Welcome to Fin City: Live from Las Vegas 2011

Personnel: Jimmy Buffett, Mac McAnally, Peter Mayer (vocals, guitar); Jim Mayer (vocals, bass guitar); Tina Gullickson, Nadirah Shakoor (vocals); Doyle Grisham (pedal steel guitar); John Lovell (trumpet); Michael Utley (keyboards); Roger Guth (drums); Robert Greenidge (steel drum); Eric Darken (percussion).
Audio Mixers: Chris Stone; Alan Schulman.
Recording information: MGM Grand Garden Arena, Las Vegas, NV (10/15/2011/10/22/2011).
Photographers: Ethan Miller ; Stan Kellam; Kibru Senbetta.
Vegas' push toward a more "family friendly" atmosphere takes a step back with this bit of debauchery, as Welcome to Fin City: Live from Las Vegas 2011 sings the praises of wine, loose women, and the hedonistic, parrothead lifestyle, and to an audience that hoots and hollers all the way to oblivion, which in this case, is the Florida Keys. That said, Buffett doesn't use many dirty words and his more "adult" material is so "screw my job, I just want to retire"-oriented that it just doesn't interest kids, but when middle-age party numbers like "License to Chill" and "Fins" hit this Vegas audience with their homegrown fun, it's a welcome return to the kitschy, Winnebago Warrior style of the vacation city with no Cirque du Soleil or Celine Dion-style polish to overly glitz things up. Cute how Jimmy's version of "Viva Las Vegas" apes the old days with its calypso-driven, Peter Allen-esque arrangement, and great to hear the usual big finish ("Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes," "One Particular Harbour," and "Fins," although "Margaritaville" is missing) in this high-rolling Vegas atmosphere. Compared to the numerous other live albums from Buffett, this one is somewhat unique in that it happened in Vegas, and a good bit of it stayed in Vegas. Welcome to Fin City carves an hour of highlights out of the show and doesn't pretend to represent the full night, so consider it as made for the ravenous fan or as a memento for the parrothead who just got back from Sin City. ~ David Jeffries