May 11th, 2004


The long road to Cabo now runs through the Sierras. The festivities kicked off Thursday April 29 with Terrible Ted Nugent fronting the Waboritas in Harrah's South Shore Room and rolled all the way through the weekend Monday with three consecutive nights of sold-out Sammy Hagar concerts featuring special guests Toby Keith, Ted Nugent, Bob Weir of The Dead, Jerry Cantrell formerly of Alice in Chains, Billy Duffy from The Cult, Ronnie Montrose, up-and-coming Telecaster wizard Johnny Hiland who is just about to release his first album on Steve Vai's Favored Nations label, and even Sammy's eldest son, Aaron, taking lead vocals on Halfway to Memphis. Some of the favorites that fans have come to expect at Sammy shows in recent years were played but the loose sets unfolded to the surprise and delight of audience and performers alike. Everybody pulled out their biggest hits with Ted on Cat Scratch Fever and Klstrphnky, Jerry producing Man In A Box, No Excuses, and Toby delivering I Love This Bar, but the real treats were the collaborations on rock standards Route 66, The Weight, Sweet Home Alabama, Can't You See, Knockin' On Heaven's Door, Rock n Roll, and Whole Lotta Love. The first two nights started late but Sammy was so eager to be sure he got all the music in that he wanted to play started Sunday's show twenty minutes early with a seated accoustic set.


Photo Courtesy Larry Benson for Redrocker.com

Sammy's website proclaims "The 6,000 square foot Cantina restaurant served 3,700 covers over the three-day period, a record amount for a room seating 165 capacity restaurant. A total of 700 cases of Cabo Wabo Tequila were consumed throughout the two properties of Harveys (which houses the Cabo Wabo Cantina restaurant) and Harrah's (home to the Cabo Nightclub).

This venture is the realization of a project originally conceived by Don Marrandino for The Station in Las Vegas but relocated to the small cluster of casinos nestled on the south shore of Lake Tahoe on the Nevada side of the California state line when he became Senior Vice President of Harrah's Northern Nevada operations.

With snow still gracing the surrounding mountaintops, warm sunshine embraced the thousands of Redheads gathered to celebrate the grand opening. "I've now got Cabo Wabo Cantinas in two of the most beautiful places on earth: Cabo San Lucas and now here in Lake Tahoe," Sammy beamed.

On Cinco de Mayo, Harrah's South Shore Room played host to The Cardboard Vampyres, featuring Jerry Cantrell and Billy Duffy along with Cult bassist Chris Wyse and vocalist John Corabi formerly of Ratt and Motley Crue.

There is talk that future US locations are in the planning stages pending the performance of this location. If the record-breaking revenues of the innagural weekend are any indication you may soon see Cabo Wabo Cantinas in every town large enough to hold the throngs of fans that will come out to open the clubs.


Photo Courtesy Tim-o-thy