VEGASinsight Archives

The 2004 V-Day production of The Vagina Monologues at UNLV’s Artemus Ham Hall. (Photo by Craig Gauthier)

Valentine’s Day may have passed already, but a different kind of V-Day is still being celebrated, one that merely requires you either have a vagina or love vaginas. And I’m pretty sure that covers most of us — and for some lucky folks, both apply.

Yes, it’s time once again for the Las Vegas community production of Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues. This benefit production offers only two performances, at 7 p.m. on Friday, March 7 and Saturday, March 8, at Bugsy’s Supper Club (6145 W. Sahara Ave.).

It’s the 10th anniversary of V-Day, the movement founded to raise awareness of violence against women and raise funds to support organizations fighting to end that violence. This year’s national recipient of aid is the Katrina Warriors of Gulf South, and as always, the local beneficiary is the Rape Crisis Center of Southern Nevada.

Tickets for the show are $10 each and can be purchased at either Bugsy’s or the Rape Crisis Center (on the campus of CSN, 6375 W. Charleston Blvd., building B, office 149). All proceeds go to the aforementioned charities, but the warm fuzzies go straight to your heart.

Feelin’ Irie: The Wailers are coming to Green Valley Ranch.

Let’s face it, kids — you’re not going to see Bob Marley anytime soon. I mean, he’s been gone from this realm for nearly three decades now. But as close as you’re going to get to the man’s music — not counting, say, his kids Ziggy or Damian — is by seeing The Wailers, the band best known for backing up the legendary reggae singer.

Well, after selling 250 million records and playing to an estimated 24 million people worldwide, The Wailers have proven their own legacy did not die when cancer claimed the elder Marley’s life. And you can check them out with new singer Elan on Friday, March 21 or Saturday, March 22 at Green Valley Ranch Resort’s Ovation Lounge.

Elan was first discovered in Los Angeles by Wailers guitarist Al Anderson, and first performed with the band in 1997. After a brief leave of absence, Elan rejoined the band. Apparently the ganja was that good.

In between constant touring, The Wailers are working on their first studio album in 15 years, featuring, of course, guest performances from across the musical universe. Get a glimpse of what’s to come at Green Valley Ranch next month. Click here to get tickets, times and leads on other Ovation shows, such as Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and Taylor Dayne. Taylor Dayne? Yikes.

“Trainyard,” by Nicole Yoder

Since opening the Jennifer Marie Gallery inside the Arts Factory (101 E. Charleston Blvd.) last fall, Jennifer Harrington has followed her passion, providing a home for fresh art and upcoming artists. Her gallery was featured in Racket magazine’s art issue in December and has been warmly received by the local art scene. But up until now, the gallery has featured mostly paintings, sculpture and mixed media, but not much by way of photography.

That’s about to change, with the opening of “Kiss” on Thursday March 6. This group show will feature the work of a diverse range of Las Vegas-based photographers, including some unsung heroes and UNLV students and graduates.

“I’m doing a mix of fine artists and some young photographers,” Harrington says. “I really want a show that says something about Las Vegas and the people who live and work here.”

Nightlife photographer Melissa Reese, VURB magazine art director Christopher Smith, UNLV MFA graduate Sam Davis and photographer Nicole Yoder, whose work was featured at the gallery previously in the “Pretty Little Things” exhibit, are among the artists featured in “Kiss.” Harrington said she specifically wanted to feature fine artists alongside working photographers, who typically only get a chance to shoot on assignment. The “Kiss” theme was created just to encourage creativity.

“I called this show ‘Kiss’ so that everyone could have a bit of fun, and make a pretty show to look at,” Harrington says.

The March 6 reception starts at 6 p.m. and the show runs throughout the month. For more information on the exhibit or the gallery, visit the Jennifer Marie Gallery website or call 702-686-3164.

It’s almost March, and that means another month of live music at downtown Las Vegas’ Jillian’s (450 Fremont St.) is about to start. The cream of the crop of March’s bands has to be New York Dolls on Saturday, March 8 at 8 p.m. This 21-over show features the reunited pioneers of New York punk reminding you why, even after 30 years, the Dolls are still unparalleled in rock ‘n’ roll history. We Are the Fury and The Skooners open the show.

Also on tap at Jillian’s in March (all shows are all-ages unless otherwise noted):

The AP Tour, presented by Rockstar, featuring All Time Low, The Rocket Summer, Sonny and Forever the Sickest Kids on Thursday, March 20 at 6 p.m. Every paid ticket receives a free one-year subscription to AP.

Hey Mister, Water Street, Summit Grove, Are The Arsenal, Away We Go! and Anarbor on Saturday, March 1 at 10 p.m.

XPOZ’s Battle Of The Fans with Entro Sickened, As Faith Brings Blood, This Romantic Tragedy, Think and Take Me To Montauk on Wednesday, March 5 at 6 p.m.

Vannacutt, Solid Substance, Avalon Dies and Dantes Inferno on Friday, March 7 at 6 p.m.

XPOZ’s Battle Of The Fans continues with Burning Season, South For The Summer, Hitting On Hannah, Within A moment, Hallow, Emu Lovefest and As He Defeats on Wednesday, March 12 at 6 p.m.

Twiztid, Boondox, Project Born, DJ Clay and Age Ov Reason rock on Friday, March 14 at 6 p.m.

Get happy feet with Guilty By Association, Happy Campers, GFI, Battle Born and Infernal Racket on Saturday, March 15 at 6 p.m.

And on Wednesday, March 19, it’s another installment of XPOZ’s Battle Of The Fans at 6 p.m., featuring Amarionette, Love It or Leave It, Away We Go!, Fist of Troy, Second Chariot, Valhalla and Sixteen Hours Remain.

Call 702-898-5500 or visit Ticketmaster to purchase tickets.

Reasons you should be at the Double Down Saloon (4640 Paradise Road) from 6 to 9 p.m. this Thursday, Feb. 28:

1. There will be live entertainment by DJ Bozo and Szandora the Hula Hoop Chick.

2. You need Ass Juice.

3. Dirk Vermin will be there. And he said so.

4. Toni James will be there. Don’t make him cry and ruin his makeup.

5. The Las Vegas arts community is coming together for “The Funk-Raiser” to raise funds to help offset First Friday founder and Funk House owner Cindy Funkhouser’s medical bills. The art scene pioneer has been battling a rare form of cancer since last year and though she’s pulled through like the fighter she is, her medical expenses have piled up.

Funkhouser, who also co-owns The Fallout gallery with husband Rick Dominguez, is far too proud to ask for help, but her family and friends are banding together to produce this auction to create a fun way to gather some dough to ease her wallet’s strain.

The live auction, emceed by Vermin and James, will feature works donated by local artists such as Mark T. Zeilman, Dray and Tony Bondi, as well as other items such as massages, jewelry, dinners, shows and salon services.

Do you need another reason to be at the Double Down on Thursday night? We didn’t think so.

Concert films can often be a letdown. The entire concept of capturing the experience of a live performance on film or record seems counterintuitive: We go to concerts to engage in a sort-of primal, communal connection with both the music and other concert-goers. It’s not just about seeing your favorite band or artist perform your favorite songs — there is a shared experience, and energy that cannot be replicated, even watching a great concert displayed on your 48-inch plasma, booming through your surround sound speakers.

But U2 3D comes damn close.

This too-short film captures U2’s mammoth Vertigo concert tour, with footage shot in Latin America, including two nights in Buenos Aires and two nights in Mexico City, among others. The arena concerts were shot in real time with state-of-the-art, digital, 3D cameras (developed by 3ality Digital), and the resulting film is the first of its kind (but based on trailers preceding the film, not the last). Though the 3D experience (aided by special glasses almost as funky as those Bono wears through most of the concert) is simply an enhancement to what amounts to a beautifully shot, brilliantly edited concert film, it does make for a convincing “live” feeling.

To be honest, there were a number of times I had to refrain from singing along or applauding between songs during my screening of the film — something that felt so right but might have been socially awkward in the sparsely attended 9 p.m. Sunday showing. Galaxy Theaters have some of the most cutting-edge digital projection and audio systems in the business, and that came through perhaps most effectively with U2 3D. I don’t think I’ve ever heard and seen such crisp, intimate sounds or visuals from a concert film, period. When the Edge and Bono sing dual vocal parts during a quiet refrain, you can hear the nuances in their voices so clearly, and so distinctively hear the Edge to the left of Bono, it’s eerie. When Bono sets off a flare to the far right of the screen, it sounds like someone in the far right of the theater did so (causing me to jump a bit).

U2 3D was directed by Catherine Owens and Mark Pellington, the latter of which has helmed such music videos as Pearl Jam’s “Jeremy,” U2’s “One” and The Fray’s “How to Save a Life.” The attention to musical details (overhead shots of the Edge on keyboards, multiple angles of Larry Mullen, Jr.’s drum kit) is a delight, but so are the digital effects that in hands less talented than Owens and Pellington would just be distracting. Words displayed on the giant video screens behind the band literally leap off the screen toward viewers, at one point becoming psychedelic-colored swirls floating in front of the stage. And though it’s a gimmick that has become overused in commercials, when Bono “draws” in the air glowing figures, it’s a true “ooh” moment.

Of course, the band’s performance is truly the glue that holds all this digital wizardry together. Even knowing U2 3D is edited together from about a dozen different concerts, it smoothly and effortlessly looks, sounds and feels like a singular experience. And running through almost 30 years of the band’s catalog — from early-’80s material such as “New Year’s Day” to Achtung Baby!‘s “One” to newer hits like “Beautiful Day” — there is something for every U2 fan.

U2 3D is only showing for a limited engagement at the Galazy Cannery (2121 E. Craig Rd. in North Las Vegas) through Thursday, Feb. 28. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased at the box office or online at www.galaxytheatres.com. Don’t miss this one — it’s an experience that only the full digital delivery and size of the movie theater can truly deliver.

CityLife, the Las Vegas alt-weekly owned by the decidedly alt-nothing Stephens Media Group (publisher of the Review-Journal), recently launched a new forum for its staffers to unload humorous news commentary upon the unsuspecting public, CityBlog. The blogosphere is not a new territory for the paper — editor Steve Sebelius has ranted in his own CL-hosted blog, Various Things and Stuff, for quite a while now. But CityBlog is the place where all of the publication’s staffers can mind-dump about such topics as politics, nightlife, live music, the Arts District and, uh, necrogasms.

It’s assembled with a somewhat (depending on the writer) tongue-in-cheek tone and uses random photos gathered from the internet to illustrate the sometimes irreverent commentary. We might even add its RSS feed to our Google Reader. But we’ll let you decide what you do with yours. Ahem.

City of the World gallery, located in that quaint blue house on the corner of Colorado Street and Casino Center Boulevard, is calling all artists to submit their works for a series of six juried art exhibits the gallery will host in 2008.

The first theme, for debut at a reception during the March 7 First Friday, is “A Self Portrait” or “One’s Self Visualized.” The submissions for this show should then be works of and from artists about themselves. Any form or medium is welcome. Jury fee is $10 for the first piece and $5 for any additional; deadline for the March show is March 1.

For questions or more information about the juried shows, contact Gina Quaranto at GmachineQ@aol.com or call 702-260-9757. City of the World is located at 1229 S. Casino Center Blvd.

For you local active rock and alt-metal fans who were afraid you’d miss some of your favorite mosh-inducing bands because the Rockstar Taste of Chaos tour was not coming through Las Vegas, you can breathe easy … or mosh hard, or whatever.

Three dates have been added to the 2008 tour, and one of those is the Pearl Concert Theater inside the Palms Resort Casino April 8. Though headliner Avenged Sevenfold will not be performing on the Vegas date, fret not — there is still plenty of guitar-shredding awesomeness: Atreyu, Bullet for My Valentine, Bless the Fall and Idiot Pilot are all part of the lineup, plus special guest Japanese rock bands MUCC, D’espairsray and The Underneath.

Tickets are now on sale, so get a move on, you Hot Topic-shopping maniacs!

Music. Art. The two concepts are nearly inseparable, to the point that one might argue one is simply a subset of the other. Well, you can have that philosophical debate with other art and music lovers at The Fallout on Friday, Feb. 22, when the gallery presents “Play This,” a musically inspired group show.

The opening reception runs from 6 to 9 p.m. that evening, and the show runs through April 4. Featured artists include Mark T. Zeilman, Casey Weldon, Marty Walsh, Tom Pfannerstil, KD Matheson, Jennifer and Brian Henry, Roxy Bisquera, Albert Montoya, Keri Schroeder, Brent Becker, Cristina Paulos, Shan Michael Evans, Jennifer Devereaux and Thirry.

For more information, visit www.thefallout.net or call the gallery at 702-269-3111. The Fallout is located at 1551 S. Commerce St.