Yes, that’s right, you read the title right.. Las Vegas.. It’s a long story, but basically I’ve just returned from a holiday, my first in 20+ years that took me outside of the UK (woohoo) and on a flight that lasted between 9-10 hours to another country (woohoo) being the United States of America (yes, I made it to the States). “Didn’t see this in the upcoming shows”.. No, no you didn’t. I didn’t want to put anything in that I might have to take out, but thankfully, we were able to scoop up some tickets while we were out there and staying in the Luxor hotel (Yes, the one with the pyramid). – More about Las Vegas soon.. somewhere else, or perhaps here.. haven’t decided yet. Perhaps this won’t even make sense when I have all the posts up I want to make. But from it hopefully, you can tell my excitement!

So to the Blue Man Group.. I’ve been wanting to see the Blue Man Group for so very long, and it had got to a point where I had noticed that this coming year (2025) they will visit a fairly local venue here in the UK.. But I never thought I’d get to see them out in Las Vegas. The venue they perform at inside the Luxor is a purpose-built venue for their Vegas Residency and it has a total capacity of 830 seats. This is still on the smaller side for Vegas I am told, however it didn’t feel small to us. You enter via a dedicated Blue Man Group bar (and gift shop that I never saw open). We got our tickets earlier in the day then came down from the rooms before the show started to grab our drinks (in our souvenir cups) and then proceeded in to the theatre. We found our seats inside and the view to the stage was amazing. We were on the right-hand side of the auditorium but there was nothing blocking our view to the stage. It was fantastic. I would say were were about 7-12 rows back from the stage.

The seats at the venue were comfortable.. Unlike the UK, the seats are bigger and accommodate my frame more comfortably, there is ample leg room too, so it doesn’t matter if you are on the end of a row or not. I think we were, or one of us was. Funny the things that you remember and the things you don’t. They were very hot inside on people taking photographs or attempting to record video, and there were cameras inside the venue too as they were recording parts of each show for a new film or DVD release (I can’t wait).

Let’s get in to the performance itself, as that’s where the real magic is hidden… From the moment it started.. Wow! That’s it, that’s my reaction.. The stage, as you can see above is curved towards the audience and what you can’t see in the photo is that there is a two-hight platform towards the back of the stage. The bottom is empty or where the Blue Man Group store their equipment when it’s not being used, but above are what look to be three ‘cages’ that house a drum kit and a percussionist kit, a couple of guitarists and bassists together and some strings instruments too. In the middle of this at the centre-back there is a humongous gong and one of the infamous Blue Man massive skinned drums, the ones they play with the big hammers. Around the front of this centre section are pipes that look like organ pipes but there’s no organ in this production, instead the Blue Men bash the crap out of these with again, metal hammers.

The instrumentalists and musicians above provide around 60% of the music that you hear throughout the performance, with the other 40% coming from what the Blue Men themselves are playing and interacting with. I would say that’s a fair split because the Blue Men are not always playing with instruments or making sounds or music. A large part of their act is their audience interaction, of which there was plenty during this show. Mounted on the stage as well as to the side of it were large screens were a live feed of what was happening on (or off) the stage was being displayed.

One song in particular features a mixture on on-stage activity and then the Blue Men seem to go rogue and enter the audience were they ‘search’ for an audience member (front row, first seat) and get him to open his mouth, from there a hand-held camera controlled by the Blue Men looks like it is going down into his mouth and from there video takes over as we go on a journey ‘in to the inside of his body’, this is all performed with such seamless timing that it’s easy to forget that it’s not real. Other songs included their classic ‘Above’ with the classic beats on the massive drums played by one of the Blue Men while the others interacted further with the audience.

One of their first songs in the setlist was with the paint drums.. (Yes, drums that are covered in coloured paint then hit) relentlessly. The first few rows of the audience is called ‘The Poncho Section’ where they are handed out plastic ponchos to cover themselves if they don’t want the Blue Man paint spraying on them.. I am sure it’s probably easy to get off anyway. They played with this concept for a couple of songs before moving in and out of their more famous set-pieces such as the Pipe organ (the one that they hit with what look like ping pong rackets) and then later on the simpler Drumbone (PVC) pipe piece that starts off the introduction to ‘Time to Start’. They used the Drum Phoenix designed by world-renowned designer Michael Curry and later the Smoke Drums which as their name suggests, emits massive smoke rings out towards the audience. Getting to see that instrument played live in front of me.. I can say nothing other than amazing… A life-long goal to see Blue Man Group live has been achieved. – I’d go so far as to say… groundbreaking.

Oh I could keep going on and on, but the best thing that you can do is to go see the ever-developing juggernaut that is Blue Man Group. Of course they will change in time and evolve, but that’s almost the best part about it. Whatever Blue Man Group show you see is going to include some of their absolute classics from ‘The Complex’ and beyond. They are never going to run away and hide from their style and performance that has brought them so much success over the years. Also, don’t let anyone ever tell you you are too old for Blue Man Group – If you enjoy live music played with outstanding rhythm and passion, you go see them. They Rock!