.
Once that awkward and strange opener was done they introduced the headliner. I had no idea what to expect as we all know that Kool and the Gang was really popular well over 30 years ago. The bulk of the group were the originals with a couple of young(er) pups in there mostly for lead vocals. They were high energy for the whole show and it was actually quite impressive considering a few of them MUST be at LEAST 60+ years old. The horn line was a trombone, trumpet and alto sax - all original players! They did all their great stuff (Celebration, Jungle Boogie, Too Hot, Ladies Night, Hollywood Swinging, etc.) as well as some James Brown, Michael Jackson and other classics. I was dancing the whole show and had a hard time taking video for too long because I didn't want to stand still to record!! Best show I've seen in a LONG time :-) Here's a 2:22 video of Jungle Boogie complete with trumpet solo.
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