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Fun With Emails: Part 1...The U2 Las Vegas Parking Lot Mess...It Was Even Worse Than I Thought

Tim,

Long time fan of the site and the show.

We went through a similar nightmare at the U2 show in Las Vegas.

My wife and I were in Las Vegas to celebrate our wedding and a mini-Honeymoon. Long story short we were planning to get married in Las Vegas this past weekend, but we pushed up the date so my ailing father could see us get married. We had about 20 people committed to going to Las Vegas when my father passed, so we decided to keep the October trip open. By luck or fate, when U2 announced their North American dates last spring the Las Vegas date was the same weekend we (and our friends were going). Another couple bought us tickets as our wedding gift and were pumped for the concert. All told there were ten of us from St. Louis at the U2 concert.

The wife and I split a cab with my sister and brother in law to Sam Boyd. We knew we were in trouble when we exited the TI around 5:30 and had to wait until 6:15 p.m. to get into a taxi. If it wasn't for the wives in the group pushing to see The Blackeyed Peas we would have been fucked.

Once we got into our seats at Sam Boyd I struck up a conversation with the beer vendor and asked him if it was always like this. He told me no and we should leave about an hour and a half into the concert if we want to get back to the Strip before midnight. He told me flat out that the cab drivers would not come back to sit in a line, when instead they could be driving up and down the Strip making money. I told my wife we didn't plan this week for nearly 10 months to have it ruined by a shortage of transportation. We were braced for a long wait after the show, so we knew it was going to be bad...but I didn't expect a 2 and a half hour ordeal.

After the encore we met up with my sister and brother in law and worked our way through the taxi line to find ourselves caged in. I thought it had something to do with Clinton's motorcade (side note: walking out of a concert and seeing a former POTUS waving to the crowd through his SUV is pretty cool). After about 20 minutes or so after Clinton's motorcade left the crowd began to get restless. The guy standing next to me whipped out his cell phone and called 911 to tell them that a riot was about ready to break out. The dispatcher told him to move as far away from the crowd as he could as the Las Vegas PD were in route, but were having a hard time getting there.

At this point I snapped. I worked my way to the fence and got one one the security guards attention. She came over and asked me what was wrong. I told her that they need to contact the police department because a riot was about ready to go down. At that point the "in house" security began shoving back people and grabbing them by the collar to move them back. A couple behind us brought their daughter and she began crying as the people at the front of the gate began moving back. I told the security lady to call the police. Instead of assisting me, she began to lecture me about how they planned ahead. I stopped her and pointed to the 15 to 20,000 people waiting in line for a taxi and told her that they didn't. I then saw a member of whomever U2 hires to tear down and transport their concert stage. I told him my fear of a riot breaking out and he agreed. He radioed in to his boss and he told me that his boss called LV PD about ten minutes after the show. A complete nightmare!

Once the police arrived, they started yelling at the "in house" security. Whoever the commander was he turned to the lady who said they had planned ahead, "I'm not wasting my time with you, who is in charge?" She didn't know. The police officer radioed to someone, "We have a major problem at Sam Boyd get me..." and I couldn't hear who he was asking for. He walked back and told the "in house" security that they can not fence these people in like that and the gates opened.

The group I was with said fuck it and we were going to walk to Sam's Town Hotel and Casino (about 3 to 4 miles) from Sam Boyd to wait it out. This was around 1:00 a.m. As we were walking towards the main street in front of Sam Boyd we noticed people lined up across the street. My brother in law found a police officer to inquire what was going on. He said that the buses from Las Vegas Metro were on there way to run people back to the Strip. We finally got onto a bus around 1:45 a.m. and made it back to TI at 2:30 a.m. When we got onto the bus there was at least 5,000 people still in line to get a taxi.

My brother in law and I ran into a guy at Ceaser's the next day and he said he didn't get back until almost 4:00 a.m. and there was still a line after he left. I have no idea what time they cleared out all of those people. Very poor planning by the UNLV staff. I am pretty sure they didn't take into account that 75% of the crowd was going be tourist or they would have done a better job of planning. With a little planning they could have moved those people out of that stadium in a very timely manner. I doubt the event staff even bothered communicating with the LVPD before the concert to plan for excessive traffic. I felt like I was back in High School waiting for traffic to die down at Riverport after one of the first Pointfests.

I agree with you the show was terrific. I have seen U2 at least once on the last 4 tours and this one was just as good as the Elevation tour right after 9/11. I noticed the guys seemed more amped up last Friday night then in the past. I am unsure if playing in Vegas does that to you or was it because it was the dress rehearsal for their Internet broadcast? Whatever it was you could tell the boys from U2 were on top of their game.

Sorry for ranting,

Peace,
Chuck M.


Fun With Emails Part 2: Scurry Stuff On The St. Louis Exorcism In Reference To The Paranormal Activity Discussion

Hey Tim,

I was listening to the show today and heard you talking about Paranormal Activity. You made a comment about the Exorcist and I thought you might get a kick out of this story. I graduated from SLUH in 1996. I'm not sure if they did this for your class, but towards the end of our senior year the Jesuits invited about 20-30 guys over for dinner. I don't know what the goal was: alumni relations, donations, becoming Jesuits? It was a pretty diverse group and I think they were reaching out to good kids they wanted to keep in touch with (I'll always be grateful for the education I received there).

On the night I chose to go (and I waffled about going) there were about 8 students and all of the Jesuits. It was a nice dinner and basically we all sat around and shot the shit, very informal and a memorable experience from my SLUH years. My Latin teacher was a Jesuit in training and I told him I read a book about the Exorcism, which happened around the SLU campus. Towards the end of the evening, he pulls a Jesuit and I aside. He mentions this to the Jesuit and asks him to tell me his story. Father (name withheld) proceeds to tell me that when he became the leader of the Missouri Jesuits, in his office was a locked safe. He found the key and opened it, inside was a diary kept by the head Jesuit at the time about the events around the Exorcism. He said he read it cover to cover and it was one of the most terrifying and shocking things he has ever read. He was dead serious during the entire conversation and I could tell it was something that affected him. He implied that until that point, they had heard rumors but basically dismissed it. He recognized and respected a lot of the names involved and said there was no way they'd make it up. I think you, like me, have a lot of respect for Jesuits - they are educated, open-minded and some of the most pragmatic clergymen of any religion. It was an unexpected conversation to say the least and to hear someone in his position discuss it was something that I'll never forget.

Matt T.


The insideSTL.com Halloween Party This Saturday At Helen Fitzgerald's

insideSTL.com is pleased to announce our first Halloween Party at Helen Fitzgerald's (3660 Lindbergh). The fun and games take place on Halloween night at 9 p.m. until close. We're giving away $1,000 for most creative costume...and then $1,000 for the sexiest costume. Joe Dirt will be playing at the First Annual Halloween Bash at Helen's, and you can get tickets in advance for $10 at Helen Fitzgerald's or at the door on the night of the event.


This should be one hell of a cocktail party. It's all Halloween Night at Helen Fitzgerald's, and it's all made possible by Monster Energy Drink , The Tan Company, Halloween Thrills Costume Superstore, Eureka Butcher Haunted House,  and Red's Corn Maze Massacre.


Leading up to the event, we'll be displaying costumes from one of our sponsors, Halloween Thrills located at 14918 Manchester Road in Ballwin. You can give them a call at (636) 527-7131.