VEGASinsight Archives

Trackademics lives in an animated world, just like us.

There’s just not enough good hip-hop clubs in Las Vegas. No, really — we’re not talking about that Jay-Z-50 Cent-Ludacris stuff that the weak-ass DJs at the mainstream nightclubs play — we mean music that gets your ass shaking without inducing flashbacks of automatic weapons, women getting bitch-slapped or shiny gold grills.

Well, for one night a month, Beauty Bar (517 Fremont St.) is being transformed into an urban music oasis when Hi-Fidelity takes over the downtown hot spot. Hearkening back to those Hypercolored days of “House Party,” Hi-Fidelity is all about fly music and fresh looks. Featuring a different featured performer each month, the party also offers DJs Slimm, Green and Frizzle spinning soul, funk, hip-hop, lo-fi, house and other tasty styles of music, as well as drink specials, event photos and a “Your Royal Flyness” competition, with contestants competing for streetwear, featured placement on fliers and the web and, of course, respect.

The kick-off is tomorrow, Tuesday, April 15, at 10 p.m., with a performance by Trackademics and The Honor Roll. There’s no cover, and ladies showing up before 11:30 p.m. enjoy special prices on libations. The only dress code is to bring your personal style in spades.

Option 1: Picture of skinny white guys with shaggy hair. Option 2: Hot chick in band T-shirt. Yeah, that was a tough choice.

How popular are these “Say What?!” parties that Indiekrush.com and Mojorepublik.com put on? Well, let’s just say we’re really glad it appeared most attendees showered before crowding into Beauty Bar for the last installment a few weeks ago. The electro-rocking party series returns to ye olde Salon of Beauty at 517 Fremont St. on Saturday, April 19. On the outdoor stage behind the bar, check out Los Angeles disco-rockers Funeral Party, along with One Pin Short, Novelty Act and Slow Children, while inside, providing a soundtrack for your 10-minute bar wait, Nitecells, Grimehaus, ABOM, Noel and VaJayJay will rock the dirty electro, nu-rave and indie tunes.

As usual, expect live painting, both on canvas and on hot, naked bodies, a photo booth from DML photography and in a twist we fully support, a free keg on the dance floor. It all starts at 10 p.m., with $3 well drinks from 10 to 11 p.m. There’s no cover at the door, but it’ll cost you $5 to see the bands out back – unless there’s some last minute lineup change as there was with the Black Angels show, in which case, the price is subject to change.

(Courtesy SteveAoki.com)

You have to respect DJ Steve “Kid Millionaire” Aoki: Not only is he a bomb-dropping wizard behind the wheels of steel, but he’s also the head of an independent record label, Dim Mak, which has some of today’s hottest indie bands on its roster: Bloc Party, The Icarus Line, The Kills among them. OK, so Dim Mak has also expanded into apparel, but it’s some funky, colorful hipster wear, with the Artist Series designs redefining the concept of “band T-shirt.”

So the thought of this Los Angeles-based beat-rocker doing a DJ set at Pure nightclub inside Caesars Palace is slightly unsettling. I mean, I’ve seen Aoki in a Vegas club setting before, but at Pure it seems his expert mixing of well-selected tunes will be wasted on a crowd drunken on $15 cocktails, more interested in who’s in the VIP booth than who’s in the DJ booth.

But if you’re willing to brave the meatheads and Barbie dolls at Pure on Tuesday, April 1, it will almost be worth it to hear what Aoki throws down. Just be sure to ask for a receipt when that doorman tries to charge you an extra Grant to get in the club. It might help both of you out in the long run.

Two hot chicks. One awesome band.

We can’t keep up with these hip kids. They come up with new party ideas every week, it seems, and they’re all designed to maximize the obfuscation as to their true purposes. Well, Los Angeles’ largest weekly indie and electro party, The Heist, is smashing headfirst into Las Vegas’ own Say What?! this Saturday, March 29 at the Beauty Bar (517 Fremont St.) at 10 p.m.

Austin, Tex.’s The Black Angels will headline the band lineup on the outdoor stage, which also includes Los Angeles’ The Start, Atlanta’s City Sleeps and our own Hello Astro. DJ VaJayJay will fill in the space between bands outside, while inside the bar, DJs Hyphy Crunk and Score from The Heist will join Say What?! residents Grimehaus, ABOM and Noel.

Expect other madness such as performance art, live painting, body painting, a screening of the movie Blade, and some sort of Buffalo Exchange-sponsored Stunna Shade contest. Cover is free for the bar, $5 if you want the bands in the back (and why wouldn’t you?) and well drinks are only $3 from 10 p.m. to midnight. Sounds like a Saturday night plan to us.

Left: Photography by Chris Waters. Right: Painting by Brent Becker.

We already know all the cool kids will be in downtown Las Vegas for the monthly First Friday proceedings on April 4. Though many of you like to skip the arts festival and go straight to the after-parties (you know who you are), you might want to try balancing those Jager shots with some culture.

VEGASinsight recommends checking out “Waiting,” the solo show of photographer Chris Waters’ work at Jennifer Marie Gallery (Arts Factory, 101 E. Charleston Blvd., #205). If photography’s not your thing, but slappin’ paint on canvas is, head over to MTZC (Commerce Street Studios, 1551 S. Commerce St.) for the first solo show by Brent Becker, “(CON)temporary (DIS)connect.” There is an opening reception for Waters’ show on Thursday, April 3 from 6 to 8 p.m. if you want to get a sneak peak before fighting your way through a thicket of eyeliner-drenched emo kids on First Friday.

Speaking of kids, the hipsters of The In Crowd and Indiekrush.com are providing an all-ages outlet for booty-shaking inside the Attic (1018 S. Main St.) at 9 p.m. with Infamous: The Masquerade. This dance party features DJs Bul!m!atron, Teen Wolf, Autobahn, ABOM, Va Jay Jay, and Geno spinning dirty eelctro, nu-rave and bangers. Cover is only $5 before 10 p.m., $7 after. (more…)

Well, not quite … but here’s a very interesting video about the Fremont East nightlife scene starring some of its most popular faces:

This Friday you could do whatever typical Vegas drinking/clubbing/sex toy partying thing it is you normally do to inaugurate your weekend … OR you could immerse yourself in something really sexy: CULTURE.

“Noise” — the semi-regular live painting/music/hippie fest held inside the Aruba Hotel’s Thunderbird Lounge (1215 Las Vegas Blvd. S.) — is hosting a special, themed event, “Day of the Dead,” this Friday night at 10 p.m. Yes, it’s two weeks after the actual dia le los muertos. Whatever, don’t get technical.

There will be spoken word, a drum circle, live music by The Experimental Freakshow with The Touch, and art by a whole slew of folks, including Gina Quaranto, Jada Fire and Katlyn Breene. There will also be a special slide show/altar set up to honor dead loved ones, featuring images submitted by “Noise” attendees.

The “Noise” people are also asking for canned food and sleeping bag donations for Las Vegas Peace Project and Project Purpose.

Oh, yes, and I’m sure you can drink and fornicate and whatever else you enjoy doing as well. Well, save the fornication for AFTER the event. Maybe get a room at the Aruba. I highly recommend it.

And a thanks to Chris Snethen for linking to my Killers rant from yesterday on his excellent blog, The Vig. Hope that Sam’s Town taste washes out soon.

I have a love-hate relationship with The Killers. I loved Hot Fuss, despite whatever middling review I gave it in the Las Vegas Weekly. That disc lived in my car for a long time. But I was very disappointed with Sam’s Town, probably because the band’s drastic change in sound seemed forced, not organic as I think they expected it to appear. The sophomore songs did grow on me after seeing them performed live a few times, but I still do not have Sam’s Town and that’s fine.

What’s odd is that the band’s B-sides, bonus tracks and unreleased songs in the interim seem to be my favorites. I have a collection of gems such as “Where Is She” and “Where the White Boys Dance” that always seemed, to me, more worthy than half the material on Sam’s Town.

Well, now The Killers have released Sawdust, a collection of those rarities, B-sides and other stuff sitting around the band’s vault. And, after listening to a song I’d not previously heard (the Sam’s Town bonus track “All the Pretty Face”), my belief that this material is much more favorable to my ears is reinforced.

If you’d like to discover for yourself and live in Las Vegas, head to Tao inside the Venetian at 11 p.m. tonight, where Vinyl Wednesdays is hosting a release party for Sawdust. The MADaM crew is giving away copies of the disc and other Killers swag, the Bargain DJ Collective is spinning and there will be local art. So your only excuse for not going is because your mom said “no.”

Despite his best efforts, AWOL Productions‘ Chad Craig is being forced to relocate Friday’s 10th annual Devil’s Night Halloween-themed rave from Alexis Park Resort to Empire Ballroom.

“Well, our hands are tied,” Craig wrote in an e-mail sent Saturday morning. “Moving … to Empire Ballroom is the logical and safest guarantee we will have a packed event.”

The party—featuring a headlining DJ set by the Crystal Method—was originally going to be an 18-over affair, spread out across Alexis Park’s pool, convention center, bars and more. At Empire Ballroom, however, Devil’s Night will be limited to those 21 and over.

“We are VERY SORRY to the thousands of under 21 who made plans to attend this year,” Craig wrote. “We will try and come up with something in the next few months. These circumstances are completely out of our control and there just was not enough time to find and permit a [sic] 18 and over venue.”

Unlike past events that faced location, permitting and noise pollution dilemmas, the 2007 edition looked as though it would be safely located at Alexis Park, which has been hosting a number of parties and special events lately, including a rooftop and poolside National Coming Out Day festival.

But as seems to be the continuing plague and curse of rave promoters (indeed, of all-ages club promoters as well) in Las Vegas, the Alexis Park location fell through due to a dizzying maze of permitting problems and miscommunication between the promoter, venue and county officials.

Last year’s Devils Night, held at the Fort Cheyenne Casino in North Las Vegas, was shut down by police due to noise complaints. There is no chance of that happening at Empire Ballroom. As well, Craig says the powers-that-be at Empire acquiesced to a list of 49 conditions he requested for successful execution of the event, including keeping the dance floor free of seating, discounting drink prices, reducing valet fees and amending the venue’s sound with AWOL’s own equipment.

“We promise there will be more room and more heart, love and soul being put into this event than anything you are used too [sic] in the day to day club market,” Craig wrote.

Reports confirmed by John “Ducky” Slaughter of M.A.D.a.M. indicate that “Flux Fridays” at the Stratosphere’s four-room nightclub Polly Esthers is ending. Johnnie Rox and his crew — who previously held a long residence with their popular “Rawkerz” Saturday night parties at Beauty Bar — are now moving to, according to Slaughter, a new home at a “locals venue with [a] stage for bands.”

Isn’t that what they had at Beauty Bar?

However, the planned performance by indie-electro group Datarock at Polly Esthers this Friday is still on. See flier below for details.