Go: Where to Go, What to Do & Why

By James P. Reza

Look, will you people stop messing around with the thermostat? These 20-degree temperature shifts from one day to the next are starting to mess with my head. And close the door when you come in. Are you trying to air-condition the entire goddamn Mojave? You don't see Palm Springs standing around with the door wide open, waiting for that cheap slut you're running around with to mosey inside, now do you? Oh, no. That Springs family buttons everything down tight. They know how to live in a desert, you betcha. Not like you. And when are you going to cut your hair, take off that ironic "Jesus Loves Las Vegas" T-shirt and get a real job?

A few more years of this drought and Wynn Las Vegas won't be the name of a resort, it'll be the name of a BLM raffle. As crazy as the weather has been--and rest assured, it has been crazy enough to make us think about global climate changes and their effect on the next wave of ultralounges--it isn't stopping people from getting out and acting up. Like they did for the precious few $2 tickets available for last Wednesday's Beastie Boys show at the Huntridge. Reports of alcohol-fueled madness--bottles being tossed, cookies being tossed, people urinating on one another--didn't stop hundreds of persistent fans from lining up well before the essentially unenforceable 7 a.m. queue time.

Friday, the better-behaved fans of Wyclef Jean enjoyed two solid hours of him at the Palms' Skin on a particularly pleasant evening. Jean, one of alt.rap's most important figures, eventually had to be begged off stage by anxious stagehands. No such begging had to take place at the Vegas Magazine first anniversary party, held in the oh-so-VEGA$ Garden of the Gods pool area at Caesars Palace the same night. Blame it on plenty of space, blame it on a demographic that commanded a major sponsorship by Cadillac, but the crowd of assembled VIPs was more sedate than you might imagine, even when July cover babe Daisy Fuentes took the stage to note the anniversary. Go-go dancers were aplenty, and body-painted hotties strutted about, but the crowd was jaded to the point that these essentially Live! Nude! Girls! could gather themselves at a table for a sit without being harassed. That's Vegas for you.

Back to the middle

Such things may be nice for all those Versace-wearing, line-jumping glamour pusses, but most of America falls somewhere between the coasts, a little-pink-houses kind of place where Blues, Brews & Barbecue is far more interesting than J. Lo's latest fling. For them, it's time for the Cannery hotel-casino's second installment of that festival, a weekend chock-full o' music, beer and food for the rest of us (June 18-20; 507-5700). Along with plenty of microbrews from Sierra Nevada, Anchor Steam, Wyder's Cider and others, there will be live jams from Moody Scott, Chris Hiatt & Cold Shot, Little Chris & The Nightcrawlers and BluesStorm.

Las Vegas being what it is, we couldn't go a week without mentioning at least one of those adult.alt bands that 94.1-FM loves to love. Jason Mraz is one such performer. Almost invariably, such artists (whether male or female) carry a Midwestern coffeehouse/singer-songwriter vibe, are good-looking in that quirky, could-still-be-an-undergrad sort of way, and make music that appeals to those who once listened to college rock, alternative or the like, but find themselves too, uh, sophisticated (i.e., thirtysomething) to give too much of a shit about anything. Joining Mraz on Friday at the House of Blues is jazz vocalist Raul Midon, world music from Makana, and DJ Bob Neck Snapp (June 18; 632-7600).

Punk off

In some ways, the Ataris are the musical equivalent of their video game namesake: stripped down, simple and yet effective entertainment machines. It's punk, it's pop, it's consistently good, clean fun. Of a sort. Check out the Ataris with the Kick, Whysall Lane and Reeve Oliver, Saturday at the Huntridge Theater (June 19; 477-7703).

You'll run into a lot of the same sk8r types at the Hard Rock on Tuesday for Blink-182 (June 22; 693-5000). At the forefront of the punk revival movement launched in the mid-'90s, Blink-182 has become one of the iconic bands of the third wave of SoCal punk, holding true to the three-piece formula. Someone might tell that to Minneapolis quintet Motion City Soundtrack, which joins Blink on this tour. Is five guys a bit of overkill for a punk revival band? Not when one of them plays a Moog.

As good as the Ataris and Blink-182 are, if we had one gig to choose this week, it would be 311 with the Roots--the only caveat being that it is a dreaded arena show. Man, we hate arenas. We have to; we're ironic Generation Xers. We've been programmed to think that arenas equal hair bands, and man, we hate hair bands. 311 is one of the few bands that included Vegas in its early tours back in the day (it played the Huntridge), and now returns with its seventh studio album, Evolver. Joining 311 is the Roots, one of hip hop's most interesting artists who lead on that alt.rap tip that unapologetically we dig so much. Like most alt.rappers, the Roots focus on politically and socially aware rhymes, and the band's new album, Tipping Point, takes its name from Malcolm Gladwell's social change book of the same name. See them Wednesday at the Orleans Arena (June 23; 365-7469). Please, no urinating on each other.

Native Las Vegan James P. Reza cares about what you do on the weekend, but not in any creepy sort of way. E-mail him at jpreza@cox.net.