Nov 13, 2010

Thursday night I checked out Cabo Wabo’s new Thursday night football viewing night. I have been inside Sammy Hagar’s Cabo Wabo Cantina before, but it was always when Sammy was performing. This time I went to actually sit down and try the food.

My friends and I arrived just before 5pm. The food specials start when the football starts, and we were slightly early for that. None of us were in the mood for chicken wings and nachos so we ordered various dishes from the menu.

At some point between the guacamole for our chips arriving and our dinner being served, guess who nonchalantly meandered down the staircase? It was Sammy Hagar.

There is nothing quite like a joyous Sammy Hagar fan. They mobbed him. They hugged him, they kissed him, they shoved things in front of him to sign. There were squeals of delight and people running all over the place. Cameras were going off everywhere. Well, except for mine. Oh, sure, I had my camera alright, but it was refusing to do any close-up shots. (One day I will go to a class to learn the settings on the camera, I swear!)

If I were Sammy, I would have been scared to death, but he seemed to be loving every second of his contact with his fans. He patiently shook hands and talked with every one of them it looked like, at least those who were able to shove and squeeze into the mob. Slowly he moved from one spot to the next to make his way all around the Cabo Wabo Cantina to get to everyone, while the DJ blasted his songs on the surround sound.

Once Sammy finally made it to the other side of the Cantina, he slipped out the side door and was gone. The game started and the DJ continued with the introduction of the football game.

The guacamole was awesome and contained a lot of garlic, just how I liked it. Our attractively arranged entrees arrived in good time and the wait staff was fabulous. I dove into the black beans and rice that came with my Tacos Carbon. Those streets tacos can be hard to eat, but they are so worth it. I miss buying them on the streets of Baja California.  My dinner was a bit cooler than I would have liked, a little lukewarm, but all of it was delish and I’m not even a black beans fan.

My friend who went with me last night is the same person I take to many restaurant reviews. The reason I take her is that she pretty much hates everything. If there is the slightest issue going on in a restaurant she starts sounding off like an alarm. When she came in she was basically telling me she saw something on the Internet and she was prepared to hate the food.

This night, she was talking about how very good it all was. I’m afraid I fell into shock. She loved her dinner. She almost died choking on one of their yummy, fried to perfection, homemade corn chips that went down her throat the wrong way, but she eventually recovered and ate the rest of her meal. The waiter was a real champ during that drama. So, the Cabo Wabo Cantina gets the Marlene seal of approval. Not many places do!

Cabo Wabo is comfortable, fun, but loud. Loud is sort of a pet peeve with me. It is so hard to find a restaurant that is quiet in Las Vegas. However, there was a lot of excitement going on with Sammy making an appearance and Thursday night football going on. Maybe it is a little calmer on other nights, I don’t know. It is a colorful place and the waitstaff seems to know their stuff – which is another thing that is hard to find in Las Vegas restaurants – good waitstaff!

The menu is somewhat short but seems to cover all the Mexican favorites, but done in more of an upscale presentation. This is no Robertos or Taco Bell. They have a full bar and big screen TVs on every wall. Prices are low for what you are served. My entree was only $15. Sodas cost $3 each but refills are free.

This is a great place to go when you’re in the mood for Mexican food in Las Vegas. I mean, Marlene liked it!!

Cabo Wabo Cantina opens daily at 11 a.m., with live entertainment on Friday and Saturday nights from 9:30 p.m. until close. For more information about Cabo Wabo Cantina, visit www.cabowabocantina.com or call 702.385.2226.  For more information about Hagar and his famous Cabo Wabo Tequila, visit www.redrocker.com and www.cabowabo.com.

Nov 4, 2010

Sammy Hagar playing at his Cabo Wabo Cantina. Photo courtesy Eric Kabik/RETNA.

SAMMY HAGAR TO HOST ‘PRO FOOTBALL THURSDAYS’ KICK OFF PARTY AT CABO WABO CANTINA, NOVEMBER 11

Catch the Pro Games Every Thursday at Cabo Wabo Cantina

Cabo Wabo Cantina will kick off Pro Football Thursdays with host Sammy Hagar Thursday, November 11. The original red rocker will return to rock his Vegas cantina with killer food and drink specials as the Baltimore Ravens take on the Atlanta Falcons during NFL’s official kickoff of Thursday night football. This event is open to the public.

Launching on November 11 and ongoing throughout the remainder of the NFL season, Cabo Wabo will host Pro Football Thursdays starting at 5 p.m. The weekly event, hosted by X-107.5’s Manley, will include a slew of food and drink specials including $5 buckets of chicken nachos and fries, $10 buckets of chicken wings, $3 Mike’s Hard Lemonade cocktails and complimentary shots of Cabo Wabo Tequila to those wearing the winning team’s jersey at the end of the game.

Football fans will catch all the NFL excitement, center-Strip on 10 big screen televisions throughout the venue. To keep the crowd going wild, Cabo Wabo’s Wheel of Deals will spin every touchdown revealing exciting giveaways including concert tickets and X-107.5 swag throughout the night.

Sammy Hagar’s hard rockin’ dining and live music venue Cabo Wabo Cantina combines the laid back beach-town vibe of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, with the excitement of the Las Vegas Strip. Blending coastal Mexican and Tex Mex cuisine, the menu offers a tantalizing mix of flavorful food, killer margaritas, and an awesome venue where it is never uncommon to catch the red rocker himself jamming out with a live set on stage. Cabo Wabo Cantina opens daily at 11 a.m., with live entertainment on Friday and Saturday nights from 9:30 p.m. until close. For more information about Cabo Wabo Cantina, visit www.cabowabocantina.com or call 702.385.2226.  For more information about Hagar and his famous Cabo Wabo Tequila, visit www.redrocker.com and www.cabowabo.com.

Aug 1, 2010

The one bitch I have about Webster’s dictionary is that if you look up the word “fun”, Sammy Hagar’s picture is not there.  It really should be because he is the very definition of fun!  Sammy Hagar put on a free concert Friday night at his Cabo Wabo Cantina which is located in the Miracle Mile of Shops on the Las Vegas Strip.

For me, a Sammy concert takes me back to the beach parties where I spent my latter teen years in Carlsbad, California.  Maybe it is too soon to tell, but if you owned a house on the beach there in 1975, leaving your kid in charge of it when you went on vacation was probably a mistake.  Flyers were distributed and word was passed along all day at the beach.  Generally, the band set up on the sand next to the fire pit, but no matter what the kid in charge said, we had to go into the house. We only sometimes puked on the carpet in the living room, made out in the bathroom, and stumbled through the house with our plastic beer cups – usually looking for that bathroom.  The music was a brand of rock that Sammy Hagar plays.  About a hundred of us rocked out until the cops came around 11pm to make us all go home.  We considered that last call.  They considered it noisy underage drinking.

Now, many decades later, Sammy plays and I am transported back in time to those awesome California summers. Good times, man!

The Cabo Wabo Cantina was letting people in freely and the place wasn’t full until after 9pm.  Sammy was scheduled to take the stage at 9pm, but was a little tardy. (Sorry my talking alien abduction with him took so long.) At 9:02pm, a guy started yelling in the crowd, “Sammy! Get your ass down here!”  A little “Sammy! Sammy!” chant started but didn’t last.  These are pretty mellow people and besides, it takes a bit to get your beer cup, find your good spot in the crowd and prepare to PARTEEE.

Shortly after the guy demanding Sammy’s ass yelled again, the Red Rocker came out and took the stage.  Everyone cheered and arms went up to express their loyalty to their favorite party guy.

Sammy Hagar and his Waboritas cranked it out playing all your favorites.

I was concerned that being in the photographer’s pen in front of the stage was going to be too close to get any good photos.  What do I know?  I’m a writer, not a photographer. My awesome Nikon knew what to do, though.  After the photos were done I was told I could stay in the spot so I pushed the security guards leg off the stool that was there and sat down to enjoy Sammy.

Being that close to the action was a weird experience for me.  I’ve been close before, but never before close enough to actually be able to count the hairs on someone’s guitar playing arm. I was trying to just stay out of the way.

Sammy seemed to have an endless supply of Cabo Wabo Tequila. Periodically he’d take a swig out of the bottle and sometimes pass it along to the screaming crowd.  People were handing him hats, CDs, T-shirts, and other items to sign in between songs. He’d grab one, sign it, pass it back and start playing again seemingly without missing a beat.  I swear I saw him sign a photographer’s man boob at one point.  The photog’s back was to me, but I’m pretty sure that was what was going on.

People were hanging over the barrier trying to touch Sammy, but they were just out of reach.  Given I was crouched down on that stool between him and them, I had some interesting things falling on me and bumping my head.  I considered it my little job to hand the stuff back and fetch guitar picks that didn’t quite make it over the barrier.  Everyone needs a purpose…

The music was great and Sammy was ‘on’ as he always is.  He talked to the crowd a lot between songs and it kept everyone in rock and roll ecstasy.  At one point he reached out to me with his palm out for a low five.  I slapped back and realized, hey, I’m here, this isn’t TV.

The huge security guards that were around, and a lot of times in every photographer’s way, really didn’t have much to do with this crowd.  They needed to be there, but there wasn’t anything too interesting for them to handle.  People of all ages in the crowd just adored Sammy, swaying to the music, cheering, screaming their love for him, swigging tequila and singing along.

Earlier, when I interviewed Sammy, I asked him to play “Where Eagles Fly.”  Well, okay, I begged.  He didn’t think the song would fit the club atmosphere, but left the idea open.  No, he didn’t play it, sorry to say.  It didn’t matter though.  He put on an awesome set and everyone had a blast.

Shortly before he ended the show, he asked the crowd how many people were Vegas locals.  Most people waved and cheered.  He declared these free concerts he does periodically at his Cabo Wabo Cantina as a party for the locals that keep Vegas going.

The last time I spoke to Sammy it was the grand opening of Cabo Wabo Cantina.  He promised at that time that he would have a free concert there every year on its anniversary.  That means, come December, we can all party with Sammy once again! I’m checking off the days on the calendar!

Jul 31, 2010

Someone once asked me, “Who has been your favorite interview?”  My answer is always, “Sammy Hagar.”  Last night, I once again had the treat of talking with Sammy just before he put on a free concert at his Cabo Wabo Cantina in the Miracle Mile of Shops on the Las Vegas Strip.  Once again, Sammy did not fall short of entertaining the ever living daylights out of me.

In these situations we are always pressed for time, but Sammy is always so not pressed for time.  He loves to meet people and talk.  He is so easy to interview.  I just ask a question and let him go.  I will skip talking about what all was going on before my interview, I’ll just say, Sammy is such a sweetheart.

My first question was one he might be so tired of hearing, but I had to ask it, because two people who read this website wanted to hear it.  “Now can you drive 55?”

He let out a giggle and answered, “You know, as I get older, I’m becoming more responsible.  And also, my eyes aren’t as good as they used to be.  So, I’m not as reckless, but I still love to drive fast… but in good daylight, and no traffic.  In the old days, you know, when I was twenty-five, I’d be like rrrrrr, rrrrrr.  I’m becoming more careful as I get older… unfortunately.”

“You are known for your gorgeous curls. Someone asked me to ask you ‘what hair products do you use?’” I asked.

“Ok,” he said, “that’s a good question, because my wife, my gorgeous wife,” and he pointed over to where she was standing on the other side of the room, “you can tell she would be the one who buys the hair products.  I use whatever she brings home.  And she has different hair than me.  Her hair is kind of a, like, more silkier hair than I have.  I have bushy hair like a horse’s tail, you know? And so, I use her hair products. But, I think the secret to having curly hair is that you don’t blow dry it, because it turns into a big frizz ball. And after you wash it you put leave-in conditioner in it.  Just a little bit!  And then just let it dry.  Go shake your head all over the place and just let it dry.  Don’t touch it until it’s dry.  That’s the secret to my hairdo, anyway.

“And there is one other secret and that is you don’t wash it every time with shampoo.  Every other time you only use conditioner. You go in, you wet it, and you put conditioner in it in the water and scrub it just like you would wash it with shampoo.  And then rinse it out…. And then it looks like you just came off the beach… When I come out of the ocean, man I’m looking good. I smell like a fish, but I’m looking great!” he laughed.

Time for the big question, “Someone who reads my website told me to ask you about the aliens.”

“Ohhh,” he said as he gathered his thoughts, “That’s a long subject! If you thought the hair was long…!  I’m a firm believer that we are not the only people here…  When you understand how big our universe, our galaxy, let’s use our galaxy is, that, our little cluster of stars is where we are.  That little sun, I mean, a little cluster of planets where we are is so small.  It is a dot in the sky, that when you see how massive it is and you think we’re the only ones here?  That’s terrifying.

“I would much rather believe that there is every kind of creature on the planet out there.  There is probably some planet in some other galaxies that, you know, are all dogs. And dogs drive cars, you know, drive airplanes, whatever,” he joked. “I mean, it’s that goofy, but we are not the only life form on this planet and if we are, we’re done. When we’re gone, that’s the end of it. I don’t like to believe that. So I believe in aliens completely.  And they come here.  They have worm holes and they get here by ways we don’t even understand.”

“So?” I asked.

“I have been visited, yes,” he smiled.

“That was my next question,” I joked, and he let out a laugh. “And what happened? Do you remember this or…”

“Oh yeah,” he explained, “I woke up in the middle of a dream where I was being occupied.  I was being tapped.  It was in 1968, 67-68, so before computers, and wireless telephones and all that stuff.  And in a way, I would say if you put in nowadays terms, which it still doesn’t quite reach what happened, they were downloading information into my brain.  Or, downloading my brain, into their information like an experiment.  That’s probably more like what it was, but having a little bit of an ego, I like to think they were downloading information into me so I’m special! And I know some stuff nobody else knows!” he laughed.

“I gathered some information somehow out of the process, but I caught ‘em doing it. And they went, you know, in telepathy, they said ‘oh, he’s waking up, we gotta end this, and they pulled the plug and hit a numerical code that wasn’t of our numerical system.  And it went poof! And I opened my eyes. And I was in the whitest room I’ve ever been in my life. And within about a second, it turned black, because this was in the middle of the night.  But for a second it was pure white, my eyes were open and I couldn’t move until it turned black and it was like my body came back to me. It was really crazy.”

Imagine my surprise listening to him talk, given I, too, had something rather similar happen to me in about 1963. I have probably shared that story with only about three people in my entire life.  Well, Sammy now makes four.  In my case, they were telling me something vitally important.  Unfortunately, I don’t remember the information I was given.  They did tell me they would be coming again to talk to me.  Is finding this out about Sammy a sign that the time is now nearing?  Who knows?  But it is nice to know that if I’m going to be branded a nut, I’ve got some pretty cool company!

“I think everybody has had more experiences than even know,” he continued. “Most people don’t wake up. I woke up.  You woke up. That’s the key to believe in it. Because everybody else or the same guy that’s had this same experience maybe ten times, if he didn’t wake up, he’s going, ‘Ohh, you’re full of crap, man. What are you, nuts?!’ Yep, fine. Next!” He laughed.

The publicist attempted to drag me away, due to time, but Sammy stepped in to put a stop to it. “No, she’s fine! She’s my girl, man!” he told the publicist.  I did agree to only one more question.

“The octopus at the Shark Reef Aquarium…” is as far as I got before he was saying, “What?! Who? What?”

“There is an octopus at the Shark Reef Aquarium.  And he picked Marquez over Diaz in tomorrow night’s fight.”

“OOooooo,” he said as he mulled that one over. “Marquez over Diaz,” he pondered. “Yeah! I like Marquez. Marquez, I think is one of the greatest fighters…”  we chatted a bit about Don King, and not paying attention to boxing as much as we used to, “but I love the sport when it’s a good fight! And I think Marquez over Diaz… The octopus is right.”

Okay, now that the questions were out of the way, it was time to beg for my favorite song of his, “Where Eagles Fly.”  He didn’t think he could do it.  “You see ‘Where Eagles Fly’ is, uh, such a spiritual kind of, uh… it doesn’t belong in a small nightclub. Nightclubs are down and dirty, so we were going to rock and be, we were going to make the Rolling Stones look like, like religious fanatics. OK? We were going to make ‘em look like priests.”

I told him about my African Grey parrot, Echo, who loves his voice and loves his songs.  Echo starts to giggle as soon as he hears Sammy’s voice, when I play an interview tape for research or writing an article.  He will make the finger snapping sounds when one of Sammy’s songs starts. He whistles along and bobs his head.  He particularly likes “Where Eagles Fly.”

“That’s so awesome.  See, he feels the heart, then, right?” he said. “My mother wanted that song sung at her funeral. Of course, I couldn’t sing it.  I was too torn up. But, that song has birth and death rites.  It is that, to me, it is that big.  And it’s hard to sing in a club.  But let me see.  Let’s see how I feel.”

With that, he gave me a big hug.  He squeezed and squeezed harder.  I thought my head would pop off.

Tomorrow, the concert…

UPDATE:  Sammy and the Octopus picked it right: Marquez won by unanimous decision scores of 116-112, 118-110 and 117-111.

Jul 13, 2010

SAMMY HAGAR TO HOST CONCERT PRE-PARTY AT CABO WABO CANTINA

Party with the Red Rocker Himself on Friday, July 30th

Nobody anywhere defines the word party like Sammy Hagar!  Never have I had a better time than watching Sammy play at his Cabo Wabo Cantina in Las Vegas.  I have been waiting ever since to rock out with him playing on stage and this month is the month we all get to do just that.  This event is the reason you’ve been waiting for to fly into Vegas.

Sammy Hagar fans are in for a treat. The Red Rocker is back in Las Vegas and set to host a pre-concert kick off at his Las Vegas-based Cabo Wabo Cantina at Miracle Mile Shops inside Planet Hollywood on Friday, July 30. Hagar and friends will party like rock stars prior to his live performance with Aerosmith on Saturday, July 31 at MGM Grand Garden Arena.

Hagar’s pre-concert bash is open to the public and admission is complimentary. Space is limited and available on a first-come, first-serve basis. For additional information and restaurant reservations, call the cantina at 702.385.2226 or visit CaboWaboCantinaLV.com.

Hagar’s hard rockin’ dining and live music venue, Cabo Wabo Cantina, combines the laid back beach-town vibe of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, with the excitement of the Las Vegas Strip. Blending coastal Mexican and Tex Mex cuisine, the menu offers a tantalizing mix of flavorful food, killer margaritas, and an awesome venue where it is never uncommon to catch the red rocker himself jamming out with a live set on stage. Cabo Wabo Cantina opens daily at 11 a.m., with live entertainment on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights from 9:30 p.m. until close.

Cabo Wabo Cantina at Miracle Mile Shops inside Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino is the flagship U.S. location for the legendary restaurant. The original opened in Cabo San Lucas in 1990, transforming the sleepy Mexican town into a major tourism destination, becoming the inspiration for one of the most recognizable tequila brands, Cabo Wabo Tequila.  For more information about Cabo Wabo Cantina, visit www.cabowabocantina.com or call 702.385.2226.  For more information about Hagar and his famous Cabo Wabo Tequila, visit www.redrocker.com and www.cabowabocantinalv.com.