Go: Where to Go, What to Do & Why

By James P. Reza

Few people check out of the house thinking that, a few hours later, they will be partying with Enrique Iglesias and a hundred friends and fans in the latest Travel Channel-featured Vegas high-roller suite, but that's exactly what happened to your Go tour guide last week. It was luck, more than anything, that found me gargling gin, mingling with the hand-picked hotties and bowling--yes, bowling--on the 11th floor of the Hard Rock Hotel last Saturday at a concert after-party reportedly connected to Iglesias' split with tennis swinger Anna Kournikova last week.

Well-placed Hard Rock employees were instructed to pack the private room with hotties to the exclusion of male attendees, but a (very) few men managed to slip in anyway, most under the cover of a group of gals. What we found was a jumping multiroom suite with a DJ, fully stocked bar with two bartenders, the bowling alley, an elevated jacuzzi with a Strip view and more than a few bouncers intended to moderate behavior. One gal was ejected before the party began after Iglesias touched her and she went into full, ridiculous-screaming-fan mode, and two others lost their lease after a PG-13 lap dance in the main room.

Similar bouncer-behavior at the Bellagio's Light (693-8300) on Sunday, where another local weekly newspaper was holding an awards show, leads one to wonder if the "sin" in Sin City (at least that within the casinos) is being deliberately tamed with a specific goal in mind. Light bouncers backed off last week when Kournikova and Mark Wahlberg got sloppy for hours in a booth (which precipitated, we understand, her latest split with Iglesias), but the same bouncers emerge seemingly from nowhere to keep proletariat patrons' dresses from hiking a little too high when dancing. The state's Gaming Control Board has taken an active interest in nightclub behavior since the drug-related death of a patron of the Venetian's long-gone Club C2K in 2000. This activism is in line with the so-called "culture wars" being waged on a national level, but hypocritical considering the libertarian nature of Las Vegas. It seems ridiculous on many levels for Las Vegas casinos to get into the nightclub business and then have to police patrons' behavior to protect their gaming licenses.

Back to the biz

With the soapbox safely stowed, we can now get down to the task at hand. Blind blues-rocker Jeff Healey, who scored a hit with his debut See the Light (an album featuring his biggest hit, the also ironically named "Angel Eyes"), comes to the House of Blues Thursday with Soul'd Out (March 4, 7:30 p.m.; 632-7600). Healey, a guitarist since age 3, plays his Stratocaster while sitting with it on his lap, and therefore is able to produce sounds from the strings that stand-up players are unable to replicate.

This weekend marks a welcome occasion for downtown Las Vegas, and not just for the return of First Friday, but also for the return of headliner entertainment to the Golden Nugget's Theatre Ballroom. And who better to spearhead the rebirth of Glitter Gulch and usher it into the future than old-school Las Vegas jazz singer Tony Bennett, joined by special guest Jewel (March 5-6, 385-7111). Bennett, a Strip performer legendary for his shows in Caesars' demolished Circus Maximus, regained favor in the 1990s thanks to an international resurgence of an Eisenhower-era style known as the Cocktail Nation. This is an excellent opportunity to enjoy these two performers in an intimate atmosphere, even at the steep price of $150.

Latin love, cont'd

Take some Latin good looks, a voice that hits you like a ton of raw silk and a repertoire of South American love songs and you have the Grammy-winning international Mexican pop star Luis Miguel. The only performer to boast two platinum Spanish-language albums in America, Miguel comes to the Aladdin Theatre on Saturday (March 6, 8 p.m.; 785-5555). Hey Miguel, we hear a certain blond tennis starlet with a thing for dark hair is back on the court seeking a doubles partner.

Hipsters and crusties alike will dig the bossa nova sounds of Sergio Mendes on tour with his annually renamed band Brasil 2004. Extremely popular in the 1960s, Mendes popularized the relaxing, loungey style of jazzanova, a style then adopted by modern loungecore electronica artists like Thievery Corporation. Greatly influenced by Rio musicians Jo‹o and Astrud Gilberto (whose daughter, Bebel, is the modern queen of bossa nova), Mendes went on to be the biggest-selling Brazilian artist in America. Check him out at the Suncoast Friday through Sunday (March 5-7, 7:30 p.m.; 636-7111).

Playas forever

Sure, Britney Spears blatantly used Vegas to boost her sagging album sales by getting married "to see what it felt like," but isn't that the reason most twentysomethings get married anyway? What's more troubling is that MTV, scared into a defensive posture by the Republican-fueled FCC, temporarily banished her admittedly scalding-hot video for "Toxic" to the post-10 p.m. time slot, only to reintroduce it into 24-hour rotation soon after. Pop tart Spears brings her tres-hottie entourage--the capable urban R&B of Kelis and punk-popper Sky Sweetnam--to the MGM Grand Garden Arena on Saturday (March 6, 8 p.m.; 891-1111).

It's possible that after the show, Brit will be hanging out at the MGM, thanks to the Playboy 50th Anniversary Tour, a 50-city party that intends to remake Studio 54 into a club reminiscent of the classic Playboy Clubs of the '60s. Playmates will be on hand to do what playmates do, and there will be live performances that will probably be banned from the venue as soon as they are over (March 6, 10 p.m.; 891-7254). Earlier in the week (Thursday), the MGM's hip ultralounge Tabú celebrates its one-year anniversary (the half-life of a typical Vegas nightspot) with DJs Jose 2 Hype (from back in the Vegas rave days) and Leo Teo (March 4, 10 p.m.).

It's culture, baby

The internationally heralded Moscow State Symphony visits the UNLV's Artemus W. Ham Concert Hall this week, accompanied by piano virtuoso Navah Perlman and conducted by maestro Pavel Sorokin (March 4, 8-10 p.m.; 895-2787). ... Our city's honorary poet laureate Dayvid Figler is joined by former Las Vegas resident, former film and television actor (Total Recall, "Star Trek: Next Generation"), and current Food Network writer and producer Lycia Naff for a reading of humor pieces at downtown's Iowa Cafe on Thursday (March 4, 7 p.m.; 366-1882). Think of this as an early cultural spotlight to remind you of First Friday, downtown's monthly arts and culture open house (March 5, 6-10 p.m.) that features everything from gallery crawls to drinking and dancing to old-school funk at The Get Back after-party at the Ice House Lounge. See you out there, culture warriors.

Native Las Vegan James P. Reza writes too much about Las Vegas, but can't stop because he simultaneously loves and hates the place. E-mail him at jpreza@cox.net.