Pete Tong tour: Las Vegas & Vancouver

Pete Tong tour: Las Vegas & Vancouver

6 November, 2009 | 6.20PM

• Written by: tongy
• Filed under: Music News: pete tong, pete tong blog

Travel observation of the day. Why are there no pharmacies or camera shops at US airports? Ever noticed that? Is it a illegal or something?

Vancover

A few days to catch up with friends and associates in LA after Halloween included a trip to Santa Monica to guest on Jason Bentley’s morning show on the legendary KCRW.

A college station that has both a huge reach and influence on California and beyond.

Jason is a big supporter of the IMS in Ibiza and acts as a music supervisor for many Hollywood movies. He’s currently working with Daft Punk on Tron. So it was a pleasure to be a radio guest on his programme for a change!

Other highlights included bumping into Will.i.am at the Grove only to discover he was a ‘look a likey’ who told me he gets ‘recognised’ all the time. Not surprised as this guy was walking around in a green velvet smoking jacket in 75 degrees! He was working that look baby!

Second thoughts maybe it really was the ‘blacked pea’ and he just thought I was an autograph hunter and didn’t want to be bothered during his retail therapy.

We were checked into our Air Canada flight to Vancouver by a lively lady who claimed to be the singer of Gino Soccio’s disco classic ‘The Dancer’, a huge hit in 1979. Judging by the way she was jumping around she never stopped dancing since that time, don’t mention the Quaaludes!

Despite some fairly aggressive tactics in immigration I was happy to be back in British Columbia and beautiful Vancouver but mildly stressed at the thought of not making it up to Whistler for a session of sabering at my favourite restaurant, the Barefoot Bistro, even more stressed at the thought of missing out on the Winter Olympics! After all these years the rail link and new road is finished!

Playing at Caprice for the first time was a great experience. Another mayhem Tuesday (for the second week running on this tour). Don’t you just love that! Tuesday is the new Saturday! Great people and a very loud soundsystem, thank god I’m getting used to those ear plugs!

Next stop Vegas baby…

3 Big Tunes In Vancouver

Gaiser ‘Mfnstmp’

Reboot ‘Enjoy Music’

Pete Tong & Paul Rogers ‘Get It’

Las Vegas

Arrival in Vegas was eventful to say the least as my tour manager almost had a seizure when he realised he’d lost our passports. As he disappeared in a cartoon like puff of smoke to seek a remedy, I was left to ponder life trapped in this gigantic grown up Disneyland having never spent more than 24 hours here. What do you do in Vegas when you have to be normal?

Apparently over 50% of the US conventions and conferences take place in this city which explains why most people walk around with name badges and in turn it’s quite surreal to see everyone on first name terms with complete strangers. The biggest car show in the world is in town so the male testostorone levels are surging. I pity the ladies tonight.

I’m playing at Body English at the Hard Rock hotel and manage to grab dinner with my partner in crime tonight Sander Kleinenberg and his entourage before the show. I signed Sander’s first record to FFRR many years ago and we bump into each other quite often in Ibiza so it was great to catch up with him.

After a hefty dose of cow and a death defying desert tray he’s off to play a set that previews many cuts from his new album. I’m particularly attracted to a rousing Killers soundalike that has the place in a karaoke sing a long as Sander puts the words up on the screen.. Rumours that Tiesto is coming down remain a rumour when it turns out he was off the deep end at the tables a few blocks away.

It turned out to be a much more musically astute crowd than I had played to before in Vegas and ended well after the lights went up. Body English closes at the end of the year and the Hard Rock is launching a new club on New Years Eve. On the same night Haze opens in the new hotel complexes with Tiesto & David Guetta. Paul Oakenfold continues to impress at Rain (in The Palms) every Saturday.  Competition is fierce but that can only be a good thing for the customer. House/electronica is making a bigger impression than ever in the desert.

Fortunately for Chicago tonight my passport is found, my tour manager is on tranquilisers and we are are on the move again!

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