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Contents 6W as we see it First Friday
24W noise Albums from
is coming back smaller, yet has some growing pains to address ... Going beyond “like” on Facebook (“wow”). What MGM’s Park can learn from Caesars’ Linq.
Rihanna, DIIV, Lucinda Williams and Eric Prydz. Should you listen?
starring an actual douche bag.
10W Feature | welcome
26W fine art The art of our
to the neighborhood The Westside is a cultural touchstone with an important past and a future with “limitless possibilities.”
ordinary castoffs, on Polaroid.
16W Feature | what to make of black history month Asking the community if the observance is needed, relevant and manifesting its purpose. neighborhood by mikayla whitmore
25W the strip Spoofical,
28W sports The Manning of the hour, plus Big Game hot spots.
30W food & drink Inside the ’70s spaceship of Mr Chow. Glorious heat at Chengdu Taste. 32W calendar What to do!
19W A&E Apocalypse, French drama and slacklining onscreen at the Dam Short Film Festival.
20W screen The Coen bros. give us a gorgeous lampoon of old Hollywood, while another movie is making Jane Austen roll over in her grave (and possibly eat people).
Cover PHOTOGRAPH/ Las Vegas Sun Archives Photo illustration by jon estrada
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AsWeSeeIt N e w s + C u lt u r e + S t y l e + M o r e
> NEIGHBORHOOD DIVIDE Downtown business owners have expressed concerns over First Friday’s footprint shift.
18b street shuffle ∑ “First Friday happens wherever
someone does something interesting on that day,” says Joey Vanas, executive director of the festival’s newly formed foundation. That sentiment reflects not only a broad interpretation of the 15-year-old tradition, but how First Friday happens—for galleries, suburban high-schoolers, Downtowners—when it’s not officially happening. Such was the circumstance over the past few months in the 18b Arts District, when organizers mothballed the fest due to low funds and, more importantly, a reorganization in the wake of First Friday LLC donating its assets to a new nonprofit. The 17-member First Friday Foundation is now tasked with making the operation solvent and more efficient and spur-
Get reactive
∑ Not so great with words? No worries. Soon, you won’t have to “like” your friends’ bad news on Facebook. Though you won’t be able to “dislike” things either—seriously, when can we get that button?!—the Palo Alto social-media titan will soon debut six “reactions,” allowing its 1 billion users to respond to posts with
6W LasVegasWeekly.com February 4-10, 2016
not only “like” but “love,” “haha,” “wow,” “sad” and “anger.” Ireland and Spain will test the emojis before they roll out to other markets with possible tweaks. Disappointingly, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg says a “dislike” button is too negative and not being considered, to which we react: “wow, sad.” –Kristy Totten
Amoroso’s latter concern, saying First Friday “does not communicate properly,” which endangers unity between the community and the foundation. But he doesn’t fret over the notion of official and unofficial First Friday happenings, mostly because it worked before near his business, when Derek Stonebarger (then with Theatre 7) pulled his own permits. “We had a pod of activity, it brought people over,” Walker says. “It was very grassroots, very independent and better than corporate oversight and programming.” Initial speed bumps will be solved and give way to a more consistent and sustainable First Friday, asserts Eden Art Studio and Gallery co-founder Justin Lepper, who also serves on the 18b and foundation boards. “The goal is to make everyone feel more included,” he says. “The businesses will have a different opinion after we run this for three months.”–Mike Prevatt
photograph by steve marcus
Facebook is extending our emotions beyond “like”
ring community engagement—which means changes, some of which will bear out during the festival’s “Back to Our Future” return on February 5. How those adjustments will be received by the community, especially the ever-evolving Arts District, is uncertain. Though the foundation has garnered additional sponsors, the official festival still requires a downscaling of production and expenses. As such, a shrunken footprint now encompasses the area around Art Square just north of Charleston Boulevard. Galleries and businesses south of it wanting to produce an event must arrange and pay for any street closures, infrastructure and entertainment—which First Friday used to do while other entities piggybacked, according to Vanas. But the
development could also divide the neighborhood during the event, and worsen any disconnect between some Downtowners and First Friday. Roxie Amoroso of Exile on Main Street boutique worries her First Friday-related events and her business—including Cowtown Guitars, co-owned by her husband Jesse—will suffer as a result of the footprint shift. She says her typical walk-in customer is the type who drives from Summerlin for First Friday, then discovers Exile. “That woman might not be exposed now to Main Street because First Friday has been moved. … It’s not fair that we pay elevated rent based on the crowds First Friday would bring when it used to be down here.” Amoroso adds that there’s a lack of communication from First Friday, especially regarding its schedule. Photo Bang Bang owner and 18b board member Curtis Walker shares
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AS WE SEE IT… T H E I N C I D E N TA L TO U R I ST
> SECOND ANCHOR The Park will also incorporate Monte Carlo’s renovated theater.
NO WALK IN THE PARK What MGM’s forthcoming pedestrian retail development can learn from the Linq BY BROCK RADKE Lost in the booming buildup around the impending arrival of the T-Mobile Arena on the Las Vegas Strip (and the pay-to-park furor it inspired) is the fast-approaching opening of the Park. What is the Park? It’s a simple name for an exciting development, MGM Resorts’ dining and entertainment district running between the New York-New York and Monte Carlo hotel-casino properties and connecting Las Vegas Boulevard to the arena. The late-January announcement of its April 4 debut was full of typical hyperbole and platitudes—the odd-but-Iguess-accurate boast of creating the Strip’s first park, and numerous mindnumbing descriptors like “neighborhood environment,” “authentic oasis,” “diverse social spaces” and “connective tissue.” What are we talking about here? It’s a place where people can walk and buy stuff, eat and drink and be entertained. It’s like the Strip, only shorter and with more trees. Another way to look at the Park is to compare it to the Linq, even if that’s not recommended by respective developers, MGM Resorts and Caesars Entertainment. They might not match up when considering the anchors of each project. The Park will have the $375 million, 20,000seat arena and Monte Carlo’s 5,000seat concert venue; the Linq has the 550-foot, $550 million High Roller observation wheel and the sprawling 80,000-square-foot Brooklyn Bowl concert venue. But both seek
IN BRIEF
to capitalize on the Strip’s mighty foot traffic; both endeavor to generate nongaming income for casino companies using spaces that had not yet been monetized; and both will end up evolving their adjacent properties. (The Linq Promenade eventually converted the Imperial Palaceturned-Quad resort into the Linq, and MGM has all but promised a rebranding of the Monte Carlo.) Bob Morse joined Caesars Entertainment as president of hospitality one month after the Linq Promenade opened, in the spring of 2014. He wasn’t involved in conceptualizing the outdoor, pedestrian-oriented retail thoroughfare that was once a delivery alley between Imperial Palace and the Flamingo, but he knows the vision of the promenade was at the forefront of the Strip’s nongaming business trend. “It’s been turned into something that has become a must-see, must-do when you come to Vegas,” he says. Indeed, the High Roller wheel, $26.95 during the day or $36.95 at night for a 30-minute revolution, is
PRIDE TIME Southern Nevada Association of Pride, Inc. recently announced it will shift Las Vegas Pride weekend from midSeptember to a potentially cooler October 21-23—the same dates as the locally hosted World Gay Rodeo Finals. While the traditional night parade will remain Downtown and on Friday night, the festival will expand to two days (Saturday and Sunday) and move from the Clark County Government Center Amphitheater to Sunset Park, where the first outdoor Pride rally took place in 1984. Also announced: Former Assemblyman James Healey is now SNAPI president, a role he first served in 2003-2004. –Mike Prevatt
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becoming a go-to for local Las Vegans to take tourist friends or family when in town—the true measure of a favorite Vegas attraction. (Caesars declined to provide statistics on how many riders the wheel has seen, but Morse said it’s “the No. 1 attraction by far” compared to similar Strip stops like Madame Tussauds wax museum or the Stratosphere’s rides.) The Happy Half Hour promotion, basically turning your High Roller cabin into a bar, has boosted the wheel’s popularity. A handful of the restaurants, bars and stores along the Linq Promenade have turned over, but overall, Morse says Caesars is very happy with its performance. “The High Roller has been very successful for us financially, and it acts as an attraction to get a whole bunch of people to do nothing else but walk up and down the promenade,” he says. “Looking at all the revenue produced there and looking at the cost to develop it, it’s been a great success.” Caesars has been active in making changes and additions to the promenade. More venues offer live
WOOT FOR WESTERN! Western High defeated Sierra Vista January 22 in CCSD’s Varsity Quiz district finals, winning its first league championship since 1971. The school’s academic quiz bowl team’s success is noteworthy not only because of that long hiatus, but also because of Western’s recent academic history. In 2011 CCSD identified it as one of the district’s lowestperforming “turnaround” schools, a distinction it has since shed. To boot, the team recently got invited to the national academic quiz championship, scheduled for May in Dallas. To that we say: Go Warriors! –Mark Adams
entertainment. A High Roller ticketing kiosk was recently converted into a Strip-front office where you can get information, make reservations and buy tickets to events at any Caesars property, and recently announced restaurants on the way include Virgil’s Real BBQ and a Gordon Ramsay fish and chips joint. “We’re constantly trying to reinvent ourselves,” Morse says. If MGM’s Park can learn anything from the progress of the Linq, it’s that the experience provided must continue to change—not that this is something hospitality execs need to be told. That’s the whole point of the Park, and the Linq, to provide Vegas visitors with something different from the casino-centered vacation that has always been associated with the Strip. But you have to wonder, when looking at the roster of venues planned for the Park—a beer garden, a party sushi spot, Bruxie gourmet waffles from Orange County, California Pizza Kitchen—how long it will be before this something different starts to feel something like the same.
GO GREEN UNLV has launched a new bystander-intervention program called Green Dot, aimed at training students and faculty about reducing violence and sexual assault and “how to intervene in high-risk situations.” Office of Violence Against Women program manager Lisa McAllister says the hope is to change cultural attitudes surrounding power-based personal violence. The program includes six hours of training and teaches students and staff strategies to decrease violent situations on campus and off. Students can request a presentation for their class by emailing unlvgreendot@unlv.edu. –Leslie Ventura
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Welcome to the Westside
The legacy and vibrant life of a historic Las Vegas neighborhood By Kristen Peterson
Photographs by Mikayla Whitmore
> TALKING CHANGE Longtime resident Pastor William McCurdy stands outside the Town Tavern, discussing the neighborhood.
I
t’s quiet at the corner of Jackson Avenue and F Street, where empty lots and vacant buildings define the historic landscape. A man rides by on his bicycle. A car occasionally passes through the intersection, and a security guard sits down on a chair outside the old New Town Tavern. Pastor William McCurdy pulls up to check on renovations inside the tavern, slated to become a casino named the Tokyo. The dilapidated apartments across F Street are coming down, he says, for a new parking garage. We look south and settle our eyes on the Historic Westside sign on the F Street underpass, the outcome of a contentious freeway-widening project that for six years blocked F Street with a concrete wall, severing it from Downtown and echoing a tumultuous history of segregation. McCurdy has lived in this area most of his life. He points to a building that used to be the Jackson Community Center, where he played as a kid, and to the next block over, where there once was a bowling alley. “I’ve seen it in its glory days. I’ve seen the decline,” he says. “I want it to be revitalized. I want to see people be employed. I want to see homes built. You need rooftops to support businesses. It’s very important that we have the same amenities as they do across town.” Segregation built this neighborhood. Desegregation led to its decline. And architecture tells the story. In the 1930s, African Americans were pushed to the Westside as business licenses
were no longer issued to them elsewhere. Projects like the Hoover Dam brought workers from all over the country, including the South, where segregation was a way of life. Residents lacked amenities and adequate housing, but the growing community built up the neighborhood, turning Jackson Avenue into a bustling hub of businesses and nightclubs like the Brown Derby and the Cotton Club. The area drew celebrities white and black, from Frank Sinatra to Eartha Kitt. “At one time the Westside was the sole black community—the only area where African Americans could live,” says Claytee White, director of UNLV’s Oral History Research Center, who would like to see that history recognized and celebrated for its uniqueness and past limitations, along with the foundation it provides for the “limitless possibilities of the future.”
Longtime residents remember how desegregation allowed African Americans to live and work elsewhere in the Valley. The core population took a hit, but the Westside is still vibrant. “It is the black cultural hub, where churches are still attended by over 18,000 blacks on Sunday mornings,” White says, adding that ideas from the redevelopment taking place a halfmile away Downtown could be transferred across the tracks, “making this area viable again in this new era.”
The Plan At UNLV’s Downtown Design
Center, director Steven Clarke discusses renderings of the Westside, part of the HUNDRED Plan, an acronym for Historic Urban Neighborhood Design Redevelopment. It originated in
2014, when Councilman Ricki Barlow approached the Design Center about revitalizing the Westside. Clarke, who took over the arm of the School of Architecture that year, inherited the plan funded through the Las Vegas Historic Preservation Commission’s Centennial Legacy Grant. He learned there were five Westside redevelopment plans on the shelf, one a largely academic in-house study he reworked to include input from residents, about 200 attending an intensive planning meeting over three days. Clarke and a team of architecture students, faculty and local and international design consultants listened to the community. On provided name tags, attendees were asked to write one word describing what the Westside meant to them. The most common word was home, “whether they lived there or not.” “The historic Westside is a community that’s full of passion. They have a lot to say about their community,” Clarke says. “It wasn’t just people who lived in the area but people who had a stake in the community, African Americans who had lived there, and people who’d left because they could.” The HUNDRED vision sees Washington Avenue becoming the entertainment corridor celebrating the African American experience; a stepping stone to Downtown. Jackson Avenue would thrive again, bookended by Jackson Memorial Park and Plaza and the Walker African American Museum. Housing design would reference the community’s historical landscape. “The Westside is so unique and
february 4-10, 2016 LasVegasWeekly.com
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> THE COLLECTOR Gwen Walker, founder of the Walker African American Museum.
so different from other parts of the city,” Clarke says. “It has its own architecture and building typologies. There are opportunities for innovations in urban downtown living. People think density means towers.” This plan favors cottage clusters, and nothing more than three stories. “We’re currently working with Councilman Barlow and the City of Las Vegas to transition the HUNDRED Plan to the City,” Clarke says. “Our hope is to have the plan grafted as part of the Vision Las Vegas Downtown 2035 Plan.” City Council approval would give the HUNDRED official status and help guide economic investment in the Westside, something UNLV’s Claytee White sees as advantageous for all of Las Vegas. “The redevelopment of Downtown shows that our tourists are more sophisticated than we thought,” she says. “This is an area that is equally rich in potential. The cultural arts center/library is the core of the community, allowing plays, poetry sessions of all types, arts exhibits, readings and celebrations. Those celebrations could eventually spill over into the revitalized Jackson Avenue corridor, bringing in tourist dollars and sharing Westside history.”
The Collector There was a time when Gwen
Walker hit thrift shops, antique stores,
yard sales and swap meets incognito. Local papers had been writing about her, and she didn’t want sellers recognizing her and jacking up prices. She’d been on a bender, buying anything that had anything to do with black people: paintings, old newspapers, statues, books, postcards, consumer products, photos of black models in print ads and a Michael Jackson doll. Politics, business, sports, education, pop culture. Not just Americans—Russian writer Alexander Pushkin and French author Alexandre Dumas. “Anything that has a black face, was written by blacks or African Americans or written about blacks or African Americans.” Walker will even request a magazine in her doctor’s office if there’s an African American
12W LasVegasWeekly.com February 4-10, 2016
on the cover, or settle for a photo copy. Her life’s work is a perfect art project evolving with the calendar—a collection where African Americans aren’t absent, remedying a situation from her youth. Assigned a school report on black history at age 13, she couldn’t find the necessary resources in her school library. This, despite growing up in a predominantly African American community adjacent to the Westside. A world opened up when her mother bought her the Negro Heritage Library—an inspiration and a great resource, she says, for someone who wasn’t being taught contributions by African Americans in school, save for Black History Month, “the shortest month of the year.”
Her Walker African American History Museum sits in a small house on West Van Buren Avenue. It opened in the ’90s, after collecting became Walker’s drive. She’d quit smoking and used her saved cigarette money to hit yard sales, not planning at first to display her bounty. She doesn’t know how much she has, because she never stopped collecting. Unfortunately, 90 percent of that vast collection is temporarily stored elsewhere. There have been burst pipes, floods and break-ins, but Walker’s plan remains undeterred. Her mother owns two parcels where the museum sits, and they want to buy a third. Either way, the HUNDRED Plan has the museum anchoring Jackson Avenue. “My love for finding about our history made me proud and our children proud,” says Walker, whose Black Pioneers of Nevada publication is at the West Las Vegas Library. “I used to go with suitcases to churches and recrooms and talk about the importance of preserving our heritage. We’re hoping to build a permanent facility, if not here where we are, then wherever God puts us so that legacy lives on.”
Cultural Core The West Las Vegas Arts Center
is hopping on a Saturday afternoon, an improvisational composition of rhythm and motion. Cars move through the full
lots, engines humming, doors opening and closing. Conversations buzz around the campus as basketballs pound the nearby courts. This is the cultural epicenter of West Las Vegas. Inside, artist John Trimble is greeting guests for the opening of his new exhibit The Hues of Souls. Jazz music in the gallery is met with drums in the dance room, young bodies moving to the spontaneous syncopation. Staff members, darting from room to room, stop to answer questions, chat and offer directions, but pretty much everyone knows where they’re going. Launched in 1995, this is the center for discussion groups, cultural events, readings, dance classes, rites of passage—whatever serves the community. The night before Trimble’s opening, Dr. Tiffany Tyler led a discussion as part of an educational and cultural series. Today, appetizers fill the table. The upright piano is covered with patterned fabric, and Trimble is talking about “Choir Practice,” a piece he finished after meeting black artist Synthia Saint James, whose work was featured on The Cosby Show. It hangs near a painting of Spyro Gyra from when the jazz fusion band played at Jazz in the Park. Jazz inspires his work, he says, surrounded by paintings in bold colors of beach scenes and jazz musicians. Around the corner on J Street, families and clusters of kids pour out of Doolittle Community Center carrying trophies while basketball games take place in the gymnasiums inside. It’s one big campus coming together, the West Las Vegas Arts Center, the West Las Vegas Theater, the West Las Vegas Library and the long-standing Doolittle. Marcia Robinson, who heads the arts center, grew up in East St. Louis, Illinois, received her MFA from University of California San Diego and has a doctorate in education from UNLV. The former dancer in Hallelujah Hollywood! at the MGM Grand and Jubilee has been director since the center opened. She emphasizes mentoring, given her experience with African American choreographer Katherine Dunham. “Our program is socialization through the arts. As Katherine Dunham says, I see it as taking the edges off their lives and trying to channel them into ways of thinking and behaving that will help them in other parts of the world,” Robinson says. “I’m one of those young people.”
Preservation The telling of Las Vegas’ story
isn’t complete without the Westside. The neighborhoods are dotted with dedication markers of the Pioneer Trail, established by the city, county and community as a “journey through early Las Vegas.” The Moulin Rouge—the first integrated casino, and site of the Moulin Rouge Agreement that legally ended
> westside landscape (top to bottom) Doolittle Park, a West Las Vegas home and the old Moulin Rouge.
segregation of Strip casinos—is gone, but the Harrison House still stands at 1001 F Street, where in the ’40s and ’50s Genevieve Harrison housed black entertainers. There’s Jackson Avenue, which thrived during segregation, and the Westside School on Washington Avenue, built in 1923 and the oldest standing schoolhouse in Las Vegas. “The Historic Westside contains some of the oldest buildings in Las Vegas, ranging in styles from vernacular to popular 1920s and 1930s styles like bungalow and mission revival. There are a fair amount of mid-century-style buildings as well,” says Courtney Mooney, urban design coordinator and historic preservation officer for the City of Las Vegas. “The vernacular architecture is one feature that sets this area apart as
there is not a lot of it left in the city.” The area is bounded by what is now West Bonanza Road, H Street, West Washington Avenue and the railroad tracks, Mooney says, and was the city’s first urban development. “It beat the east side of the tracks by a few months. Through a series of unfortunate events and eventually de facto segregation, the area was effectively cut off from the emerging development on the east side and left to languish for many years. Because of this, people forget how important the area is to our collective history.” Mooney was involved in getting West Las Vegas’ Berkley Square neighborhood listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009, following the listing of the Westside School (1979) and the Moulin Rouge (1992,
though a 2009 fire led to its eventual demolition). Constructed from 1954 to 1955 near Owens Avenue and D Street, Berkley Square was the first minoritybuilt subdivision in Nevada. The 148 one-story, rectangular, ranch-style homes were designed to be atmospherically middle-class and to improve living conditions on the Westside. The development was financed in part by Thomas L. Berkley, a prominent attorney, media owner, developer and civil rights activist from Oakland, California. In 2012, Las Vegas artist Joseph Watson was commissioned to create banners that hang throughout the neighborhood. In an oral-history interview with Berkley Square resident Ruth Eppenger D’Hondt, Claytee White asks about discussions D’Hondt’s family had about race relations in Las Vegas while sitting around in the first African American subdivision designed by black LA architect Paul Revere Williams. “We didn’t sit around,” D’Hondt told her. “We worked.” Work and perseverance defined the struggles and triumphs of a marginalized community living without equal employment opportunities and services. Survival meant being resourceful— working two jobs or running a family business, making ends meet against the odds. Some left for other parts of the Valley when segregation ended, but so many stayed. D’Hondt still lives in Berkley Square, and has fought to keep it together while watching it crumble as careless tenants and absent landlords take over—a reality that has hit many Las Vegas neighborhoods as sprawl has crept outward. But this area is championed. Residents successfully fought to reopen F Street, connecting them to Downtown redevelopment. The city-owned Westside School is under renovation. A portion of it is slated to be a museum celebrating the rich history of the community, says Barlow, who attended Head Start there as a child. (The campus also includes a 1948 building, housing nonprofit public radio station KCEP.) The school’s history stretches back to racially integrated classes in the ’20s, and it’s being restored using oral histories and memorabilia. “Preserving this historic school is important because it will serve to culturally enrich our community,” Barlow said in 2010, when he and the city were organizing workshops and open houses. The sentiment resonates, that a community should put a premium on honoring its roots. “Lessons learned from the past help us to set our sights and accomplish where we need to be in the future. By preserving this historic building we are leaving something for future generations, and that is something to be proud of.” For more about the Westside, from public art to preservation, visit lasvegasweekly.com.
february 4-10, 2016 LasVegasWeekly.com
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MORE THAN A MONTH
Where does the community stand on separating out black history? BY KRISTY TOTTEN
Every February, public schools turn their focus to the story of African Americans, under the banner of Black History Month. Mostly focusing on slavery and civil rights, students learn of the struggles and triumphs that shape the black experience. But as the tradition has carried on, it has also picked up detractors, who view it as outdated, even condescending. Recently, Clueless actress Stacey Dash made waves by renouncing Black Entertainment Television, the BET Awards and the celebratory month. “There shouldn’t be a Black History Month,” she told Fox News, where she’s a correspondent. “We’re Americans, period. That’s it.” Under fire from critics, Dash pointed to a 2005 60 Minutes interview in which actor Morgan Freeman also challenged the month, labeling it “ridiculous” and imploring people to combat racism by refusing to use racial descriptors. Black history appreciation dates
back to 1926—a surprisingly early date, more than 50 years after black men received the nominal right to vote, but another 40 before it was guaranteed by the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Predating the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and ’60s, Black History Week was founded by historian Carter G. Woodson of Virginia to encourage the teaching of African American history in public schools. It took place the second week of February, chosen because it coincides with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, which were already celebrated within the black community. Though reception was lukewarm at first, the week grew to be widely adopted, even celebrated as a holiday in some cities. Then, in 1969, Kent State students proposed extending the week into a month. The next year, Black History Month was celebrated at the college, and six years later the U.S. officially adopted the tradition as part of the country’s bicentennial celebration. In Las Vegas this month, Clark
16W LASVEGASWEEKLY.COM FEBRUARY 4-10, 2016
County will air Invisible Las Vegas, a two-part documentary about the historic Westside; the library district will host several events, ranging from dance to Harlem Renaissance readings to youth leadership programs and oratory contests; and the school district will recognize outstanding African American educators. Though some members of the black community wish there wasn’t a need for Black History Month, most agree it’s still necessary. “Most blacks in the community don’t like the idea at all. Black history is part of history, and it should not have to stand alone,” says Claytee White, a historian at UNLV. “But I make the best of it.” White uses the opportunity to speak to groups she might not otherwise reach. She covers the past and present, and this year plans to focus on education and miseducation, exposing the school-to-prison pipeline and the fact that only 40 percent of young black men graduate high school in Nevada, the lowest rate in the country. In a typical February,
White will make 15 speeches, compared to just a few per month during the rest of the year. “It’s the only time they’re interested,” she says. “But it’s the beginning. It’s 2016, and we should be over this by this time. We should be over the idea of devoting a month to a group.” Still, White recognizes the upside. “At one time, you didn’t hear about anything but Black History Month. Now other groups have a month so their group can have a meaning and a focus.” Local high school students Devin Alston and Jayda Tomes view the month of observation positively and look forward to the opportunity to learn more about black heritage. “I’m always excited to learn more about it,” Tomes says. “It’s interesting to know how far we’ve come from being punished, to being seen, to being acknowledged for who we are.” Tomes says she’ll read about Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. in her English class, and Alston says he looks forward to learning about history beyond slavery and civil rights leaders, especially because the only mention of Africa in his world history book concerns the West African slave trade. “It’s kind of sad,” he says. “There’s a rich history. There were kings, there were pharaohs. In Central Africa they built up nations as well as other parts of the world did.” Erika Washington, the Nevada state director for the working-families policy campaign Make It Work, says she has mixed feelings about Black History Month, but sees a need for it to augment what’s taught in American and state history. As a mother of three, she sees gaps in the lessons her children are learning. “There’s a lot you don’t hear about until you go search it for yourself,” she says, pointing to the women of the Civil Rights Movement and especially to local leaders. She lists Ruby Duncan, a welfare rights activist; to Mabel Hoggard, the first black teacher hired by the Clark County School District; to Rev. Marrion Bennett, whose daughter Karen Bennett is Nevada’s first black female judge; to Sen. Joe Neal, Nevada’s first black state senator, whose daughter Dina Neal is the state’s first black assemblywoman; to Steven Horsford, the first black U.S. Congressman from Nevada; and to Moulin Rouge operator Sarann Knight Preddy, the first black woman to acquire a gaming license in the state. “Until American history accounts for everything—the good, the bad, the ugly, the accomplishments and the setbacks—something needs to be set aside,” Washington says. White agrees. When will we no longer need Black History Month? “When we achieve oneness,” she says, then laughs. “Am I saying never?”
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Associate Publisher Mark De Pooter (mark.depooter@gmgvegas.com) Industry Weekly Editor Brock Radke (brock.radke@gmgvegas.com) Industry Weekly Writer Leslie Ventura (leslie.ventura@gmgvegas.com) Contributors Mark Adams, Don Chareunsy, Sarah Feldberg, Erin Ryan, Kristy Totten Associate Creative Director Liz Brown (liz.brown@gmgvegas.com) Designers Corlene Byrd, Jon Estrada, Marvin Lucas Art Director of Advertising & Marketing Services Sean Rademacher Circulation Director Ron Gannon CEO, Publisher & Editor Brian Greenspun Chief Operating Officer Robert Cauthorn Group Publisher Gordon Prouty Managing Editor Ric Anderson Las Vegas Weekly Editor Spencer Patterson 2275 Corporate Circle, Suite 300 Henderson, NV 89074 lasvegasweekly.com/industry lasvegasweekly.com /lasvegasweekly /lasvegasweekly /lasvegasweekly
on the cover
Calvin Harris lights up Omnia for the big game weekend.
T o
a d v e r T i s e
Call 702-990-2550 or email advertising@gmgvegas.com. For customer service questions, call 702-990-8993.
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big this week C A LV I N H A RR I S
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The Super Bowl Weekend reactivation of the Palms’ nightclub got a lot more interesting after last week’s Kanye-Wiz-Amber Twitter, right? Rose will host and stir up the crazy, K-Camp and DJ JNice will perform.
C H AT E A U
Ne-Yo loves him some Las Vegas. The R&B star grew up (partially) in Henderson, graduated from Rancho High and is constantly coming home to perform and party. He’ll do the latter Saturday night at Chateau.
NICK CA N N O N
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Entertainment mogul Nick Cannon popped up to help open Encore Players Club, and he’s coming back to Wynn to DJ again, this time at XS after the big game. If you’re hunting Super Bowl celebrities Sunday night, this is the place.
calvin harris by al powers; amber rose and skrillex by karl larson; ne-yo by justin nG/rex; nick cannon by tony tran; future by lauren unGerer
Big things keep happening for the world’s biggest DJ, who just this week snagged platinum status for “How Deep Is Your Love,” his collaboration with Disciples. Harris’ sound has become ubiquitous, even if he was snubbed for nominations at this month’s Grammy Awards. Oh well, he can still go and root for his girlfriend.
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Still riding crazy-high off recent mixtape releases Purple Reign and Drake team-up What a Time to Be Alive, Future returns to the Cromwell’s hot spot to turn up what could go down as one of the biggest SunDrai’s ever.
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hen it comes to the House of Blues Foundation Room, the nightclublounge-restaurant hybrid perched atop the Mandalay Bay hotel, the only thing more impressive than its longevity is the experience. It’s been riding high for almost 16 years, since the resort opened, more than a lifetime in Vegas club years. And yet when you step off the elevator on the 63rd floor and enter that enchanting world of priceless artifacts and cultural folklore from the Mississippi Delta to Tibet, it still feels refreshing after all this time.
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“That’s what we’re going after,” says vice president Victor Sutter, who oversees all Foundation Room venues across the country. The new one in Anaheim, California, will make nine. Because of its spectacular views and unique, intimate setting—“We’re the anti-megaclub,” Sutter says—the Vegas room hasn’t needed drastic changes over the years, especially since it has maintained a stellar reputation for service. “When you’re in a smaller venue, you have the ability to slow down sometimes and take care of your customers by really making connections. When you have people with that mentality doing it time and time again, before you know it everybody is having a good time, and nobody feels like just a number.”
There have been recent revamps to update the look and feel. Patio spaces and lighting have been upgraded, and walls have been removed from two of the “prayer room” lounges to open up those spaces and provide more access to “the cool pieces that live in them,” Sutter says. New, creative events are also on the way, but the Foundation Room’s strategy remains intact—let the room be the star. “We’re not here to compete with the Hakkasans and Omnias of the world; we just try to throw the best parties,. Sutter says. The Foundation Room at Mandalay Bay, 702-632-7631; Open daily starting at 5 p.m. –Brock Radke
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doors at
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big game ★ Weekend
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supernova
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o say last year was big for Kaskade would be an understatement. Besides headlining the festival circuit and remixing Jack Ü’s summer earworm “Where Are Ü Now,” one of the world’s top-earning DJs dropped his major-label debut Automatic in September while drawing record-breaking crowds for his returning residencies at XS and Encore Beach Club.
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Though he shows no sign of slowing down in 2016—he’s blowing up Super Bowl Weekend at XS for his only Vegas set this winter—Kaskade is always on a slightly different wavelength than his superstar DJ colleagues. Before he packed nightclubs, Ryan Raddon (who turns 45 this month) cut his teeth spinning vinyl in the ’80s, paying his dues in the underground Chicago scene. It has earned him respect among electronic purists while also allowing him to produce chart-topping bangers like August single “We Don’t Stop.” It’s no wonder he’s landed top-billings at music festivals around the world.
An unusual character in the nightlife industry, Raddon is also a member of the LDS church, proudly challenging DJ stereotypes with his sober, familyoriented lifestyle. He might not party like the rest, but there’s no questioning the musical methods of the progressive house DJ, or the fact that he’s a master at making gigantic crowds groove to his glistening beats. One night under his spell and it’s obvious Kaskade is an instrumental force in electronic dance music—not just here, but everywhere. Kaskade at XS at Encore, February 6. –Leslie Ventura
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hen his career was in its infancy—he was the first artist signed to Jay Z’s Roc Nation label— expectations were high for J. Cole to become the next big thing in hip-hop music. Now it seems the North Carolina rapper was always going to blow up this way. The tour following latest studio album 2014 Forest Hills Drive reportedly grossed $16 million and sold out Madison Square Garden, then became the subject of a six-part HBO documentary series, then became a live album. J. Cole is up for a Grammy this month, tops the bill at Bonnaroo in June and is report-
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edly getting set to release a collaborative album with fellow game-changing young gun Kendrick Lamar. Fair to say, expectations surpassed. His stylish success makes his new performing residency at Light Nightclub one of the most interesting Vegas bookings of the new year, not unlike Drai’s masterful grab of The Weeknd in 2015. An artist of humble beginnings and entrepreneurial spirit, J. Cole is still pointed skyward. J. Cole at Light at Mandalay Bay, February 6. –Brock Radke
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h a k kasa n 3 l au
jan 28 Photographs by Powers Imagery
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GLAMOUR GLOBAL MODELS HOST
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v e n u e turn the space into the Foundry, which makes its debut this weekend.
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t’s pretty tough to deny an apparent shift in Vegas nightlife from DJ-fueled club events to a focus on live performance when we literally have a nightclub transforming into a concert hall. That’s what’s happened at SLS Las Vegas, the year-and-a-half-old north Strip resort that shuttered its Life Nightclub to
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The makeover was much more than a fresh coat of paint. The 20,000-squarefoot, 1,800-capacity room is now home to a massive 25-by-65-foot stage that will place music lovers incredibly close to their favorite artists—the Foundry is booked by Live Nation and upcoming shows include Awolnation on February 5, Lil Wayne with Method Man and Redman February 6 and X
Ambassadors, Adam Lambert and Santigold following closely behind. With five LED screens and various hightech lighting rigs from its club days augmented by a new sound system, the intimate Foundry promises to bring a different kind of energy to the nightlife landscape. FoundryLV.com.
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hen acclaimed LA singer and songwriter Miguel dropped his third album, Wildheart, last summer, critics hailed the diverse, hard-driving effort as a breakout, moving away from the slow-simmering R&B label plastered to his earlier music. But fans and listeners who dug deeper than inescapable hits “All I Want Is You,” “Sure Thing” and “Adorn” knew that Miguel had been dipping into rock, funk, old-school soul and moody electronic flourishes from the start. With tracks like the romantic “Coffee,” the anthemic “Face the Sun” and the sweaty “Damned,” he is simply continuing his personal sonic evolution.
photograph by chase stevens
“I was put on this earth to express myself, and that doesn’t have any title to it,” Miguel told us in August as he began his Wildheart tour. “Critics use genres to help identify or relate a sound, but that has nothing to do with the creative process. There’s always going to be a layer of soul in my music, because that’s just who I am, but I’m in love with rock ’n’ roll, too, and I’ll always explore beyond those.”
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His diverse sound blends with a rockstar-confidence energy to create a supercharged live show, the reason Hakkasan snagged Miguel for a rare live performance at the MGM Grand nightclub—a powerfully appropriate fit for the behemoth Super Bowl/Chinese New Year weekend. Miguel, live at Hakkasan at MGM Grand, February 5. –Brock Radke
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hinese New Year celebrations will take over Las Vegas this week, with February 8 marking the beginning of the Year of the Monkey. No lunar new year kickoff would be complete without a special meal of symbolic, storytelling dishes, and Hakkasan’s Las Vegas restaurant at MGM Grand is the place to be for that.
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International executive chef Ho Chee Boon’s limited-edition menu begins with a double-boiled fresh ginseng and chicken soup, followed by the diced Wagyu beef and pine nut golden cup and Hakkasan’s peerless dim sum platter. The main dishes offer wok-fried lobster in spicy truffle sauce, pipa duck, grilled Chilean sea bass with honey, dried scallop and crab meat fried rice, and a mushroom, lotus root, asparagus and lily bulb stir-fry. A festive cocktail, the 9 Hóu, has been created with nine components representing the monkey’s ninth position on the zodiac, and the golden halo dessert
sweetens the deal as banana-peanut cake is topped with five-spice cream, caramel, chocolate and gold leaf. Hakkasan at MGM Grand, 702-8917888; Monday-Wednesday, 5-11 p.m.; Thursday-Sunday, 5 p.m.-midnight. Chinese New Year menu available through February 22.
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as Vegas is certainly one of the cocktail capitals of the universe, but it goes deeper than you think.
“Vegas has always been a monster in beverage volume, but the biggest change I’ve seen is the community and how it’s developed and evolved in Las Vegas,” says legendary mixologist Tony Abou-Ganim. He came to Sin City in 1998 to open Bellagio and ended up making it home base, building a career
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as one of world’s leading bar professionals. He helped form the second chapter of the U.S. Bartenders’ Guild in Las Vegas, and today, with more than 50 chapters across the country, Vegas’ is the second largest. “The industry here is very much a family, and we support one another and celebrate our successes.” Abou-Ganim also created For the Love of Cocktails, now an epic three-day celebration drawing more than 3,500 professionals and enthusiasts. It’s also a fundraiser for the Helen David Relief Fund, named for Abou-Ganim’s cousin who ran a bar in Michigan for nearly 70 years and dedicated to assisting bartenders and their families battling cancer.
“This year is so exciting because there will really be something for everybody,” Abou-Ganim says. Fellow master mixologists Francesco Lafranconi and Salvatore Calabrese will be there, and events will be hosted by the Cromwell, Delano Las Vegas and Downtown’s Gold Spike, among others. “Something brand new this year that I couldn’t be more excited about is the Downtown bar crawl and food-truck mixology wars,” Abou-Ganim says. “It’s such a fun opportunity for people who might not be familiar with Downtown, because the Las Vegas craft cocktail movement really took hold Downtown.” For the Love of Cocktails, February 10-12, fortheloveofcocktails.com. –Brock Radke
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in the moment
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Photographs by Seva Kalashnikov
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#industry weekly
The last time some equine traffic shut down the Strip, Shania Twain was involved. This time, it was the horses who are famous. The Budweiser Clydesdales trotted Las Vegas Boulevard January 30 to mark the opening of Beer Park at Paris Las Vegas, which just happens to be an ideal outdoor location to catch the big game this Sunday. No horses this weekend, though. Put your pictures here! Share your most Vegas moments. Bring us behind your scenes. Capture the night with #IndustryWeekly.
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Arts&Entertainment Movies + Music + Art + Food
> PINK IT UP Vocalist Storm Large and Pink Martini join forces with the Phil.
Sweet shorts Six programs to see at the Dam Short Film Festival Drama: Bring on the Apocalypse (February 10, 6 p.m.) DSFF co-founder and executive director Lee Lanier recommends these four shorts about civilization collapsing “if you’re into endof-the-world themes (which I love).”
Trust Us
Stuff you’ll want to know about Hear
Go HOSSEIN MORTEZAEIAN ABKENAR The Iranian author and screenwriter, banned from his home country, delves into the violent and political topics that fuel his work— at the Writer’s Block … with the lights turned off. February 5, 8 p.m. sharp (no latecomers permitted), free.
pink martini & the las vegas philharmonic
The Phil performs with a swanky, sophisticated, 12-piece orchestra that merges jazz, classical, Latin and pop sounds, and features the undeniably powerhouse vocalist Storm Large. February 6, 7:30 p.m., Reynolds Hall, $100-$250. mardi gras celebration It’s no substitute for drunkenly wandering Bourbon Street, but Charleston Heights Arts Center’s version of Fat Tuesday will be celebratory enough with Cajun/zydeco dancehall septet The Mudbugs—and an accompanying cash bar. February 6, 7 p.m., $10-$15. lil wayne Even though SLS’ new music
venue the Foundry officially debuts this Friday with electronic rockers Awolnation, its opening weekend could peak with this veteran New Orleans rapper, who’ll be joined by East Coast/How High-starring duo Method Man & Redman. February 6, doors at 10:30 p.m., $30 women, $40 men.
comrade day CraftHaus Brewery will tap six versions of its annual Comrade Russian Imperial Stout this year. We’re especially stoked for the one brewed with Makers & Finders’ cold-brew coffee, but you might like the Amigo, infused with Mexican spices and vanilla. February 6. fareed zakaria When your primary descriptor is “global thinker” and Jon Stewart loves you, you’ve got chops. The columnist, CNN host and author specializes in smart commentary about big ideas and big challenges, and he’ll speak “In Defense of a Liberal Education.” February 9, 7:30 p.m., free (tickets required), UNLV’s Artemus W. Ham Hall. LIBERACE AND THE MOB The two are said to have tangoed more than once. Speakers Nicolette Pantaleo (the Mob Museum) and Jonathan Warren (the Liberace Foundation) ask—and aim to answer—the question: Who played whom? February 9, 7 p.m., free with museum admission ($10-20).
Drama: We’re the Coneheads, We’re From France (February 11, 3:45 p.m.) No, this isn’t a program of Saturday Night Live shorts— it’s a set of five short films from France. DSFF always has a strong international component, and festival director John LaBonney singles out this France-focused block. DAM SHORT FILM Drama: Cutting Their FESTIVAL Own Path (February 11, February 6:30 p.m.) “These films 10-13, times push the boundaries of vary, $9 per traditional storytelling screening, with nontraditional passes $30storytelling techniques,” $100. Boulder LaBonney says of this Theatre, dam program of eight offbeat shortfilm.org. dramatic shorts. Documentary: Following Their Passions (February 12, 3:45 p.m.) These five films explore subjects that Lanier says he’s never seen covered elsewhere, including the art of neon, the National Hollerin’ Contest, the knitting of a recordbreaking blanket, the daredevil sport of slacklining and Las Vegas’ own Pinball Hall of Fame. Nevada Filmmakers Showcase (February 12, 8 p.m.) The local program is always a popular festival attraction; this year’s slate includes new shorts from veteran local filmmakers Adam Zielinski and Eric West, plus Naked Vegas’ Drew Marvick and more. Best of the Fest (February 13, 7:30 p.m.) If you only make it to one festival program, this should be it, with organizers programing as many award-winning shorts as they can fit into 90 minutes. –Josh Bell
february 4-10, 2016 LasVegasWeekly.com 19W
A&E | screen FILM
> fail, caesar Baird (George Clooney) plays the Roman centurion.
Romance of the living dead Jane Austen gets a makeover in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
movie star Baird Whitlock (George Clooney) from the set of big-budget Bible epic Hail, Caesar!, although he’s also dealing with the inconvenient pregnancy of starlet DeeAnna Moran (Scarlett Johansson) and the studio manThe Coens create a muddled Hollywood date to turn hayseed singing-cowboy star Hobie Doyle (Alden Ehrenreich) into a dramatic leading man. pastiche with Hail, Caesar! By Josh Bell That’s only a partial accounting of Eddie’s to-do list, and the movie bounces from one set piece to another as The last time that writer-directors Joel and Ethan he encounters a seemingly endless series of problems. Coen told a story about classic Hollywood, the result Hail, Caesar! is strongest in its spot-on recreations of was the powerfully weird and haunting Barton Fink. the various movies within the movie: a Gene Kelly-style And the last time they told a story about a twisty kidsong-and-dance number (featuring Channing Tatum napping investigation in LA, the result was the intricate putting his Step Up and Magic Mike experience and brilliantly funny The Big Lebowksi. The to good use); a hokey Roy Rogers-style Western; filmmaking brothers return to both themes Busby Berkeley-style aquatic choreography; an for Hail, Caesar!, but the result isn’t nearly up aabcc to the standards of those two previous Coens HAIL, CAESAR! arch drawing-room melodrama; and the titular Ben-Hur-style blockbuster. masterpieces—or most of their other work, for Josh Brolin, The Coens are less successful at combining that matter. George Clooney, Set sometime in the 1950s, Hail, Caesar! is the Alden Ehrenreich. those sporadically entertaining elements into a cohesive movie, one that attempts to address story of a day in the life of Eddie Mannix (Josh Directed by Joel religious doubt, Communist infiltration and Brolin), the head of physical production for Coen and Ethan moral relativism. As a mystery, Hail, Caesar! is a the fictional Capitol Pictures (the same studio Coen. Rated complete bust (although its inconsequentiality featured in Barton Fink). Despite his nonde- PG-13. Opens is part of the point), and the movie’s comedy is script job title, Eddie is essentially the glue that Friday citywide. an awkward mix of goofy slapstick and manholds the movie studio together, functioning as nered wordplay. The actors work hard (somea “fixer” who takes care of everything from rain times too hard) to make every joke land, but Hail, Caesar! delays on location shoots to actors’ trips to rehab (he’s ends up as the kind of picture even Eddie Mannix might loosely based on the real-life MGM fixer of the same name, have a tough time wrangling into something coherent who was a much nastier guy). On this particularly eventful and satisfying. day, Eddie’s main concern is the kidnapping of dim-witted FILM
Movie magic
20W LasVegasWeekly.com February 4-10, 2016
Based on Seth Grahame-Smith’s mashup novel, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is, unsurprisingly, a fairly poor zombie film, but, surprisingly, a pretty good Jane Austen film. Director Burr Steers once made the literate comingof-age film Igby Goes Down (2002), about smart, well-read people, and he enters Austen’s world, telling the tale of Elizabeth Bennet (Lily James) and Mr. Darcy (Sam Riley) with springy enthusiasm, confident ease and even humor. The old familiar characters—last seen on the big screen in Joe Wright’s 2005 adaptation of Austen’s 1813 novel—generate genuine chemistry and aabcc love pangs, while PRIDE AND leather boots PREJUDICE creak and bosoms AND ZOMBIES heave. Matt Smith Lily James, (of Doctor Who) Sam Riley, Lena absolutely kills Headey. Directed in his hilarious by Burr Steers. scenes as the Rated PG-13. ineffectual pest Opens Friday Mr. Collins (now citywide. Parson Collins). But the zombie stuff and martial arts fighting feels tacked on, as if by committee. It’s too bad that Steers couldn’t have hired a co-director who actually cared about undead lore. These are ill-chosen fast zombies, better suited for exercising than for nightmares; the gore is deliberately avoided to secure a box office-friendly PG-13 rating, and what gore is shown is stuck on with smeary, third-rate computer effects. The choreographed fighting is lazily shot, stopping every now and then for a cursory chest-kick or head-butt. For a while, the enjoyable human aspect of the plot is enough to keep the movie pulsing, but as the third act comes around, it begins lumbering through more and more frequent dead spots. Even the ending is an indecisive split, attempting to please both sets of fans and dissatisfying all. –Jeffrey M. Anderson
A&E | screen
> tainted love On the eve of his anniversary with Kate, Geoff gets pulled into drama from his past.
FILM
Love and marriage
45 Years explores the strains in a lifelong relationship By Josh Bell working from a short story by At nearly 70 years old, David Constantine, expresses Charlotte Rampling has received the cracks in the couple’s relaher first-ever Oscar nomination for tionship with so much subtlety 45 Years, but it would be a misthey’re sometimes hard to fathom, take to think that the recognition but that’s to be expected when is just a belated acknowledgement Kate and Geoff themselves don’t of the outstanding work she’s done entirely understand their own throughout her career. Rampling’s reactions. There’s a twist of sorts performance in 45 Years is as about an hour into the movie, and strong as any she’s given in the Haigh conveys it quietly and withpast five decades, and it anchors a out fanfare, never even mentionmovie that’s sometimes too undering it again. But the devastating stated for its own good. effects of the revelation are clear Rampling plays Kate Mercer, on Kate’s face, thanks one half of a married to Rampling’s expertly couple about to celaaabc composed performance. ebrate their 45th anni45 YEARS So much of her acting in versary. Kate and her Charlotte Rampling, this movie is reacting, husband Geoff (Tom Tom Courtenay, with Haigh training the Courtenay) live a quiet, Geraldine James. camera closely on her seemingly idyllic retired Directed by Andrew as Kate discovers more life, full of dog walks Haigh. Rated R. about her husband’s and tea with friends, Opens Friday at hidden past. and they have the kind Century Suncoast. Like Haigh’s preof intimate comfort vious feature, 2011’s that comes from spendWeekend, 45 Years is a smalling nearly a lifetime together. But scale story about how the little then Geoff gets some unexpected moments in a relationship add news: Climbers in the Swiss Alps up to something significant, have discovered the frozen body of whether that relationship is just his former girlfriend, who died in beginning or has endured for a hiking accident 50 years earlier, many years. In the end, Kate before Geoff and Kate even met. and Geoff might not realize how Despite the distant nature of the much these revelations have trauma, Geoff feels his whole life changed their relationship, but shaken up, and Kate finds herself Rampling’s performance makes jealous of a woman who’s been it clear things between the two dead for decades. will never be the same. Writer-director Andrew Haigh,
A&E | Short Takes Special screenings
> wining and dining Teresa Palmer and Benjamin Walker in The Choice.
Cinemark Classic Series Sun, 2 pm; Wed, 2 & 7 pm, $7-$10. 2/7, 2/10, To Catch a Thief. Theaters: ORL, ST, SF, SP, SC
Tuesday Afternoon at the Bijou Tue, 1 pm, free. 2/9, A Raisin in the Sun. Clark County Library, 1401 E. Flamingo Road, 702-507-3400.
New this week 45 Years aaabc Charlotte Rampling, Tom Courtenay, Geraldine James. Directed by Andrew Haigh. 95 minutes. Rated R. See review Page 21. Theaters: SC 600 Miles (Not reviewed) Tim Roth, Kristyan Ferrer, Harrison Thomas. Directed by Gabriel Ripstein. 85 minutes. Rated R. A Mexican arms smuggler kidnaps an American ATF agent. Theaters: SC, ST The Choice (Not reviewed) Benjamin Walker, Teresa Palmer, Maggie Grace. Directed by Ross Katz. 111 minutes. Rated PG-13. Two smalltown neighbors fall in love. Theaters: AL, BS, CH, COL, FH, ORL, PAL, RP, RR, SC, SF, SHO, SP, SS, TS, TX Ghayal Once Again (Not reviewed) Sunny Deol, Om Puri, Soha Ali Khan. Directed by Sunny Deol. 129 minutes. Not rated. In Hindi with English subtitles. Former boxer Ajay Mehra returns to inspire a new generation of vigilantes. Theaters: VS Hail, Caesar! aabcc Josh Brolin, George Clooney, Alden Ehrenreich. Directed by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen. 100 minutes. Rated PG-13. See review Page 20. Theaters: AL, BS, CAN, DTS, FH, GVL, GVR, ORL, PAL, RP, SC, SF, SP, TS Mojin: The Lost Legend (Not reviewed) Chen Kun, Huang Bo, Shu Qi. Directed by Wuershan. 127 minutes. Not rated. In Mandarin with English subtitles. A famed explorer is lured out of retirement to search for a powerful artifact. Theaters: TS Monday at 11:01 A.M. acccc Charles Agron, Lauren Shaw, Briana Evigan. Directed by Harvey Lawry. 96 minutes. Rated R. This self-indulgent vanity project for writer-producer-star Agron is a poorly acted, cheap-looking and nonsensical thriller about a rich jerk and his bland girlfriend getting stuck in a mysterious small town. The supernatural elements are confusing and inconsistent, and the eventual twist (the most obvious possible) ren-
In the Heart of the Sea aabcc Chris Hemsworth, Benjamin Walker, Brendan Gleeson. Directed by Ron Howard. 121 minutes. Rated PG-13. Theaters: ST, TC
(AL) Regal Aliante 7300 Aliante Parkway, North Las Vegas, 844-462-7342 ext. 4011
Joy aaabc Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, Edgar Ramirez. Directed by David O. Russell. 124 minutes. Rated PG-13. Theaters: COL, VS
Las Vegas Stories 2/4, documentary The Misunderstood Legend of the Las Vegas Moulin Rouge, 7 pm, free. Clark County Library, 1401 E. Flamingo Road, 702-507-3459.
Sci Fi Center Mon, Cinemondays, 8 pm, free. 5077 Arville St., 855-501-4335, thescificenter. com.
Theaters
Jane Got a Gun (Not reviewed) Natalie Portman, Joel Edgerton, Ewan McGregor. Directed by Gavin O’Connor. 98 minutes. Rated R. Theaters: AL, CH, COL, RR, SF, SP, SS, ST, TX, VS
Dam Short Film Festival 2/10-2/13, short films, panel discussions, more, times vary, $9 per screening, passes $30-$100. Boulder Theatre, 1225 Arizona St., Boulder City, damshortfilm. org.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show 2/6, augmented by live cast and audience participation, 10 pm, $9. Theaters: TC. Info: rhpsvegas.com.
Lawrence. 137 minutes. Rated PG-13. Theaters: COL
ders them irrelevant anyway. –JB Theaters: TS Pride and Prejudice and Zombies aabcc Lily James, Sam Riley, Lena Headey. Directed by Burr Steers. 108 minutes. Rated PG-13. See review Page 20. Theaters: AL, BS, CAN, CH, DI, FH, GVL, GVR, ORL, PAL, RP, RR, SC, SF, SHO, SP, SS, TS, TX
Now playing 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi aabcc John Krasinski, James Badge Dale, David Costabile. Directed by Michael Bay. 144 minutes. Rated R. Theaters: AL, CAN, CH, DTS, FH, GVR, ORL, PAL, SF, SHO, SP, SS, ST, TX, VS The 5th Wave aaccc Chloë Grace Moretz, Alex Roe, Nick Robinson. Directed by J Blakeson. 112 minutes. Rated PG-13. Theaters: AL, CAN, CH, COL, FH, ORL, PAL, RP, RR, SF, SP, SS, ST, TX, VS Airlift (Not reviewed) Akshay Kumar, Nimrat Kaur, Feryna Wazheir. Directed by Raja Krishna Menon. 125 minutes. Not rated. In Hindi with English subtitles. Theaters: VS Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip (Not reviewed) Voices of Matthew Gray Gubler, Justin Long, Jesse McCartney. Directed by Walt Becker. 86 minutes. Rated PG. Theaters: ST, TX Anomalisa aabcc Voices of David Thewlis, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tom Noonan. Directed by Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson. 90 minutes. Rated R. Theaters: VS The Big Short aaacc Steve Carell, Christian Bale, Ryan Gosling. Directed by Adam McKay. 130 minutes. Rated R. Theaters: COL, DTS, SC, ST The Boy (Not reviewed) Lauren Cohan, Rupert Evans, James Russell. Directed by William Brent Bell. 98 minutes. Rated PG-13. Theaters: AL, CH, DI, GVR, ORL, PAL, RP, RR, SF, SS, ST, TX, VS Brooklyn aaabc Saoirse Ronan, Emory Cohen, Domhnall Gleeson. Directed by John Crowley. 111 minutes. Rated PG-13. Theaters: FH, SC Carol aaaac Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, Kyle Chandler. Directed by Todd Haynes. 118 minutes. Rated R. Theaters: VS Concussion aabcc Will Smith, Alec Baldwin, Gugu Mbatha-
22W LasVegasWeekly.com February 4-10, 2016
Raw. Directed by Peter Landesman. 123 minutes. Rated PG-13. Theaters: SC Creed aaabc Michael B. Jordan, Sylvester Stallone, Tessa Thompson. Directed by Ryan Coogler. 132 minutes. Rated PG-13. Theaters: COL Daddy’s Home aaccc Will Ferrell, Mark Wahlberg, Linda Cardellini. Directed by Sean Anders. 96 minutes. Rated PG-13. Theaters: CAN, COL, DI, RR, SS, ST, TX, VS The Danish Girl aaacc Eddie Redmayne, Alicia Vikander, Matthias Schoenaerts. Directed by Tom Hooper. 120 minutes. Rated R. Theaters: VS Dirty Grandpa acccc Zac Efron, Robert De Niro, Aubrey Plaza. Directed by Dan Mazer. 102 minutes. Rated R. Theaters: AL, BS, CH, DI, DTS, FH, GVR, ORL, PAL, SF, SC, SHO, SP, SS, TX Everything About Her (Not reviewed) Vilma Santos, Angel Locsin, Xian Lim. Directed by Joyce Bernal. 127 minutes. Not rated. In Filipino with English subtitles. Theaters: ORL, VS Fifty Shades of Black (Not reviewed) Marlon Wayans, Kali Hawk, Affion Crockett. Directed by Michael Tiddes. 92 minutes. Rated R. Theaters: AL, BS, CAN, CH, COL, DI, FH, ORL, PAL, RP, RR, SC, SF, SP, SS, TX The Finest Hours aaacc Chris Pine, Casey Affleck, Holliday Grainger. Directed by Craig Gillespie. 117 minutes. Rated PG-13. Theaters: AL, CAN, CH, COL, FH, GVL, ORL, PAL, RP, RR, SF, SHO, SP, SS, ST, TX, VS The Forest aaccc Natalie Dormer, Taylor Kinney, Yukiyoshi Ozawa. Directed by Jason Zada. 93 minutes. Rated PG-13. Theaters: ST, TX The Good Dinosaur aaacc Voices of Raymond Ochoa, Jack Bright, Frances McDormand. Directed by Peter Sohn. 100 minutes. Rated PG. Theaters: COL Goosebumps aabcc Jack Black, Dylan Minnette, Odeya Rush. Directed by Rob Letterman. 103 minutes. Rated PG. Theaters: TC The Hateful Eight aabcc Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh. Directed by Quentin Tarantino. 167 minutes. Rated R. Theaters: ST, VS The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 aaacc Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth. Directed by Francis
Kung Fu Panda 3 aaacc Voices of Jack Black, Bryan Cranston, J.K. Simmons. Directed by Jennifer Yuh Nelson and Alessandro Carloni. 95 minutes. Rated PG. Theaters: AL, BS, CAN, CH, COL, DI, FH, GVL, ORL, PAL, RP, RR, SC, SF, SHO, SP, SS, TX The Martian aaaac Matt Damon, Jeff Daniels, Jessica Chastain, Chiwetel Ejiofor. Directed by Ridley Scott. 141 minutes. Rated PG-13. Theaters: TC, VS The Peanuts Movie aaacc Voices of Noah Schnapp, Hadley Belle Miller, Alexander Garfin. Directed by Steve Martino. 86 minutes. Rated G. Theaters: TC
(BS) Regal Boulder Station 4111 Boulder Highway, 844-462-7342 ext. 269 (PAL) Brenden Theatres at the Palms 4321 W. Flamingo Road, 702-5074849 (CAN) Galaxy Cannery 2121 E. Craig Road, North Las Vegas, 702-639-9779 (CH) Cinedome Henderson 851 S. Boulder Highway, Henderson, 702-566-1570 (COL) Regal Colonnade 8880 S. Eastern Ave., 844-462-7342 ext. 270 (DI) Las Vegas Drive-In 4150 W. Carey Ave., North Las Vegas, 702-646-3565 (DTS) Regal Downtown Summerlin 2070 Park Center Drive, 844-4627342 ext. 4063 (FH) Regal Fiesta Henderson 777 W. Lake Mead Parkway, Henderson, 844-462-7342 ext. 1772
Point Break abccc Luke Bracey, Edgar Ramirez, Teresa Palmer. Directed by Ericson Core. 113 minutes. Rated PG-13. Theaters: TC
(GVR) Regal Green Valley Ranch 2300 Paseo Verde Parkway, Henderson, 844-462-7342 ext. 267
The Revenant aaacc Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Domhnall Gleeson. Directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu. 156 minutes. Rated R. Theaters: AL, BS, CH, DI, FH, GVL, GVR, ORL, PAL, RP, RR, SC, SF, SHO, SP, SS, TX
(GVL) Galaxy Green Valley Luxury+ 4500 E. Sunset Road, Henderson, 702-442-0244
Ride Along 2 aaccc Kevin Hart, Ice Cube, Olivia Munn. Directed by Tim Story. 100 minutes. Rated PG-13. Theaters: AL, BS, CAN, CH, COL, DI, ORL, PAL, RP, RR, SC, SF, SHO, SP, SS, TX Room aaacc Brie Larson, Jacob Tremblay, Joan Allen. Directed by Lenny Abrahamson. 118 minutes. Rated R. Theaters: COL, SC Sisters aaacc Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Ike Barinholtz. Directed by Jason Moore. 118 minutes. Rated R. Theaters: RR, ST Spectre aaacc Daniel Craig, Christoph Waltz, Léa Seydoux. Directed by Sam Mendes. 148 minutes. Rated PG-13. Theaters: TC Spotlight aaaac Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams. Directed by Tom McCarthy. 128 minutes. Rated R. Theaters: SC, ST, VS Star Wars: The Force Awakens aaabc Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Adam Driver. Directed by J.J. Abrams. 135 minutes. Rated PG-13. Theaters: AL, BS, CAN, CH, DI, FH, GVL, GVR, ORL, PAL, RP, RR, SC, SF, SP, SS, TX Trumbo aaacc Bryan Cranston, Diane Lane, Michael Stuhlbarg. Directed by Jay Roach. 124 minutes. Rated R. Theaters: VS JMA Jeffrey M. Anderson; JB Josh Bell; MD Mike D’Angelo For complete movie listings, visit lasvegasweekly.com/movie-listings.
(ORL) Century Orleans 4500 W. Tropicana Ave., 702-8891220 (RP) AMC Rainbow Promenade 2321 N. Rainbow Blvd., 888-262-4386 (RR) Regal Red Rock 11011 W. Charleston Blvd., 844-4627342 ext. 1756 (ST) Century Sam’s Town 5111 Boulder Highway, 702-547-1732 (SF) Century Santa Fe Station 4949 N. Rancho Drive, 702-655-8178 (SHO) United Artists Showcase 3769 Las Vegas Blvd. S., 844-4627342 ext. 522 (SP) Century South Point 9777 Las Vegas Blvd. S., 702-2604061 (SC) Century Suncoast 9090 Alta Drive, 702-869-1880 (SS) Regal Sunset Station 1301-A W. Sunset Road, Henderson, 844-462-7342 ext. 268 (TX) Regal Texas Station 2101 Texas Star Lane, North Las Vegas, 844-462-7342 ext. 271 (TS) AMC Town Square 6587 Las Vegas Blvd. S., 702-3627283 (TC) Regency Tropicana Cinemas 3330 E. Tropicana Ave., 702-438-3456 (VS) Regal Village Square 9400 W. Sahara Ave., 844-462-7342 ext. 272
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A&E | noise Da n c e
> Rated R Rihanna’s eighth album finds the singer teaming with Drake and SZA.
Debut Opus Eric Prydz makes his first full album a massive one
R& B
same can be said for the Drake-featuring “Work,” which finds Rihanna adopting his mumbled delivery style, and co-opting it once again on the track that follows, “Desperado.” Rihanna takes her fans on a strange Meanwhile, The-Dream-penned, Hit-Boyproduced “Woo” sounds one reference track away ride with the long-awaited Anti from being a Kanye West Waves outtake. The most surprising moment here is her almost identical Rihanna has been teasing her new album, Anti, for cover of Tame Impala’s “New Person, Same Old the past couple months, built around buzz singles “Bitch Mistakes.” Again there’s that disingenuous feeling, Better Have My Money” and “FourFiveSeconds.” Yet it’s though: Did she cover the song because been so long since those songs were released she thought it was dope, or because the that they’ve been left off Anti, which found its Aussies were the indie darlings of 2015? way onto Tidal last week as a surprise, excluRihanna’s got range and isn’t afraid sive release. It’s been more than three years to use it, more or less adapting to whatsince her last full-length, 2012’s Unapologetic, ever the tracks demand. But her brightwhich was propelled by the Sia-penned single est moments are cut too short, as on two “Diamonds.” RiRi apparently still feels that James Fauntleroy-written cuts, “Higher” sense of remorselessness, crashing Sia’s This and “James Joint,” which last barely two Is Acting release date this week with this minutes. She shows off her natural talent impromptu unveiling. aaacc on both songs, but they’re also among many That said, there’s something disingenuous Rihanna spots where she tries to be too edgy with about records from artists like Rihanna who don’t Anti profane lyrics. The worst case comes on write or produce their own music, instead opting “Kiss It Better,” in which she irresponsibly just to show up and sing. It’s a bit strange when sings, “We argue, you yell, had to take me back/ she shares vocals with another woman on the album’s Who cares when it feels like crack?” Crack though, opening track, where Kendrick Lamar/TDE affiliate Rihanna? –Mike Pizzo SZA ghostwrites and co-stars on “Consideration.” The
No apologies
A LT- C O U N T RY
Eric Prydz is, like his progressive house comrade in arms Deadmau5, ideal for those transitioning from commercial EDM to more substantial electronic dance music. But where ’Mau5 already has released seven albums, the discography of the Swede-turnedLos Angeleno—and new Marquee resident—is limited to compilations and a torrent of EPs and singles credited to his various aliases (i.e., Pryda and the more techno-centric Cirez D). That changes with Opus, his debut longplayer—and long it is. The two-hour-plus ride is programmed like a DJ set, except Prydz doesn’t mix together his songs or stick purely to floodlit club cuts (see electro-rock throwaway “Breathe”). Predictably, his darker and deeper, Cirez D-like tendencies turn up mid-album with a handful of afterhours-ready tracks (including “Eclipse,” one of the most complex and considered songs on Opus). The rest of the album closely follows Prydz’s compositional model: an anchoring 4/4 beat and Euro-house bassline, with layers of synth notes, aaabc gusts and phrases topped by ERIC a dominant keyboard melody PRYDZ that’ll loop inside your head Opus until you take in the next one. Think classic but updated progressive house—and not the Beatport version of it—that only flirts with the serotonin spikes of trance. More discerning fans might get impatient with older chestnuts like “Every Day” and “Liberate,” or even Prydz’s incremental creative evolution, but diehards and newbies alike will revel in the jawdropping amount of hooks, especially in the final, seven-track climb toward the euphoric title track. Opus is ambitious more in length than in artistic reach, but sticking to his strengths helps Prydz serve up a proper, introductory platter of tasteful anthemry. –Mike Prevatt
INDIE ROCK
Once a notoriously meticulous perfectionist, alt-country singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams has become downright prolific in recent years, and The Ghosts of Highway 20 is her second double album in less than two years. Unlike 2014’s Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone, though, Ghosts is a lethargic, slow-paced slog, with almost none of the fire Williams has shown on late-career highlights like Spirit and 2008’s Little Honey. Ghosts has more in common with 2007’s moody West, which Williams recorded following the death of her mother. Songs like the plodding “Death Came” and the nearly 13-minute closing track “Faith and Grace” are similarly morose and arty, an approach that gets monotonous over 14 tracks that span two discs and almost 90 minutes. There are occasional bright spots, like the swampy blues of “Doors of Heaven” and “Bitter Memory,” gritty Bruce Springsteen cover “Factory” and the sweet, catchy “Can’t Close the Door on Love.” The seven-minute title track demonstrates Williams’ ability to slowly build a song to a powerful crescendo, but most of the album is meandering and repetitive rather than cathartic. –Josh Bell
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DIIV Is the Is Are aaabc DIIV conductor Zachary Cole Smith is a notorious Nirvana fan—the Brooklyn band was initially called Dive in part after a Bleach-era B-side—but his own musical endeavors are decidedly grunge-free. He formerly drummed for jangle outfit Beach Fossils and played guitar in the psych-poppy Soft Black, and DIIV has evolved into a group indebted to the shadowy side of ’80s college rock. On sophomore double album Is the Is Are, the grayscale “Yr Not Far” could be an outtake from The Cure’s Faith; “Blue Boredom,” featuring smoky vocals from Smith’s girlfriend Sky Ferreira—sounds like Sonic Youth at a goth club; and “Incarnate Devil” possesses disorienting coiled guitar. Is the Is Are stands above other recent attempts to recapture the past, however, due to Smith’s vulnerability. The musician kicked heroin in rehab after a 2013 arrest, and channels his newfound clarity on songs dominated by desolation, regret and free-floating anxiety. “I’ve lived 10 lives and had 10 loves/To remind me what I’ve been guilty of,” Smith murmurs on “Healthy Moon.” Beneath its amorphous honesty, Is The Is Are has a sturdy, compelling foundation. –Annie Zaleski
photo by A.RICARDO/Shutterstock.com
LUCINDA WILLIAMS The Ghosts of Highway 20 aabcc
A&E | THE STRIP T H E K AT S R E P O RT
FLAY BY NIGHT
> THEY WENT THERE Criss Angel, feeling the wrath of Spoofical.
Spoofical finds David Saxe shredding Strip icons
PHOTO COURTESY DAVID SAXE PRODUCTIONS
BY JOHN KATSILOMETES David Saxe has been holding onto a couple of show concepts that, independently, would never seem to work here. One is a full-scale Las Vegas satire he’s long felt was too “insider-ish” to appeal to a theater full of tourists. The other is a send-up of pop culture, under the working title That’s So Wrong, rooted in the gross/inventive humor employed in Family Guy and Monty Python’s Life of Brian. Today, Saxe reasons that intertwining these disparate concepts will make a hit show. In the final stages of rehearsals, undergoing final revisions even as we speak, is Spoofical—A Musical. The show is scheduled to open February 8, having been delayed by a week for changes to the script and production components. That’s So Wrong would have been an apt title for this one. After watching an afternoon of rehearsals at Saxe’s V Theater fortress at Planet Hollywood’s Miracle Mile Shops, I can safely report that this is one of the most boundarytesting productions ever in Las Vegas. It might top the list, considering the high measure of content that is at once aggressively vulgar and hard-focused on Vegas entertainers. No one is spared in Spoofical. Magicians. Dance troupes. Casino moguls. Superstar headliners. Smutpamphlet passers on the Strip. In Spoofical, everyone is eligible for a healthy flaying. Elvis fans will appreciate the idea that the King is resurrected on a Las Vegas stage. Except that in Spoofical he’s introduced from a coffin, and appears as a skeleton performing as the King. Later, the same treatment is leveled on Michael Jackson. The production numbers, replete with Saxe’s lyrical adaptation of famous songs and backed by a live band, arrive in high velocity. J.Lo’s famous derriere is depicted across the width of the entire stage. Steve Wynn’s voiceover from ShowStoppers is mocked, by Saxe himself, who tells the audience, “If you like long voiceovers and blackouts, you will love this show. I talk before each and every number. Some say it’s creepy, but others … no, everyone says its creepy.” Some references might require
Not a metaphorical douchebag, but research by tourists. In a Downtown an actual, life-size douche bag. Saxe Las Vegas satire set to the Petula has developed a douche bag costume, Clark classic “Downtown,” a Tony especially for the Luxor headliner. Hsieh character appears (wearing a “That is the biggest risk, and I feel Zappos shirt) to apply a chloroformreally bad about it,” Saxe concedes. soaked rag to the face of a female As is customary with Saxe, he’s dancer—one of many scenes causscanning his entire collection of ing Saxe to observe, “I’m sure I’ll be shows while developing Spoofical. sued,” before adding, “It’s not repre“I don’t want to compete with sentative of anything. It’s just a wild, myself,” he says, noting the differcrazy, stupid thing happening in the ence in such hit shows as V - The middle of all this craziness.” Ultimate Variety Show, Vegas! The Fans are shown lined up outShow and Zombie Burlesque. He was side Gold & Silver Pawn for a taplooking for something that would be ing of a taping of Pawn Stars, but particularly ribald, comically, to jolt the lyrics suggest the stars of that audience members. show won’t be seen. Why? They’re “I almost hate to make this comin the back alley watching various parison, but everybody sex acts. There’s a dance loves Absinthe … and more number choreographed than anything it’s the by Saxe’s right-hand man, SPOOFICAL— humor, the two co-hosts,” Tiger Martina, featuring A MUSICAL Saxe says. “People rememcast members portraying Monday-Saturday, ber Penny and Gaz and the “crack whores” on Fremont 7 p.m., $70-$80. puppet show, using all this Street. These ladies have V Theater at just given birth under the Miracle Mile Shops, profanity. They love that.” During a break in the Fremont Street Experience 866-932-1818. rehearsal, Martina says canopy, their newborns he’s not nearly as concerned about dangling from umbilical chords while the content as he is the starting the mothers groove to the music. Not time: 7 p.m. “This show feels like it for the Meek would’ve been an apt should be a later show, but as far as title, too, come to think of it. what we’re putting onstage, David MGM Grand dance troupe is certainly more scared than I am,” Jabbawockeez performs an entire Martina says. “I worked for years number in a mock commercial rollwith Penn & Teller, so I know how ing out such dances as the Dirty to find the limits of freedom and reel Sanchez and Rusty Trombone. Axis it in. This is an adult show. And let’s theater headliner Britney Spears is face it, it’s too late to turn back.” shown as a puppet. “The statement Martina won’t know if he and is, she’s just blah. She doesn’t care,” Saxe have gone too far until he sees Saxe says. “There’s a projection of the entire show performed in its her head opening up and it’s a hamlast rehearsals. “We’ll know then ster in a cage. Her chest opens up whether we should add water here, and it’s all mechanical.” or vinegar,” Martina says, unwitAnd Criss Angel … wow. A guy tingly making the perfect metaphor who has actually been quite friendly for Spoofical. with Saxe is depicted as a douche bag.
A&E | Fine Art
> Get atomistic Details from Ignominious Refuse.
Ancient ideas From pop sculpture to skillfully restrained Polaroids, Brent Holmes’ new show makes matter matter By Dawn-Michelle Baude
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ties. A field of poppies that captures the latent centered and clean, like documentary photos geometry of plant distribution. A moody porfor a scientific database. “Simulacra I,” with its trait of Caesar, a bust that is itself a stony “shell” and bottleneck “column,” copy of a copy of a copy. seems like a compressed vestige of the Ignominious Refuse makes a conclassical world, a terse shorthand for a aaaac vincing case for Holmes’ photogratime and a place that no longer exist. IGNOMINIOUS phy. The Doric columns, while mildly The strangely resonant “Simulacra REFUSE interesting for their stencils and tags, II,” with its seashell-ear-vulva hybrid, Through March 11; function more as theatrical props than suggests an embryonic life-form on Tuesday-Friday, 10 a.m.-8 p.m.; art. Along with the shopping cart and the verge of reanimation. tinsel sculpture, “Superbia Civilis,” Holmes’ sharp photographic eye Saturday, 9 a.m.they belong to a pop street aesthetic roams freely in “Primordia Rerum: 6 p.m. Winchester Discoveries Divine in Intimate Cultural Center, 3130 at odds with the visual complexity and highbrow restraint in the photoSpace,” in which a couple hundred S. McLeod Drive, graphs. In the venerable terms of Polaroids arranged in neat rows and 702-455-7340. classical art history, the intellectual displayed in glass cases incrementally Apollonian approach works better than the emodocument the materials of the world. Sometimes tional Dionysian. All in all, an interesting show it’s atomistic architectures of light and pattern; that, as Lucretius might say, “matters.” sometimes it’s snapshots of presumable antiqui-
photographs by mikayla whitmore
The classical world meets Las Vegas via Caesars Palace and beyond in Brent Holmes’ Ignominious Refuse at the newly renovated Winchester Cultural Center gallery. It’s a sneakily brainy show. You can appreciate, say, the 10 large-format color photos as purified objects of contemplation, admiring their stark, other-worldly beauty. Or you can peruse a bank of 200 Polaroids, noting how the skewed framing and odd chemical effects aren’t so random after all. Or you can circumambulate the tagged Doric columns—whose curves complement the curved gallery wall—and consider how easily modern graffiti quashes an ancient architectural form. Or … you can go deeper. In many ways a conceptual show, Ignominious Refuse engages less with the motifs and more with the ideas of the ancient Greek and Roman world. At the source of Holmes’ inspiration stands Lucretius, a first-century B.C. poet-philosopher, who himself was influenced by earlier thinkers, like Epicurus and Democritis. These bearded men of yore focused on the thing-i-ness of the world: how matter comes into being, how we perceive it. And everywhere they looked, they saw atoms. In Ignominious Refuse, the atomistic theory of matter manifests in various ways, most successfully in the purified 40-by-36-inch color photographs, each seemingly featuring a building block of existence. Using a plain white background, Holmes shot found objects using a macro lens and then blew them up, keeping the images
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A&E | sports
> PASSING THE TORCH? It’s old man Manning vs. young gun Newton on Sunday.
Too good to fail?
With Peyton Manning’s legacy secure, Sunday’s just about winning By T.R. Witcher It’s no secret that Peyton Manning tends to shrink on the biggest stages. Despite his prolific passing records and scalpel-sharp football mind, the Sheriff is 13-13 in the playoffs, with just one Super Bowl ring in three trips. In his last Super Bowl, two years ago, despite possessing the greatest regular-season offense in NFL history, his Denver Broncos were crushed by the Seattle Seahawks in a 43-8 debacle. So expectations are low as Manning returns for his fourth—and in all likelihood final—Super Bowl appearance, against the Carolina Panthers. Beaten down by injuries and Father Time, out six games this season with a partially torn plantar fascia in his left foot and sporting his worst statistics since his rookie season, Manning looks like a shell of himself. But he’s still Peyton Manning. He’s no longer orchestrating a juggernaut scoring machine. Instead he’s game-managing a mediocre offense while Denver’s leaguebest defense closes out tough, tight games. Manning, who’s almost 40, will be the oldest starting quarterback in Super Bowl history. If he wins on Sunday, he’ll be the first QB to lead two separate teams to the title. That would be a nice feather in his cap, proof of his adaptability and mastery of the game. Either way, Manning will go down as one of the two or three greatest quarterbacks of all time. He just won’t be the greatest. That was a viable question before Super Bowl 48,
28W LasVegasWeekly.com February 4-10, 2016
but no more, with the honor now belonging to Manning’s nemesis, Patriots QB Tom Brady, who last year defeated essentially the same Seahawks squad that demolished the Broncos in 2014. Nothing that happens on Sunday can push Manning back over Brady in the rankings, but it really doesn’t matter. The narrative that Broncos GM John Elway has tried to write is the same one he authored at the end of his own career close to 20 years ago—an aging quarterback legend wins the Big Game and rides off into the sunset. But Manning isn’t even the main storyline of Super Bowl 50. Quarterback Cam Newton, this year’s likely MVP, is the new news, and his Carolina Panthers, fueled by youthful moxie and beatdowns of two quality teams in the playoffs, is expected to bring too much firepower for Manning and the Broncos to keep up. In this script, the aging QB legend will at best pass the torch to the Next Big Thing, or Cam and his boys will simply seize that torch. Either way, Manning will limp into retirement. But here’s the irony: As Manning faces the last and biggest game of a Hall of Fame career, his foot hobbled, his arm strength gone, with no expectation of victory, he actually has his best chance of winning. Denver’s hope, the commentators will tell you, lies on whether its defense can deliver one more masterful game and whether Manning can simply not screw up. No turnovers. Don’t
peyton manning by MIKE MCCARN/ap; cam newton by Bob Leverone/ap
INVITES YOU AND A GUEST TO A SPECIAL ADVANCE SCREENING OF
Where to watch Six Super Bowl parties worth getting off your couch to catch South Point The southValley casino isn’t waiting for kickoff to get the party started, with its exhibit hall, grand ballroom and showroom all set to open at 10:30 a.m. on Sunday. Admission is free, onsite wagering will be easy and hot dogs will be available for $1 apiece—you’ve just gotta be 21 to get inside. 702-796-7111.
Downtown Las Vegas Events Center A 20,000-square-foot party tent transforms into Big Game headquarters, with giant TVs and food and drink specials. The kicker? Admission’s free. Doors at noon, 21+, 800-745-3000. Jardin This one’s for the foodies, as Encore’s newest restaurant offers an all-youcan-eat menu, featuring savory treats like My Grandmother’s Chicken Meatballs and a Spiced Pear Crostata. Drop those microwaved wings and head over. Doors at 2 p.m., $105, 702-770-3463. Gold Spike Where else can you do ice-luge shots while watching (or not bothering to watch) the Super Bowl? Admission is free, or you can splurge for an open bar and buffet for $50 or a reserved table with food for $300-$450. Doors at 2 p.m., 21+, 702-476-1082.
Beer Park Choose from more than 100 beers while enjoying rooftop views of the Strip, multiple TVs and a projected view screen at Paris Las Vegas’ brand new outdoor hot spot. If the game sucks, the people-watching won’t. Doors at 2:30 p.m., $175, 21+, 702-444-4500.
Marquee DAYCLUB How often do you party in a club while watching the biggest game of the year? Nosh on upgraded gameday fare like truffle mac and cheese and salt-crusted filet mignon at Marquee’s annual Q Bowl. Doors at 1 p.m., $65 open bar or buffet/$125 for both, 21+, 702-388-8588. –Rosalie Spear
are impressive not in spite of throw deep. Win with guile and their deficiencies but because of brains. But Peyton Manning as them. Manning’s legacy is secure game manager won’t be enough. because we’ve accepted his shortThe Broncos defense is formidable comings, win or lose. That’s what but not unstoppable. It needs help. allows us to appreciate his considTo win, it needs Peyton Manning erable success. to go for big plays, and make some. Maybe Manning has finally We celebrate Manning for his accepted them, too. The most maniacal, cerebral control at the revelatory play he made against line of scrimmage—part chess the Patriots two weeks ago wasn’t match, part theater—as he forena laser-strike touchdown or an sically examines defenses and audible to beat the blitz. adjusts his offense accordIt was a rare, ugly-looking ingly. But that control can CAROLINA scramble for a first down. often clamp down on him PANTHERS It was Peyton Manning when the pressure rises, VS. DENVER doing something he never when the margin for error BRONCOS does on a broken play narrows and he can’t get February 7, with a bum foot. It was out of his own way. That 3:30 p.m., Manning going off script, seems to be why he so CBS. facing down his own weakoften comes up short in nesses, to make a play. the postseason. That’s the recipe, Sheriff. On To have a chance Sunday, Sunday, there’s no need to be perManning must play not only fect. No need to worry about legwith his head but his heart. He acy. The key to summoning one must own his limitations, and last great performance? Don’t be disregard them. The accomplishafraid to fail. ments of a great artist or athlete
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 8 7:00 PM VISIT WBTICKETS.COM/ LVWSINGLE TO RECEIVE A SCREENING PASS FOR TWO. WHILE SUPPLIES LAST.
RATED R FOR SEXUAL CONTENT AND STRONG LANGUAGE THROUGHOUT. Please note: Passes are limited and will be distributed on a first come, first served basis while supplies last. No phone calls, please. Limit one pass per person. Each pass admits two. Seating is not guaranteed. Arrive early. Theater is not responsible for overbooking. This screening will be monitored for unauthorized recording. By attending, you agree not to bring any audio or video recording device into the theater (audio recording devices for credentialed press excepted) and consent to a physical search of your belongings and person. Any attempted use of recording devices will result in immediate removal from the theater, forfeiture, and may subject you to criminal and civil liability. Please allow additional time for heightened security. You can assist us by leaving all nonessential bags at home or in your vehicle.
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FOOD & Drink > elegantly exotic (Clockwise from here) The famous green prawns, rice noodles spiked with squid ink and spare ribs.
See and be scene The famous fare and flashy vibe of Mr Chow are at home on the Strip By Brock Radke I learned all I really needed to know about Mr Chow days after I’d eaten there, on a short drive from the airport to the Strip. First, I saw a huge black-and-white billboard very simply stating that this was a “world famous experience,” posted in the heart of the tourist corridor along with outdoor advertising for nightclubs and shows—there wasn’t another restaurant ad in sight. And right then, on the radio, I heard Fabolous rap, “Mr Chow’s girl, not a P.F. Chang thang.” This is certainly not the first time Mr Chow has been name-dropped in song. Off the top of my head, I recall Usher offering his date the choice between Nobu and Mr Chow. I just didn’t think the modern classic Chinese restaurant, originally opened in 1968 in London, was still considered, well, cool. But it is, and not just according to billboards and rappers. And the Vegas version feels very cool, even though it was supposed to open years ago. It’s finally here at Caesars Palace, and there’s no reason to think it won’t be a success or won’t draw the celebrity clientele it has cultivated for decades. After a short elevator ride and maybe a quick stop in an artsy lobby-lounge, you’ll enter an all-
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because pretty much everything here is done very white dining room representing the early-’70s verwell. Fiery beef ($46) is far from spicy, but the sion of what science fiction looks like. Sit down and meat is crispy and tender and the sauce is bold and be ready for the signature Champagne trolley, the vibrant. The well-known green prawns ($39) are only vehicle we’ve ever seen selling glasses of Dom a must-try, doused in a bright sauce made Perignon ($79) or Veuve Clicquot ($40). with spinach for fun color. The vegetable The bubbles pair perfectly with first-course sides ($7.50) are particularly lovely, from selections like chicken satay ($7.25 per piece) MR CHOW garlicky sautéed baby bok choy to lily bulb with ultra-creamy peanut sauce or lobster Caesars with mountain yam or crisp green beans shumai ($20). The hand-stretched and cut Palace, 702with rich XO sauce. Beautiful whole Beijing Mr Chow noodles ($19.50) are deliciously 731-7888. duck is also available as a three-course dinfresh, but if you need a little more kick, opt Sundayfor the squid-ink rice noodles ($23.50) and Thursday, 5-10 ner ($74 per person). Mr Chow is certainly unique, even on the meaty spare ribs ($18.50) for appetizers. p.m.; Friday today’s Las Vegas Strip, which might be Mr Chow’s food is mostly subtle and pret- & Saturday, the only place in the world where a certain ty, and far more satisfying than it appears. If 5-10:30 p.m. kind of flashy, high-priced Chinese fine dinthe fancy spin on these family-style, largeing can flourish. If you need a little drama with your ly traditional dishes are confounding, the staff is steamed sea bass and crispy beef, you’ll appreciate happy to help you create a special semi-prix-fixe this experience. menu for your party. I say stick with your favorites,
photographs by Christopher DeVargas
> CLASSIC COWBOY Stick with smoky prime rib (left) and stuffed mushrooms at Bob Taylor’s Ranch House.
LUCANO SOUR
> MELT. YOUR. FACE. Cumin isn’t the only spice happening in the toothpick lamb.
T H E S P E C TAC L E C I R C U I T
THE HOTTEST STUFF LA import Chengdu Taste is setting Vegas Chinatown on fire BY ANDY WANG sure for a lot of people, and this uncompromising restauI don’t do drugs, but I eat lots of Szechuan food, so I rant also happens to be the most high-profile Chinese can’t feel my face much of the time. restaurant in the country. The tongue-numbing mala of Szechuan peppercorns Chengdu Taste is beloved by LA critics, including paired with the pop of glistening chili oil and potent godfather Jonathan Gold, and a New York-based Serious peppers will make you tingle and ready to mingle. Eats writer recently declared it to be the best Szechuan It’s like your mouth is on LSD, New York food writer restaurant in the country. There are other Szechuan resRobert Sietsema aptly said during a melt-your-skin-off taurants I like better (the fish soup at Legend in meal at Spicy & Tasty in Queens years ago when New York City is unassailable), but there are none we ate dandan noodles and beef tendon doused CHENGDU as ambitious as Chengdu Taste. Since his original in red oil while peeking into a sketchy-looking TASTE San Gabriel Valley restaurant opened in 2013, back-room card game. 3950 Schiff chef/owner Tony Xu has built an empire with two It’s wild, the moment when you can’t feel Drive, 702other LA Chengdu Taste outposts and the new anything but all of your senses are somehow 437-7888. noodle shop, Mian, he’s just launched. heightened at the same time. The only thing to Daily, 11 Xu’s a pioneering chef in LA, but what he’s do is eat more. This kind of rush is habit-forma.m.-3 p.m.; doing in Vegas is vital as well. Chengdu Taste’s ing, so it’s no surprise the new Vegas outpost of 5-10 p.m. success could encourage other LA-area Chinese LA Szechuan sensation Chengdu Taste is setting restaurants to consider Vegas in their expansion our Chinatown on fire. plans. The lobster at New Port Seafood or the dim sum This is true destination dining. Despite its hard-toat Lunasia, to name just two examples, would be tremenfind location in the back of a strip mall that requires you dously popular on Spring Mountain Road. to enter off Spring Mountain and drive past empty storeChengdu Taste, along with Shake Shack and Blue fronts, Chengdu Taste is always a scene. Come for a weekRibbon Fried Chicken in Downtown Summerlin and the end dinner and you might see tour buses full of Chinese forthcoming Dog Haus on Paradise Road, is part of a delipassengers ready to devour cumin lamb on toothpicks or cious trend of A-list operators from around the country frog with tofu pudding in hot sauce. Show up for a weekrealizing Vegas isn’t just about casinos. Creating neighborday lunch with a friend and there’s a good chance you’ll hood restaurants here can be good business, too. be eating your spectacular boiled fish with green pepper Of course, Uber and Lyft make it easy for tourists to sauce next to strangers at a communal table. check out neighborhood restaurants and explore different Chengdu Taste is an uncompromising restaurant. areas. Here’s a tip for locals and out-of-towners alike: After Even just touching the broth condensation on a to-go eating at Chengdu Taste, you might want to stroll over to container can make your hands feel like they’re burning the Golden Tiki and cool off with some Dole Whip. for half an hour. But of course, this kind of pain is plea-
PHOTOGRAPH BY STEVE MARCUS
INGREDIENTS 1 1/2 oz. Kweichow Moutai (Chinese spirit) 1 1/2 oz. Funkin Brazilian Cocktail Mixer /4 oz. Licor 43 (Spanish vanilla liqueur)
3
1 oz. fresh lime juice /2 oz. Wilks & Wilson Adelaide’s Orgeat
1
Dehydrated pineapple wheel for garnish Fresh passion fruit for garnish
METHOD Combine ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake thoroughly. Strain into a frosted glass over crushed ice. Garnish with dehydrated pineapple wheel and fresh passion fruit. February 8 is Chinese New Year, welcoming in the Year of the Monkey, which is associated with curiosity, adventure, innovation and resolve. Fittingly, this cocktail is experimental, fun and festive while still incorporating traditional elements. The base liqueur, Kweichow Moutai, is a beloved Chinese spirit that has been revered in the country for hundreds of years.
Cocktail created by Francesco Lafranconi, Executive Director of Mixology and Spirits Education at Southern Wine & Spirits.
FEBRUARY 4-10, 2016 LASVEGASWEEKLY.COM
31W
Calendar LISTINGS YOU CAN PLAN YOUR LIFE BY!
LIVE MUSIC THE STRIP & NEARBY Brooklyn Bowl Us, Mija, Chocolate Puma, Coyote Kisses, MIICS, Deaf From Above, Laissez Faire, Sam V B2B, Scotty Rocks, Tevin Eleven 2/4, 6:30 pm, $30. Empire Records 2/5, 10 pm, free. Emily King, The Lique, Cameron Calloway 2/6, 9 pm, $15. Lamb of God, Anthrax, Deafheaven, Powertrip 2/11, 7 pm, $35. Hoodie Allen, Super Duper Kyle, Blackbear 2/12, 9 pm, $30. Nahko and Medicine for the People 2/13, 8:30 pm, $20$24. Williamsburg Salsa Orchestra 2/20, 9 pm, free. Alice: A Steampunk Concert Fantasy 2/24, 3/23, 10 pm, $15-$30. Phil Lesh & Friends 2/26-2/27, 8 pm, $65. The Infamous Stringdusters 2/27, 12:30 am, $15. Phil Lesh & The Terrapin Family Band 2/28, 1 pm, $30. Metric, Joywave 2/29, 8 pm, $26. Linq, 702-862-2695. The Colosseum Celine Dion 2/23-2/24, 2/26-2/27, 7:30 pm, $55-$500. Mariah Carey 2/5-2/6, 2/10, 2/13-2/14, 2/17, 2/19-2/20, 8 pm, $55-$250. Tsai Chin 2/12, 9 pm, $58-$188. Caesars Palace, 702-731-7333. The Cosmopolitan (Chelsea) Celebration of the Lunar Year of the Monkey 2/13, 7:30 pm, $50. (Clique) Daniel Park 2/4. Matt Morgan 2/11. Rein Garcia 2/18. Brittney Hauser 2/25. Clique shows 9 pm, free unless noted. 702-698-7000. Double Barrel Roadhouse (DB Live!) Thrillbilly Deluxe 2/5. Crossroad South 2/6, 2/13, 2/20, 2/27. Rowdy McCarren 2/12. Wheel High 2/19. Nicole Kerns 2/26. All shows at 11 pm, free unless noted. Monte Carlo, 702222-7735. Double Down Dark Water Rebellion, Back Porch Blvd. 2/4. Blue Lion Project, Big Mess, Catch the Fire, Nomada, Perfect Sense, Ethan 103 2/5. Occasional Caucasians, North by North, Friendly Fire, Stateline Syndicate 2/6. Ivana Blaize’s Pussyrama 2/7, 3/6, 9 pm. High Arrow, Privatized Air 2/10. Tank Girl, Atomic Fish, Leather Lungs 2/11, 9 pm. Blissins, Yosemite Slam, Catch the Fire, War Called Home, Torn at the Seam 2/12. Super Zeroes, Electric Ferrets, Stagnetti’s Cock, The Lazy Stalkers, Sons of L.A. 2/13. Cadaver Pudding 2/14. Gold Top Bob & The Goldtoppers 2/17. Spooky Mansion, Chameleon Technology, Something Called Nothing 2/18. Yosemite Slam, Gukdo, Sector 7-G, 40oz Folklore, Child Endangerment 2/19. Shows at 10 pm and free, unless noted. 640 Paradise Road, 702-791-5775. The Foundry Awolnation 2/5, 8 pm, $35. Lil Wayne, Method Man & Redman 2/6, 10:30 pm, $30-$40. Buckcherry 2/20, 8 pm, $23. SLS, foundrylv.com. Gilley’s Easy 8’s Band 2/4, 2/25, 9 pm, free. Scotty Alexander Band 2/18, 9 pm; 2/19-2/20, 10 pm. Rob Staley Band 2/5-2/6, 10 pm. Chancey Williams and the Younger Brothers Band 2/11, 3/10, 9 pm; 2/12-2/13, 10 pm. Kaleb King 2/26-2/27, 10 pm. Shows $10-$20 after 10 pm unless noted. Treasure Island, 702-894-7722. Hard Rock Live Killswitch Engage, Stitched Up Heart, First Decree, Romantic Rebel, From Ashes to New 2/11, 7 pm, $15. Hard Rock Cafe (Strip), 702-733-7625.
> METAL HEALTH Lamb of God anchors a heavy four-band bill February 11 at Brooklyn Bowl.
House of Blues Carlos Santana 2/42/6, $90-$350, 8 pm. Queen Nation 2/13, 7 pm, $15-$18. Cradle of Filth, Butcher Babies, Ne Obliviscaris 2/16, 8 pm, $25. At the Gates, The Haunted, Decapitated 2/18, 5:30 pm, $23-$25. Wicked Garden, Roxy Gunn Project 2/20, 7 pm, $10. Mandalay Bay, 702-632-7600. The Joint Bullet for My Valentine, Asking Alexandria, While She Sleeps 2/6, 7:30 pm, $32. Ruco Chan, Linda Chung 2/12, 9 pm, $73-$173. Rascal Flatts 2/17, 2/19, 2/20, 2/24, 2/26-2/27, 8 pm, $40-$250. Hard Rock Hotel, 702-693-5222. Mandalay Bay (Events Center) Gerardo Ortiz y Calibre 50 2/12, 8 pm, $70-$180. Black Sabbath, Rival Sons 2/13, 7:30 pm, $45-$164. Iron Maiden, The Raven Age 2/28, $62$103. 702-632-7777. MGM Grand (Garden Arena) AC/DC 2/5, $129. 702-891-7777. Orleans (Arena) Midnight Star, The Emotions, Heatwave, Debra & Ronnie Laws, Jody Watley, Malo, GQ, The Jets, Evelyn King 2/13, 7:30 pm, $30-$79. Stellar Gospel Music Awards 2/20, 6 pm, $45-$200. Dion 2/5-2/6, 8 pm, $55-$82. Los Temerarios 2/12, 8 pm, $46. Love Affair 2/13, 7:30 pm, $30. (Showroom) Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis Jr. 2/132/14, $33-$55. 702-365-7075. Palms (Lounge) Hal Savar: The Human Jukebox 2/4, 10 pm. Franky Perez ft. Christian Brady 2/6, 10:30 pm. Sin City Sinners 2/11, 2/25, 10 pm. David Perrico & Pop Strings Orchestra 2/13, 2/27, 11 pm. Barry Black 2/14, 10 pm. Gypsy Road 2/18, 10 pm. Dueling Pianos 2/19-2/20, 9 pm. Cyanide 2/26, 10 pm. Shows free unless noted. 4321 Flamingo Rd., 942-7777. The Pearl Megadeth, Suicidal Tendencies, Children of Bodom, Havok 2/26, 7 pm, $50-$86. Palms, 702-942-7777. Planet Hollywood (The Axis) Britney Spears 2/13-2/14, 2/17, 2/19-2/20, 2/24, 2/26-2/27, 9 pm, $57-$180. Jennifer Lopez 2/5-2/6, 2/9, 9 pm, $95-$219. 702-777-2782. The Sand Dollar Lounge The Crossing 2/4. The Chris Tofield Band 2/5.
The Lucky Cheats 2/6. Shows at 10 pm, free unless noted. 3355 Spring Mountain Road, 702-485-5401. The Sayers Club The Conwaves 2/5, 10 pm, free. SLS, 702-761-7618. Stoney’s Rockin’ Country Frank Ortega 2/5. Beau Hodges Band 2/12. Jon Pardi 2/19. Shows 10 pm, free unless noted. 6611 Las Vegas Blvd. S., 702-435-2855. Vinyl Sin City Sinners 2/6, 9 pm, free. Thousand Foot Krutch, Bridge to Grace, David Brazil, Wayland, Sunflower Dead 2/12, 8 pm, $15-$18. P.O.D., 10 Years, Dead Letter Circus, War of Ages 2/13, 8 pm, $22-$39. Anti-Flag, Leftover Crack, War on Women, Homeless Gospel Choir, Blackbird Raum 2/28, 7 pm, $18. Hard Rock Hotel, 702-693-5000.
Johnny Rivers 2/26, $32-$162. 129 E. Fremont St., 866-946-5336. LVCS Nile, Spun in Darkness, Casket Raider, The Holy Pariah, Circa Sik, Brace 4 Impact, Spiritual Shepherd 2/5, 6 pm; Enforcer, Warbringer, Exmortus, Abysmal Dawn, Cauldron, Sicocis 2/6, 6 pm, $17-$20. Blaze, Lex Hex Master, Trilogy, Donnie Menace, Ne Last Words, Sicc 2/27, 8 pm, $14$17. Fremont St., 702-382-3531. The Smith Center (Reynolds Hall) The Tenors 2/20, 7:30 pm, $24-$95. (Cabaret Jazz) Frankie Moreno 2/16, 8 pm, $25-$35. Clint Holmes & Domenick Allen 2/4, 7 pm; 2/52/6, 8:30 pm, $37-$46. Lisa Fischer 2/19, 7 pm; 2/20, 6 & 9 pm, $37-$65. The Tenors 2/20, 7:30 pm, $24-$95. Symphony Park Ave., 702-749-2000.
DOWNTOWN
EVERYWHERE ELSE
Backstage Bar & Billiards Silversage, GoldBoot, Brumby, Irontom, Stefano, TrueViolet 2/4, 8 pm, free. The Blasters, Shanda & The Howlers, DJ Lucky LaRue 2/5, 8 pm, $15-$20. Lady Reiko, BLVD Rootz, Shaggamon, ST1 2/6, 8 pm, $6. Mike Zito & The Wheel, Katy Guillen & The Girls 2/12, 8 pm, $16-$21. Dance Yourself Clean 2/26, 8 pm, $11. 601 E. Fremont St., 702382-2227. Beauty Bar Valley Queen, Boroughs 2/8, 9 pm, free. Metalachi 2/11, 9 pm, $12-$15. 517 Fremont St., 702-598-3757. Bunkhouse Saloon Rusty Maples, Black Camaricans, Glass Pool 2/4, 8 pm, $5. Bernie Down the House! 2/5, 8 pm, free. Dusty Sunshine, Blair Dewane, Jackson Wilcox, Sonia Seelinger 2/12, 8 pm, $5. 124 S. 11th St., 702-854-1414. Fremont Country Club Nicho Hinojosa 2/10, 7 pm, $20-$55. Hawthorne Heights, Mest, The Ataris 2/16, 7 pm, $20-$25. 601 E. Fremont St., 702-382-6601. Fremont Street Experience (First Street Stage) The Return of the Classics 2/6, 2 pm, free. Downtown Las Vegas, vegasexperience.com. Golden Nugget (Gordie Brown Showroom) Blood Sweat and Tears 2/5, $32-$108. Christopher Cross 2/12, $32-$108. J.T. Taylor 2/19, $32-$108.
Adrenaline Sports Bar and Grill Word in Edgewise, Found in Fiction, Ichigo Crush 2/6, 9 pm, $5. 3103 N. Rancho Drive, 702-645-4139. Aliante Casino + Hotel + Spa (Access Showroom) Euge Groove 2/6, 8 pm, $33-$63. Keiko Matsui 2/19, 8 pm, $33-$63. (All-Star Friday Nights) Michael Speaks 2/5. StarOne AllStars 2/12. All-Star Friday Nights shows start at 9 pm, $10. 7300 N. Aliante Parkway, North Las Vegas, 702-692-7777. Boulder Dam Brewing The Locals 2/5. Elwood 2/6. Great Jones Band 2/12. Out of the Desert 2/13. The Black Grit 2/19. 9th Annibrewsary Bash: The All-Togethers 2/20. All shows 8 pm, free unless noted. 453 Nevada Way, Boulder City, 702-243-2739. Boulder Station (The Railhead) VooDoo Band 2/6, 10 pm. Forget to Remember 2/13, 10 pm. Boulder Blues 2/11, 6 pm, $5. (Kixx Bar) Paul Charles 2/5-2/6, 8 pm. All shows free unless noted. 702-432-7777. CasaBlanca Resort & Casino Tony Sacca 2/27, 7:30 pm, $15-$30. A Tribute to Rush 2/6, 8:30 pm, $15-$30. The Fab: Beatles Love Songs Tribute 2/13, 8:30 pm, $15-$30. Mesquite MusicFest 2/15-2/17, 7 pm, $25-$32. Nieve Malandra & Stardust 2/14,
CHECK OUT OUR COMPLETE CALENDAR LISTINGS AT LASVEGASWEEKLY.COM/EVENTS 32W LASVEGASWEEKLY.COM FEBRUARY 4-10, 2016
5:30 pm, $25-$45. Southern Nevada Symphony Orchestra 2/20, 7 pm, $15$30. 897 W. Mesquite Blvd., Mesquite, mesquitegaming.com. Count’s Vamp’d Y&T 2/5, 8:30 pm, $20-$25. Geoff Tate’s Operation Mindcrime 2/6, 9 pm, $20-$25. Sin City Sinners: St. Valentine’s Day Massacre 2/14, 9:30 pm, free. 6750 W. Sahara, 702-220-8849. Dive Bar The Toasters 2/19, 9 pm, $10-$12. 4110 S. Maryland Parkway, 702-586-3483. Fiesta Rancho (Club Tequila) Los Metichones 2/6, 11 pm, $10. Flashback Friday with V108 2/12, 9 pm, $5-$10. Banda Destructora 2/13, 11 pm, $10. Los Hermanos Padilla 2/20, 11 pm, $10. Vida Grupera 2/27, 11 pm, $10. Sherry Gordy: Take the Stage Fri, 8 pm, $5-$10. (Cabo Lounge) Eagle One All Stars 2/5-2/6. La Mar Le Warren Experience 2/122/13. Block Party 2/19-2/20. Tre’sure, DreamStone 2/26-2/27. Cabo Lounge shows at 8:30 pm, free unless noted. 702-631-7000. Green Valley Ranch (Grand Events Center) Ronnie Milsap 2/20, 8 pm, $20-$50. 702-367-2470. Orleans (Showroom) Marilyn McCoo, Billy Davis, Jr. & The Next Dimension 2/13-2/14, 8 pm, $33-$55. 702-284-7777. Pioneer Saloon Chris Heers 2/6, 11 am. Bill May 2/6, 5 pm. Big Willies with Tom Sheckells 2/10, 2/17, 6 pm. Tommy Rocker 2/13, 11 am. Ernie 2/13, 5 pm. Three Blind Mice 2/14, noon. Bud Mickle 2/14, 2/20, 5 pm. Jeffrey Michaels 2/20, 11 am. Rick Bell 2/21, noon. Shows free unless noted. 310 W. Spring St., Goodsprings, NV, 702874-9362. Red Rock (Rocks Lounge) Miller & Doobies 2/5, 7:30 pm, $15. The Rock Show 2/6, 11 pm. The Jones 2/12, 11 pm. Empire Records 2/19-2/20, 11 pm. Shows free unless noted. 11011 W. Charleston Blvd., 702-797-7777. Santa Fe Station (Chrome Showroom) Bert Lynch 2/3, 6:30 pm. American Voodoo 2/5, 9 pm. Vegas Goodfellas 2/10, 6:30 pm. Blue String Theory 2/12, 9 pm. Route 66 2/13, 9 pm. N’Demand 2/17, 6:30 pm. Walk Off Hits 2/19, 9 pm. All shows free unless noted. 4949 N Rancho Drive, 702658-4900. South Point Tower of Power 2/12-2/14, 7:30 pm, $45-$55. Earl Turner and Friends 2/26-2/28, 7:30 pm, $18-$28. 702-797-8005. Suncoast (Showroom) The Man in Black, A Tribute to Johnny Cash 2/20-2/21, 7:30 pm, $25. 9090 Alta Drive, 702-636-7075. Sunset Station (Club Madrid) Lon Bronson All-Star Band 2/4, 2/18, 10 pm, free. Nashville Unplugged 2/5, 8 pm, $10. American Voodoo 2/6, 2/20, 11 pm, $10. Nashville Unplugged with Kim Williams 2/11, 8 pm, $10. The Fab 2/12, 8 pm, $10. Collin Raye 2/13, 8 pm, $24-$44. Empire Records 2/13, 11 pm, $10. Reckless In Vegas 2/19, 8 pm, $10. 1301 W. Sunset Road, 702547-7777. Texas Station (A-Bar) Darrin Michaels 2/14, 6 pm; Fri, Sat, 7 pm, free. 702631-1000.
COMEDY CasaBlanca Resort & Casino The Comedy Machine 2/5, 8:30 pm, $15$25. 897 W. Mesquite Blvd., Mesquite, mesquitegaming.com.
Calendar Hard Rock Hotel (The Joint) Adam Sandler, Norm Macdonald, Rob Schneider 2/13-2/14, 8 pm, $50-$400. 702-693-5000. Harrah’s (The Improv) Vice Morris, Nick Youssef 2/4-2/7. Tue-Sun, 8:30 pm; Fri & Sat, 10 pm; $30-$45. 702-369-5000. MGM Grand (Brad Garrett’s Comedy Club) Richard Vos, Zoltan Kaszas, Derek Richards 2/4-2/7. Brad Garrett, Debi Gutierrez, Andrew Norelli 2/8-2/14. Darrell Joyce, Mark Eddie, Randy Kagan 2/15-2/21. Scott Henry, Frances Dilorinzo, Drew Thomas 2/22-2/28. Brad Garrett, Michael Sommerville, Landry 2/29-3/5. Nightly, 8 pm, $43-$87. 702-891-7777. Mirage Daniel Tosh 2/5, 10 pm; 2/6, 7:30 pm, $65-$105. Jay Leno 2/26, 10 pm, $66-$87. Ron White 2/12-2/13, 10 pm, $66. 702-792-7777. Orleans (Showroom) Sinbad 2/5-2/6, 8 pm, $50. 702-284-7777. Red Rock (Rocks Lounge) Justin Willman 2/20, 8 pm, $29-$39. 702-797-7777. South Point South Point Bob Levy, Mick Foley 2/5-2/6, 7:30 pm, $18-$28. Gabe Lopez Fri, 12:30 am, free. 702-797-8005. Tropicana (The Laugh Factory) Jeff Richards 2/4-2/7. Spencer James 2/8-2/10. Dom Irrera, Spencer James 2/11, 8:30 pm, 10:30 pm; 2/12-2/14, 8:30 pm. Baslie 2/15-2/21. All shows at 8:30 pm & 10:30 pm unless listed, $35-$55. 702-739-2222. Treasure Island David Alan Grier, Tommy Davidson 2/12, 9 pm, $44-$71. 702-894-7111.
Performing Arts Christ Church Episcopal Hans Uwe Hielscher 2/5, 7:30 pm, $15. 2000 S. Maryland Parkway, sncago.org. Cockroach Theatre The Nether 2/25-2/27, 8 pm; 2/28, 2 pm, $16-$20. Art Square Theater, 1025 S. 1st St., Ste. 110, 702-818-3422. Las Vegas Philharmonic Pink Martini 2/6, 7:30 pm, $100-$250. Spotlight Series 2/16, 7:30 pm, $168. Smith Center, 702-7492000. Onyx Theatre Geek! 2/11-2/13, 2/18-2/20, 8 pm; 2/21, 5 pm, $15-$20. 953 E. Sahara Ave., 702-732-7225. Smith Center (Reynolds Hall) Panties in a Twist 2/4-2/6, $35-$43. The Symphonic Rockshow Presents: The Best of British Rock 2/5, 7:30 pm, $29-$59. Cinderella 2/13, 7:30 pm, 2/14, 2 pm, $29-$139. Elephant & Piggies We Are in a Play 2/17, 6:30 pm, $15$23. The Bridges of Madison County 2/232/28, $29-$129. (Troesh Studio Theater) Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill 2/12-2/14, 8 pm; 2/13-2/14, 3 pm, $34. 702-749-2000. UNLV (Rando-Grillot Recital Hall) Andrew York 2/20, 8 pm, $41-$45. Chelsea Chen 2/26, 7:30 pm, free. (Artemus W. Ham Hall) Sarah Chang and Julio Elizalde 2/6, 8 pm, $25-$75. (Judy Bayley Theatre) Nevada Conservatory Theatre: To Kill a Mockingbird 2/12-2/13, 2/18-2/20, 2/252/27, 8 pm; 2/14, 2/21, 2/28, 2 pm, $10-$33. (Philip J. Cohen Theater) The Vagina Monologues 2/27, 4 pm; 7 pm, $10. 702895-3332. Winchester Cultural Center Cosi Fan Tutte, Mozart 2/12-2/13, 2/19-2/20, 7 pm; 2/14, 2/21, 2 pm, $15. 3130 S. McLeod Drive, 702-455-7340.
Special Events Barrick Lecture Series: Fareed Zakaria 2/9, 7:30 pm, free. UNLV, Artemus W. Ham Concert Hall, 702-895-2787. Big Ass Barrel Aged Beer Blowout Bonanza 2/13, 3 pm, $10-$15. Aces & Ales, 2801 N. Tenaya Way, 702-638-2337. Black History Month Festival 2/20, 10 am-5 pm, $0-$5. Springs Amphitheater at Springs Preserve, 702-822-7700. Chinese New Year Festive Gala 2/17, 7:30 pm, $15-$35. Orleans Showroom, 702-284-7777. Chinese New Year in the Desert 2/8-2/12, 7-9 pm; 2/13-2/14, 1-9 pm. Free. The Linq Promenade, 702-391-9536. The Color Run: Tropicolor 2/27, 8 am, $0-$60. Downtown Las Vegas, thecolorrun.com. Color Vibe 5K 2/6, 9 am, $0-$70. Craig Ranch Regional Park, thecolorvibe.com. Darkness: Book Signing and Reading by Hossein Mortezaeian Abkenar 2/5, 8 pm, free. The Writer’s Block, 1020 Fremont St., thewritersblock.org.
Downtown Podcast Thu, 9 pm, free. Inspire Theater, 107 Las Vegas Blvd. S., downtownpodcast.tv. Final performance of Jubilee 2/11, 7 pm; 9:30 pm, $55-$113. Bally’s, 702-967-4111. First Friday 2/5, 5-11 pm, free, Las Vegas Arts District, fflv.com. For the Love of Cocktails Meet the Masters of Cocktails 2/10, 6 pm, Hotel Bound Bar at Cromwell. Meet the Masters of Wine 2/10, 7:30 pm, $175, Giada at Cromwell. Downtown Bar Crawl 2/11, 5 pm. Locations vary. USBG Food Truck Wars 2/11, 10 pm, $25, Gold Spike. Micro-Experiences & Seminars 2/12, noon-5 pm, Mandalay Bay & Delano. The Grand Gala 2/12, 7 pm, $100, Mandalay Bay & Delano. ftloc.vegas. Galentine’s Day 2/12, 6:30 pm, $10. Tivoli Village, 440 S. Rampart Blvd., 702-570-7400. Human Love Experience: Poetry Music and Song ft. Lee Mallory, Philena Carter and Mizz Absurd 2/8, 7 pm, free. Hop Nuts Brewery, 1120 S. Main St., 702-816-5371. “Knock Out an MMA Fighter” DeepStack Extravaganza Poker Tournament 2/4, 7 pm, $300. Sands Poker Room at Venetian, 702-414-1000. Las Vegas Aloha Run 2/20, 8 am, $15-$120. Floyd Lamb Park, 9200 Tule Springs Road, lvaloha5k.com. Las Vegas Spring Festival Parade 2/13, 11 am, free. Downtown Las Vegas, 702-848-2098. Lepre-Con 2/13, 8 am, $35-$65. Town Square, lepre-con.org. Mardi Gras Vegas 2/6, noon-6 pm, $0-$6. Springs Preserve, 702-822-7700. Mondays Dark With Mark Shunock 2/15, 8:30 pm, $20-$50, Vinyl, 702-693-5000. Pahrump Hot Air Balloon Festival 2/26-2/28, 6:30 am, $0-$25. Petrack Park, Pahrump, 775-727-5800. Sally Denton Book Signing and Reading 2/18, 7 pm, free. The Writer’s Block, 1020 Fremont St., thewritersblock.org. Splendor in the Glass 2/20, 3-7 pm, $85-$100. Westgate, 3000 Paradise Road, 702-7325111. Super Bowl of Fashion 2/6, noon-4 pm, free. Eccoci at Boca Park, 750 S. Rampart Blvd. Suite 8, 702-949-5999.
Sports Champions Soccer California Clasico Match LA Galaxy vs. San Jose Earthquakes 2/13, 7 pm, $20-$50. Cashman Field, 850 Las Vegas Blvd., ticketfly.com. Global Legends Series 2/20, 4:30 pm, $35$95. Sam Boyd Stadium, unlvtickets.com. LVCHA Weekend Winter Championship Horse Cutting Event 2/10-2/15, times vary, free. South Point, 702-796-7111. UFC 196 Wedum vs. Velasquez 2/6, 4 pm, $158-$3121. MGM Grand, 702-891-1111. UNLV Men’s Basketball San Jose St. 2/10, 7 pm, $15-$130. Colorado St. 2/13, 7 pm, $15$130. Thomas & Mack Center, unlvtickets. com. UNLV Women’s Basketball Fresno St. 2/6, 3 pm, $4-$5. Air Force 2/17, 7 pm, $4-$5. Cox Pavilion, unlvtickets.com.
Galleries Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art Picasso: Creatures and Creativity Thru 2/14, 10 am-8 pm, $0-$16. 3600 Las Vegas Blvd. S., 702-693-7871. CSN Artspace Gallery Roscoe Wilson “Front Yard Zoo: Controlling Nature” Thru 3/19, Mon-Fri, 8 am-10:30 pm; Sat, 8 am-5 pm, free. 3200 E. Cheyenne Ave., 702-651-4146. CSN Fine Arts Gallery Jill Parisi “Wallflowers” 2/5-3/19, Mon-Fri, 9 am-4 pm; Sat, 10 am-2 pm, free. 3200 E. Cheyenne Ave., 702-651-4146. Las Vegas City Hall Chamber Gallery In Focus: Downtown Architecture by Ryan Reason & Jennifer Burkart Mon-Fri, 7 am-5:30 pm. 495 S. Main St., 702-229-1012. Left of Center Seeking Justice Through Art Thru 4/9, Tue-Fri, noon-5 pm; Sat, 10 am-3 pm. 2207 W. Gowan Road, 702-647-7378. Winchester Cultural Center Art Gallery Brent Holmes: “Ignominious Refuse” Thru 3/11, Tue-Fri, 10 am-8 pm; Sat, 9 am-6 pm. 3130 S. McLeod Drive, 702-455-7340.
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