While on our family vacation to Lake Tahoe, my daughter had her 20^th birthday.  We celebrated by having a delicious dinner at the Chart House with a beautiful view of the lake, followed by a special cake decorated with a San Diego Charger theme because she loves football.  She is a great daughter and we admittedly spoiled her for her birthday by getting her new golf clubs and an airline ticket to visit her BFF (best friend forever) at college in Oregon. 

She also found out that Nelly was playing in South Lake Tahoe at a casino and asked if we would go with her to his show.  "Sure, your Dad and I would love to go with you", I said, even though I didn't know who Nelly was, and promptly went to buy the tickets.  The box office guy saw me looking at a seating chart and said, "No need to look at that, there are no assigned seats, in fact there are no seats."  When I pressed him further to explain, he told me that there were a few booths in the room, but that it would be "standing room only".   When I got back to our hotel room and told my husband what we were going to do, he looked at me like... well... that I had lost my mind.  "Do you know who Nelly is?" he asked and then laughed.

Last night I found out who Nelly is and along with Nelly, the host of the MTV show "Pimp My Ride", Xzibit performed for us at the Montbleu Casino in South Lake Tahoe.  The show managers and security took pity on us and gave us one of the VIP booths and so we were able to sit.  I am grateful for sitting because when my jaw dropped a few times, it only hit the table and not the floor. 

Xzibit was first and if you have ever watched "Pimp My Ride", you will probably think that this guy is funny and kind of endearing helping those with wrecked cars and no money get a "fixed up" car.  Xzibit took the stage and the first words out of his mouth were "How are all you MotherFers... doing tonight?" The only time he didn't swear was when he introduced his big brother who was there to see him perform for the first time.  The first time, because his brother had spent the last 15 years in the Michigan State Penitentiary and thankfully Xzibit spared us the details.  Lots and lots of ‘Mother Fers" later, a brief puffing on a bit of a weed-like substance, and challenging the crowd to outdrink him, he mercifully put my husband and I out of our misery and left the stage.

There was an intermission before Nelly came on and two cute "go go dancers" performed to some hip hop songs played by a DJ.  Then a man from a local radio station came out to tell the audience that there were celebrities who were there to see the show.  He introduced a man with three ladies from the HBO show "Cat House".  "Cat House" we were told is a show about the Bunny Ranch in Nevada (if you don't know what this is... look it up).   He then asked the three women with the pimp man to "get down and dirty" for the crowd and they did.  Fortunately for my husband, we were in a booth and I wouldn't let him out to go stand up front with the other guys to see what "down and dirty" meant.

Nelly is a Hip Hop artist with a popular sing song style.  The crowd loved him and surprisingly my daughter knew the lyrics to every one of his songs.  He would sing a verse and then extend his mike to the audience to finish it.  Lots of interaction going on!  Even more surprising, my husband and I nodded at each other that maybe it wasn't so bad to sit through a concert filled with 18 - 25 year olds.  We learned that he has collaborated with Usher, Fergie and even, Tim McGraw and was in "The Longest Yard" movie. In addition to singing, he has a clothing line, record label, promotes Ford Mustangs and is an accomplished businessman. His last song of the night and the one that earned him a Grammy for the Best Solo Male Rap Performance was "Hot in Herre" (honest that is how it is spelled).

Today we will spend time recovering our hearing, reorganizing our sensibilities and reflecting on the future of the younger generation.  Then when all is digested, I will spend some time thinking about what we saw and heard last night because I believe there is a social commentary somewhere inside me that I want to explore.  For now, I will leave you with the video of Nelly & Usher performing "Hot in Herre" ...