Billy Idol at the Chelsea

There’s something about the Chelsea Theatre inside of the Cosmopolitan Hotel that just makes it one of the best places to experience live music in Las Vegas. I wish I could tell you what it is, but maybe you just need to experience it for yourself.

Here I am, on a Friday night, waiting for the preverbal curtain to lift, revealing someone I’ve been a fan of for a long time and am now finally getting to see and hear in person for the first time; Billy Idol.

Being completely honest, I wasn’t expecting a Billy Idol rendition of “Viva Las Vegas”, even if it’s perfectly on the nose, to be the opening song launching everyone out of their seats to get up and dance, but it was a welcome sight. Punk Elvis lead the way!

The 10 people in the room that were still seated weren’t for long as “Dancing with Myself” was next, and the whole theatre was on their feet dancing with themselves. “Cradle of Love” and “Flesh Fantasy” come next. It was just now that the awe was wearing down long enough for me to notice that the lighting in this show was just as cared for and meticulously planned as the music. I appreciated every level of detail at just… EVERYTHING.

The devil is in the details. The timing of what happened next couldn’t have been any better. Steve Stevens starts the palm muted riff of “Cage” and the screen backdropping the stage lights up with the amazingly well choreographed music video created for the song, including close up shots of Billy singing in the video perfectly mouthed to the words coming out of the real Billy Idol standing just in front of the screen. If I looked up at the screen, I’d swear I was listening to the video, the timing was so perfect.

The night continues, and it is one hell of a party! The entire audience treated it as such. Everyone was on their feet too excited for the show that the bar lines were actually empty because no one wanted to miss a moment.

A few minutes later, our collective ears are gifted by the hands of Steve Stevens and a phenomenal guitar solo featuring parts of “Over the Hills & Far Away”, “Stairway to Heaven”, and “Eruption”. Listen, I’m a guitar player myself, and I could only dream to be in the caliber of Steve Stevens when he decided to show the theatre what he was capable of given six strings.

A “Mony Mony” cover came to twist to, “Sweet Sixteen”, which hasn’t been heard live since 2016, “Running From the Ghost”, “One Hundred Punks”, and “Blue Highway”, with a piece of Top Gun magic later. We hear that famous riff probably twice a day on every major rock station, “Rebel Yell”. The audience (myself included) get nice and loud. We’re all showing off our own Rebel Yell to each other and to the master himself. The song ends, the lights go down, and in the midnight hour, we want more, more more!

The lights popped back on briefly and our collective call is answered as we are graced with “Hot in the City” and “White Wedding”. It perfectly encapsulated a perfect evening at an amazing venue seeing an amazing group of musicians and the amazing artist that is Billy Idol.