GipsyKings.net

U.S./World TOUR 2006

Las Vegas, Nevada - July 29
The concert was outside by the pool & it was sure HOT! The Gipsy Kings started playing around 9pm & the show was over at 10:20pm. Short & Sweet! The tickets were general admission, mostly everyone was standing close to the stage, or sitting in lounge chairs around the pool & beach area. My mom & I sat by a palm tree & watched the show from our perch. The boys already looked tired, but played beautifully. The Las Vegas crowd gave them a warm reception! They pretty much played the same songs that were listed on previous reviews except for Pena Penita. The audience went Wild! People dancing, singing along with the band & the party is here at the Palms! It was nice to see Michael (Tonino's son) playing a few songs with the band. Everyone loved the new bass player the Math Professor & were impressed that he was so talented by playing various instruments. He is something else! Patchai got the crowd singing Todos Todos Ole, and then the audience shouts Ole', while Nicolas sings Ah Tu Tu I! My favorite song!

Stay Fabulous!

Glitz! Glamour! Vegas!

Lydia


The concert venue was The Pool At The Palms. Basically, they setup the stage in the pool area. There were no seats, only a few pool lounge chairs setup in the sand just in front of the stage. It was general admission and open "seating". Most people just sat on the concrete around the pool ... it was very different from other venues, but everyone in the pool area were very close to the stage because it was a small area. There is a balcony that surrounds the pool area with shade cabanas. Lots of people stood on the balcony and looked down into the pool area to view the concert. We guessed that maybe there were 2000 people there.

The concert started with "Baile Me La Tounga" then "Rumba Tech":

  • Baile Me La Tounga
  • Rumba Tech
  • Baile Me
  • Djobi Djoba
  • La Dona
  • Pena Penita
  • Un Amor
  • Camargue (Nico dedicated this to his father Jose)
  • Petit Noya
  • Todos Todos Ole
  • Sabroso
  • Pasajero
  • Assame L' Amor
  • Si Tu Me Quieres
  • Bamboleo (Encore)

The show was about 1 hour 20 minutes or so. Pablo no, Diego no, Michael (Tonino's son) si. Michael played the cajon and guitar on a few songs. The crowd was very warm and the weather was hot. I guess it was probably 95F/33C at concert time. From the time the kings came out, the crowd was on their feet, dancing until the concert was over ... good, good crowd!!

Towards the last few songs, two strange things happened. Andre and Nicolas just went over to the drummers platform and sat down in the middle of the song. Nico was playing, but Andre just sat there looking out into space ... didn't play the guitar nor clap. Maybe they were tired. Another very interesting thing happened. I'm not sure if I have the facts straight on this. Apparently Andre was having problems with his guitar ... no sound. Out of frustration or something, he took the guitar by the neck with the guitar body pointing to the ground and smashed it on the stage like he was trying to "spear" it. He broke the guitar and hurt his finger. I saw 2 of the strings hanging off the guitar. He was sucking on his middle finger, like it was bleeding. Patchai picked up the guitar and looked at the bottom, making a funny face, trying to make the best of the situation. The guitar tech came on the stage with another guitar, but apparently that one didn't work either. He gave up and played the palmas. Interesting!!

el Gato


I'll add just a few comments. With more of the crowd standing they got em going fairly quickly, I don't remember a concert where the majority of the crowd was actually doing fairly decent palmas, usually a few here and there , but when Nicola started Camargue it was great that everyone stayed pretty much in rythym with the clapping. All of the songs were up-tempo for the most part except of course Un Amor and Nicolas put all he had into it as always. They all were extremely tired and during a few of the last songs Nicolas, Andre and Paco took turns sitting down.

On another note and please no flames, I think the Professor did a much more subtle job than Gerard or Javier of past concerts I've seen, at not overpowering the music. I was able to distinguish guitars instead of feeling like I'm at a stop light with a teenager and his bass boosted sound system next to me. As for the Stephane the drummer all I can say is yawn " Wheres the beef? (I mean Negrito). Alain the keyboardist wasn't bad, very jazzy and I guess I still think Dominque is still MY favorite. Pacheco as ALWAYS ROCKED!!! Simply put, I don't know of any procussionist that can even come near what he does on stage. If the best is 10 Pacheco is a 20.

In closing for such a tight schedule they've been on this tour and you've have to know they were all running on fumes I think they kicked it up a notch saying this is our last concert tonight, lets go home with a bang and they did! Funny story, I saw Andre drinking a Red Bull, I think there might be a commercial in there somewhere, "it gives you wings and speedy guitar hands"

Hasta,
Karen