VEGASinsight Archives

It is never OK for a rock band member to wear a pastel-striped polo shirt. NEVER.

Say what you will about North Carolina-spawned pop-rock band Daughtry’s music – OK, we’ll say it for you: bland, uninspired, maudlin – you can’t deny that the ONE Campaign is a worthy cause, combating global crises such as AIDS and poverty. So we’ll give Daughtry a little bit of credit for its upcoming acoustic performance at The Beatles Revolution Lounge inside the Mirage on Sunday, April 13, because all ticket proceeds will benefit the ONE Campaign.

Tickets are being auctioned on eBay now through Monday, March 31, at www.ebay.com/daughtry. If there are actually fans of the band out there reading this (heaven help you), you might be interested to know that parts of the performance will be made available at www.rhapsody.com/daughtry should you not nab one of the 200 tickets, do not live in Las Vegas or are not 21 years or older.

Lead singer and ego-tripping band namesake Chris Daughtry had something deep and insightful to say about the benefit. Oh – no he didn’t. Just something his record company told him to say: “We are really excited about this acoustic show at the Revolution Lounge. It is a chance to share a special evening with our fans and raise money for a great cause, ONE.org.”

Loving you was like loving the dead.

The dates for the 2008 Jagermeister Music Tour were announced recently, most notable for you Vegas metal-heads is May 31, when Hatebreed, Type O Negative and 3 Inches of Blood hit the House of Blues inside the Mandalay Bay at … 5 p.m.? That’s kinda early for a rock show. Maybe they need extra time to clean up the three inches of blood left by the opening band. Get it? Ha ha ha … OK, wasn’t funny.

We were actually quite surprised to hear that Type O Negative was on the tour, because, um, we thought they broke up years ago. Good to see Peter Steele and company are still making the world safe for goth-metal and awesome facial hair. Tickets go on sale this Saturday, March 29 at 10 a.m., or online at HOB.com Tuesday, March 25 at 10 a.m.

For the uninitiated, I live about a mile from the center of the Las Vegas Strip. That means when I have to attend an event taking place on or near that famous four-mile stretch of road, I usually don’t mind too much. It’s a five-minute drive to the back entrance of a property’s parking garage, especially if it’s on my side of the Strip (for you non-Las Vegans, the Strip essentially divides our fair city in half, east and west).

The Comedy Festival has been taking over Caesars Palace since Wednesday or Thursday, HBO bringing together a number of the world’s top comics for four or five days of funny business. A good amount of heavyweights are here–Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock, Ellen DeGeneres, Eddie Izzard, Kevin James–as well as, um, some second-stringers and past-their-primers.

Being the media whore I am, I made sure I scored a few review tickets to a few of the performances this weekend, and tonight, I ventured over to Caesars’ Collosseum to check out the aforementioned Mr. Rock. (That sounds funny; read it aloud: “MISTER ROCK.” I picture some white dude in ripped jeans, a sleeveless Bon Jovi jersey and a glorious mullet, as opposed to the actual Mr. Rock, who is a skinny, well-dressed black man. Maybe this is why no one calls him “Mr. Rock.” Man, my tangents go on waaay too long.)

As mohawk-rocking journalist Al Mancini concurred, Rock’s performance was about 75 percent funny, which is pretty good for anyone, especially comedians like Rock who have used the same shtick most of their careers (in his case, of course, it’s race jokes). The Collosseum was well-packed, unlike the last time I was there for a Comedy Festival event, 2006’s Triumph the Insult Comic Dog show, which really should have been held in one of the ballrooms at the casino. It took about a good 20 minutes for the aisles to clear up after the show before I could even get out of my row of seats (hereafter known as “The Media Nosebleed Section”).

However, I should have seen what was next: The Caesars Palace parking garage debacle. Last time I was at Caesars for a big event, it was the Human Rights Campaign’s annual charity gala. However, there must have been another show/event letting out about the same time, because I found myself in my car stuck on the sixth or seventh floor of the behemoth parking garage, sitting unmoving for about a half-hour. My next destination was Krave, where the gala’s afterparty was being held. I pulled out of the line of cars, parked, and just walked to the gay club, which is only about two or three blocks from Caesars on the Strip.

Well, sure enough, the same thing happened after Chris Rock let out. After sitting in my car for another half-hour of pure boredom and frustration on the seventh floor of the garage, I parked, and decided to either a) grab some food at Caesars or b) hoof it home and come back for my car the next day. I walked back into Caesars, had a quick chat with the aforementioned Mancini and his wife, then decided to go with plan b.

As I mentioned at the start of this ramble, I live only about a mile from the Strip. In most cities, walking a mile isn’t so bad. In Las Vegas, however, it’s nearly unheard of to walk anywhere, let alone walk a mile somewhere. While I did consider grabbing a bus if one came along, it wasn’t until I was already a block from my apartment that one came rumbling down Flamingo Road heading east. The walk was nice; the weather has been about as perfect as it ever gets here, and at nearly 2 a.m., I had some quiet time with my thoughts for once.

However, Caesars Palace really needs to do something about the parking situation. A few years ago, they expanded the five-story garage to eight or nine stories, but the engineering geniuses neglected to incorporate such ground-breaking concepts as logic or common sense into its design. If every time a show at the Collosseum lets out, the situation is that bad (and I’m guessing it is, and I’m guessing between Elton John, Jerry Seinfeld and Celine Dion in that massive showroom, it’s often), then Caesars (or, I guess, Harrah’s, the parent company) needs to do SOMETHING to allow for better flow of traffic and/or another exit option in that garage.

Of course, I’m going back there tonight (well, actually, I’m going back there in a few minutes, to retrieve my car) for Eddie Izzard. But I think this time, I’m going to either a) leave the car at home or b) park across the street.

I have a love-hate relationship with The Killers. I loved Hot Fuss, despite whatever middling review I gave it in the Las Vegas Weekly. That disc lived in my car for a long time. But I was very disappointed with Sam’s Town, probably because the band’s drastic change in sound seemed forced, not organic as I think they expected it to appear. The sophomore songs did grow on me after seeing them performed live a few times, but I still do not have Sam’s Town and that’s fine.

What’s odd is that the band’s B-sides, bonus tracks and unreleased songs in the interim seem to be my favorites. I have a collection of gems such as “Where Is She” and “Where the White Boys Dance” that always seemed, to me, more worthy than half the material on Sam’s Town.

Well, now The Killers have released Sawdust, a collection of those rarities, B-sides and other stuff sitting around the band’s vault. And, after listening to a song I’d not previously heard (the Sam’s Town bonus track “All the Pretty Face”), my belief that this material is much more favorable to my ears is reinforced.

If you’d like to discover for yourself and live in Las Vegas, head to Tao inside the Venetian at 11 p.m. tonight, where Vinyl Wednesdays is hosting a release party for Sawdust. The MADaM crew is giving away copies of the disc and other Killers swag, the Bargain DJ Collective is spinning and there will be local art. So your only excuse for not going is because your mom said “no.”

Despite his best efforts, AWOL Productions‘ Chad Craig is being forced to relocate Friday’s 10th annual Devil’s Night Halloween-themed rave from Alexis Park Resort to Empire Ballroom.

“Well, our hands are tied,” Craig wrote in an e-mail sent Saturday morning. “Moving … to Empire Ballroom is the logical and safest guarantee we will have a packed event.”

The party—featuring a headlining DJ set by the Crystal Method—was originally going to be an 18-over affair, spread out across Alexis Park’s pool, convention center, bars and more. At Empire Ballroom, however, Devil’s Night will be limited to those 21 and over.

“We are VERY SORRY to the thousands of under 21 who made plans to attend this year,” Craig wrote. “We will try and come up with something in the next few months. These circumstances are completely out of our control and there just was not enough time to find and permit a [sic] 18 and over venue.”

Unlike past events that faced location, permitting and noise pollution dilemmas, the 2007 edition looked as though it would be safely located at Alexis Park, which has been hosting a number of parties and special events lately, including a rooftop and poolside National Coming Out Day festival.

But as seems to be the continuing plague and curse of rave promoters (indeed, of all-ages club promoters as well) in Las Vegas, the Alexis Park location fell through due to a dizzying maze of permitting problems and miscommunication between the promoter, venue and county officials.

Last year’s Devils Night, held at the Fort Cheyenne Casino in North Las Vegas, was shut down by police due to noise complaints. There is no chance of that happening at Empire Ballroom. As well, Craig says the powers-that-be at Empire acquiesced to a list of 49 conditions he requested for successful execution of the event, including keeping the dance floor free of seating, discounting drink prices, reducing valet fees and amending the venue’s sound with AWOL’s own equipment.

“We promise there will be more room and more heart, love and soul being put into this event than anything you are used too [sic] in the day to day club market,” Craig wrote.

Turns out Perry Farrell did show up last night to Vinyl Wednesdays at Tao, as did Satellite Party opening act MINK. But based on my unscientific vocal surveying conducted over the last two days, no one cares. I was hard-pressed to find anyone who even knows who Farrell is, and those who did were only superficially familiar with his Jane’s Addiction work, likely only “Been Caught Stealing.”

Maybe it’s a generational thing. Those of us oft-identified as “Generation X” tend to hold Jane’s Addiction and its ringleader Farrell as pioneers of the alternative rock domination of the 1990s. But I guess those under 25 (under 30??) really have no sense of history or care to delve deeper into musical history beyond Fall Out Boy and the Used.

Not that Farrell hanging out at a club is a drawing point for me–I was going to Tao last night to see Danny Roberts’ art and to meet with one of my friends. And the Lollapalooza founder arrived with little fanfare (despite the promoters trying to build some sort of hushed din). He walked right past me with a small procession of people and headed (of course) back to a roped-off area in the back of the dining area. I asked one of our company’s photogs to be sure to snap a few pics of Farrell just because it would be cool to have in the next issue of Racket, but I think the best he got was MINK.

I know the announcement of Farrell’s attendance at the party was late coming (I received a call about 3 p.m. yesterday about it), so maybe more promotion would have yielded a bigger crowd. But all I know is when the Plain White T’s were in attendance at Vinyl Wednesdays a month or two back, there was a line around the corner to get in and the place was packed.

And have you heard Plain White T’s? Ugh.

Moving on to sexier things: I’ve never really found Alicia Silverstone attractive, but the new PSA she filmed for PETA is kinda hot. I am reconsidering my opinion on the matter. Click here to see why.

The crowd inside the House of Blues grew restless after patiently listening to two opening acts, including the fabulous Armor For Sleep and hardcore, long-haired Christian rockers Underoath. Suddenly, to the audience’s great delight, the stage lights gradually brightened, and Taking Back Sunday’s lead singer Adam Lazzara — dressed in a form-fitting black outfit — practically bounced onto stage as if springs were attached to his shoes.

Though both opening acts had gone over well, the crowd went into an ecstatic and frenzied uproar as soon as they heard the first few thundering drumbeats from percussionist Mark O’Connell. Arms flailed wildly around and heads radically bobbed as Lazzara, singing tumultuously, hung over the stage so close to the crowd it could almost reach him (as during Underoath’s set, there would be no crowd surfing). Most fans controlled themselves, though some were so wild that security frequently had to restrain them. In the general admission, standing-room-only area near the stage, a few needed to be rescued from the sweaty and rambunctious crowd. More than a few people were clearly bruised and swollen about the face.

After a few songs from Taking Back Sunday’s latest album, Louder Now, the lights dimmed and Lazzara (complete with acoustic guitar and harmonica neck-piece) appeared on stage solo. The crowd seemed confused—or perhaps oblivious—when he snuck in the chorus of The Killer’s “When You Were Young,” a clever choice, integrating the Vegas-originating band’s sound into the act.

When the rest of the band members returned to the stage, they performed some of their older tracks, such as “Cute without the E (Cut From the Team),” from the 2001 album Tell All Your Friends. The chemistry and synergy of the complete team was apparent, smoothly playing off of one another. Lazzara’s flamboyant, almost graceful dance movements included enthusiastic microphone swinging. His ability to maintain vocals while being self-strangled by the mic cord shocked the crowd further into frenzy. It was impressive, yet at the same time somewhat horrifying for the fans who might prefer to see a prettier, non-noosed Lazzara. Fortunately, he didn’t end up passing out or knocking himself unconscious. Eddie Reyes’s killer guitar chords made the audience cut loose even more with random bouncing, while Fred Mascherino on guitar and vocals tested the limits of his vertebrae with boisterous head movements.

During a short breather, Lazzara informed the audience that Mascherino married his girlfriend, Asia, over the weekend, and that it was also time for more celebration—as it was also Matt’s 23rd birthday. With his parents watching from the side of the stage, a lit candle-laden cake appeared, sparking the crowd and band to sing a light-hearted—and not quite in tune—rendition of “Happy Birthday.”

After the blaze was extinguished with an exhausted lungful of air, Taking Back Sunday returned to what it does best—convincing the audience that, regardless of just how little energy and pizazz a typical Vegas audience has, that they should rock their asses off.

The alternative music of the 1990s has been very good to Vegas-based rock band The Day After…. Moody groups like Catherine Wheel helped shape the sound of the trio’s Gotham Records debut album, A Different Way To Get By, and now the long-time local band is sharing a bill with Minneapolis alt-rock icon Soul Asylum at the House of Blues Friday night.

“We’ve always been fans of Soul Asylum,” says The Day After… bassist KC Wells. “Jenine and I grew up with all those late ‘80s and early ‘90s punk/alternative bands. My absolute favorite song from them is ‘Just Like Anyone’—I love that song, and Jenine [Cali, vocalist and guitarist] has always thought we should cover ‘Somebody To Shove.’”

Known mainly for its mid-‘90s albums Grave Dancers Union and Let Your Dim Light Shine, Soul Asylum actually formed in the early ‘80s and was a pivotal part of the Minneapolis indie rock scene, coming up with such contemporaries as The Replacements and Hüsker Dü. After an eight-year hiatus from recording, the band re-emerged in 2006 with a brand-new album, The Silver Lining, as well as a new lineup featuring former Replacements bassist Tommy Stinson and Prince drummer Michael Bland.

“I can’t tell you how much of an honor it will be to support not only Dave Pirner and Dan Murphy [Soul Asylum’s singer and guitarist, respectively], but those two as well,” Wells says of Stinson and Bland. “It’s crazy to think of the rock heroes that have come from that Minneapolis/St. Paul scene.”

The Day After… has kept a low touring profile since the Oct. 17 release of A Different Way To Get By, but the album and its lead single, “Car Crash,” have been well-received by music fans and the media. “Car Crash” went undefeated in Xtreme Radio 107.5-FM’s nightly new music face-off, “It Came From The Mailroom,” and was promptly added to that station’s rotation.

“Regionally it’s done very well, throughout Southern California, Utah, Arizona and Nevada,” says Wells. “However, it’s also been selling sporadically throughout the country. We’ve been established on nationwide college radio though, so we are expecting more people outside the Southwest to catch on here pretty quick.”

Wells says the band has touring plans for 2007 and intends to build a support team to keep the band “moving in the right direction.” Right now, though, they are simply excited to open for some of their musical heroes.

“I implore kids who haven’t heard of them [Soul Asylum] to come see the show and to go back through their history and see exactly what they’ve meant to alternative/punk music, from when they started as Loud Fast Rules to their ties to punk legends Hüsker Dü,” Wells says.

The Las Vegas art and design scene looked to the light recently — to neon light, that is.Last Friday, the monthly “Mojitos & Modernism” event at BlankSpace in Mandalay Place featured a reception for local artist Jerry Misko.

“Mojitos & Modernism” is held at the design store on the last Friday of each month. It’s an evening of artists meeting with the public amidst BlankSpace’s tableau of art and design items, complimentary mojitos and a fantastic cheese spread.

According to Sandra Sharma, BlankSpace buyer and general manager, “Mojitos & Modernism” is growing in popularity and attendance.

“More and more people are getting to know about it … new people who haven’t been to it before,” Sharma said.

According to Sharma, Las Vegans are excited to learn that there is an organized, regularly-held event at Blank Space.

“They’re really excited that were doing events,” Sharma said.

Kelly Scherbenski, also of Blank Space, added that the event is getting traction in some circles.

“It’s becoming known as the ‘Fourth Friday’ of the month,” Scherbenski said in reference to Downtown Las Vegas’ “First Friday” celebration.

And while previous “Mojitos & Modernism” events have brought in national and international guests, featuring native Las Vegan Misko made perfect sense for Sharma.

“He is well-known for his paintings of iconic signs,” she said. “I think his paintings are a lot of fun. They’re really representative of Vegas.”

At the event, Misko met with a healthy crowd of a few dozen during the event.

According to Misko, his brightly-colored paintings of signs developed from his earlier career. “I spent a lot of years doing graphic design,” he said.

This makes for an all-up-front quality to Misko’s paintings. There is little depth of perspective in his paintings. The haloes around signs, which might be seen in real-time vision as curves and outward arcs, are rendered by Misko all on the same plane.

“When I make my paintings, I have this in the back of my head — my formative years — doing 2D things,” Misko said. “Very flat, high tolerance in color separation.”

Misko doesn’t favor an infinite point in his paintings, a source of distance and a perceived third dimension.

“Process-wise, that’s how I want it to look,” Misko said. “They’re supposed to be flat… about light.”

Misko’s paintings, such as the ones featured at the “Mojitos & Modernism” September event, are 100 percent Las Vegas.

“These things started as coming out of casinos after partying — light and signs,” Misko said, referring to his youthful apprenticeship in artistic observation.

“I use the reference all the time — Monet painted water lilies because they were there, I paint signs because they’re here. I love ’em.”

“The paintings are like me. They’re big, they’re pretty and they’re smarter than they look,” Misko said, laughing.

San Francisco-based jewelry designer Robindira Unsworth is pictured, center, during her discussion at Blank Space inside the Mandalay Bay on Friday, July 28, 2006. Unsworth’s current line of jewelry is based on Near Eastern traditions.

With a backdrop of glinting gold, shimmering silver and multifaceted crystal jewelry, BlankSpace, the future-forward and mid-century-is-now design boutique in Mandalay Place held its July “Mojitos & Modernism” event on Friday evening.

“Mojitos & Modernism” is an informal series where taste-making designers and artists meet with art-lovers to discuss their works. The free event is held on the last Friday of the month.

This month’s featured artist was Robindira Unsworth, a San Francisco-based jewelry designer. Unsworth’s current line of jewelry is based on Near Eastern traditions. According to Unsworth, the line was inspired by jewelry she witnessed as a guest at a royal wedding in Jordan.

Unsworth said her jewelry caters to many tastes — from a penchant for the ornate and effulgent to that of a more a more understated and simple adornment.

Throughout the event, Unsworth met with “Mojitos & Modernism” attendees to explain her methods of creating jewelry and her artistic vision.

And, as “Mojitos & Modernism” has become known for, there were the mint-and-lime-infused, namesake Cuban cocktails and a fabulous spread of artisan cheeses to be enjoyed for all.