Venturing into Downtown Vegas for the first time

As a long time SoCal resident, I have been to Vegas many times. However, I have never gone to downtown Vegas. It is the original Vegas which is about a $20 cab ride from the Strip. I guess I have never ventured to downtown Vegas because I never had a reason to visit downtown Vegas. It makes sense it would take The Killers to bring me there.

The Killers are my favorite band. If I had to describe The Killers, I would say they are a glamourous rock band with super catchy music. Their shows are amazing. Some of my affinity for The Killers resides in the fact that I saw them very early in their career and liked them then. I used to love putting on The Killers while driving to Vegas. They really are a Vegas band: shiny, nonsensical, and always reliable for an amazing experience. I've always wanted to see The Killers in Vegas, but never had the chance. Then came Life is Beautiful.

The Life is Beautiful festival was very ambitious. First, it had an incredible lineup with The Killers, Imagine Dragons, Kings of Leon, Beck, and a reunited Jurassic 5 to mention a few names. The festival organizers brought together a culinary village sponsored by all the famous restaurants in Vegas. Each booth had various dishes which all had to be under $10. There was also a chef stage where musical acts would "cook" with chefs. Also at the festival was an Alchemy garden with all sorts of libations. As a festival, Life is Beautiful was a revelation.

Since the festival was in downtown Vegas, I convinced my sister we should stay in downtown Vegas. Just so we can could walk back to our hotel after the festival. We ended up staying at the Golden Nugget which I highly recommend if you are staying in downtown Vegas. The bathrooms were tiny, but the awesome pool makes up for that inconvenience. We even splurged and bought chairs at the adult only pool for Sunday so we could recover from Saturday. The bartender at the adult pool even had the tvs set to football games. The Chargers were on a bye, so I didn't have to be that person who had to watch her game and make everyone else watch it too. I simply watched  and cheered everyone else's game while poolside.

The Killers were the last band for the entire festival and they were amazing. I had already seen The Killers twice (of course I did) for this Battle Born tour, so this was the third time I had seen them under a year. But The Killers were in their hometown and they were so excited. It probably helped that they had been home for about two weeks before this show and were ready to do one last performance.  Brandon Flowers, the lead singer for The Killers, told stories about their songs. Mostly, they were thankful for their fans, demonstrated their appreciation by showering everyone with confetti, and ended the night with When you were young. 

However, I will end this post with my favorite Killers song, Mr. Brightside. Thanks to The Killers for validating my reasons for making you my top band. Viva Vegas!