The Bank lights up, Forty Deuce gets down

 

(It amazes me how consistently sketchy the taxis have been this weekend. For example, asking for a receipt gets you a blank form with none of the information required for taxes. Only one taxi driver out of a dozen rides I have taken in the past days has given me a receipt that accurately reflected the ride.)

 

 

The Bank, the new nightclub from Light Group at Bellagio, looks beautiful. As at predecessor Light nightclub, an escalator leads from the entrance to the action inside the Bank. But otherwise it is amazing that 14 weeks after closing Light, such a transformation could have been made to the basic rectangular space.

 

The Bank has three tiers. The owners dug under Light about 8 feet to put the bathrooms below the club, and moved the DJ booth up. The result feels more spacious and allows for a few more of those VIP tables that bring the nightclub scene such profits.

 

At the moment, the club is soft opening, with the big celebrity grand opening set for early next year. The extra time, manager Jodi Myers told me, allows the club to generate buzz while fixing any kinks before the publicity of a big celebrity event.

 

"It is actually a good time to kick off a new club now because you are rolling into the convention season. Pretty much from New Year's Eve until June, there is something going on every weekend. It was very important to open now, because so many people are in town for the holiday and they can experience the Bank. Then as they come over the next few months (to Vegas) for conventions, they are going to know to come back here."

Light set the standard for nightclubs in Vegas 6 years ago when it opened and brought bottle service to Vegas for the first time. The Bank brings the location up to date with places like LAX, Pure and Tao that have all since joined the explosive Strip nightclub scene that Light helped birth and create.

 

But I must admit, the best time I had last night was not at any of the ritzy new nightspots. I had my fun at Forty Deuce at Mandalay Bay. This tiny nightclub consistently has my favorite DJs. Last night the DJ was Benny Black, and he had my exhausted body and sore feet bopping about to his mixes for an hour as I waited for adult film star Tera Patrick to put on her burlesque show.

 

Patrick began at 2:45 a.m. With chef Kerry Simon (CatHouse) and rock-star-turned-porn-director Dave Navarro looking on, Patrick and the Forty Deuce burlesque dancers worked it in a set built around Donna Summer's "Bad Girls." As a dancer, Patrick is not gifted. It is impossible not to notice her lack of grace and confidence. Patrick is a better dancer than I am, but probably not better than you (yes, you, as in everyone reading this).

 

But the choreography made her obvious weakness as a dancer a plus for the burlesque review by working around her limits. Patrick mostly stuck to slow, epic, sweeping gestures that put her in a variety of pinup poses while the Forty Deuce regular crew of professional dancers zipped around and about her. The effect was that the other burlesque dancers became an exquisitely sensual moving frame for Patrick's sex appeal and celebrity to be placed at the center of.  The entire performance was about 15 minutes.

 

In the end, what makes the vibe of a place fun is the people. And last night, Forty Deuce was packed with a crowd that was enjoying every moment in a way that lifted the spirit of the party. Good times.
(Photo by Sarah Gerke)