2017-01-12 - Las Vegas Weekly by Greenspun Media Group

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Las Vegas Weekly 01.12.17

Trust Us Everything you absolutely, positively must get out and do this week

THu., 8 p.m.

COLD CAVE AT BUNKHOUSE SALOON The latest single from Wesley Eisold’s decadeold project, August’s “The Idea of Love,” reaffirmed his commitment to dark and disquieting synth-rock. His latest Vegas visit will feature Drab Majesty, another artist who should appeal to fans of post-punk and electronics, as the opener. $15. –Spencer Patterson

SUN., 6 p.m.

Sous Vide cooking class AT ARTISaNAL FOODS The French technique of cooking meats in a vacuumsealed container in temperaturecontrolled water renders steaks supremely delicious. Learn how to master the cooking style and make easy, memorable meals at home. $55 per person, $99 per couple, 2053 Pama Lane. –Leslie Ventura

MOVIES 14

thru janUary 29

Las Vegas Jewish Film Festival at various locations As festival founder and director Joshua Abbey emphasizes every year, the Las Vegas Jewish Film Festival is for everyone. “Our goal with this annual film festival is to make quality Jewish films available to the local community—Jewish and non-Jewish alike,” Abbey said in the announcement for this year’s festival, the 16th edition. That makes the LVJFF Nevada’s longest-running film festival, and its track record of bringing to town diverse, accomplished and challenging films (most of which would never be seen locally otherwise) continues with this year’s program. The lineup includes the most popular film at Jewish film festivals in the past year (Israeli comedy The Women’s Balcony); documentaries about poet Bob Kaufman, songwriter Marvin Hamlisch and the 1977 Maccabi Tel-Aviv basketball team; and the 1953 Kirk Douglas post-Holocaust drama The Juggler, in honor of Douglas’ 100th birthday. Filmmakers are scheduled to be on hand for screenings of documentaries On the Map and Aida’s Secrets and stage adaptation Wrestling Jerusalem, and local Jewish scholars and cultural figures will bring their expertise to moderating other screenings. Days & times vary, $10 per screening, $50 passes, lvjff.org. –Josh Bell

Stop! In the name of Motown the Musical. (Joan Marcus/Courtesy)

L o o k i n g f o r e v e n M o r e ? F l i p t o pa g e 7 0 f o r o u r e x pa n d e d l i s t i n g s

07 LAS VEGAS WEEKLY 01.12.17

PAINTINGS & PANDORA 18

THRU JAN 22

THRU MARCH 31

TORUK—THE FIRST FLIGHT AT T-MOBILE ARENA

A ROOM OF ONE’S OWN AT LEFT OF CENTER ART GALLERY

Cirque du Soleil takes a decidedly different direction—a show with a clear narrative guiding the eyepopping action—with its latest touring production, the Avatar-inspired Toruk, for which the blockbuster film’s director James Cameron served as a consultant. The jungle world of Pandora is the setting, the blue Na’vi are the stars and saving the sacred Tree of Souls is still the objective. It takes an arena to capture the scale of this endeavor. Times vary, $39-$155. –Brock Radke

This all-female exhibit draws inspiration from Virginia Woolf’s 1929 feminist essay of the same name, with its central theme that women need space to create in a world traditionally dominated by men. Professional artists from LA and Las Vegas will showcase their work in a diverse range of mediums, from video to installation art. Prominent writers, including local poet Vogue Robinson and journalists published in the Los Angeles Times and Huffington Post, will display pieces relevant to feminism. You can meet the more than 20 creators at a reception on January 28 from noon to 3 p.m. Select dates throughout the exhibition’s run will also feature art and writing workshops, motivational talks from Dr. Karmen Smith and Dr. Karen Laing and readings. Additionally, Left of Center’s first exhibition of 2017 kicks off its 20-year anniversary as a nonprofit. Free. –Rosalie Spear

Going where the banshees are: Cirque du Solieil’s Toruk. (Courtesy)

MEN IN BLACK COLD CAVE HAS ADOPTED THE SOUND, ATTITUDE AND EVEN THE WARDROBE OF 1980S POSTPUNK —EVEN GOING SO FAR AS TO RECORD A FAITHFUL COVER OF THE 1983 NEW ORDER CLASSIC “YOUR SILENT FACE.”

SOUND & STAGE 13

THRU JANUARY 15

SATURDAY, 9 P.M.

THRU JANUARY 22

THE MOUNTAINTOP AT SMITH CENTER’S TROESH STUDIO

DIRT CITY THREE AT GOLDEN TIKI

MOTOWN THE MUSICAL AT SMITH CENTER

On April 3, 1968, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech in Memphis that all but foretold his premature death. The next day, he was murdered. What might have happened between those two events while he relaxed inside the Lorraine Motel is the subject of The Mountaintop, Katori Hall’s 2009 Olivier Award-winning play. It comes to us, fittingly, at the start of Martin Luther King Weekend from Las Vegas-based Broadway in the Hood, which stages relevant works largely about the African-American experience. Times vary, $34. –Mike Prevatt

Garage-rock veteran Timothy Styles— formerly of Vegas bands Skorchamenza, Beta Bomb and The Big Friendly Corporation—ventures into psychedelic and glam-rock territory for his latest project. Dirt City Three finds him teaming with bassist Brandon Johnson and drummer John Barrow, and drawing upon some of classic rock’s loudest and fuzziest, like Black Sabbath and T. Rex. Come for the music—Arizona punks Heebie Jeebies and Golden Tiki DJ mainstay Professor Rex Dart share the bill—then stay for a round of Mai Tais (and Dole Whip!). Free. –Leslie Ventura

Motown the Musical is billed as the life story of Berry Gordy, and it does offer some behind-the-scenes peeks at Hitsville USA, including Gordy’s initial, ill-fated seduction of Diana Ross and his disagreement with Marvin Gaye over “What’s Going On.” But given that his biography is so wrapped up in the legend of the artists he discovered and the sound of the label he founded, it seems forgivable if the life details are glossed over in favor of the music. More than 60 Motown classics are given vibrant life in this jukebox musical, and chances are good you’ll know them all. Times vary, $29-$132. –Jacob Coakley

08 las vegas weekly 01.12.17

LIGHTS, CAst, ACTION

the inter w h e r e

i d e as

The Ghostlight Project marks the theater community’s rally for social justice BY mike prevatt

hen Mike Pence took in a performance of the Tony-winning Hamilton in New York City, it stirred the cast to deliver a post-show statement asking the vice president-elect and the rest of the incoming administration to uphold the rights of all Americans, including the minorities onstage. It also inspired a grassroots—and potentially viral—movement among theater professionals. The Ghostlight Project (theghostlightproject.com), taking place January 19 in front of participating community theaters at 5:30 p.m. in each time zone on the eve of the inauguration, was born of a desire to affirm that performance spaces will remain bastions of—and advocates for—free expression and full inclusivity. Lysander Abadia, artistic director for Las Vegas Little Theatre Black Box, is helping coordinate the Vegas effort and says the threat of a conservative presidency is more philosophical than direct. “There might be a sense of producing theater that is more acceptable to a large audience instead of one that would provoke an audience or introduce them to subjects they might not have encountered, which to me is the very existence of theater.” The local theater organizations slated to participate are LVLT—which will also host reps from Nevada Conservatory Theatre, Cockroach Theatre, Speeding Theatre Over 55 and Sin City Opera—and Majestic Repertory Theatre, which will stage a Black Lives Matter-themed performance at Alios on Main Street. Abadia is hoping to rally all the local theater companies in a show of unity, but some are abstaining for various reasons. TSTMRKT playwright and performance artist Ernest Hemmings sees a well-meaning but flawed strategy, and has opted for another course of action. “For our part, we’ve been blatant in calling out the alt-right and the incoming Trump administration for a couple of years—in public, online and onstage, without the cloak of righteousness. We just do it.”

(File photo/Photo Illustration by Corlene Byrd)

Davy’s shocker A dive bar’s new owner tosses out its iconic neon sign

Another piece of Vegas history now sleeps with the fishes. The Davy’s Locker sign—the red-and-green neon fish that welcomed thirsty bar patrons at the corner of Maryland Parkway and Desert Inn for almost half a century—has been permanently demolished. In its place sits a drab, black rectangle. Below it, a white sign reads “Cocktails” in fireengine red, just above a payday

loans sign for the business next door. The gentle rolling waves at the top of the structure are the only reminders of the aquatic treasure that once glowed. Locals and other sign aficionados began to worry about the future of the neon fish—arguably more beloved than Davy’s Locker itself—when the dive bar, built in 1968, sold in March. New owner Albert Hamika, who plans

rsection A ND L IF E M E ET

09 LAS VEGAS WEEKLY 01.12.17

LIFTING THE NEEDLE Turntable Health’s closure could leave Downtown patients with few alternatives BY LESLIE VENTURA

to reopen the space as Bert’s Bar on February 1, said he had talked to the Neon Museum about donating the sign, but that removing and transporting it would have been too expensive. “It was an extra cost that wasn’t needed. I’m already paying for the bar on my own,” Hamika, 22, says. Neon Museum spokeswoman Dawn Merritt says

the museum doesn’t typically assist with costs, but that it “had been in discussions” with Hamika to save the sign, calling it a “marker of the community,” notable for its “fabulous, whimsical” design. “We do have a small budget for such work, and we were in the process of obtaining costs to see if we could offer any assistance,” Merritt says.

Hamika points out that, in 2014, a “Save Davy’s Locker’s Sign” GoFundMe campaign raised only $2,726 of its $6,100 goal. “I want to emphasize I wasn’t like, ‘Okay, let’s destroy this sign.’ I like the sign, and I like the historic memorabilia … I tried. The only thing I can say is, it was time for it to come down.” –Leslie Ventura

Turntable Health, a membership-based primary care practice in Downtown Las Vegas, will close its doors on January 31. Touted as an affordable and comprehensive alternative to insurance-based healthcare, the Downtown Project-affiliated company notified its members in December that its services would no longer be available. The member-based model, in which patients pay a flat monthly rate of $80 to receive access to a “wellness ecosystem,” including same- or next-day visits; 24/7 physician contact by phone, email or video chat; health coaching; nutrition, yoga and group therapy classes; and an on-site demonstration kitchen. “Unfortunately, the economic challenges of the Las Vegas market no longer allow us to viably and sustainably offer care in our Downtown location, and so doing the right thing for our patients means transitioning their care to other local providers,” Turntable Health founder Zubin Damania said in a statement. Patient Dodi Whitehead-Johnson joined when she lost her job—and, subsequently, her insurance benefits—due to cutbacks. Turntable’s impending closure and her ongoing medical needs have her actively looking for a viable alternative. “I’m trying to get some help through county or state assistance,” she says. “I don’t know what I’m going to do, and right now I’m having some medical issues that need Turntable Health. I need to have a doctor available to me.” Damania says Turntable is working with patients to make sure they have the resources to follow up their care elsewhere, adding that, hopefully, member-based healthcare in Las Vegas isn’t gone forever. “We know what works in terms of care. What we need is a sustainable, viable path, because the health care system in Vegas is not designed to support this model economically. Once we figure that out … hopefully we can come back stronger,” Damania said. Turntable patients can sign up for insurance under the Affordable Care Act (while it’s still available) at healthcare.gov and browse local clinics at southernnevadahealthdistrict.org.

LAS VEGAS WEEKLY 01.12.17

Artistic

expression Interim director Alisha Kerlin leads the Barrick Museum through ITs 50th anniversary celebration By Rosalie Spear

(Christopher DeVargas/Staff)

las vegas weekly 01.12.17

he fine arts space soon to be known as the Barrick Museum of Art began life in 1967, even before it was part of the UNLV campus proper. In 1975, it became the UNLV Museum of Natural History and moved into the school’s old gym space (hence the presence of cartoon-wolf mascot Beauregard on the gallery floor today). Its first contemporary art exhibit took place in 1986, three years before Marjorie Barrick got added to the name. In the decades since, the museum has continued to evolve, and in celebration of its 50th birthday, it has planned some innovative changes for 2017, kicked off by this month’s rebranding: adding “of Art” to the name, the development of a new logo and more. Interim director Alisha Kerlin, 35, filled us in.

What’s the purpose behind the latest name change? We have Mesoamerican art objects in the Braunstein gallery, and we house one of the most famous and inspiring donations of contemporary art in recent American history—the Nevada portion of the Dorothy and Herbert Vogel 50x50 Collection. [Given] the fact that we have those two massive collections and that we’re growing our own collection of contemporary artists with ties to Southern Nevada, it’s natural to have “of Art” by the name. During my time at UNLV, it felt like more students should have been visiting the Barrick. How do you attract more? For a lot of students, if they don’t have a class [at the museum] and they’re not feeling adventurous, they may not even walk through the doors until their final year. But we’re changing this. English 101 classes have been visiting for the past few years. They come through and look at art and describe what they see through essays, discussion and dialogue. When you ask them to describe what they see, sometimes you have to wait through the silence—they may not know how to describe an abstract piece of art. After they leave, although some may not be converted, they at least know that an artist has intent and that they’re bringing their own choices to the work. How can you further extend the experience to the community? I want to bring in Clark County School District students for tours. I want to have a school bus out there every day, so that when they finally go to college and we ask them, “Have you ever been to an art museum?” more than half of them raise their hand. What do you hope visitors take away from their

Barrick experience? It’s really important to see artwork in person. I remember the first time I saw an artwork in person that I had only seen in a flat magazine—it was a crazy experience. And we get to see a version of that here almost every day; we get to see people have those reactions. Our tours are not about telling people what to think or what the art is about. They’re very interactive, question-led tours. If I get up there and tell them why an art piece is important, that’s really not that interesting. If they can come to the conclusion that something is important to them, or even not, at least they’re engaging.

also give a lecture as part of the University Forum [Lecture Series], which should be huge. On April 10, [author] Sharon Louden will do a panel all about artists and their extended practice—artists as cultural producers.

Beyond the shows, what else does the Barrick have planned for 2017? We’re starting a 50 Gifts for 50 Years campaign, looking for monetary gifts and gifts of artwork for the collection. We’re creating catalogs, which we haven’t done in a while. I’m looking to have a small museum shop. I also want to invite artists to lead Visitor Made series workshops, so that people have a chance to speak with the makers of Barrick Museum what’s in our exhibition hall.

You’ll unveil the changes when the new semester begins this of art month? Yes, we have a huge openMonday-Friday, ing celebration coming up. For the How do you think the Barrick 9 a.m.-5 p.m. (Thursday until 8 p.m.); Saturday, first time in a while, we’re opening figures into the Valley’s overall noon-5 p.m.; suggested three shows at once: our Mexican art scene? You can always rely that donation $2-$5. UNLV, and contemporary art mask show we’re going to be open—we’re one 702-895-3381. [Masking] curated by Karen Roop [asof the few places that has 9-5 hours, sistant director of English composition]; and we’re open six days a week—and that Salvador Dali prints and books [Abandon All we’ll have engaging programming. And one Hope, Ye Who Enter Here] in our Teaching Gallery, of the most important things is that we’re free. curated by Lee Cannarozzo, our history intern; Our core collection of contemporary artists and Process, an amazing, multimedia exhibition of with ties to Southern Nevada is an asset to not only work that focuses on the artists’ studio and their UNLV and educational art scholars and historians, process versus the end product. but to Las Vegans from all walks of life who are searching for a deepened sense of pride in our city. What other programming do you have coming If we celebrate what we have, and we’re proud of up? Kara Joslyn, an artist featured in Process, it and support it, then this dialogue, this broken is coming on February 16 to do a fine art, paperrecord of us not being a cultural city, might start to building, all-ages workshop to make large-scale fade a little bit. sculptures. John Bauer [also featured in Process] will talk about Photoshop, mediated experience For more of our interview with Kerlin, and painting, and you can see his works. He’ll visit lasvegasweekly.com.

12 COVER STORY WEEKLY | 01.12.17

Fish, and passion chips

A few fast hours in the Las Vegas life of Gordon Ramsay By

Br ock

R a d ke

“I’m going to get behind the line now where I’m more comfortable. I’m actually quite shy,” Gordon Ramsay

says, and of course everybody laughs, because that’s just ridiculous. This is a chef who went on TV and has now reached Oprah-like levels of media moguldom. You know him from his many restaurants and shows and books and products but also from headlines like Vanity Fair’s “How Gordon Ramsay Built His Fame into a Billion Dollar Brand,” or Forbes’ “The Chef That Ate the World: How Gordon Ramsay Earned $60 Million Last Year.”

This isn’t just some guy frying up fish and chips. This is Gordon f*cking Ramsay. Who then gets behind the line … to fry up some fish and chips. “It’s still a bit early in the morning, so don’t kick my nuts in too much,” he says to some VIP types as he gets into position. His fourth restaurant on the Las Vegas Strip is his most casual yet, and even though it won’t open for another hour on this November Saturday, there’s a crowd stretching down the Linq Promenade, because everybody knows he’s here. After he finishes schmoozing and posing for pictures with the people in here, he’ll schmooze and pose for pictures with the people out there, and then we’ll get to chat. Later, I’ll finally get to taste his new food. The chips are fine, but the fish is lovely, hand-cut cod filets that stay flaky and moist while the batter gets crunchy, not just crispy. The curry-mango sauce beats the hell out of standard tartar, and you can get fried shrimp or sausages, too. Also, the peach-ginger lemonade is sublime. *

Is it more fun to come to Las Vegas to do fish and chips than

it has been to spend time at your more upscale restaurants? Well, yes. Steak [at Paris Las Vegas] was our first foray, and that was incredible. BURGR [at Planet Hollywood] and Pub & Grill [at Caesars Palace] opened up within eight weeks of each other, so we were really up against it there. I was sleeping here seven nights a week and flying back to LA to tape every other day and coming back. So Fish & Chips is a humble departure, and yeah, a bit of fun. We’ve elevated it, made it a little more sexy, made it a little more Cool Britannia and jazzed it up. My mom said to me a few weeks ago, “You’ve got no idea how proud I am that you’ve got your first fish and chips shop in Vegas,” and I’m thinking, sh*t, Mom, of all the restaurants from a three-star Michelin flagship to an amazing brasserie kitchen to Le Bordeaux [in France] last year, you tell me you’re proud because of a f*cking fish and chips shop? And then [she said] she was going to phone for reservations. Trust me, Mom, you cannot book there. There’s no phone. So she’ll come, and we’re going to see Rod Stewart [at the Colosseum] and get fish and chips and walk down the Strip. She’s 70. To get that seal of approval made it so much more worth it.

13 Cover story

Photograph by Jon Estrada

WEEKLY | 01.12.17

Snacktime with Gordon: Guy Savoy gets a rare visit from his protege. (Jon Estrada/ Special to Weekly)

Cover story WEEKLY | 01.12.17

You have fish and chips at your other restaurants here, but they’re fancier versions. Is there a different connection with this place and this food? From Blackpool to Skegness to every sh*thole in the country across the crappiest beaches with the sh*ttiest weather in the middle of August or July, you were the happiest young guy at the age of 10 walking down a promenade over the beach across the pier with a bag of fish and chips to go. Those memories are so relevant still, so I suppose I’ve come full circle. Has your opinion of Las Vegas changed since you opened your first restaurant here in 2012? I think it never got the respect it deserved back in the ’90s, because it wasn’t seen then as a [restaurant] destination or some food capital. I flew my team over this week and told them to have dinner at Bazaar

Meat; it’s just extraordinary, really beautiful. It’s as good here as anywhere now, New York, Paris, London—and that’s without all the glamour and magic that comes with Vegas. Chefs are coming here because there are no boundaries, no restrictions ... you have a passport to create. The scene is hot here. You’ve achieved so much, and yet you’re still described as “the fiery chef” or something silly like that. Does that stuff get old? Listen, it’s passion. If you were to mic up an NBA star and listen to them in the heat of action on the court, it’s no different. I’m never proud of the way I curse, but it’s an industry language. I don’t walk down the street telling my

daughter to f*ck off and go to school. I’m just going to blame Fox for not bleeping me more. If there’s one thing I learned based on my training and the guys I was lucky enough to work with, it’s that if I f*cked up, tell me, and I’ll never make that mistake again. So I’m going to tell them straight. And once you film 274 hours with 64 cameras, of course the editors are going to put the best bits in there. What do you recall from your first experiences with TV, and how has it changed the way you work in the food business? I was f*cking raw. I was like a devil with nine dicks. I had no idea what the f*ck I was doing, but I was also a man on a mission. I

had a documentary crew follow me at the age of 32 [for the Boiling Point miniseries] that turned any lighthearted cooking show on its ass. But it was my attitude—I didn’t give a f*ck, and I was absolutely ruthless. Today, as I’ve matured, I’ve become a little more understanding. But I’m just as demanding, because I have to be. It’s a very selfish game, and then you have to be unselfish to teach [as a chef], so you wear two bizarre hats. You’re the most selfish, obsessed perfectionist that won’t tolerate any inconvenience, and then you have to be the most open, the most generous and the most unselfish in passing the message across. This industry has a downside

15 COVER STORY WEEKLY | 01.12.17

AS I’VE MATURED I’VE BECOME A LITTLE MORE UNDERSTANDING,

to it that is not pleasant. Every other year you read about a chef committing suicide or having a heart attack or stroke, and that’s not what I want for my guys and girls. I didn’t get out early; I have one foot in there and one foot out. If anything, it’s more conducting, putting it all together in a way that I’m still learning. It’s like that inspiring table at Bazaar Meat, just absolute refined cooking, the best food in Vegas since I’ve been here, and what do I do? Fly the team in. Scrutinize that, watch it and understand what they’re doing, because it’s incredible stuff. Are there ways TV has made you a better chef and businessman that you didn’t anticipate? It’s taught me a lot about how to manage different situations. There have been times [like in Kitchen Nightmares, in which Ramsay tried to turn around failing restaurants] when I felt like I was a f*cking marriage counselor, and the problem wasn’t the restaurant or the food; it was the actual partnership. But you’ve got to get all that insight from experiencing it firsthand; there’s only so much you can know until you really start digging deep. ... But it did teach me a lot and also made me understand America so much more, the diversity. You executive-produce all your shows, and last spring you launched a new, studio joint venture to develop and produce

even more. What other directions do you want to take? We’ve been in talks with 21st Century Fox for a scripted, food-related show here in Vegas, and we’re also looking at some really exciting animated stuff for educational purposes. We’ve gone big in that demo and been asked to develop more stuff for kids, and that’s something I want to get behind in a proper way. Has working on Matilda and the Ramsay Bunch, which follows your daughter and family and their cooking adventures, helped to move you in this direction? I only started reflecting on that last week when I sat down to chat with a director and realized I’ve been scared to go back, to think back to that moment [as a young cook] in Paris in that sh*tty little studio 20 meters square, stinking of damp, begging Guy Savoy for the empty truffle boxes to perfume my room to make it smell less sh*tty. It brought a lump in my throat. The kids’ stuff, the studio, it’s all about finding excitement and a way to get inspired, and watching my [children] grow and pick up on some of those same instincts is a big part of that. We just had a big dessert chal-

lenge on MasterChef Junior where we made them cook without sugar. They had agave and molasses and they were baking doughnuts and seasoning with matcha green tea and finishing them with citrus creme fraiche and making caramelized pumpkin pie with no sugar. It was incredible, and it should be f*cking fundamental— 8-year-olds cooking with no sugar. That should be taught in schools across the country. This is so much more important than just what we’re doing on MasterChef Junior. But I never want it to get boring or [turn into] a political thing, so I’m just going to drive it from behind to make them understand how important it is to get them on the right track. *

After all the selfies at Gordon Ramsay Fish & Chips, we walk across Las Vegas Boulevard to Caesars Palace. Okay, I’m walking. Ramsay’s in a car—he can’t exactly sashay down the Strip without getting mobbed. Turns out Guy Savoy is in town, a rare occasion when Ramsay and his mentor are in Las Vegas at the same time. No begging for truffle boxes today.

Savoy and Ramsay are two of the brightest stars in the Caesars Entertainment restaurant family. Last year, Savoy opened a second venue, Guy Savoy Brioche, a quickserve pastry and coffee counter. Rumor has it Ramsay might take over space for another restaurant here soon. When we enter Savoy’s kitchen, we’re greeted with wine and paté and oysters and soup. Not just any soup, though. “My first role in Paris at the original Restaurant Guy Savoy was making brioche and this exact same soup,” Ramsay says. “Artichokes, truffles, a little bit of truffle butter.” He’s eaten here three times, same as me. “It’s the best restaurant in Vegas.” He takes some time alone with his mentor, sitting at the glass-encased chef’s table in the kitchen, sipping Champagne and speaking quietly in French, laughing. Savoy had visited his fish and chips spot the night before and says he loved it. Earlier, Savoy joked about how he didn’t expect the student to get three stars before the teacher. “I never would have gotten it without him,” Ramsay says. “He’s like my father.” Before I leave this world-class kitchen after eating and drinking with two world-famous chefs, Savoy sums it up for me. “We don’t work for the money or the fame. We work for the pleasure and the fun. The passion.”

Master Chef Junior courtesy Fox

BUT I’M JUST AS DEMANDING.

LAS VEGAS WEEKLY 01.12.17

EAT THE WORLD

SUGARCANE

Venetian, 702-414-2263. Sunday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-1 a.m.; Friday & Saturday, 11 a.m.-2 a.m.

MIAMI’S SUGARCANE BRINGS DIVERSE FLAVORS TO THE VENETIAN BY BROCK RADKE e’ve seen this before, or at least we think we have. There’s a new restaurant specializing in global small plates, and the menu appears to be all over the place. This type of place typically takes a while to settle in to a more specific approach, if it gets to settle at all. But Sugarcane is not like those whirlwind restaurants. First, it’s a highly successful concept in Miami that has expanded to the Strip. More importantly, there’s a relaxed, cohesive force to this menu, even though it’s equal parts raw and grilled, and chef Timon Balloo’s flavors draw from Latin, Asian and European inspiration. It takes talent and thoughtfulness to put these pieces together, and the cool Miami vibes of this rather large dining room plant a charming cherry on top. You don’t have to do the big baller seafood towers ($90-$150) to start, but don’t skip the expansive crudo section. Favorites are scallop, black truffle, apple, lime and jalapeño ($16) and kombu-marinated fluke with charred onions and sesame ($15). Not everything raw is from the sea, either—you can experiment with beef carpaccio and merguez-style lamb tartare (both $17). The whole roasted truffled chicken ($42) leads a pack of shareable large plates, but those little ones are just too tempting, and more satisfying than what you’ll find with this format at other eateries. For example, grilled cobia al pastor ($17) isn’t just flavorful, meaty, spicy-sweet fish; there are mashed potatoes on the plate, too. Smoky Spanish octopus ($15) is dressed in bright aji panca sauce, and yellowtail collar ($16) gets paired with Singaporestyle curry. Among dishes that don’t involve the open fire, smashed potatoes ($12) sing with salsa verde and romesco, avocado toast gets topped with sea urchin ($18) and crispy duck confit is mounted on a waffle with duck egg and mustard maple sauce ($23). One of the best plates is a simple vegetable with perfect flavors—harissa beets ($11) with crushed hazelnuts, herbs and za’atar-spiced yogurt. Sugarcane proves you can provide something for everybody, with style to spare. If it does have to trim down its offerings, it’ll still bring more to the table than most.

Sugarcane’s sea urchin avocado toast delights the eye and the palate. (Mikayla Whitmore/Staff)

FOOD & DRINK

LAS VEGAS WEEKLY 01.12.17

ZESTY EDDY

INGREDIENTS 1 1/2 oz. Deep Eddy Lemon Vodka Toddy Shop’s Asian Persuasion sandwich pairs shrimp and beef, plus toppings like charred baby bok choy and sesame brioche. (Mikayla Whitmore/Staff)

INDIAN AND THEN SOME SPORTS-BAR GEM TODDY SHOP DESERVES THE DISCOVERY

The Toddy Shop is hiding in the back of the addictive appetizer of house-made chips and a dip of Inn Zone, a typical sports bar on Rainbow roasted peanuts and Kishore’s take on pico de gallo, just off the 95. Named after small bars found which adds red chili powder to the usual components. in India that serve palm toddy—an alcoholic drink Rasta wings ($10) show off the chef’s Caribbean influmade from tree sap—to accompany spicy food, ences—the chicken is slathered in Jamaican this isn’t necessarily where one would expect TODDY SHOP jerk sauce and accompanied by perfectly fried to find Southern Indian delicacies, Jamaicanplantains. Inn Zone, 238 S. inspired plates and other unique dishes. Chef Queen Karimeen ($19), usually known as Rainbow Blvd., Hemant Kishore originally wanted to use the 702-255-5588. karimeen pollichathu, is a fish dish worthy kitchen to prep for his lunch-delivery service, of any fine-dining establishment. The whole Daily, 4-10 p.m and the bar offered the space as long as he’d pompano is marinated in masala paste and create some bar bites, too. wrapped in banana leaves overnight, before it “I took it as an opportunity to do something gets steamed and then fried in coconut oil. It’s different with bar food,” he says. “I related [it] to toddy as delectable as it is unique. shops—bar food, street food and toddy shop food.” So go find the Toddy Shop. With food this good, it As far as local Indian food goes, there’s nothing else won’t be a hidden hole in the wall for long. like this in Las Vegas. Start with rajah masala ($6) an –Jason Harris

3/4 oz. Cointreau 3/4 oz. lemon juice 3/4 oz. Fee Brothers Orgeat Syrup 4 oz. Fever-Tree Ginger Beer Float of Blue Curaçao liqueur Lemon wheel for garnish

METHOD Blend ingredients together in a blender with ice. Pour into a hurricane-like glass, garnish with a lemon wheel and serve with a float of Blue Curacao.

Some cocktails are strong and dark, some are classy and sophisticated, some are artisanally crafted and some are just all-out fun. The Zesty Eddy falls joyfully into that last category. It’s sour, sweet and colorful— and sure to put a silly smile on your face.

Cocktail created by Francesco Lafranconi, Executive Director of Mixology and Spirits Education at Southern Glazer’s Wine and Spirits.

LATE NIGHT

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They kicked off the new year in their new home with a regal arrival at XS Friday night. How much bigger can the Drew and Alex party get? Stay tuned.

DRAI’S

“Black Beatles” was the first No. 1 song of 2017. The Brown brothers’ return to Drai’s proves once again the club is on top of the hip-hop curve.

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MARQUEE

Ruckus’ 2017 Tao Group residency began last Friday night, but things get heavy when he rocks a Sunday-night pool party at Marquee.

T h e C h a i n s m o k e r s b y D a v i d B e c k e r / G e tt y I m a g e s ; R a e S r e m m u r d b y R a d i s S a m m e r t h a i ; Ruckus by Tony Tran; Marshmello by Karl Larson; Metro Boomin by Jon Estrada

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Having conquered the Strip in 2016, Marshmello will headline Trapfest at iconic Red Rocks Amphitheatre this summer.

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After returning to his Light residency for a midweek bash, Metro plays a gig at San Franciscoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 1015 Folsom club.

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E L E V A T I O N W Y N N N I G H T L I F E U N V E I L S I T S

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M U S I C A L R O S T E R

ynn Nightlife shook up the music scene last week with the announcement of a three-year exclusive residency for Grammy-nominated pop-dance duo The Chainsmokers at XS and Encore Beach Club. But it was only the beginning: The new We Are Wynn Nightlife brand campaign also includes the unveiling of the 2017 resident DJ roster at those two Wynn/Encore venues, plus Surrender and Intrigue nightclubs. Joining The Chainsmokers as newto-Wynn acts are Cedric Gervais, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, Nicky

Romero, Laidback Luke, MAKJ, EDX and Lost Kings. Recent performers now confirmed as full-time Wynn residents are Alison Wonderland, Brillz, Chuckie, Duke Dumont, Getter, Robin Schulz, the Stafford Brothers and Sultan & Shepard. Add these new artists to an all-star stable of returning DJs and performers—Alesso, A-Trak, David Guetta, Dillon Francis, Diplo, DJ Snake, Flosstradamus, Major Lazer, Marshmello, Ookay, RL Grime, Skrillex, Slander, Virgil Abloh and Yellow Claw—and Wynn Nightlife has once again set the pace on the Strip.

“We are happy that so many incredible artists are returning—many have been with us five, six or seven years—and are excited to welcome the newly-signed residents,” Alex Cordova, Wynn Nightlife executive vice president and managing partner, said in a statement. “With our carefully curated roster, we provide the most stylistically diverse music lineup in town, positioning us as the leader in Las Vegas nightlife entertainment.”

CEDRIC GERVAIS PHOTOGRAPH BY TONY TRAN

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hen Andre’s Bistro & Bar opens on Saturday, January 14, it will mark a new beginning for a chef and company that have played a pivotal role in the Las Vegas restaurant landscape since 1980.

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That was the year chef Andre Rochat opened the original Andre’s in Downtown Las Vegas. While the casual, bistro-meets-tavern feel of the new Andre’s in the southwest Valley (in the space formerly occupied by neighborhood favorite DW Bistro) is something of a sequel to the gamechanging Downtown original and the Monte Carlo follow-up—which closed in October—it’s simply the opening act for Stacked Hospitality. The newly formed company will operate Andre’s and Alizé at the Palms while developing new dining and nightlife concepts and carrying on Rochat’s legacy through managing partners John Wood, Mark Purdy and Joseph Marsco. Rochat meanwhile remains involved as “chef emeritus” for the new company. Wood, formerly at Wynn Nightlife, joined longtime Rochat operators Marsco and Purdy to set the stage for Stacked. “There’s a great story from Andre’s 35th anniversary [party] where he stood up and toasted everyone and told Joe and Mark the next 35 years was on them,” Wood says. “When they told me that story, it all seemed to click, and I knew we were headed in

the right direction. If you look at the major hospitality players in town, they’ve done a great job of blending those worlds of restaurant and nightlife, and it seemed like we had the opportunity to bring those two together.” Stacked is already developing a new Downtown dining concept, there’s talk of a steakhouse and Marsco and Purdy have plenty of other restaurant ideas with which they’ve been tinkering over the years. “Our concepts will be varied. Having that foundation of fine dining is a great place to start,” Marsco says. “We all have different backgrounds and interests. Coming from an Italian family, Andre has been telling me for a long time we should do an Italian restaurant.” Don’t be surprised to see several Stacked venues pop up in the coming years, possibly even something on the Las Vegas Strip. Wood says the company will definitely create a nightlife venue in the future, and with this team, it’s a safe bet it will bring something fresh to the table. –Brock Radke

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R V L T N H E L P S D E F I N E V E G A S ’ A L L - A G E S D A N C E S C E N E

VLTN Events was founded with the objective of providing Las Vegas with more all-ages dance parties, events that dig into different genres and create a local presence for the scene. Three years later, it’s the name running that scene. “We kind of controlled the rate at which it grew,” CEO Marcel Correa says. “We felt we could have grown faster but didn’t want to make the jump to events that fill bigger rooms until we were ready.” Emblematic of that jump is this week’s three-year anniversary party—a two-day event featuring big-name headliners Oliver Heldens, Ghastly and Excision. It takes over the Joint concert hall

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at the Hard Rock Hotel, where RVLTN shows have typically been held inside the smaller Vinyl room. “This is our first two-day event, and we wanted to put some contrast between genres,” says Joe Borusiewicz, RVLTN’s director of business development. “We have a big following in bass music, but we also have Oliver Heldens for house fans, so we’re trying to appease all of the fan base with one event and create some crossover.” RVLTN’s steady growth is poised to pop in 2017 with out-of-market events including a monthlong Spring Break bash in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. The next big Vegas bash: XO, a Valentine’s Day-themed party February 10 at

Downtown’s World Market Center. “It’s the first event of its kind there, and we’re really excited,” Borusiewicz says. “We’ve been doing things in these hardticket rooms like the Joint and Brooklyn Bowl, and we love those, but there are certain restrictions there as far as the production and how far we can take the experience. This place gives us complete freedom.” RVLTN Three-year Anniversary at the Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel, January 13 & 14. –Brock Radke

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D i g g i n g t h r o u g h t h e d a n c e a b l e C o a c h e l l a 2 0 1 7 l i n e u p

he Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival revealed its 2017 lineup last week, and if you’re a fan of the biggest names in electronic, hip-hop and pop music, you’d better have bought your ticket already. Headlining this year’s fest is R&B queen Beyoncé—whose 2016 album Lemonade was one of the most listened to and talked about of the year—along with hip-hop star Kendrick Lamar and veteran rock band Radiohead. Coachella, which launched in 1999, has grown into the most popular

Kendrick lamar by Tony Tran

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music festival in the United States, so it only makes sense that this year also welcomes the most coveted names in the electronic dance world. Las Vegas nightlife heavy hitters DJ Snake, Marshmello, Martin Garrix, Dillon Francis and Steve Angello will perform sets during both of the fest’s April weekends, along with DJ Khaled and the electronic dream team of Porter Robinson & Madeon. Dig deeper and you’ll find Welsh house DJ Sasha, techno icon Richie Hawtin, beatmaker DJ Shadow and left-of-center Further Future festival alums Nicolas Jaar and Four Tet. Also peppered through the lineup are

up-and-comers like Kiiara (the singer behind last year’s hit “Gold”) and chart-topping artists Lorde, Tove Lo and Empire of the Sun. Passes are already sold out, but Vegas’ proximity to Indio typically brings some spillover acts to town. So far, pop band Bastille, German composer Hans Zimmer and breakout singer Kehlani are all confirmed for Las Vegas, and look for more announcements soon. –Leslie Ventura

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XS The Ch ains mo ker s Photographs by Karl Larson

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he Las Vegas Strip’s modern residency era is in full swing. Case in point: R&B legend Keith Sweat begins an extended engagement in the Donny & Marie Showroom at the Flamingo on January 17, a celebration of the 30th anniversary of his triple-platinum debut album Make It Last Forever. “It’s classic meets classic,” Sweat says of performing center-Strip at the iconic Flamingo. “I’m going in with nothing but positivity. Everyone goes to Vegas, and this allows people from other parts of the country and world to see me without me going overseas to perform.”

Known for hits “I Want Her,” “Nobody,” “Twisted” and many more, Sweat is looking to make his 15 scheduled shows as intimate and unique as possible. “I’ve been coming to Vegas for a long time, but this is the first time I’m doing my own thing in a smaller room,” he says. “This is the type of situation that lets me get closer to the audience. Usually when I’m onstage I want to hear screams during every song. This is more of a lay-backand-enjoy-yourself situation.” The 55-year-old Sweat, a New York City native now living in Atlanta, released his 12th studio album, Dress to Impress, last summer. And the

singer isn’t ruling out the possibility of a longer Vegas engagement. “You have a whole lot of people going out to Vegas, and there isn’t this type of show happening out there right now,” he says. “Vegas is the place people can go see whoever, whatever, whenever, and there is an audience [for R&B music] that’s underserved.” Keith Sweat: Last Forever at the Flamingo, January 17-February 4. –Brock Radke

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t boggles the mind to think about how many hundreds (or thousands?) of times the 1993 pop-house track “Show Me Love” by Robin S. has been played in nightclubs like LAX. You don’t have to imagine what it might be like to see her perform that influential song in that club, because she’ll be doing just that for this week’s installment of Throwback Thursdays. You’ve performed in Las Vegas frequently. What do you like about it? First and foremost the weather—I like heat. But really, I like the freedom. If you know where to go, if you travel further beyond the lights and the action, you will find peace and tranquility.

What do you think it is about “Show Me Love” that has resonated through the years? I didn’t realize how important it was until I had people coming up to me after shows saying it changed their lives. And it wasn’t just the song that did it. Back when it came out, it was all about what you looked like; you had to be a size 5. I’m not a size 5; I’m a full-figured woman. And I sing live— I don’t lip sync. I give all of me every single time I’m onstage, and that is what has carried me. So I think it’s a combination of everything. How does the audience react to that song today? It warms my heart to see young people in their 20s standing before me waiting to hear it because

they know that song, to see three or four generations of people in one place that know this song. It has had an impact. It relates to every genre, every group of people. It’s about life and respect, and that’s why it takes people there. It’s really simple. Robin S. at LAX at Luxor, January 12. –Brock Radke

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t’s hard to believe it has already been 10 years since iconic East Harlem restaurant Rao’s expanded with a location at Caesars Palace. That’s because the Las Vegas location feels like a magically fresh experience every time you return, yet it also reflects the charm of the original, in business since 1896. “It’s a unique opportunity to celebrate a decade in the restaurant business here in Las Vegas, and that in itself is a remarkable accomplishment,” said Frank Pellegrino Jr., co-owner of Rao’s in Harlem, Las Vegas and Hollywood. “I started off as a busboy at Rao’s New

York at the age of 12—never thinking I was going to stay in the family business—and I never left. We are so delighted by the roots we’ve put down in the entertainment capital of the world, and we’re looking forward to continuing our family traditions at Caesars Palace for years to come.” On January 12, Pellegrino and chef de cuisine Fatimah Madyun will prepare a special anniversary dinner highlighting classic Rao’s dishes including stuffed artichokes, roasted pepper bruschetta, linguine carbonara and, of course, the legendary veal, beef and pork meatballs topped with

marinara. Don’t worry if you miss it; some of those dishes and others from the Rao’s cookbook will be available as specials for the rest of the month, keeping the celebration going strong. Rao’s at Caesars Palace, 702-731-7778; Sunday-Thursday 5-10 p.m., Friday & Saturday 5-10:30 p.m.

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onsidering her Hollywood-by-wayof-Italy lineage, it makes sense that Giada De Laurentiis’ Las Vegas restaurant has a certain amount of cinematic influence. Her grandfather was legendary film producer Dino De Laurentiis, whose many contributions over more than 60 years in show business include Serpico, Three Days of the Condor, Flash Gordon, Conan the Barbarian and Year of the Dragon. Vintage film posters, like the one from Jane Fonda sci-fi cult classic Barbarella, decorate Giada’s welcoming dining space at the Cromwell, and that’s not the only tribute. The signature cocktails on the creative bar menu are also named for some of Dino’s films. Head for the Destroyer, an aptly named blend of Clase Azul Reposado tequila with

tons of fresh tangerine and a kiss of basil. The sweet, bright citrus transforms the typically fiery spirit into something dangerously smooth, an ideal cocktail to pair with Giada’s lovely brunch menu. But be warned: The Destroyer wields boozy might as strong as Conan’s sword. More than one of these cocktails and those movie posters might come to life. Giada at the Cromwell, 855-4423271; lounge open daily from 9 a.m. to midnight. –Brock Radke

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t’s time to confess. The holiday splurge is over, and new year’s resolutions might have you eating lighter in January. But it’s still winter. It’s still cold out. And you know you’re still dreaming of hearty, decadent food to make sense of it all. When you’re in the mood for something braised, Sage is the place. Chef Shawn McClain’s finedining favorite adjacent to Aria’s lobby has a reputation as the restaurant where farm-to-table gets an extra dose of flavor, and while the menu always changes with the seasons, the braised beef shortrib is a standard that’s always in style. It’s surrounded by winter root veggies, a smooth fennel-potato purée

S a g e

and a rich red wine reduction, but the meat remains the star on this plate. Fork tender? How about spoon tender? This is pure guiltinducing pleasure, too delicious to stop eating it. Don’t worry, your personal trainer doesn’t have to know. This secret’s safe at Sage. Sage at Aria, 702-590-9520; Monday-Saturday 5:30-10:30 p.m. –Brock Radke

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LAX NEW YEARâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S EVE

Photographs by Stacey Torma

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1/13 DJ Fashen. 1/14 DJ Gusto. 1/18 DJ Turbulence. 1/20 DJ Karma. 1/21 DJ Gusto. 1/25 DJ Crooked. 1/27 DJ Ikon. 1/28 DJ Gusto. Mirage, Wed, Fri-Sat, 702-693-8300. TH E

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1/12 DJ Presto One. 1/13-1/14 Exodus & Mark Stylz. 1/14 GBDC with Exodus & Mark Stylz. 1/15 DJ Shred. Palms, nightly, 702-942-6832. HAK KASAN

1/13 DJ Que. 1/14 DJ Dash. 1/15 DJ Karma. 1/20 DJ Que. 1/21. DJ Kittie. 1/22 DJ Karma. 1/27 DJ Que. 1/28 DJ Dash. 1/29 DJ Karma. Bellagio, Thu-Sun, 702-693-8300.

1/12 Borgeous. 1/13 Fergie DJ. 1/14 Tiësto. 1/15 Mark Eteson. 1/19 Lil Jon. 1/20 Steve Aoki. 1/21 Kaskade. 1/22 Fergie DJ. 1/26 GTA. 1/27 Steve Aoki. 1/28 Tiësto. 1/29 Party Favor. MGM Grand, Wed-Sun, 702-891-3838.

CH ATEAU

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1/13 DJ Karma. 1/14 DJ Crooked. 1/17 Joe Maz. 1/18 Mister Dee Jay. 1/20 Konflikt. 1/21 DJ Karma. 1/24 DJ Five. 1/25 DJ D-Miles. 1/27 DJ Direct. 1/28 DJ Crooked. Bellagio, nightly, 702-693-8700.

DRAI’ S IN T RIGUE 1/12 Ross One. 1/13 DJ Esco. 1/14 Rae Sremmurd. 1/15 DJ Franzen. 1/19 Steel Panther. 1/20 DJ Esco. 1/21 Fabolous. 1/22 Machine Gun Kelly & DJ Franzen. 1/26 DJ Shift. 1/27 DJ Esco. 1/28 DRAM. 1/29 Eric DLux. Cromwell, Tue, Thu-Sun, 702-777-3800. EM BASSY 1/13 Messiah. 1/27 Divan. 3355 Procyon St, Thu-Sun, 702-609-6666. FO U NDATIO N

RO O M

1/13 Konflikt. 1/14 DJ Baby Yu. 1/20 DJ Sam I Am. 1/21 Greg Lopez. 1/21 AVN Afterparty with Ron Jeremy. 1/27 DJ Kittie. 1/28 DJ D-Miles. Mandalay Bay, nightly, 702-632-7631. F OX TAIL 1/13-1/28 DJ Hollywood. SLS, Fri-Sat, 702-7617621.

1/12 Makj. 1/13 Jesse Marco. 1/14 RL Grime. 1/19 Marshmello. 1/20 Brillz. 1/21 Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike. 1/26 Cedric Gervais. 1/27 RL Grime. 1/28 Dillon Francis. Wynn, Thu-Sat, 702-770-7300. JEW EL

L I GH T 1/13 DJ Scene. 1/14 Stevie J. 1/18 Metro Boomin. 1/20 DJ Ikon. 1/21 Flo Rida. 1/25 Eric DLux. 1/27 Jerzy. 1/28 DJ E-Rock. Mandalay Bay, Wed, Fri-Sat, 702-632-4700. M AR QU EE 1/13 Ruckus. 1/14 Dayclub Dome with Vice. 1/14 French Montana. 1/15 Dayclub Dome with Thomas Jack. 1/15 Ruckus. 1/16 Vice. 1/20 Cedric Gervais. 1/21 Dayclub Dome with TJR. 1/21 Ruckus. 1/22 Dayclub Dome with M!KEATTACK. 1/23 DJ Mustard. 1/27 Carnage. 1/28 Dayclub Dome with Shaun Frank. 1/28 Vice. Mon, Fri-Sat, Cosmopolitan, 702-333-9000. OM N I A 1/13 Afrojack. 1/14 Jauz. 1/17 Burns. 1/20 Afrojack. 1/21 Zedd. 1/24 Fergie DJ. 1/27 Kaskade. 1/28 Fergie DJ. Caesars Palace, Tue, Thu-Sun, 702-785-6200. S U R R EN D ER 1/13 Slander. 1/14 Dillon Francis. 1/18 Chuckie. 1/20 Ookay. 1/21 Flosstradamus. 1/25 Getter. 1/27 Slushii. 1/28 Chuckie. Encore, Wed, FriSat, 702-770-7300. TAO

1/13 LA Leakers. 1/14 Nghtmre. 1/16 Zedd. 1/20 Justin Credible. 1/21 WeAreTreo. 1/23 LA Leakers. 1/27 Chase B. 1/28 Burns. Aria, Mon, Thu-Sat, 702-590-8000. L AX

1/12 DJ Five. 1/13 Jerzy. 1/14 Politik. 1/19 DJ Five. 1/20 DJ Scene. 1/21 Eric DLux. 1/26 DJ Five. 1/27 M!KEATTACK. 1/28 Justin Credible. Venetian, Thu-Sat, 702-388-8588. XS

1/12 Robin S. 1/13 Eric Forbes. 1/14 DJ Scooter. 1/19 Luniz. 1/20 Aybsent Mynded. 1/21 DJ Scooter. 1/26 DJ R.O.B. 1/27 Eric Forbes. 1/28 DJ Cyberkid. Luxor, Thu-Sat, 702-262-4529.

1/13 A-Trak. 1/14 The Chainsmokers. 1/15 Marshmello. 1/16 Slushii. 1/20 Marshmello. 1/21 Diplo. 1/23 RL Grime. 1/27 Marshmello. 1/28 Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike. Encore, Fri-Mon, 702-770-0097.

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HYDE ne w ye arâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; s e ve

dec 31 Photographs by Jesse Sutherland

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BOWL

1/14 The Fab. 1/20-1/22 Phil Lesh & Friends. 1/26 August Burns Red. 1/27 Juicy J. 2/2 Ace Frehley. 2/10 Adam Ant. 2/14 Galactic. 2/16 Alter Bridge. 2/17-2/19 Ween. 2/20 The Infamous Stringdusters. 2/25 Circa Survive. 2/27 The Grateful Ball. 2/28 Railroad Earth. Linq Promenade, 702-862-2695. TH E

CO LOSSEU M

1/13-1/14 Van Morrison. 1/17-2/4 Celine Dion. 2/7-2/20 Elton John. 2/22-3/4 Reba, Brooks & Dunn. Caesars Palace, 866-227-5938. TH E

CH ELSEA

3/3-3/4 Dierks Bentley. 3/16 Flogging Molly. 3/17 Death Cab for Cutie. 3/24 Maluma. Cosmopolitan, 702-698-6797. TH E

FO U NDRY

2/3-2/4 Jon Lovitz & Dana Carvey. SLS, 702761-7617. H O U SE

O F

T HE

1/13-2/4 Britney Spears. 2/8-2/25 Jennifer Lopez. 3/1-3/18 Backstreet Boys. 3/24-4/8 Britney Spears. Planet Hollywood, 702-7776737. B R O O K LY N

BLU ES

1/13-1/21 Joe Walsh. 1/12 Kane Brown. 1/15 Falling in Reverse. 1/22 Chevelle. 1/25-1/29 Santana. 1/31 Pop Evil. 2/1-2/4 Santana. 2/9 Tom Segura. 2/11 Wild Child. 2/17 Atmosphere. 2/21 Dark Star Orchestra. 3/83/25 Billy Idol. 3/16 Jason Isbell. 3/19 UFO & Saxon. 3/23 The Worship Tour. 3/31 Locash. 4/6 Mockstrocity Tour. Mandalay Bay, 702632-7600.

JOIN T

1/13-1/14 RVLTN Three-Year Anniversary. 1/21 AVN Awards Show. 2/3 I Love the ’90s Tour. 2/10 Iration. 2/17 R. Kelly. 2/18 AFI. 2/25 Better Than Ezra. 4/8 Bring Me the Horizon. 5/3-5/20 Journey. Hard Rock Hotel, 702-693-5000. M A N DA L AY B AY EV EN TS C EN T ER 2/18 Twenty One Pilots. Mandalay Bay, 702632-7777.

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T H E AT R E

1/13-1/14 Styx & Don Felder. 1/24 Ma Kashur Trio. 1/28-2/4 Willie Nelson. 2/8-2/25 Diana Ross. Venetian, 702-414-9000. VI N Y L 1/28 Sage the Gemini. 2/1 Carnifex. 2/9 Max & Iggor Cavalera. 2/11 Dumbfounded. 2/16 The Crazy World of Arthur Brown. 2/18 Amaranthe. 3/3 Isaiah Rashad. 3/10 Master of Puppets. 3/11 Raiding the Rock Vault. Hard Rock Hotel, 702693-5000.

MGM GRAN D GARDEN AREN A 1/28 Frampton vs. Santa Cruz. 2/4 Ariana Grande. 2/18-2/19 Dreamhack Masters. 3/4 Blake Shelton. 3/25 Game of Thrones Live Experience. 4/7 Green Day. MGM Grand, 702-521-3826. PARK

T HEAT ER

1/29 Band of Brothers. 2/8-2/25 Cher. 3/113/12 Bruno Mars. 3/25 Il Volo. 4/5-4/15 Ricky Martin. 4/21 Hans Zimmer. Monte Carlo, 844600-7275. T HE

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T w e n t y O n e P i l ot s b y R o b b C o h e n / A P P h oto

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Sur r ende r DJ S NA KE

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notebook

Lionel Richie performed 23 times at the Axis at Planet Hollywood in 2016, launching his All the Hits residency in April and finishing his first Vegas year on December 30. Just before that last show, Live Nation and Caesars Entertainment presented the legendary hitmaker with a plaque commemorating his show’s success, which includes selling more than 85,000 tickets and bringing in more than $10 million in revenue. ... Recent hip-hop headliners Ludacris and Tyga didn’t just stop by Light—they’re both resident artists for 2017 at the Mandalay Bay club. Meanwhile, DJ Mustard shifts from Light to Marquee for the new year and makes his debut at the Cosmo club on January 23. ... Speaking of Cosmopolitan hot spots, sushi haven Blue Ribbon closes on January 15 to make room for the Bromberg brothers’ American bistro concept. ... DJs have been swapping venues in the new year, and concerts can play that game, too—Rock & Roll Hall of Famer John Fogerty will take his Fortunate Son in Concert residency from its recent home at Venetian to Encore Theater for 10 performances this spring.

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55 las vegas weekly 01.12.17

Getting an Earful One of three things could be happening here. Mike Tyson (right) and Jon Lovitz could be goofing for the cameras. Or Tyson could be going in for a taste of Lovitz’s ear; after all, he is something of a connoisseur. Most likely: The fighter is suggesting how Lovitz might improve his half of the Foundry show he’s sharing with Dana Carvey, the faults of which are detailed at lasvegasweekly.com. Bon appétit, Mike. (Ethan Miller, Getty Images/Photo Illustration)

Arts & entertainment Go-to local brews 1. ABLE BAKER’s ATOMIC DUCK IPA

The Weekly 5

An IPA for those disinclined toward them, courtesy of one of Las Vegas’ newest breweries. You can taste the hops— and the beer’s citrus undercurrent. But they go down easy—all quack and no ugly bite.

2. BANGER BREWING’S MORNING JOE coffee kolsch This light-bodied golden ale packs a powerful punch of wake-you-up coffee flavor plus a roasted nutty finish. It’s the greatest excuse to drink beer in the morning.

3. JOSEPH JAMES’ HOP BOX IMPERIAL IPA We get it. America has reached peak India Pale Ale. But this Hendersonmade, 8.20-percent ABV Imperial is some kind of wonderful—earthy, aromatic and just on the right side of “man, that’s bitter.”

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More like a fruity, easydrinking gose than a full-on, funky lambic, this 5-percent ale—in cans or on tap at the Water Street brewery—dances on the line between sweet and sour.

Notes of cocoa, roasted coffee and toasted oats give this creamy beer its warm and malty flavor. It’ll have you wistfully singing “She’s Gone” after the final sip.

56 POP CULTURE WEEKLY | 01.12.17

Get real

(Illustration by Ian Racoma/Staff)

A new book taKes the analog argument far beyond vinyl onsidering the number of recent vinyl-revival articles clogging up your local lifestyle section (and this magazine, admittedly)—not to mention the small libraries of record-fetish tomes that already exist—a new book about it might seem unnecessary at this point. But David Sax’s The Revenge of Analog: Real Things and Why They Matter scores by digging deeper than the vinyl boom and detailing why other concrete devices—film, paper, board games— are resurging as our material lives get sucked further into the Cloud. In addition to visiting United Record Pressing—the country’s largest vinyl factory, located in Nashville, Tennessee—Sax heads to Italy to hang with the makers of Moleskine notebooks in Milan and visit one of the world’s oldest film manufacturers in Cairo Montenotte. (The latter was recently restored at great risk; filmmaking chemicals are deadly.) Then it’s off to Snakes & Lattes café in Toronto, where a hardcore board-gaming night draws lines around the block, and then back to London, where thriving independent

Free 9 Sub ”

after 10 visits 35 Valley Locations

By Smith Galtney

bookstores continue to belie the cliché that digital has has 10 minutes to get it right, so it had better be on. killed print. Even Paperless Post—a company founded But when Marc Maron recently asked him if he still back in 2009, when pens and pencils were endangered edits with an old Steenbeck flatbed, Korine laughed: species—now credits half of its activity to paper“No way, man, that would be crazy!” It’s analog for the related business. first draft, digital for the rewrite. The book’s title is a tad misleading, as analog Wisely, Sax avoids the “Which is better?” isn’t anywhere close to replacing digital, but question. Film doesn’t automatically make a the two have learned to scratch one another’s finer picture than a digital sensor, and there back. One designer recalls the week his firm first are mountains of LPs out there that sound far received Photoshop, and how the quality of his worse than their CD counterparts. Two of my team’s designs declined overnight. “After a few recent impulse purchases—new vinyl pressmonths of this, [the office] gave out Moleskine ings of The Church’s Starfish and Iris Denotebooks and banned the use of Photoshop in ment’s My Life on Plain Recordings—sounded Cultural the first week’s work on a project,” writes Sax, attachment so bad I did something my record-hoarding adding that those handwritten results were then brain rarely permits: I returned them, then by smith galtney transferred to a computer for fine-tuning. “It was pulled out my old CDs. In that moment I came so successful, this policy remains in place today.” to the realization that I’ve become that guy in There’s a similar hand-in-hand aesthetic with the famous New Yorker cartoon, showing off film. Recognizing that digital’s immediate results and his turntable to a friend with the caption, “The two infinite possibilities can be a creative setback, directhings that really drew me to vinyl were the expense tor Harmony Korine prefers to shoot on film; his cast and the inconvenience.”

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58 las vegas weekly 01.12.17

A test of faith Martin Scorsese contemplates the unknowable in Silence By Mike D’Angelo et in the 17th century, Martin Scorsese’s Silence tackles the question of religious freedom in ways that make our contemporary squabbles on the subject seem downright quaint. The film follows the self-abnegating exploits of two Portuguese priests, Father Rodrigues (Andrew Garfield) and Father Garupe (Adam Driver), who journey to Japan after hearing that a fellow priest, Father Ferreira (Liam Neeson), has renounced the faith. Neither one believes this, but both feel that they must either prove its falsehood or, should it be true, save the poor man’s soul. Upon arrival, they’re quickly found and hidden by a small group of Japanese Christians who worship in secret, as an official called the Inquisitor (Issey Ogata) is known to brutally torture anyone who venerates Jesus rather than the Buddha. Eventually, however, both of these strong, devout men wind up in the Inquisitor’s hands, forced to make impossible decisions. This isn’t the first time Scorsese, who was raised

Christian, has chosen to adapt a foreign novel that would Jesus do? Is it sheer hubris even to pose that explores a crisis of unwavering faith. Unlike The question? Last Temptation of Christ, however, Silence, based Christian emphasis notwithstanding, Silence on the book by Shûsaku Endô (published in 1966, bears less of a resemblance to Last Temptation and first optioned by Scorsese way back than to Kundun, Scorsese’s 1997 biopic of the in 1989), isn’t sparking controversy from aaabc 14th Dalai Lama. The tone is contemplative the born-again crowd (though others have enough that some might find the first half, SILENCE Andrew Gafield, prior to Rodrigues and Garupe’s capture, a tad criticized the film for depicting priests Adam Driver, as noble victims, ignoring atrocities that sluggish; unlike, say, the propulsive Wolf of Issey Ogata. have been carried out in Christ’s name). Wall Street, this movie truly makes you feel Directed by Martin Scorsese. its (nearly) three hours. Scenes of torture, Mostly, that’s because the questions it Rated R. raises are genuinely unanswerable. We while never very explicit, might nonetheless Opens Friday in can all admire a person who refuses to be too grueling for the squeamish. Those who select theaters. deny what he or she believes, even in the hang in there, however, will be rewarded with face of torture or death. But are one’s a sincere, heartfelt examination of faith’s ideological principles more important than the limits, or lack thereof. (The final image will be seared suffering of others? If committing a symbolic into your brain.) Though explicitly a religious story, act of apostasy will stop the agony being endured it will resonate with anyone who possesses any sort of by innocent victims, and said act hurts nobody core belief—something without which life wouldn’t (except, mentally, the person who performs it), seem worth living. Could you in fact live without it? should it be embraced as the greater good? What According to Silence, yes and no.

SCREEN

59 LAS VEGAS WEEKLY 01.12.17

GANGSTER’S PARADISE AN ASSURED BEN AFFLECK GUIDES LIVE BY NIGHT

Driver, left, and Garfield enjoy the Silence. (Paramount Pictures/Courtesy)

RUNNING ON EMPTY

of Tsarnaev’s brother and fellow bomber Dzhokhar, leading to Dzhokhar’s capture. He even gives a rousPATRIOTS DAY STRUGGLES TO ing, emotional speech. BRING A TRUE STORY TO LIFE Wahlberg plays Tommy with his typical workingclass stoicism, but he’s never much of a character, For Patriots Day, their third film celebrating Real and the subplots about bombing victims are rushed American Heroes (following Lone Surand often sappy. Berg stages the bombing AABCC and shootout sequences with propulsive, vivor and Deepwater Horizon), director PATRIOTS DAY visceral intensity, and the supporting cast Peter Berg and star Mark Wahlberg have Mark Wahlberg, done away with the “real” part, inventing (including John Goodman, Kevin Bacon, Michelle a sort of uber-American to place in the Kevin Bacon and J.K. Simmons) Monaghan. middle of a true-life story of heroism. is solid, but the movie is so selfDirected by Wahlberg’s Boston police officer Tommy congratulatory (it ends Peter Berg. Rated R. Saunders is like the Forrest Gump of the with a 10-minute series Opens Friday 2013 Boston Marathon bombing: He’s of uplifting interviews citywide. there at the marathon finish line when with the real subjects) the bombs go off, getting people to safety; that it becomes more he’s the first to interview a driver who was about its own heroism than the people who lived carjacked by the fleeing bombers; he’s part of the through the harrowing events. intense shootout that kills bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev; and he’s the first to discover the hiding place –Josh Bell

For his fourth movie as a director, Ben Affleck returns to the street-level Boston crime of his first two films, once again adapting a novel by Gone Baby Gone author Dennis Lehane. But Live by Night only spends a short amount of time in Affleck’s native Boston, where it opens at the height of Prohibition in the 1920s. Once local criminal Joe Coughlin (Affleck) hooks up with a big-time mob boss, he’s shipped off to southern Florida, where the rest of the movie takes place, and where Boston Irishman Joe eventually builds an empire. The sprawling Live by Night is a bit episodic, with a story that might be better suited to a TV miniseries than a feature film. But it benefits from Affleck’s increasingly assured direction, with gorgeous, sweeping cinematography by Robert Richardson and a feel for the glamour and the grit of the time period. Affleck is sometimes blank as Joe, but he fills the supporting cast with talent, including Zoe Saldana as Joe’s Cuban wife, Chris Cooper as a conflicted Florida sheriff and Elle Fanning as a haunted young preacher. The gangster storytelling is familiar, but Affleck finds variations in the details, exploring the conflicts between entrenched interests and ambitious immigrants. Even the narrative detours mostly pay off in the end, giving the story a scope greater than its individual parts. It’s a worthy addition to Affleck’s Boston crime canon. –Josh Bell

AAABC LIVE BY NIGHT Ben Affleck, Zoe Saldana, Chris Messina. Directed by Ben Affleck. Rated R. Opens Friday citywide.

60 SCREEN

WEEKLY | 01.12.17

True Olaf Netflix’s A Series of Unfortunate Events is a lucky find

Netflix’s original programming juggernaut is proving nigh unstoppable. In only a few short years, the streaming network has assumed ownership of television drama (Orange Is the New Black) situation comedy (Lady Dynamite) and cult-favorite genre fiction (Stranger Things). Now, with a delightful adaptation of Daniel Handler’s kidgothic book series A Series of Unfortunate Events, Netflix has taken to righting the wrongs of Hollywood’s recent past. Unfortunate Events was first produced 13 years ago as a Jim Carrey comedy. Unlike the new series, which is written for television by Handler and produced by Handler and Addams Family director Barry Sonnenfeld, the Carrey film was entirely forgettable—little more than a vehicle for the actor’s tiresome, rubber-faced mugging. The Netflix show is smartly scripted, boasts some feature film-worthy production design and has a terrific ensemble cast that includes Patrick Warburton as kindly narrator Lemony Snicket and Neil Patrick Harris in prime scenerychewing form as the villainous Count Olaf. I stop here for fear of spoilers. To reveal even a tiny bit of the tragedy of the Baudelaire orphans would ruin the surprises Handler and Sonnenfeld have carefully laid out. Watch for yourself, and expect only what Netflix delivers regularly: one fortunate discovery after another. –Geoff Carter

aaaac A Series of Unfortunate Events Season 1 available January 13 on Netflix.

Big popin’

Law’s Pope Pius XIII communes with God. (HBO/Courtesy)

Jude Law plays a power-mad pontiff in The Young Pope By Josh Bell he movies of Italian filmmaker Paolo direction that has the potential to undo decades Sorrentino (Youth, the Oscar-winning of outreach. But he’s also haunted and insecure, The Great Beauty) are full of gorgeous, tormented by the memory of the parents who striking images, but they’re often more abandoned him as a young child and eager for impressionistic than narratively coherent. the approval of the nun who raised him (played That’s a bigger liability for a long-form TV by Diane Keaton). series than for a feature film, and He’s more or less Don Draper as the Sorrentino’s HBO series The Young head of the Catholic church, but the Pope (co-produced with French and show doesn’t have the character depth aabcc British TV networks) surrounds of Mad Men, at least in the first half the occasionally impressive sequences of its 10-episode first season (it has young pope with a muddled narrative, starring already been renewed for a second in Sundays & an inscrutable main character Europe). It’s often too straight-faced Mondays, whose inconsistent behavior is as to be satirical, and the hodge-podge 9 p.m., HBO. Premieres frustrating for the audience as it is of accents sometimes undercuts the January 15. for his peers. dramatic intensity. Every so often, Jude Law plays the title character, Sorrentino (who directed and wrote or an American named Lenny Belardo co-wrote every episode) breaks out an who is somewhat unexpectedly elected Pope entertaining moment, like a swaggering montage at the relatively young age of 47. Although his of Lenny getting dressed in Pope finery set to election was meant as a compromise, Lenny LMFAO’s “Sexy and I Know It,” but then it’s right turns out to be the opposite of a peacemaker. back to uninspired scheming and half-hearted He’s arrogant, mercurial and often cruel, taking musings on the existence of God. Law’s smug the church in an austere, uncompromising smirk can only carry the show so far.

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January 13-15th, 2017

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62 LAS VEGAS WEEKLY 01.12.17

NOISE

VAN MORRISON

January 13-14, 8 p.m., $57-$257. The Colosseum, 866-227-5938.

INTO THE MYSTIC

Morrison plays two at the Colosseum. (AP Photo)

DIGGING THROUGH VAN MORRISON’S CATALOG FOR UNDERVALUED GEMS BY JASON WOODBURY an Morrison didn’t name his landmark 1974 live album It’s Too Late to Stop Now without reason. Chief among the Irish soul singer’s defining qualities is his prolific consistency (along with his famously grouchy countenance). Even the most devoted Van fans have likely lost track a couple times over the 36 studio albums he has released during the past 50 years. Everyone knows the essentials—“Brown Eyed Girl,” Astral Weeks, Moondance—but digging deeper into his lesser-known works yields surprising discoveries. Veedon Fleece (1974) Cherished among the hardcore, this one leans hard into a hazy, jazz folk. Written in the wake of his divorce, it’s Morrison’s Blood on the Tracks, but even more impressionistic. “Fair Play” burns slow like a stick of incense, while “Bulbs” boasts a pulsing, country-rock quality recalling The Band. Mid-album cut “You Don’t Pull No Punches, but You Don’t Push the River” best

exemplifies the vibe of the album, employing a loose, experimental feel. Wavelength (1978) Electric and gilded by guitars and synthesizers, Morrison’s 10th album steers toward the glossy side, stepping into the adultpop terrain of Dire Straits or Steely Dan. But the extra spit and shine doesn’t detract from sensitive performances, chiefly the swooning “Santa Fe,” cowritten with Jackie DeShannon, and album closer “Take It Where You Can Find It,” a poetic ramble about American identity and spiritual searching. Common One (1980) Featuring long-form compositions (both “Summertime in England” and “When the Heart Is Open” clock in at over 15 minutes), Common One incorporates smoky jazz ambience and meditative grace, dipping into the same kind of loose blend of psychedelia and R&B heard on the mysterious and oft-circulated “Caledonia Soul Music” bootleg studio outtake. Guest Mark Isham makes his presence on synth

and trumpet known, adding New Age textures to Van’s growls and murmurs. Hymns to the Silence (1991) The gospel songs on this double-album—“Be Thou My Vision,” “By His Grace,” “See Me Through, Part 2”—find Morrison in faithful repose, but best of all is “I’m Not Feeling It Anymore,” a gently grumpy look back. “I was pretending all the time/I was givin’ everybody what they wanted/And I lost my peace of mind,” Morrison sings, his voice knowing and worn in. Keep Me Singing (2016) Morrison’s latest proves he hasn’t lost his signature verve (opener “Let It Rhyme” begins with the kiss-off couplet, “Put another coin in the wishing well/Tell everybody got to go to hell”). Featuring his signature blend of soul, blues, country and Celtic folk, Morrison spends the record digging into mysteries of faith and duty, his cranky humor firmly intact. “Keep me singing/ While I’m winning,” he sings, noting that even at 71 he’s still “waiting on my changes to come.”

063 63 las vegas NOISEweekly WEEKLY 0 1 . |1 01.12.17 2.17

Sound Judgment

E R H

Electronic ROCK HIP-HOP

Migration

No Plan

Oczy Mlody

run the jewels 3

Bonobo aaaac

David Bowie aaaac

The Flaming Lips aaabc

run the jewels aaabc

The Flaming Lips haven’t been interested in making easy-todigest music for more than a decade. That’s not necessarily bad—2006’s At War With the Mystics, for example, balanced kaleidoscopic psych-pop with experimental tendencies—though the mind-set has led to several self-indulgent missteps. Thankfully, the music on Oczy Mlody sounds more focused than other recent Lips releases. Tranquil resignation reigns, in place of the creeping dread of 2013’s The Terror, with harsh textures (mostly) eschewed for languid synth-pop, an ambient glaze and gentle elements like pillowy electronic percolations (“Almost Home”), heavenly harmonies (standout “Sunrise [Eyes of the Young]”) and mournful orchestration (“Galaxy I Sink”). The album is also notable for its judicious use of forceful rhythms: “Nigdy Nie (Never No)” begins with handclaps and disco-pop grooves, while “Do Glowy” boasts a church bell-like ostinato and 8-bit keyboard squiggles. Oczy Mlody isn’t without its dud moments—“We a Famly,” a castoff from the Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz sessions, is saccharine and inside-jokey— but overall, the album feels grounded in reality. –Annie Zaleski

Combining Killer Mike’s political lyrics, delivered by Southern drawl, and El-P’s unsettling, futuristic boom-bap backdrops, Run the Jewels has been a critically and commercially successful duo since its 2013 origins, thrilling a zealous fanbase with the surprise December 24 digital release of its third self-titled album. That record, out physically this week, finds the two men once again expertly meshing their styles; the raps are delivered almost exclusively with Mike’s trademark bounce, with El’s accompanying beats heavier and more experimental than ever. Throwback singles “Talk to Me” and “Legend Has It” will surely please longtime followers, but RTJ3’s real meat can be found in its deeper cuts. The Danny Brown-featured “Hey Kids” and nearindustrial “Call Ticketron” recall Trent Reznor’s darker productions, minus the hard guitars. “Thieves! (Screamed the Ghost)” goes full Walking Dead, as the Jewels jump to the Trump presidency’s worst possible outcome. And the nasty, Gangsta Boo-driven “Panther Like a Panther” is a requisite club banger one might hear at a Mad Decent party. It’s another worthwhile LP for Run the Jewels, who have found their fast lane and stayed in it. –Mike Pizzo

Everything that makes Bonobo great can be heard in the five and a half minutes of its latest release’s title track. The song opens with a clinical electronic throb that’s quickly layered over with a bed of tuneful sound— piano, synthesizer washes, wordless vocals, jazzy cymbals and pulsing bass. At the two-minute mark, “Migration” resolves into a warm, shimmering instrumental you wouldn’t have expected from that chilly intro. That’s what Bonobo’s Simon Green does—create tensions and the remedy for those tensions, sometimes within the same musical phrase. Migration is rife with such moments. The insistent beat of “Outlier” partially vanishes in the song’s escalating instrumentation, like momentarily losing sight of a friend at a party. “Bambro Koya Ganda,” featuring Moroccan band Innov Gnawa, grows into a full-volume house stomp from what sounds like a few musicians rehearsing in a studio hallway. It’s not all twists and turns, however; Bonobo’s gift for lush, scenic composition shines in tracks like “Second Sun,” whose swooning, romantic strings are precisely what you need at the exact instant you need them. –Geoff Carter

As many of us braced for the first anniversary of David Bowie’s death, his team delivered a surprise nugget the day before his birthday. The No Plan EP is less a fresh release and more a curation of recent material closing the chapter that includes 2016’s rapturously received Blackstar and the 2015 Broadway musical, Lazarus—for which these four songs were recorded, the last of the sessions with the NYCbased Donny McCaslin Quartet—and thus Bowie’s career. “Lazarus” (also on Blackstar) is a dramatic and ideal opener, McCaslin’s piercing, three-note saxophone melody joined by a weary, mortality-pondering Bowie (“Look up here, I’m in heaven,” “Oh I’ll be free/Just like that bluebird”). He soars during the otherwise downcast “No Plan.” Rocker “Killing a Little Time” starts jarringly with complex time signatures and long, minor chord arpeggios, as Bowie continues the expiration process (“I lay in bed/ The monster fed, the body bled”). But the uptempo-ish closer “When I Met You” ends what could be Bowie’s final non-compilation release—and its morose themes—with a merciful degree of uplift, managing to make it feel like he’s still with us. –Mike Prevatt

64 las vegas weekly 01.12.17

TECH

The future looks fuzzy A swing through CES 2017 confirms humankind’s gravest danger By Jason Scavone ES, the overstuffed pop-up Best Buy where nothing is for sale, half the stuff works and customer service reps are preternaturally patient in the face of even the dumbest questions, just wrapped up. It’s a conference so sprawling and daunting, attendees will sit through 20 minutes of marketing jargon-infused presentations just because they get chairs. A few years ago, smart TVs were the hot ticket at CES. Every big-time electronics manufacturer pushed sets with built-in Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Video, etc. At the time, it seemed entirely pointless. Time has proven the concept … only mostly pointless. With the rise of Chromecasts, Fire TV Sticks or connectivity through a Playstation or Xbox, smart TVs are kind of useful for anyone who has very specific and limited streaming needs and hates the idea of an extra dongle. And basically no one else. This year’s CES felt much the same. There were

plenty of hesitant and probing steps toward the Internet of Things, some improvements to selfdriving cars, virtual reality headsets everywhere and a whole bunch of smart crap that wants you to spend your time fighting with shoddy apps and questionable brand ecosystems. Like the Alpine ICE. The car-audio behemoth was pushing its Bluetooth-enabled cooler with built-in speaker, perfect for tailgaiters who would rather drop $1,500 on an all-in-one solution than 30 bucks on a plastic Coleman and $120 on a halfway decent Bose or UE Boom. At least you’re getting Alpine audio out of the deal on that one. The $99 Next Bottle finally delivers on the promise of putting a speaker on your water bottle, for all those people who love drinking water, don’t own headphones and want to annoy everyone at their gym. At last, the problem of never being able to stay hydrated and pump tasty Ratt jams at the same time has been solved.

That’s not to say there wasn’t anything cool at CES. Samsung was showing off a 96-inch 8K television. It was so big and so crisp I wanted to live inside it. When the Samsung rep asked if I had any questions I wondered why he was so fuzzy looking. 8K televisions are a ways off, likely coming to market about 26 minutes after you buy a 4K set. Panasonic had a mob of people bypassing most of its traditional tech to check out its kitchen of the future, with a freestyle induction cooktop that lives under a faux-marble counter for seamless cooking. I still can’t decide if that was cooler than the glass-panel refrigerator door that turned into an interactive screen once you touch it, but as someone who’s suffered through limited counter space for far too long, all I know is I want it. It seemed better positioned to take up space in your home than the smart fridges Samsung and LG were pushing. Samsung’s entry has been on the market for a bit, but it’s still basically a regular fridge

65 las vegas weekly 01.12.17

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Welcome to CES, a virtual world of wifi-syncing, smartphone-hogging tech tchotchkes. (Photograph by L.E. Baskow/Photo Illustration)

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with an oversized iPad jammed in it. The hot selling point was that it can take pictures of what’s inside. “What if you’re on your way home and you don’t know if you need milk,” the rep asked. “I’ll text my girlfriend.” “What if she’s not home?” “What if we have milk? Then I spent $6,000 on a fridge for nothing.” Smart beds were in play, with one from Emfit promising you can “Gain a competitive advantage.” For your real serious sleep league, I guess. Under Armour was touting smart sneakers that promised to reveal your “readiness to run.” (Never. The answer is never. Unless there’s a rhino loose on Fremont Street.) Smart vinyl at least toed the line between actual physical object and unnecessary digital experience. French outfit Yes It Is is pairing with record labels to embed near-field communication chips in records through the Revive app. Touch your phone to the platter and a page pops up with artist info and a digital version of the music, so you can embrace the warmth and audiophile experience of vinyl in theory,

while the album sits on your shelf and you listen to tinny output on your phone. The most vital innovation for Las Vegans at CES might have come from Eureka Park, the floor dedicated to nothing but pie-in-the-sky start-ups. Kino-Mo’s hologram projectors wowed and/or terrified crowds with nine simultaneously projected yelling Mark Cuban heads. The one we’re all waiting for is Proof, a wearable that checks your blood alcohol content. That’s right, the tech world is giving us Fitbit for Drunks. Now that it has made its CES debut, the project is going to seek crowdfunding. From everyone but DUI lawyers, probably. And hey, if all these Bluetooth popping, wifi-syncing, smartphone-hogging tchotchkes are getting you nervous, there’s always Spartan underwear, the world’s first boxer briefs that promise to mitigate any damage from wifi waves zapping your junk, using a silver-cotton blend to keep your plums off the Geiger counter. The future’s gravest danger? Crotch radiation.

The pieces of Shelbi Schroeder’s Swoon demand close examination. Very, very close. (Mikayla Whitmore/Staff)

FINE ART

WEEKLY | 01.12.17

In a White Room Shelbi Schroeder’s Swoon takes nude photos someplace unexpected By Dawn-Michelle Baude

t’s hard to reinvent the nude, but former Las Vegan Shelbi Schroeder has done just that—turned the same old body we’re so used to seeing into something fresh, mysterious and vital. Swoon features nine works in 12-by-12-inch frames, each exhibiting a single Fujifilm Instax Mini color instant photo of a tiny nude body. It’s so tiny, you have to lean into it, face almost against the glass. You stare. The mind blinks. Then it happens: that hard-todescribe transporter moment when an art object becomes a portal to another world. Schroeder takes us to an ethereal place where bodies seemingly come to life. Hovering on the verge of manifestation, they lift, float and emerge from white ground. In the aptly-named “White #12,” for example, a faint line suggests a hip. The thighs come into view—the head is

perhaps discernible, the flesh of the buttocks—but most of the torso blends into a featureless landscape. The body might wholly materialize if you look long enough, or it might disappear back into the nothingness from which it came. White is clearly the key to Schroeder’s evanescent kingdom—white frames, white matting, white photos, white light (the gallery, too, has white walls). The photos, shot in White Sands, New Mexico, seem devoid of context. The bleached-out compositions read as painterly, so much so that the images recall Canaletto’s and Guardi’s Rococo figures, depicted with a single-hair brush. Only instead of Italians bustling around 18th-century Venice, Schroeder gives us solitary nudes lolling in the void. Bodies—how they’re perceived and portrayed—have been a mainstay of Schro-

eder’s work for some time. In another of her current shows, Reclaim in the Grand Gallery at Las Vegas City Hall (through March 9), Schroeder uses printed images of body parts to create mandala flags as mischievous as they are colorful. Images of genitalia blend so well into a kaleidoscope of staircases, door frames and peonies you really have to sleuth them out. Although the intricately patterned flags of Reclaim are very different from the graphic minimalism of Swoon, they share an urge to camouflage the body in the background and rupture the coherency of form. Of the two, Swoon is more original and more arresting. The haunting delicacy of the bodies—their miniaturization and their purified context—encourage the imagination to wander. The swoon, in fact, is the viewer’s.

aaaac SHELBI SCHROEDER: Swoon Through January 28, Wednesday-Saturday, 1-7 p.m. Sin City Gallery, 702608-2461.

67 LAS VEGAS WEEKLY

BEST OMELETTES ON THE PLANET! ™

01.12.17

BIASED ACCOUNTING WE’RE NOT ALWAYS HONEST WHEN WE ADD UP THE NUMBERS, SAYS MONEYBALL’S MICHAEL LEWIS BY CHUCK T WARDY able pundits and data-miners woke up November preciate the unique menace of Hitler, and this might have 9 wondering how they could have missed what fed Kahneman’s tendency to doubt his own brilliance. they saw coming at them. Michael Lewis could Tversky, by contrast, was supremely confident in his have told them: The mind sees what it wants. genius. The diffident Kahneman and gregarious Tversky Lewis has made a career narrating the stories of mavercollaborated in groundbreaking research that has led to icks who shame experts—investors who foresaw positive changes, even in government. the mortgage-market collapse in The Big Short, Their first discovery, described in a paper titled AAABC “Belief in the Law of Small Numbers,” was that, as a general manager who calculated the value of THE UNDOING overlooked baseball players in Moneyball. As he Lewis puts it, “Even statisticians tended to leap to PROJECT: A explains in his latest book, The Undoing Project, conclusions from inconclusively small amounts FRIENDSHIP it was after the publication of Moneyball that he of evidence.” Working at the Oregon Research THAT CHANGED Institute in Eugene, the pair went on to show that started hearing about the work of two Israeli psyOUR MINDS chologists who had demonstrated that even data the mind often gauges evidence by recourse to steBy Michael devotees sometimes submit to intrinsic biases. reotypes and similarities. And they found, again Lewis, $29. Before getting into the biographies of Daniel in Lewis’ words, “not just that people don’t know Kahneman and Amos Tversky, Lewis tells about what they don’t know, but that they don’t bother to Daryl Morey, data-driven general manager of the NBA’s factor their ignorance into their judgments.” Houston Rockets, who found that his interpretation of So, do we no longer trust experts? Both the presidential data about players could be skewed by forms of mental election and its winner might lead us in that direction. But prejudice—the Moneyball caveat. It turned out that Kahne- Lewis’ genial narration of Kahneman and Tversky’s lives and man and Tversky had been trying to warn the world about influence points elsewhere. Their work was not about disthe various foibles of the human mind in the 1970s. trusting our intellect; rather, it warns us to be more careful. Each arrived at Hebrew University by different paths. We need to account better for the sway of bias over our minds. Kahneman, as a Holocaust survivor, was troubled that so many European Jews perished because they did not apFind more by Chuck Twardy at chucktwardy.com.

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Dak Prescott and the Cowboys host Green Bay in a playoff game Sunday. (Matt Rourke/AP Photo)

SPORTS

WEEKLY | 01.12.17

TRIMMING THE FAT The NFL playoffs are down to seven solid teams—and one all-time awful one By Case Keefer

n the first 23 years after the NFL playoffs expanded to their current format in 1990, the two top-seeded teams met in the Super Bowl only four times. In the past three seasons, it has happened all three times. That streak will run to four if the New England Patriots and Dallas Cowboys reach Super Bowl 51 in Houston. Favorites have dominated the NFL Playoffs lately, and not just on a macro level. The results have been just as definitive round-by-round on the point spread, which has failed to fulfill its function as the great equalizer. Underdogs haven’t posted a winning record against the spread in the playoffs for three straight years, and they’re in a major hole again this season. All four favorites covered on wild card weekend, and each of them beat the number by more than a touchdown. The knee-jerk reaction is to investigate what’s behind the parade of favorites, but so far in these playoffs it’s not hard to figure out: Some of the teams that reached the postseason were glorious flukes, who got exposed by more formidable

competition. A 16-game regular season, the shortest in any major sport, gives way to randomness, and that was quite apparent this year, with teams like the Lions and Dolphins advancing to the playoffs. Neither Miami nor Detroit outscored their opponents over the season as a whole, but both benefited from fortunate breaks in close games to finish with a stronger record than deserved. The New York Giants weren’t much better, going 7-2 in games decided by less than a touchdown. Oakland might have been the lone wild-card team wholly worthy of a playoff berth, but injuries knocked it down to a third-string rookie quarterback and inhibited any chance of a Super Bowl run. The Raiders hardly threatened the 4-point line in their 27-14 loss at the Texans, who might be the weakest playoff team of all. Football Outsiders’ DVOA ratings, the NFL’s preeminent advanced metric, placed Houston as the third-worst team to ever make the playoffs. The Texans are 16-point underdogs to the Patri-

ots in a Saturday divisional-round matchup, the highest playoff spread in 22 years. The good news for fans of close games: The lines in the other three games don’t equal 16 points combined. Besides Houston, the three wild-card weekend winners are perennial powers who suffered through rough stretches they appear to have put behind them. Green Bay, which defeated the Giants, has won seven straight games since a midseason swoon; Seattle’s much-maligned offensive line looked shored up in the team’s win over the Lions; and four of Pittsburgh’s five losses this season came when Ben Roethlisberger wasn’t 100 percent. Kansas City is laying 1.5 points at home against those Steelers this week, while Dallas and Atlanta are both 4.5-point favorites at home against Green Bay and Seattle, respectively. Full of fat when they began, the NFL Playoffs are now looking decidedly lean. Don’t pencil in the Patriots and Cowboys for the big game just yet. From here out, favorites won’t easily run away from dogs closer to their own size.

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las vegas weekly 01.12.17

Live Music THe Strip & Nearby Brooklyn Bowl The Fab 1/14, 8 pm, free. Phil Lesh and Friends ft. Chris Robinson, Neal Casal, Tony Leone & more 1/20-1/21, 6:30 pm, $70-$200. Linq, 702-862-2695. Caesars Palace (Colosseum) Van Morrison 1/131/14, 8 pm, $57-$257. Celine Dion 1/17-1/18, 7:30 pm, $55-$500. 702-731-7333. Double Down TV Party Tonight w/Atomic Fish 1/12, 9 pm. 40 Oz. Folklore, Jerk!, Agent 86, Off the Wall, CXA 1/13. Los Brigands, The Capsouls, Some Kind of Nightmare, 3rd Rate 1/14. Gold Top Bob & The Goldtoppers 1/18. Shows 10 pm, free unless noted. 640 Paradise Road, 702-791-5775. Flamingo (Showroom) Keith Sweat, Aries Spears 1/17-1/21, 7:30 pm, $59-$225. 702-733-3333. Hard Rock Hotel (The Joint) Oliver Heldens, Excision, The Paradox 1/13-1/14, 8 pm, $45-$80. 702-693-5000. House of Blues Kane Brown, Jordan Rager 1/12, 7 pm, $13-$102. Joe Walsh 1/13-1/14, 1/18, 1/20-1/21, 7 pm, $100-$436. Falling in Reverse, Issues, Motionless in White, Dangerkids, Dead Girls Academy 1/15, 5 pm, $28. Mandalay Bay, 702-632-7600. Orleans (Showroom) Burton Cummings 1/12, 9 pm, $40-$60. Randy Bachman 1/13-1/14, 9 pm, $40-$60. 702-284-7777. Planet Hollywood (Axis) Britney Spears 1/131/14, 1/18, 9 pm, $69-$500. 702-777-2782. Venetian (Venetian Theatre) Styx, Don Felder 1/13-1/14, 8 pm, $55-$179. 702-414-9000.

Disney on Ice brings Frozen— along with with Cars, The Little Mermaid and Toy Story—to life at the Thomas & Mack Center January 12-15. (Courtesy)

Downtown Backstage Bar & Billiards The Aggrolites, Light ’em Up, Lady Reiko 1/14, 8 pm, $15-$20. Bag of Humans, Driven, Cirka:Sik, Opticon, Auzzy Blood 1/18, 8 pm, $5-$7. 601 E. Fremont St., 702-382-2227. Beauty Bar R.A. The Rugged Man, AFRO, Donnie Menace, Hassan, Dubshot Brothers, Late for Dinner, Profane 1/18, 9 pm, $10-$15. 517 Fremont St., 702-598-3757. Bunkhouse Saloon Cold Cave, Drab Majesty 1/12, 8 pm, $15. Mike Xavier, Zack Gray, Lake Wisdom, Kayy Nova 1/14, 9 pm, $10-$15. Rooney, Rabid Young, The Solarists 1/19, 8:30 pm, $12-$15. 124 S. 11th St., 702-854-1414. Downtown Grand (Freedom Beat) Hector Esparza 1/12. Keith Wren 1/13, 1/19. Cory Edward Brown 1/15. Scot Little Bihlman 1/17. Peter Love 1/18. Shows free, 8 pm. 206 N. 3rd St., 702-953-4343. Downtown Las Vegas Events Center Ekali, Sleepy Tom, LZF, TSiMZ 1/13, 8 pm, $18-$321. Shiba San, Will Clarke, Spacebyrdz, 530 1/20, 8 pm, $18-$321. 200 S. 3rd St., 800-745-3000. Golden Nugget (Gordie Brown Showroom) Blood, Sweat & Tears 1/13, 8 pm, $32-$162. 866-946-5336. Griffin Bazooka Zac, Brother Mister 1/13, 10 pm, free. 511 Fremont St., 702-382-0577. Smith Center (Reynolds Hall) Cabrera Conducts Beethoven & Mozart 1/14, 7:30 pm, $30-$109. (Cabaret Jazz) Lon Bronson Band 1/13, 8 pm, $15$35. Niki Scalera 1/14, 7 pm, $21-$41. Tommy Ward 1/15, 2 pm, $25. The Composer’s Showcase of Las Vegas 1/18, 10:30 pm, $20-$25. 702-749-2000.

Everywhere Else Adrenaline Sports Bar & Grill Somethin’ Elz 1/13, 9 pm, free. 3103 N. Rancho Drive, 702-645-4139. Boulder Dam Brewing Rick Berthod 1/13. Toney Rocks 1/14. Shows 8 pm, free. 453 Nevada Way, Boulder City, 702-243-2739. Boulder Station (Railhead) Boulder Blues ft.

Rod Piazza & The Mighty Flyers 1/19, 6 pm, $5. 702-432-7777. Dive Bar Born Rivals, Ash Williams, Lawn Mower Death Riders, Alex and His Meal Ticket, Rayner 1/13, 10 pm, $5. Mechanical Manson, Driven, IDFSA 1/14, 9 pm, $6-$8. Silver Snakes, Aeges, The Black Moods, Twin Cities 1/18, 8 pm, $10. 4110 S. Maryland Parkway, 702-586-3483. The Golden Tiki Heebie Jeebies, Dirt City Three, Professor Rex Dart 1/14, 9 pm, free. 3939 Spring Mountain Road, 702-222-3196. South Point (Showroom) Atlantic City Boys 1/131/15, 7:30 pm, $30-$40. 702-796-7111. Suncoast (Showroom) Kris Allen 1/14, 8:30 pm, $29-$51. 702-636-7075. Texas Station (Dallas Events Center) Hotel California: Tribute to The Eagles 1/14, 8 pm, $19. 702-631-1000.

2 pm, $10. 800 S. Brush St., 702-229-6383. Las Vegas Little Theatre (Mainstage) A Little Night Music 1/13-1/14, 1/19-1/21, 8 pm; 1/15, 2 pm, $21-$24. 3920 Schiff Drive, 702-362-7996. Majestic Repertory Anton Chekhov’s Cherry Orchard of the Living Dead 1/19-1/21, 8 pm; 1/22, 5 pm, $25. 1217 S. Main St., 702-478-9636. Smith Center (Troesh Studio Theater) Broadway in the Hood’s The Mountaintop 1/13-1/14, 7 pm; 1/14, 2 pm; 1/15, 3 pm, $34. (Reynolds Hall) Motown the Musical 1/17-1/22, 7:30 pm; 1/21-1/22, 2 pm, $29-$127. 702-749-2000. T-Mobile Arena Cirque du Soleil’s Toruk—The First Flight 1/18-1/20, 7:30 pm; 1/21, 4 & 7:30 pm; 1/22, 1 & 5 pm, $39-$155. 702-692-1600.

Comedy

Be Brave 5K 1/14, 7-11 am, $25-$30. Floyd Lamb Park, 9200 Tule Springs Road, bebrave5k.com. Disney on Ice 1/12-1/13, 7 pm; 1/14, 11:30 am, 3 & 7 pm; 1/15, 1 & 5 pm, $18-$83. Thomas & Mack Center, 702-739-3267. Indie Classics & New Wave Dance Party 1/13, 9:30 pm, free. Bunkhouse Saloon, 124 S. 11th St., 702-854-1414. Las Vegas Jewish Film Festival 1/14-1/29, times vary, free-$50. Locations vary, lvjff.org. Mesquite Motor Mania 1/13-1/14, 9 am; 1/15, 8 am, free. CasaBlanca Resort, mesquitecarshows.com. Off the Wall: The Graffiti Disco Live art by Recycled Propaganda, Lou Isms, Jeff Lewis, Cliff Moris 1/14, 9 pm, free. Beauty Bar, 517 Fremont St., 702-598-3757. Panel Discussion Peaceful Voices on Social Justice: A community dialogue on attaining King’s dream

Aliante Casino (Access Showroom) Ashima Franklin 1/14, 8 pm, $21-$31. 702-692-7777. Mirage (Terry Fator Theatre) Daniel Tosh 1/13, 10 pm; 1/14, 7:30 pm, $65-$105. 702-792-7777.

Performing Arts Art Square Theatre Cockroach Theatre’s HIR 1/19-1/21, 8 pm; 1/22, 2 pm, $16-$20. 1025 S. 1st St., #110, 702-818-3422. Baobab Stage Theatre Burlesque 1/13, 9 pm, $20$25. Town Square, 702-369-6649. Charleston Heights Arts Center African Folktales and Fables w/Diane Ferlatte & Djeliba Baba 1/14,

Special Events

in 2017 1/15, 3-5 pm, free. First African Methodist Episcopal Church, 2446 Revere St., 702-888-3958.

Sports

Chris Ruby Cup Fundraiser Race 1/14, 11 am-2:30 pm, $20. Lee Canyon, 6725 Lee Canyon Road, leecanyonlv.com. UNLV Men’s Basketball San Diego State 1/17, 7 pm, $20-$140. Thomas & Mack Center, 702-739-3267. UNLV Hockey BYU 1/19, 6 pm, $5-$10. SoBe Ice Arena at Fiesta Rancho, 702-631-7000. USA BMX Silver Dollar Nationals 1/13, 4 pm; 1/14, 11:30 am; 1/15, 8 am, free. South Point Arena, 702-796-7111. WFG Continental Cup of Curling 1/12-1/14, 9 am; 1/15, 1:30 pm, $22-$238. Orleans Arena, 800-745-3000.

Galleries

Clark County Government Center Rotunda Krystal Ramirez: I Want to See Thru 3/3. Artist Reception 1/13, 6-8 pm, free. 500 Grand Central Parkway, 702-455-7030. Left of Center A Room of One’s Own: An All Women’s Exhibit 1/17-3/31. Artist Reception 1/28, noon-3 pm, free. 2207 W. Gowan Road, 702-647-7378. Skye Art Gallery Michael Summers 1/13-1/14, 7-11 pm, free. Caesars Palace, 702-836-3538. Tivoli Village Mario Basner’s World Heritage Collection 1/17-2/28. Building 10, #150, 440 S. Rampart Blvd., 702-570-7400. Winchester Cultural Center Gallery Lance Smith 1/17-2/23. Artist reception 1/13, 6-8 pm, free. 3130 S. McLeod Drive, 702-455-7340.

MAY 3 – 20 RVLTN

FRI, FEB 10 .........................IRATION

LOST & FOUND WINTER TOUR WITH THE GREEN, PROTOJE AND ZACH DEPUTY

I LOVE THE ‘90s

FRI, FEB 17 ..........................R. KELLY SAT, FEB 18 .........................AFI

THE BLOOD TOUR WITH SPECIAL GUESTS NOTHING & SOUVENIRS

SAT, FEB 25 ........................DIRECT CELLARS PRESENTS “UNCORKED!” FEATURING BETTER THAN EZRA AND SPECIAL GUESTS SAT, MAR 25 ......................MARTIN NIEVERA AMPLIFIED

ON SALE TOMORROW

SAT, APR 8 ..........................BRING ME THE HORIZON THE AMERICAN NIGHTMARE TOUR PLUS VERY SPECIAL GUESTS UNDEROATH AND BEARTOOTH

FRI, JAN 13 & SAT, JAN 14

FRI – SUN ............................PSYCHO LAS VEGAS 2017 FEATURING AUG 18 – 20 MURDER CITY DEVILS, NEUROSIS, MULATU ASTATKE, SWANS, CARCASS, MELVINS, CHELSEA WOLFE, MAGMA & MANY MORE

FRI, FEB 3

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