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I would love to hear these audio clips. It sounds like Vegas was awesome, despite the tight fit....I really feel sad for the people who supposedly fainted though, I hope they are okay.

I think I mentioned this before in the Seattle thread but I also felt bad for Rizzo, and kind of acted like I was enjoying it just to show some support.....plus he was hot, what can I say? lol

I thought people were way too critical of him. It was said from the beginning that he was touring with her, so they shouldn't act so shocked as if it wasn't said before. I don't care if people didn't like his show, but they could have shown more respect. I hope Rizzo doesn't get bitter towards Utada just because her fans didn't show him the respect he deserved.....

But anyway, I'm glad you guys all had a great time! I sometimes still can't believe that she is actually touring for us....it's incredible.

Did anybody see her after the show? I saw her leaving the venue after the show. When I was walking home I noticed a group of people waiting outside behind the House of Blues and they were waiting for her car to come out. She came outta the place alright and gave some autographs. Damn I wish I asked for one but seeing her up close was good enough for me though.

I was 1st row-dead center. HoB management was a nightmare. Took a bit of running and dodging security when the floodgate opened to get there.

Great show, its even better when you're right up against the barricade. Los Angeles had better lights and sound, and the crowd was more responsive and louder than Vegas. Plus there was no ridiculous push and shove action in LA. But other than that, it was amazing. Oh, and Rizzo actually sounded pretty good for this showing, he sounded horribly in Los Angeles.

Hikki was INCREDIBLE!! I always wondered what it would've been like to be able to go to Utada United in '06. I missed out on tickets at for the more local SF Fillmore show but I figured LV is just a flight away ...

Though HOB security was super strict, I brought my handy Zoom HN4 and recorded the entire show from about 6 rows back close to the center... I hid the thing in my chest pocket and I'm fairly happy with the recording. I tried not to yell too much but I couldn't help it The raw EQs isn't exactly what I want so I'm touching it up with Acid Pro right now and I'll share it with you all soon...

I take a step back and reflect on what a unique opportunity this tour is. We're able to, for about thirty bucks, get a REALLY up close and personal concert from a bona fide megastar. Aside from some one-off shows or TV appearances, let's face it, someone as huge as Hikki is mostly going to be playing large venues for top dollar prices. Can you imagine how many of her Japanese fans would KILL to attend shows like these?

Some other random thoughts on the concert:

Man, music stars sure do like to milk the suspense, don't they? The bandmembers were onstage, the "Crossover" intro was starting to fade, and at the Very. Last. Second Utada finally enters. There was an audible collective gasp from the crowd when her silhouette figure walked up to the mic in the darkened stage, a kind of "It's HER" reaction that was PALPABLE. The opening percussion of "On & On" started, the lights came on, and the audience SCREAMED!

I was pleased at her wardrobe, the black dress with the straps/ faux-tears with pink underneath was the right combination of classy and edgy. I was a little worried we might get her in some over-sized T-shirt like in Hawaii-- I don't mind casual, but it'd be weird if I was dressed nicer than the performer onstage. Oh, Utada is MUCH prettier in person than in pictures; great legs, too! She definitely looked like a star.

When she was having trouble with her water bottle, her little off-hand "what the hell" was hilarious, and her "someone's getting fired" remark had everyone in stitches.

I had wondered how the "rock" segment would sound integrated to the rest of the show, but really, pretty much all the songs get a little bit of rock-edge automatically simply by virtue of being played by a live band. The "let's heat things up a bit" rock-twist section (mostly of Exodus songs) blended in perfectly.

Man, as far as being a Hikki fan is concerned, this past year has been incredible. I never thought I'd hear an Utada song on the radio; and I did. I never thought I'd see her on TV; and I did. And I for sure never thought I'd get to see her in concert, especially not up close; and last night I got to. Thanks Hikki.

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The whole problem was that everything started so late. If Mike Rizzo had gone on, say 7:30 and Utada at 8:00 I'm sure the crowd would have been fine. But because everyone had already been waiting for an hour and fifteen minutes Rizzo became the target for everyone's frustration. I'm impressed with the way he handled it and even managed to get the crowd moving and clapping at certain points.

Like I said before, I understand things happen and there are delays sometimes, but from what I'm hearing this has happened at the majority of the shows so far and that's just no good.

heh, ya the water bottle bit was amusing.

She tried to take a sip of her water through a straw that had punctured, so she started talking bout it. She mentioned someone on staff getting fired because of it, then she tried again and those of us up in the front def. saw the water fly out the hole. She said "there it is! did you guys see it?!" or something like that. "What the hell?" hehe good times! Before she finished talking about it, the staff brought out a whole new bottle+straw and some of the people near me were yelling for her to give them the straw. o.O haha

At another time she talked about her worry over performing in Vegas. One time she said it was because she heard it was the only show that didn't sell out and she was worried she'd only see half the room filled, then she asked the people in the balcony if they were OK and if they (the balcony) were falling down. heh.

Also called Vegas (or the people? i forget) weird. "Not good, not bad, just different."

It was, overall, an amazing performance. The management and security of the venue, however, left much to be desired. There were, I'd say, three or four groups of people who showed up and waited in line for several hours. A few hours from the doors opening, someone from their staff came out and told us to move somewhere else. The people in the back of the line ended up first and those of us waiting for a long time got spread out from front to back of the line. The process of gaining entry was basically them telling us "don't run, ten at a time" then opening up the little barricade. Yeah. Don't run. Right. Ten at a time. Right.

I still had some nice peeps save/share a spot at the front gate, slightly to the right.

EDIT: on the Mike Rizzo topic. He's the opening act and the first (of three) hours belong to him. It's not a "technical difficulty filler" as much as it is "part of the concert". Plain and simple.

I'm not quite sure why people were complaining about Rizzo. The tickets say doors OPEN at 7pm, not that the show starts at 7. I was always under the impression that the show started at 8, and it did. He wasn't half bad, either, in my opinion.

The management of HoB was absolutely horrible. After driving 12 hours from Colorado, we were the first people in line that morning, and it only kept growing. Then a security guy walks up around 3pm and tells everyone to move to the escalators, and suddenly the people who had just shown up were in the front of the "new" line. Luckily the people were decent enough to let us back in front. But then after they set up the ropes/gates, a handful of people just strolled up and were allowed to skip the other line altogether, which was pretty ridiculous. I think the whole problem was a lack of communication between staff members. The "pass the line" line was a good fifteen to twenty feet wide, and they expected people to come through one-by-one. Haha, yeah right.

In the end, we ended up dead center right on the rail by pure luck and having to move down the stairs pretty quickly; when they opened up the ropes it was an absolute mad rush that they had absolutely no control over. The entire experience was so surreal, and completely worth it all. Seeing her the entire show from less than 10 feet away was crazy, I felt like it was a dream or something. I had no problems with the crowd, either. I had plenty of space to move around and was never bumped at all during the show. She really knows how to get the crowd going and put on one hell of a show! The guy next to me had never listened to her before and he said he loved it.

Her rock-style renditions of the songs were great, and even made You Make Me Want To Be a Man an enjoyable song We made eye contact during it for a few seconds, then she winked and moved on, haha. Her comments regarding the cut straw were pretty entertaining too. She also asked (in Japanese) who was Japanese/had come from Japan, and most of the crowd screamed. Then she goes, "I know it's common at shows to cheer whenever the performer says anything, and I do too, but I see a lot of you raising hands that are WHITE!" That was rather amusing.

I wish I would have really looked for a back door to HoB, but Mandalay is such a huge place I didn't even know where to begin. That's okay though, it was still the most amazing performance of my life. I feel like her studio recordings do her voice no justice; she is absolutely amazing live. Definitely would do it all over again!

I just got back home from Vegas and that show was amazing! I saw her here in Hawaii too, but Vegas was, wow! I loved the Pipeline show; that's the reason I wanted to see her again. But compared to Vegas, Hawaii was like a dress rehearsal. I hope there's a dvd/blueray later. The only thing missing in Vegas was Boku wa Kuma.

So I loved the show, but did anyone else get bumped from their seat? I had a ticket for the first row of the middle loge section, but a HoB guy called me and said I needed to move. Utada's people didn't like the vip section so they wanted the first row instead. What?! I was on ticketmaster constantly, waiting for that section to open and I flew from Hawaii! I asked if I could at least get an autograph since they were taking my seat. Nope. So they moved me to the back of the section and it was ok, but guess what? Utada's people didn't show so another HoB guy started putting random people in the first row. When I tried to get my seat back he just said, "Oh, it's full now." What?!!

I still love Utada and I loved the concert, but I wonder if she knows her people treat her fans like this? So to all the people going to her future shows, if you have good seats be careful...Utada's people might take them!

I got bumped from my seats too. I wasn't even planning on sitting down since I had so many tickets in different sections, but my friend kept complaining about the pit being too hot and crowded. grr it was still fun, just wished vip could've at least gotten an autograph.