NBA Basketball, Backstreet Boys and Lady Gaga

In July, Jason and I took a long weekend trip to Vegas filled with more events than when we got married.  While going to Vegas in the middle of July is not typically something I would recommend unless you enjoy the heat, we made an exception when Lady Gaga announced her US tour dates and I convinced Jason we should try to go.  As most people can attest, buying tickets through Ticketmaster sales is a complete battle of mental toughness and determination.  So many times we’ve tried to get tickets to different shows only to see them sell out in minute or get stuck in the never-ending waiting room.  After a lot of frustration, I finally won the Ticketmaster war and scored tickets to see Lady Gaga on the opening leg of her US tour. The show at T Mobile Arena was amazing and the energy and fandom from the crowd was awesome to be a part of. I was in awe by so many fans dressed up in full costumes that they had probably spent months making. 

While we were out in Vegas, another one of my favorite childhood bands had just started a residency at the Sphere.  The Backstreet Boys kicked off their 21 shows at the Sphere celebrating Into the Millennium and the success from their top selling album in 1999.  Tickets for these shows sold out very fast and with the social media hype after the first weekend’s success, resale ticket prices skyrocketed.  I’d been stalking the resale ticket market that week before we headed to Vegas to see if prices would drop or if I could find a good deal and then jumped on a pair as soon as I found something I was willing to pay.

After walking around the city and gambling, we returned to our hotel room to get dressed in our Millennium white and blue outfits and made our way over to the Backstreet Boys Experience at the Venetian.  This was a free popup shop and experience for fans to walk through and see memorabilia, artifacts from past music videos, plenty of photo ops and to buy merchandise whether you were attending the show or not.  After buying merch, we left the Venetian, and we followed the large crowd decked out in white and made our way over to the Sphere.

We got to the Sphere early so we could spend a little time checking out the venue and grab some drinks before making our way up the escalators to the 400 sections where our seats were.  Once we got up there, we took a few photos before the venue slowly started to fill up with excited fans.  The venue is amazing and the immersive experience of both visual, sound, seating and 4D effects is something you just have to experience at least once.  I really think you could see just about anything there and it would be amazing.  As for the Backstreet Boys show at the Sphere, this was so much fun.  I had seen them several times in arena concerts before in my youth but this was a whole new experience.  The visuals that went along with their performance were incredible and they danced and performed just as they did 15-20 years ago.  It was so much fun to see a complete crowd dressed in white singing and dancing along throughout the entire show.  Such a great experience and so much fun to be able to attend.

Jason and I talked for years about trying to get out to Vegas to attend the NBA Summer League and watch some games and our trip this time around aligned perfectly.  We headed over to the Thomas & Mack center both Friday and Saturday to watch a few teams play and check out what they had to offer. We were there during their 2^nd week of Summer League so in most cases, the top rookies and prospects were already sitting out but it was still a good time to watch some games and see live basketball again.  They had lots of activities available there from photo ops with trophies, shooting contests and a place to design your own sweatshirt, which we both took part in.  Definitely a good time and thing to check out if you are a basketball fan, or even just looking for something to do to get out of the summer Vegas sun.