Way down south where the big blue agave grow

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Okay, I promised a post about much of what went on in Cabo, and in particular, trying to see Sammy Hagar perform at the Cabo Wabo.

Sammy owns the Cabo Wabo Cantina in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Every year, for the two weeks leading up to his birthday, he has his birthday bash. Basically it’s him playing at the Cabo Wabo (a VERY small intimate venue) with some friends. For example this time around he had Michael Anthony (Van Halen) and Matt Sorum (Guns N Roses, Velvet Revolver) with him on stage.

He played every other night leading up to his birthday on October 13th. We got into town on the 9th. That meant that there was a show that night, one on the 11th and one on the 13th. It was really too late to get tickets to the show on the 9th, so we decided that we would work for the 11th and if things went well, then the 13th also.

Things didn’t go well.

We underestimated how early we needed to get in line. You see, they start giving out the tickets (yes they were free) at 8AM the day of the show. So people start camping out the night before. We got there at about 5:45 AM. From the reports I had read, that should have normally gotten us tickets. Unfortunately for us, this year’s turnout was much larger than normal. We didn’t find this out until later naturally.

Anyway, we waited in line from 5:45 until about 11:00 AM. We had been in a line that had wrapped around several blocks, and at 11AM we were finally in view of the end of the line.

That’s when they announced the tickets were gone.

So we took over five hours of our vacation to wait in line, only to be denied. We found out from some other people that the last tickets went to people that were in line at somewhere around 2:15 AM. So it could have been worse, we could have waited over 8 hours 🙂

They do a pretty fair job with the tickets actually. They give out a wristband to you with your name on it (so you can’t sell it) and if you can get yourself a second wristband to bring a friend. That means everyone in line can bring themselves and one person. Pretty good way to do it, although taking ID and writing down names is what takes so damn long. The only thing I think they could possibly do also is limit people to one show. I saw and talked to many people that had hit 3-5 shows. So yes, the die-hards got in, but those newbies such as me didn’t make it.

So, pretty much the main reason we chose Cabo (seeing Sammy Hagar) didn’t happen. My friends Tim and Shawn and I made a pact at Tim’s wedding that we would one day make it to Cabo to see Sammy. So we took the step of getting there, we just missed out on the Red Rocker. Well at least I did.

You see, I left on Saturday the 15th. This was after Sammy’s b-day, and there weren’t supposed to be any more shows. Well Tim and Shawn were there until Sunday, so on Saturday, they went to the Cabo Wabo to pick up some merchandise and have a drink. It was at that time that they saw a flyer saying that Sammy would be playing that night.

So, they headed over there and waited, and sure enough Sammy and crew came out and played. It wasn’t a Sammy concert where they played Hagar and Van Halen tunes, it was just a jam session. Basically they played a whole lot of classic rock and roll songs they all knew. They said that they hadn’t even practiced, they just got up there and jammed. From what Tim said, it was pretty awesome.

So I’m happy that Tim and Shawn actually got to fufill our pledge, but bummed as hell that I missed out on it.

That being said, Sammy Hagar is still the coolest rocker on the planet, and I will some day see him in a tiny club…maybe even face down in Cabo.

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