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It has finally arrived.

Matador records announced a 21st birthday gathering in late June with an unbelievable lineup of acts that have been on their roster at some point throughout the lifespan of the label.

Me and Tracy determined that this would probably be our only shot at a decent vacation this year, so we worked our little tails off to ensure we could fund this trip. That was the easy part. The hard part was actually scoring a pair of tickets. This birthday party is limited to 2000 guests. Even though this isn’t the cheapest fest to attend, I figured it would still sell out in seconds. And that is exactly what happened.

Luckily, this is not my first ticket buying rodeo.

We both jumped online minutes before tickets went on sale to begin hitting the refresh button. I had Tracy on the phone with me so we would know if either of us got into the system. Once we got into the site, the purchasing options were really confusing. That being said, I think a lot of people had to sit there and review the options for longer than expected. This must have increased our odds, because the minute I did not get VIP tickets, I backed out and went straight for the a la carte option as I knew they were a little more costly and not the preferred ticket.

We got lucky. We snagged a pair.

True, we did not get the package with a room at the Palms. We did get a room directly across the street that is pretty darn nice and was about half of the price.

We begin our journey at 7am tomorrow. We have seen most of the bands playing the bill, but there are quite a few old friends who will be at the fest and who doesn’t want to be in the same casino as Robert Pollard or Kim Gordon? Excited as kids in a casino?

I doubt we will be live blogging from the event very much. I would guess there will be a nice number of stories to tell when we return.

Oh yeah, we are going here too:

Vegas baby, Vegas.