Go: Where to Go, What to Do & Why

By James P. Reza

There's nothing like the feeling one gets from turning the page on one chapter and starting another, even if that feeling is clouded (or enhanced) by a half-dozen shots of premium bourbon and a 4 a.m. lapdance at Cheetahs. But 2004 was an exciting year by nightlife standards, and your Go tour guide was an active enough participant to be over-enthusiastically painted as "America's best hope for gold medal in the Libertine Decathlon" by a fellow nightlife journalist.

So, in that quick-cut format favored by the young ones, here are your favorite libertine's top 2004 nightlife experiences: Best New Club/Lounge: Mix at THEhotel; Best New Restaurant: Joe's Stone Crab; Best New Bar/Worst New Ultralounge: Teatro; Most Underrated New Club/Lounge: Forty Deuce; Best Locals Joint: the westside's outpost of the Hookah Lounge. The Hard Rock Hotel still reigns as offering the best parking-lot-to-poolside nightlife experience, topping the oversized runner-up Mandalay Bay/THEhotel, and again handing the schizophrenic Palms its ass.

There. It's done. We've pitched 2004 down the stairs without so much as ruffling the crisp lines of a well-cut suit or wasting a perfectly shaken gin martini. Meanwhile, 2005--a lean, mean fighting machine of a year--is practicing sit-ups in front of the television, looking forward to a six-pack spring and summer of sexpots at the Pussycat Dolls Lounge, the latest reinvention of the Strip at Wynn Las Vegas, and enough high-rise and midrise condos and lofts to make us wonder where, exactly, we are living.

Blown, Staind and Pearled

We'll be perfectly honest: We never really got into the odd pop composite of jam-band/blues-rock that was/is Hootie & the Blowfish. When that band broke in 1994, we were still way deep into the whole Lollapalooza/Pearl Jam/Nine Inch Nails thing that handily built-and-destroyed the pop culture presence of alt.rock. You're welcome.

That said, some people deeply adore the South Carolina quartet, and, as long as adoration doesn't stray into Stalker-Land, that's fine. But do enough people dig the band to warrant a year-long, three-concert contract with the Silverton Casino and an eponymous casino lounge ("Hootie & the Blowfish's Shady Grove Lounge")? Not sure on that one. Check out H&TB in their first Silverton show on Saturday (Jan. 8; 263-7777). Additional shows blow into town in July and December 2005.

Aaron Lewis, on the other hand...Now this guy knows how to rock a live show. Well-known as the leadman for alt.rockers Staind, Lewis offers one hell of a heartfelt acoustic performance. So good, in fact, that he has been invited back to the Golden Nugget showroom he occupies when the legendary voice of Tony Bennett (a fellow "MTV Unplugged" star, returning in February) is absent. Lewis performs Saturday and Sunday in fabulous downtown Las Vegas (Jan. 8-9; 385-7111).

And finally, on Thursday, UNLV's Charles Vanda Master Series welcomes the return of the world's reigning violin virtuoso, Itzhak Perlman (Jan. 6; 895-2787). A 1945 alumni of the "Ed Sullivan Show" (when the violinist was but 13), Perlman went on to study at the Julliard School on his way to becoming one of the most recognized classical musicians in the world. He performs at UNLV's Artmeus W. Ham Concert Hall with accomplished pianist Janet Guggenheim.

Thank Glaude

As much of Vegas clubland continues its headfirst tumble into played-out hip-hop/pop-rock mixes, Ice Las Vegas maintains that it can succeed as the city's best hope for electronica. The local home of Brit clubbing powerhouse Godskitchen, Ice recently signed legendary house music DJ Donald Glaude to a new Friday night residency in the club's main room. That residency launches this Friday (Jan. 7; 699-9888), so if you dig house, get out there and welcome DJ DG to his new Vegas home, and wish him a happy birthday while you're at it.

Also in the clubs...HustlaBall 2005--a benefit for Aid for AIDS of Nevada--goes off at Krave on Thursday (Jan. 6; 836-0830). Featured DJ Nineteen69 will be joined by emcees Chi Chi La Rue, Sherry Vine and Sierra Andrews, along with other special guests. Krave, as you may recall, is the new-ish gay-oriented nightclub at the Aladdin that considers itself "straight-friendly." That is, except during Saturday's monthly installment of GirlBar (Jan. 8), the notorious "chix only" night from Los Angeles and Palm Springs. Sorry, dude--you'll have to stick with "Girls Gone Wild" for all that lipstick smearing.

Adult swim

And finally, the Consumer Electronics Show and its attendant Adult Expo are in town Jan. 6-9. Aside from all the electronic fetishes on display at CES's mainstream convention halls--plasma screens and DVD recorders and surround sound video MP3 players--AdultExpo hits with the real naughty stuff, and the city literally bursts at the zippers with sexual energy. We suggest skipping the overwrought Adult Video News Awards show and checking out instead Saturday's Porn Star Ball at Ice Las Vegas, featuring DJs Faarsheed and Scotty Boy. Players who want their options a little more obvious may want to head to Sapphire Gentlemen's Club, where Curiosity--the discreet weekly gathering "for discerning couples"--is sure to be packing them in (Jan. 8; 858-7399).

And if all that sounds just a tad too libertine for your tastes, remember this: It's First Friday time again and downtown's burgeoning arts and culture epicenter would love your support during the cold, hard months of winter. Check on page 44 for an event listing, call 384-0092, or click to www.firstfriday-lasvegas.org. Dig?

Native Las Vegan James P. Reza considers himself more libertarian than libertine, and a true Las Vegan above all. E-mail the author at jpreza@cox.net.