PROLOGUE:
I live in Taiwan. I dont know much about hard rock, but I love CINDERELLA. When I saw CINDERELLA released their 20th anniversary touring dates on their official site , I asked my boss to gave me special leaves. I got my US visa updated immediately. The 20th anniversary tour meant a lot to me, because I started to listen to CINDERELLA's music when I was 17 years old-a high school girl. Time flew so fast that I am 37 years old now. Looking back these 20 years, a lot of things happened, but their songs were always there with me. I was a poor student back then, living in a country which is so far away from US, it takes at least 12 hours flight to the west coast. Now I have a job which is not so bad, saved some money, so I thought it was time for me to go to the U.S. to see CINDERELLA . I wanted to see Tom, Eric, Jeff, and Fred playing live! CDs and DVDs were just not enough to me anymore.
I had not been to the U.S. mainland before, so I started to do some research. I checked every venue in which CINDERELLA would have concert, using CitySearch to see how to get there from nearby hotels. Finally I narrowed down my targets into 3 venues : Cricket Pavilion In Phoenix, The Joint in Las Vegas, and Zoo amphitheater in Oklahoma. I could not make up my mind until there was only 1 week before the Phoenix concert. Since I couldnt drive, I didn't know how to go back to the hotel after the concert, single woman travels alone in a foreign country in the night sounded like an unwise decision. To speak the truth, I literally chickened out at the last minute, I changed my mind and decided to go to Las Vegas.
I took China Airlines to Los Angeles, then took America West from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. Total flight hours were 13 hours and 40 minutes, transit time not included. I guess I got 14,012 miles if I joined China Airlines frequent flyers program.
DAY 1:
Las Vegas was a completely strange place to me, let alone The Joint in the Hard Rock Hotel. So my nature as a worry-wart-family inheritance-reared its head again, I had to do some field research! The German band, SCORPIONS, would have a concert on July 1st in The Joint. I had to go inside The Joint to find out what it was like! It was my first time to see a concert outside Taiwan, I was totally clueless. SCORPIONS concert started at 8:00 pm, door opened at 7:00 pm, and I went to the lobby of Hard Rock Hotel at 6:20pm, got 4th row position. SCORPIONS were very good, I sang almost all the songs, left The Joint around 10:10pm, tired but satisfied.
Ok, now I knew when and how I should go to The Joint, and what kind of clothes to wear to a concert. Since the outfit I brought to Las Vegas was a little bit off, I thought Las Vegas is in the middle of a desert, T shirts and jeans would be enough, but I was totally wrong ! It was very very hot outside, but the air conditioning inside the hotel froze me to death !
So DAY 2 and DAY 3, I was busy walking around shopping arcades, trying to find a perfect dress for my dearest CINDERELLA's 20th anniversary concert in Las Vegas!
DAY 4
Finally, the day came-July 4th. Since I stayed at Hard Rock Hotel, it was very convenient for me to check out the situation around The Joint all the time. I got myself all dressed up, went downstairs to the lobby around 1:00 pm. Perfect, no one came to The Joint yet. I went to the box office to get my ticket I bought from Ticketmaster, but the staff in the box office told me my ticket would not be available until 4:00 pm. What? Are you kidding? Oh, this is bad, very bad. What happens if people started to line up before I got my ticket? I thought I was doomed.
I had no choice so I returned to my room located at the 11th floor. I started to get nervous. At
2:30 pm, I went downstairs again to check if there was anyone starting to line up.
Still nobody. Great ! I sat on a chair near a 1 cent slot machine in the casino, and from there I could see The Joint very clearly. I was a little bored, since I came to Las Vegas alone, I had nobody to talk to, so I started to play that 1 cent slot machine. I was not interested in gambling, just tried to kill some time. I won $573 dollars.
Oh, what should I do with this $573 dollars??? It was also my first gambling, so I guess I should keep the money to prove I did win something. I went back to my room, put the money in my purse, then went downstairs again. It was around 3:00 pm. I was really bored. Endless waiting for my CINDERELLA concert ticket from Ticketmaster. At this time, I saw 5 or 6 people gathered in front of The Joint. I was thinking like, oh, no, not now, it was too early ! I still had not got my ticket yet ! I went toward them to make sure if they were about to line up, to my surprise, they were not the audience, they were band members-I saw Jeff Labar! I could not believe this would happen, Jeff Labar was standing right in front of me?! I approached him and said hi to him. He thought I was the sister of one of the band members. A good-looking Asian young man. He was a member of ENDEVERAFTER. I explained to Jeff that I flew from Taiwan just for the Cinderella concert tonight. We talked about 5 minutes, Jeff was very friendly! That good looking Asian man was also very nice to me. He asked me if there was anything Jeff could do for me. Well, so I got my autograph from Jeff and even had 3 pictures taken with him!
People started to line up by 4:10 p.m. I was panicked. Delivery time of tickets bought from Tickemaster was delayed to 4:30 ! What should I do now????
I followed the crowd lined up nicely, but was worried to death. A lady dressed like the clock lady in SHAKE ME on MTV was the first one in the line. There were a young couple right behind me, they wore POISON T shirts. They looked nice, so I asked the young girl if she could save my position while I went to the box office getting my ticket. When she said ok, I was totally relieved!!!! Thanks to God.
I finally got my concert ticket around 4:45 pm. But there was still 1 hour and 15 minutes before door open time, and one more hour to wait before the concert started. My new pair of 3 inch- pin-heeled Stuart Weitzman golden sandles were killing me. My back was aching and I was starved. To avoid nature's call, I only had a slice of pizza and a tall latte for lunch.
6:00 pm. Door opened!!!!! I followed the crowd into The Joint, got a good position at the right hand side of the stage. That would be very close to Eric. I was standing behind 2 ladies, they were at the so called first row, but since they were very short, my sight to the stage was perfectly clear! (thanks to my 3 inch-pin-heeled shoes, that made me 5.6 tall, while the ladies were like 5. Then I knew the real meaning of height advantage!)
7:00 pm. ENDEVERAFTER showed up on the stage. I was totally stunned because the good-looking Asian young man who took pictures for me with Jeff was the front- man of ENDEVERAFTER, Michael Grant! Ok, too many surprises, I had to cool down my head. ENDEVERAFTER played about 4 songs, I thought Michael was really good, especially because he was very nice to me !!
After ENDEVERAFTER left the stage, the roadies moved their musical instruments to back stage, took out a giant curtain with a CINDERELLA logo on it, hung it on the wall to cover THE JOINT logo.I was deeply moved and felt like crying when I saw that.
8:00 pm. The light turned dark. Then it turned bright again. Here came my CINDERELLA! The first song was BAD SEAMSTRESS BLUES. Although I knew there were Eric, Jeff, Fred on that stage too, I found that I could not move my sight away from Tom at all! It was the first time I saw the REAL Tom Keifer, not the one on DVDs or CDs. He was there, playing live in front of me! That was too surreal!
CINDERLLA played about 1 hour and 10 minutes, but it was like only 15 minutes to me. I knew every song they played, I felt bliss when I sang all the songs with them. But when they started to play SHAKE ME , I knew this night would end soon. After the song was finished, all 4 members came to the edge of the stage, took a bow to the audience, then they disappeared in the dark stage.
When I saw the roadies took the CINDERELLA logo curtain down and moved their musical instruments to back stage, I felt very lost and sad. The night was over, that was all. I would not see CINDERELLA until next year or more.
The weirdest thing happened when Fred's drum set was moved away. In the center of the stage, there was a leopard print bra left on the top of POISON's drum set. Everyone in the first row saw that. One roadie quickly covered the bra with black cloth(which was used to cover POISON's musical instruments while CINDERELLA was playing.)
What was that bra thing all about???!!!
I came to Las Vegas only for CINDERELLA, to speak the truth, I am not a fan of POISON, so even though the other audience was totally excited when POISON showed up on stage, I did not stay long. I did not wait for POISON to play the second song, I gave my position to the young couple who helped me by saving my position in the line when I was away to get my ticket. I left The Joint.
On my way back to room, I met Michael Grant again, I told him the purpose of my trip had been fulfilled, so I was leaving. He asked me if I had fun in Las Vegas, I did not know how to answer. Actually I was deeply down in the emotion of feeling lost about CINDERELLA at that moment. In the emotion of hope to see you next year but dont know if they will tour again next year. But Michael was really sweet to me, we talked for a while, hugged, then said good night to each other.
Back to my room--I had to write down everything I saw today before midnight.I knew tonight's CINDERELLA magic would not play out after midnight, but I still had to hurry. I was totally exhausted, my back ached because of wearing a pair of 3-inch shoes more than 11 hours, my hearing was temporarily damaged, and my blood sugar dropped too low so that I felt light headed. I need some sleep.
It was almost 2:00 am in the morning when I finally finished my daily log of my Las Vegas trip. I guess I passed out right after that, because I found out the room light was on when I woke up 10 hours later.
DAY 5:
12:10 pm. I was completely exhausted and was not in the mood, so I cancelled my original plan of joining a local tour to Grand Canyon. I put on my cotton shirt and hat, went downstairs, lounging around the pool area. I did not serve my duty well as a tourist since I got to Las Vegas, almost everything I did was like rehearsals to the CINDERELLA concert. So I took out my digital camera and took some pictures of the hotel. I walked around, saw some really cool collections of Hard Rock Hotel. Time was around 1 :45 pm. I was starved to death because I did not eat any thing since 2:00pm yesterday, so I thought I should go get something to eat before I fainted. There were not many shops and restaurants I was interested near Hard Rock Hotel, so I decided to take the free shuttle bus provided by the hotel to Las Vegas Blvd. The shuttle bus stop was located at the back of the hotel, left hand side to the main entrance. I was at the right hand side of the hotel, I would have to pass taxi waiting line and main entrance if I wanted to take the shuttle bus. As I walked along the pedestrian toward the taxi line, I saw a dark-haired man standing there with luggage. The man was facing the main entrance, so from my direction I could only see his back. Just some room guest waiting for the taxi, I thought, so I didn't take a second look at him. As I passed by that man, I saw a dark-haired lady sitting near the taxi line. That lady was Savanna Snow. I recognized her immediately. Savanna Snow? Toms wife? What was she doing here? I was like staring at her for at least one second, tried to figure out what the situation was. There were only three persons at the taxi line, Savanna, me, and the dark-haired man. Next second I suddenly realized that the dark-haired man who stood right beside me was Tom Keifer ! He was the reason I came to Las Vegas, I even felt sad after last nights concert because I did not know when I would have the chance to see him again, now he is standing there right beside me?????
Oh my God, that was the only sentence came out from me at the moment as I finally realized whom I ran across. I turned to him with a stunned look on my face and asked, "Mr. Keifer?!"
He is THE ONE. Tom Keifer was standing right in front of me. He was wearing huge sunglasses, I could not see his eyes through the lens,(although I tried!)but he was very gentle and spoke in a soft voice when I talked with him. I was totally star-struck, I could barely remember the details of our conversation, but I made sure I told him I flew from Taiwan just for last night's concert ! I asked him if I could have his autograph, he said to me do you have a pen?. Yes I had a pen, but I could not find my pen immediately because I was very nervous and became super clumsy! When I was searching my bag for pen and paper, a man with his daughter came to us and asked Tom Are you the guy in CINDERELLA? Well, first of all, I would never use a sentence like Are you the guy~~? when I talk to Tom. With all my respects, I called him Mr. Keifer. Even that man was not sure who Tom was, Tom was glad to take a picture with that man's daughter. Then the man left. Now its my turn! When Tom was taking picture with that mans daughter, I overheard him say "we are a little bit late for the flight" so I guessed he did not have much time. When Tom was signing his autograph for me, Savanna already got into the taxi. I knew if I let this chance slip away, I would never have a second chance to be that close to Tom. So I asked him if I could have a picture taken with him. I was so afraid he would just get into the taxi and leave! But thanks to God, he didnt! Since there was nobody with me, Tom asked the bell boy to take the picture of us. He was super nice and very patient to me, I saw him getting into the taxi, the taxi left, I was still feeling like what happened to me was just a dream.
I came to Las Vegas, flew 13 hours and 40 minutes from Taiwan to see CINDERELLA, the whole story of my trip was exactly like a fairy-tale. God must have sent an angel to watch over me when I was in Las Vegas. So I guess I will live happily ever after.
FINALE:
After I came back to Taiwan, I told my mother that the most unbelievable things happened to me during my trip. My mother is a 71 years old and a traditional Taiwanese old lady, she knew nothing about music, let alone rockn & roll. Since what I was going to tell her was something completely unfamiliar to her, I got my computer ready, switched on my TV and DVD player, played the MTV of SHAKE ME and NOBODY'S FOOL for my mother as a casting introduction. I introduced the members of CINDERELLA one by one to my mother. When I told my mother, this is Tom Keifer, the reason I went to Las Vegas for, she stared at the screen for a while, then asked, is he a SHE?
Forgive my mother, she thought musicals and rock concerts were the same thing.
After 20 years of long waiting, I thought my CINDERELLA story finally had a happy ending!
