Hootie & The Blowfish in Las Vegas

I was feeling the 1990s nostalgia last night for the second night in a row, this time at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas for a concert featuring Barenaked Ladies and Hootie & The Blowfish!  I was looking at the T-Mobile Arena website for information on another concert and saw this one listed!  I love both of these bands so much so I got really excited and bought a ticket.  I have seen Barenaked Ladies many times, including at a Medals Ceremony during the 2002 Winter Olympics where they, rather memorably, wore Team Canada speed skating uniforms!  Last night they played "Lookin' Up" from their latest album but most of their set was, as Ed Robertson told the crowd, a slew of monster hits!  I especially liked "It's All Been Done," "The Old Apartment," "Brian Wilson," "Pinch Me," "One Week," and "If I Had $1000000."  As with any Barenaked Ladies concert, there was a lot of really funny banter between the band members and there were several free-style raps that were absolutely hilarious!  They ended with a cover of Lady Gaga's "Shallow" (which was overly dramatic and made the crowd erupt with laughter), Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love," and Queen's "Another One Bites The Dust."  I loved it!  I have seen Hootie & The Blowfish once before with my sisters and the main thing I remember about that show is that Darius Rucker kept breaking his guitar strings and his tech would have to bring him another guitar in the middle of a song!  I also saw Darius Rucker open for Lady Antebellum, performing his solo country music.  I am not a big country fan but I really liked his songs because I love his voice!  Last night they played quite a few covers but my favorites were Led Zeppelin's "Hey Hey What Can I Do" and R.E.M.'s "Losing My Religion."  They also included Rucker's solo songs "Alright" and "Wagon Wheel" (which my Uber driver played for me on the drive to my hotel).  However, I liked it best when they played the hits, including "I Go Blind" (my favorite Hootie song), "Hold My Hand" (which the crowd sang with them), "Let Her Cry," "Time," and "Old Man & Me."  They ended their set with a gospel sounding cover of "With A Little Help From My Friends" with Barenaked Ladies and performed "Only Wanna Be With You" in the encore.  It was an awesome show!  Both bands sounded really great live and were very engaging with the crowd.  Once again, hearing some of my favorite old songs brought back so many happy memories!  It was definitely worth the six hour drive from SLC for this concert!

Note:  I will be back in Las Vegas next weekend for the concert I originally looked at the website for!