Vegas cools off, heats up
August 21, 2007 | 10:43
am
The miserable heat is still here everyday in that space between the garage and the valet at a resort that I hear others call "outdoors." But Las Vegas is within a few weeks again of the days keeping mostly under 100 degrees. This means that summer renovations and preparations are nearly complete and Las Vegas is about to ramp up again with new events, places to go, places to eat, shows to see and, of course, always new nightclubs. The gaps in our tourist season used to be more pronounced. That is less so than ever, as these days Las Vegas' slow season still has plenty of activity.
This summer in particular, pool parties and tops-optional pools both reached the next level in terms of popularity. The pool event parties right now are like the nightclub scene was here a few years ago. That is not a coincidence. Many days publicists send me a list of celebrities who were at the pool parties, and they are usually the same names from the nightclubs. Over this past weekend both K-Fed and Brody Jenner were spotted at the Hard Rock's Rehab pool party on Sunday. One reason for the overlap is that it is the nightclubs that have been brought into manage the pool clubs, as they are called. Venus Pool club, for example, is run by Pure Management Group, who also runs Pure nightclub. Venus Pool Club expects to stay open through October. Next year, they again plan to overlap with "the summer season."
But even outside the cool kids, this ostensibly slow weekend reminded me that Vegas is really never slow anymore. On any given Saturday it is impressive to consider just how many generations Vegas constantly caters to in a variety of ways. Certainly tabloid fodder and rock stars and young Hollywood are what kept Vegas in the news this weekend. But that isn't necessarily what fills seats most nights. This Saturday was no exception. Saturday was a a great night to be in Vegas for anyone reared on '70s guitar rock (and thus likely to be the sort of person at an age where you have never heard of Brody Jenner and couldn't care less). Zappa Plays Zappa pulled almost 1,000 people to the House of Blues at Mandalay Bay to hear Zappa's knotty and brilliant compositions offered up by a band augmented by alumni of Zappa's old bands and family members. That left enough '70s guitar rock fans in Vegas to also pack the Hard Rock to see Deep Purple. The funny thing is that neither the late Frank Zappa nor Purple's best-known guitar player, Ritchie Blackmore, were playing that night; yet the tourist audience was still plentiful in Vegas for both shows in the hot days of summer. These sort of summer classic rock shows used to primarily by geared for locals in the sort of big bashes thrown by radio stations. That no longer happens and hasn't for yeas. One reason: There are now enough tourists and venues that every classic rock band can find a lucrative gig in the resort corridor.
But, though harder than ever to tell, this really is the slow season. Slow just has become a very relative thing in Las Vegas right now. With summer ending, Vegas will soon make weekends like this past one seem like a crawl looking for action. I can feel the pace change. Later this week I am checking out Tony Danza, who has just arrived to star in "The Producers" at Paris. It was one of six press events I have this week to check out new offerings in Vegas of one sort or another. Then two nightclubs open August 31 (LAX at Luxor and Blush at Wynn). Just over a week later, the MTV Video Music Awards at Palms will bring the marquee event to Vegas for the first time. Events connected to that alone include a three-day celebration of Rolling Stone's 40th Anniversary Party at Hard Rock.
So, though less true than in the past, it remains the case that when the pools begin to close down here it is the sign that Vegas is beginning to heat up.
photo by Gina Ferazzi/LAT
