A concert promoter here once told me: "Nobody comes to Vegas to do the show of their lives."  Instead, he felt, Vegas is where they come for money. And sometimes I believe that. Bands are well aware that audiences here are notorious for only caring about hits, and then there are all the before-show opportunities to party in Vegas. Slash once confessed to me that a New Year's Eve Vegas show was the only time in his career he walked onstage too incapacitated by drink to really play as well as he should. Generally all these factors add up to a lot of mediocre rock concerts. Then add that it still does not pay to bring concerts like Leonard Cohen (who was playing L.A. this weekend) to Vegas. But then there are moments like Saturday night, which restore my faith in the Strip to create the impossible.  

I can't honestly say Saturday was the greatest rock concert musically I've been at in Vegas, because that honor goes to the White Stripes' aural assault Sept. 20, 2003 at the Hard Rock. But the celebration concert of Perry Farrell's 50th birthday this weekend was far more special than anything I have been lucky enough to witness before: original, totally unrepeatable, unpredictable, fun and, most important, featuring performances in Vegas that no one (even the participants) could ever have expected to hear  together.

The poet John Keats in a letter once described the ability to hold two opposing ideas simultaneously without being disturbed by the contradictions "negative capability." Negative capability is the only phrase  to describe the experience of Perrypalooza. Tickets for general admission were $115 and table reservations started at $2,500, creating an elite, expensively dressed and extremely well groomed audience to gather around the Mirage pool and watch, among other highlights, the Stooges underground classic "Down on the Street" performed with Wayne Kramer of the even more underground MC5 on guitar -- a guitar, by the way, on which were inscribed the words "Arm the Homeless." The singer on "Down on the Street" was Billy Idol, whose roots go back to original British punk band Generation X and the guitar was borrowed by Kramer from Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine.

In short, it was a night of performances by the artists who inspired the hugely influential Jane's Addiction tied to performances by the those influenced by Farrell's first successful band. As the founder of Lollapalooza, Farrell has a list of friends that runs from CBGB punk through hip-hop. The opening act, for example, was up and coming rapper Mickey Avalon. Farrell also worked through his personal history. The first song he played, "Go All the Way (Into the Twilight)" was his latest offering available on "The Twilight" movie soundtrack. And from there came reunions with Porno for Pyros followed by Jane's Addiction. In between, were the guest musicians including, among others, members of Cypress Hill, Matt Sorum, Juliette Lewis, Debbie Harry, Tom Morello and Billy Morrison.The powerhouse night ended as Farrrell held up a bottle of Champagne to toast the audience and the performers during the everyone-on-stage jam version of  "Sympathy for the Devil"  

For more on Perrypalooza, please read my Buffet print column I am writing for April 19 to include  the exclusive backstage interviews I was able to get with many of the participants.

Photos, all by Sarah Gerke: Top, Perry Farrell. Above, everybody onstage for the end of the concert. Below, top to bottom: Juliette Lewis, Matt Sorum and Billy Idol, Debbie Harry, Dave Navarro, Tom Morello, Porno for Pyros, Sen Dog. 

I could not make the VIP opening of Terry Fator's show at Mirage on Saturday. I will check out the show and review it for you soon. I actually seemed not to grasp how big a deal the event was. After all, the replacement of impressionist Danny Gans (who went to Encore) with ventriloquist/impressionist Fator (who came from Las Vegas Hilton) appeared very typical of the play-it-safe mentality of the times. Apparently, the grand opening for Fator was attended by many and the performance  provoked a range of reactions among local media. Joe Brown, in the Las Vegas Sun calls Fator "aggressively innocuous," adding of one section:

"One of Fator’s bigger set pieces is based on 'Bad'-period Michael Jackson, with a breathy-voiced Fator clad in red leather jacket, looking more like Weird Al. His fey, simpering Jackson duets with the cowboy puppet on Garth Brooks' 'Friends in Low Places,' and while the incongruity of the styles and voices is truly funny, the Jackson jokes could qualify for 'Antiques Road Show.'"

On his blog, Vegas Happens Here, reporter and columnist Steve Friess essentially concurs, offering of the same bit:

"And some of Fator's current content is, in a word, lame. As a comedian, Fator hits mostly well-beaten softballs. For whatever reason he feels Michael Jackson needs yet one more round of mockery, the sequence is all of the obvious stuff you've heard a zillion times: The weird thing with little kids, the plastic surgery, the voice, the crotch-grabbing, the light skin. How difficult is it to make an audience giggle at this stuff? If you were presenting a new show on the Strip in Vegas, would this hackneyed material be a central portion of your act?"

Still, the Review-Journal's Doug Elfman writes far more positive experience of the opening night:

"Just like that, Terry Fator is a new standard on the Strip. On Saturday night, he put on a crowd-pleasing show for an invitation-only crowd of media elites and Vegas insiders. Afterward, they were all happy. This is very important for Las Vegas."

Fator is also the subject of a profile in Las Vegas Weekly (where I am on staff).

Have any of you seen the show yet? Thoughts?

I find it interesting the amount of attention the show received considering how mundane the topic is -- a new puppet-wielding ventriloquist show. The scaled-back ambition of entertainment in Vegas these days is obvious. Unlike a Cirque show or the Broadway shows, the national medial did not show up to review Fator in large groups. But I think locally there was a real hunger for more entertainment options on the Strip. The best shows in town have all been open for quite a while, and many of the better new shows (including most of the Broadway shows) closed. Fator's show offered a chance to cover a headliner's new effort even if it was an already locally known headliner. We used to get many of those openings. But in Vegas there is a lot less happening these days.

Photo: Getty Images

As you walk in from the parking garage at the Mirage, there is a sign inviting you to see their newest "wild child," Java, the leopard cub. He was born Nov. 19 and made his public debut for photography media Wednesday. As Buffet photographer Sarah Gerke watched, Java tackled stuffed-animal versions of the white tigers and dolphins who share his home at Siegfried & Roy's Secret Garden at the casino.

Photo: Sarah Gerke

"America's Got Talent" winner Terry Fator has been getting a lot of attention for his show at the Hilton. Now that the Mirage is packing impressionist Danny Gans off to the Wynn, resort executives are left with an empty theater. The usual corporate solution is not available since the Mirage already has a Cirque show with "Love." So faced with the challenge of a fresh decision in entertainment the brain trust, it seems, has decided to replace an impressionist with a ventriloquist/impressionist.

So, as Danny Gans leaves, then enters the era of Terry Fator. I am trying to confirm details with MGM Mirage now. In the meantime, here is a YouTube video I looked up of Fator before fame found him doing an impression of future fellow Strip headliner Cher with the aid of an audience volunteer. Have I mentioned what a lame period this is for Vegas entertainment?