Illuminated Dreams | Vegas Seven | June 20-26

EvEnt

Teeing iT Up

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[ upcoming ]

June 30 Ribbon of Life’s Golden Rainbow Fundraiser (GoldenRainbow.org) July 5-6 UFC Fan Expo (UFCFanExpo.com)

Photos by Teddy Fujimoto

June 20–26, 2013

TPC Summerlin golf course opened to the public June 13 for an evening of fine wine and dining during An Aperitif by the Tee, a benefit for the Lili Claire Foundation. The band 51/50 filled the room with soulful sounds while more than 60 guests were treated to beverages from around the world, hand-selected by Elevage Wine Group sommelier Mario Luna. Afterward, guests switched gears for the “Closest to the Hole” competition on the 18th green, where TPC member Jeremy Johnson scored a hole-in-one, winning dinner for two and a bottle of Victorino Tempranillo wine from Toro, Spain.

A BRIGHT AND SHIMM

June 20–26, 2013 VEGAS SEVEN

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“The headliners make the scene at EDC. The fans are as passionate as any I have ever seen, and they pour as much of their energy into the performances as the artists onstage. You can feel the PLUR from this group of avid dance fans on the railing of the Kinetic Field stage for Tiësto.”

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“The Electric Daisy is at the center of it all … a beacon in the night and a gathering place. As I roam the speedway looking for photos, I feel drawn to the daisy—and I always find a passer-by engaging with it in some unique way.”

June 20–26, 2013

“There is nothing like a gathering of this size— more than 300,000 people visited EDC last year. Here the fans are illuminated by towering flames. EDC is the ultimate spectacle, and my annual helicopter trip around the speedway each year leaves me breathless.”

Favorite stage this year?

Lieberman: Every stage is pretty amazing, and this is not your local jamboree. This is the largest electronic festival in the U.S., and my budget for this show is equal to 10 of my other shows combined! With thousands coming out, it’s also not about just the DJs, but the whole experience. We want someone to be able to show up and not worry about who’s playing. We want to suck them into the environments and make them part of the carnival.

Let There Be Light

The lighting/VJ team of Steve Lieberman and Vello Virkhaus fip the switch on EDC 2013

By David Morris

June 20–26, 2013

With roughly 350,000 people set to descend on Las Vegas June 21-23 for the Electric Daisy Carnival, we caught up with the fest’s visual conductors, lighting god Steve Lieberman and uber-VJ Vello Virkhaus, who tell us what we can expect from EDC’s distinctive look this year.

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How are you involved in the electronic dance music scene?

Lieberman: I’ve designed [the lighting for] more than 200 nightclubs from New York to Miami, L.A., Vegas, Seattle, San Diego, Aspen … everywhere.

I started by working in clubs when I was 16 years old and have always been a part of the community, and since raves hit the East Coast, it’s been a whirlwind.

Virkhaus: I’m in charge of booking VJs, creating video content and live VJ production for all the EDC stages, unless a particular sponsor or one of the artists has someone doing their own. I’ll personally be on the Kinetic Field, which is

exciting because we will have a lot larger video surface to work with this year.

What’s your favorite festival to produce?

Lieberman: That’s like asking someone which one of their children they love the most! Some are more enjoyable than others, but all are unique. The big ones are amazing, but are also more work. Ultra Miami and EDC Vegas are labors of love, but the labor is tremendous.

Virkhaus: It really is hard to pick. I’ve been with them all for an equally long period of time, and seen them succeed and get bigger. I love Insomniac and have been a huge supporter for years, and look forward to it every year. Ultra turned up the volume on production this year, and Insomniac is following suit, and I’m really excited to see them taking it to the next level.

How much work goes into putting together a produc-

tion like EDC Vegas?

Lieberman: It starts with a few of us the day after the show ends the year before. Design work begins six months ahead because there are seven stages to develop. With all of our backto-back shows, we have to plan and can’t procrastinate. The design process is pretty much me, and as I design, I bring it to Pasquale [Rotella, CEO of Insomniac] and his team, and we develop it. We bring in a vendor and a master electrician, and rates are approved. Then we see the fnished product on-site. Even the new vendors have been with me for fve to six years and a lot for 15-plus years, so the trust level is there, and there is less micromanaging. That’s important because the main-stage cost for EDC is looking like several million dollars—just for that stage.

On the night of, my per-stage team is roughly 20 people— each stage has a master electrician and two to three people under him. There are also two

to four for each trade: lighting, video, special effects, etc., and those numbers can go deeper if you start counting stage managers and facilitators.

Virkhaus: Vegas is going to take an entire month of preproduction from producing custom visuals to the programing for the stages to prepping for different artists’ unique productions. We also serve as support in a number of aspects for many artists’ live performances.

What’s new for this year’s production?

Lieberman: We have spent a considerable amount of time and money on props. This year’s production will be more theatrical with a focus on set design with a tech-y, edgy feel.

The pieces ft the theme and tie in ideas from the promotional graphics.

Virkhaus: There will be a lot more next-generation effects that we will premiere and a new experience that I’m working on. I can’t say much about it other than it will involve crowd visuals!

Can we have a hint?

Virkhaus: I’m going to VJ everyone’s cellphones using the EDC app.

What’s the biggest challenge when you produce an event like EDC? Lieberman: The concept.

Everyone from production always wants drawings, but it’s not math! It takes thought and inspiration and a lot of legwork, especially when you are tasked to design 50-70 stages a year, and this year I will be doing closer to 80-90! I really try to keep things fresh and not produce the same thing, so every day is a challenge.

Virkhaus: One of the biggest for me is mobilizing so many areas and keeping track of the content. I dedicate production coordinators to help make sure everything is loaded in correctly and all the components play correctly. On the management front, programing can take several days to three weeks for major festivals like Ultra, which have seven high-defnition video outputs per stage, to complete.

How do you guys collaborate?

Lieberman: Vello is a critical part of my team and usually becomes involved in the process after the design is complete. I send him screens and pixel maps, and he puts in the front end of the system from a graphic-design standpoint and plugs in the video of all the artists. There are multiple HD inputs that average VJs would founder with, so he makes life much simpler.

Virkhaus: We’ve worked together for years on these electronic music shows, and he’s one of my favorite people to work with.

He gives me great toys to play with and spoils me. It’s really wonderful not to have to do any production design and just be able to focus on VJing.

For more on what Lieberman and Virkhaus are up to, check out SJLighting.net and VSquaredLabs.com, respectively.

Photo courtesy of V Squared Labs

nightlife

Vello Virkhaus VJs at EDC’s Kinetic Field in 2012.

nightlife

parties

eclipse at Daylight Mandalay Bay [ Upcoming ]

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See more photos from this gallery at SpyOnVegas.com

Photography by Amit Dadlaney and Toby Acuna

June 20–26, 2013

June 22 Sunset Party with Skrillex June 26 Nathan Scott spins July 3 DJ Stellar spins

nightlife

parties

Bagatelle Beach

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See more photos from this gallery at SpyOnVegas.com

Photography by Teddy Fujimoto and Derek Degner

June 20–26, 2013

The Tropicana

nightlife

parties

Moon The palms

[ Upcoming ]

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See more photos from this gallery at SpyOnVegas.com

Photography by Bobby Jameidar and Amit Dadlaney

June 20–26, 2013

June 21 DJ Jazzy Jeff spins June 22 Funkagenda spins June 25 Full Moon Party

DINING

Food and libations at Kyara Japanese Tapas. [ TrendspoTTing ]

FermenTed, Fried and Fun

Japanese izakayas ofer booze-friendly bites and boisterous behavior

By Brittany Brussell

Las VeGas can’t seem to stop guzzling down bowls of ramen, clamping our chopsticks around sushi or nearly impaling our cheeks while gnawing sustenance from skewers. Throw in some sake or a Sapporo and life is good. So it shouldn’t be a surprise that people are finally discovering the izakaya (pronounced ee-ZAH-ka-ya). Think of these casual restaurants as a marriage between a tapas bar and pub, where friends can grab drinks and share a range of inexpensive small plates. Spirited chatter and lingering into the wee hours is strongly encouraged. Here are some spots perfect for fulfilling the dual desire to get plastered and pig out.

Kyara Japanese Tapas Expect an ear-shattering “Irasshaimase!” (“Welcome!”) when entering this intimate den. While your liver may loathe you, this place keeps it real by offering a mind-numbing selection of sake, chu-hai, shochu,

Miko’s Izakaya While staples such as hiyayakko (cold tofu with ginger and scallions) and kara-age (deep-fried chicken cubes) dot the menu, sample the fresh sushi and sashimi; ask for the more nutritious haiga rice. If meat isn’t your thing, try the vegetarian/ vegan sushi rolls or noodle dishes.

And be sure to say hi to Chico, a shigaraki tanuki (badger or raccoon dog) statue intended as a good-luck charm. 500 E. Windmill Lane, Suite 165, 834-2779, MikoSushiLasVegas.com.

June 20–26, 2013

wine and beer. To help soak up the libations, opt for the pork kimchi, enoki bacon skewer and ika, tender rings of grilled squid slathered in butter. 6555 S. Jones Blvd., Suite 120, 434-8856, KyaraIzakaya.com.

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Ichiza It would take more time than you have to inspect the multitude of menu items affxed to every inch of wall space. Stick with the yellowtail tartare, an East-meets-West concoction resembling a sandwich of fried chips, rice, salsa, avocado and raw yellowtail. For large groups, head to the back of the room for the traditional zashiki seating on the foor.

4355 Spring Mountain Rd., Suite 205, 367-3151, IchizaLasVegas.com.

drinking Dining

[ Scene StirS ]

Buy the Book: essential summer drink—er, reading Liquid Vacation is available on Amazonand FrankiesTikiRoom.com. Or you can pick one up and have it signed by the author at the June 22 launch party at Frankie’s Tiki Room. While you’re at it, here are a few more tomes for your cocktail table and the beverages with which to enjoy them.

• The Negroni, by Gary Regan.

If you’re a fan of the Negroni, you’ll appreciate this ode to that most revered and simple of cocktails (gin, Campari, sweet vermouth), including the history of Italian cowboy creator and namesake Count Negroni, essays, quotations, Negroni variations and comments from the world’s top bartenders and personalities such as David Wondrich, Dale DeGroff, Jim Meehan and even Orson Wells. Enjoy with a Negroni, of course!

Jared Brown, 2013, $15.

• The Audacity of Hops, by Tom Acitelli.

Chronicling the birth and growth of the American craft-beer industry since the mid-1960s, the former New York Observer senior editor keeps it light with photos and entertaining stories. Still, he manages to satisfy the beer geek’s thirst for detail. It’s the other greatest story ever told. Settle in with a bomber of Big Dog’s Red Hydrant Ale. Chicago Review Press, 2013, $20.

• A Beer Drinker’s Guide to Knowing and Enjoying Fine Wine, by Jim Laughren.

Described as “a friendly, arm-around-theshoulder wine primer,” this guide cuts the crap and gets down to explaining wine in clear, concise language. If you can rattle off your favorite hops and their attributes, you can understand wine. Read while drinking a jammy, impertinent zinfandel. Just kidding—crack a PBR for this one! Crosstown Publishing, 2012, $17.

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P moss’ third book, Liquid Vacation: 77 Refreshing Tropical Drinks from Frankie’s Tiki Room in Las Vegas (Stephens Press, $30) includes many of the expected tiki trappings: over-the-top garnishes, outlandish colors, fames, cream and hulking wedges of juicy pineapple. Drinks are rated using Frankie’s skull system: three skulls is easy going, four is deceptively strong and fve is trouble. But there is not one cocktail umbrella. Owner of the world’s only 24-hour tiki bar (also the only tiki bar here on Hawaii’s ninth island), Moss demonstrates the restrained, sophisticated and even elegant side of tiki, such as the Savage Flame, created by Frankie’s bar manager Allison Hartling.

Served without garnish in a cocktail coupe, this understated drink (three skulls) harkens back to the golden age of tiki,

Watch Frankie’s Tiki Room owner P Moss discuss tiki culture, cocktails that kick your ass and his new book at VegasSeven.com/Frankies.

• The Patrón Way, by Ilana Edelstein.

“From fantasy to fortune,” the cover fairly barks, “lessons on taking any business from idea to iconic brand.” Edelstein tells the story of how Patrón tequila marketed itself (thanks, ahem, in part to Edelstein) to become one of the world’s leading premium tequila brands. Read this with a Patrón Paloma (reposado, lime juice, grapefruit soda on the rocks) and perhaps a grain of salt. McGraw-Hill, 2013, $25. —X.W.

Photo courtesy of Frankie’s Tiki Room

June 20–26, 2013

Sneaky Tiki

before the drinks evolved into more complex endeavors, and takes its name from an album of traditional luau music. While rum, Cointreau, fresh lime juice and guava nectar are typical of the tiki shopping list, it’s encouraging to also see house-made ginger syrup, St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram and Angostura bitters in the mix. Included with the 60 Frankie’s originals are 17 classics, such as the Mai Tai, Navy Grog and Fog Cutter, and two cocktails that stray from the tiki formula: Blood & Sand (Scotchbased) and Mutiny (vodka, “for those scalawags who refuse to drink rum”). Moss prefaces the recipes and amusing cocktail stories with a look at Las Vegas history through a tiki lens. Like Frankie’s drinks, the book is hard to put down!

• The Wine Forger’s Handbook, by Stuart George and Dr. Noah Charney.

Such a hot dinner-party topic right now!

A journalist and an art-crime expert team up to give a short history of forgery and fraud in the wine world, including the recent Kurniawan case and the unbelievable Rodenstock lawsuit. Tear through this easily digestible e-book with something vintage and expensive. Barolista Books, 2013, $3 for Kindle on Amazon.com.

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They’re all well worth it if you’re trying to expand your Vegas fick repertoire. But it’s the central conceit of Vegas in flm: It can be a supernatural wonderland (Ocean’s 11, Meet Me in Las Vegas). Or it can be a nightmarish hellscape that’s either a waystation for the wretched (Leaving Las Vegas, The Cooler), or a place where the demonic dole out torment to the damned (Showgirls, Very Bad Things).

Other cities get to just be settings. Sleepless in Seattle could have been Sleepless in San Jose.

Philadelphia could have been Boston. There are even examples that don’t involve Tom Hanks, but the point is that Vegas is always forced to be a very specifc stand-in for certain metaphors.

Only Casino and Fear and Loathing try to do it different. They use Vegas as allegory for the failure of the American Dream. It’s a trickier proposition than painting the town as a twodimensional horror show or garden of delights, and it’s probably telling that of all the ficks, only Casino really managed to pull it off convincingly.

(Fear and Loathing is a fne movie, but the heightened realities on the screen undercut the precise and biting social commentary. It works more seamlessly on the page.)

Which is probably why Casino still stands as the frst among peers in the Vegas-movie canon. That and the fact that there’s an 85 percent chance of fnding it on AMC right now. But it would be nice if, for once, Vegas on the screen were a place where people just lived, without the burden of commenting on the human condition by virtue of geography.

June 20–26, 2013

If thIs Is all startIng to sound lIke screenwrIters are usIng Vegas as a metaphorIcal reposItory for doomed souls, that’s because they are.

A&E

Music

Killswitches and Battlecrosses

Infected Mushroom’s Erez Eisen and Amit Duvdevani.

An Infectious Beat Psytrance duo’s mind-tripping experience spreads to Las Vegas

June 20–26, 2013

By Deanna Rilling

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because it controls and triggers some of the graphics and a lot of the sounds, vocals and stuff, and helps me a lot while I’m going out of the sphere and into the sphere.

It’s a new dimension of playing on a stage. The Emulator was ftted for this show and I’m really happy to play with it.

Your last album, Army of Mushrooms, had a collaboration with those expecting infected Mushroom to be merely two DJ/producers are set Jonathan Davis of Korn, whom to be overwhelmed. The electronic psytrance artists will be bringing a you’ve worked with before. full-on audio/video show to the Cosmopolitan’s Boulevard Pool on June What’s in the works for the next 20. It will be perfect to gear you up for the Electric Daisy Carnival, or as album beyond the new single a taste of an all-out electronic music experience if you aren’t attending “See Me Now”? Any guest artists?

EDC. Now based out of Los Angeles, the Israeli duo consists of Amit DuActually, Friends on Mushrooms vdevani (“Dudev”) and Erez Eisen. Dudev flls us in on the Fungus AmongUs [Volume 2 EP] is coming out in show and what’s on the plate for Infected Mushroom.

July; I have very young people collaborating on it: Savant from Will this be a DJ set or will you does the experience encompass?

Europe and Pegboard Nerds from perform with a full band?

Fungus AmongUs is basically two Denmark are both on this album.

We’re doing the new Fungus Amon- huge spheres foating inside a screen Friends on Mushrooms Volume 3 gUs show, which has 3-D projecting- on a big stage upon which are prois already in the works with colmapping, two huge spheres and is jected 3-D animations. The music laborations with Zedd, the M Mabasically our new live show—but is

by Infected Mushroom is basically chine, Steve Aoki and a few more. only me and Erez. It’s really intense. from down-tempo to highThis whole year is kind … This is a show you won’t see eitempo, to more of drum of an EDM-influenced ther in a festival or other places. and bass and stuff like that. vibe on the album, infected Basically I call it a bit of MushrooM so next year we’ll see Looking at footage, it seems to a visual experience with where we’ll go. be reminiscent of DJ Shadow’s Infected Mushroom music Cosmopolitan’s Boulevard Shadowsphere or Amon Tobin’s in the background.

Anyone joining you Pool, 9 p.m. stage rigs. onstage in Vegas? (doors at 7 It’s the same people that built You use Emulator I really don’t know. But p.m.) June 20, Amon Tobin’s stage, so we call it controller screens; how this is one day before $20, 698-7760, “Amon Tobin on Steroids” [laughs]. would you describe how EDC, so let’s see what’s Cosmopolitanthose are incorporated? going on. It’s a big, big LasVegas.com.

Since people might not be familThe Emulator is a big weekend for electronic iar with those references, what help to this particular set music in Vegas.

I’m writing this in a poolside cabana at night, and it’s still 100 degrees. Pity the poor EDC-ers who can’t always enjoy air-conditioned venues to keep their angel wings from melting. Meantime, you and I, fellow Soundscrapers, have cool shows to hit.

First, blues singer-guitarist Guitar Shorty is back at the Railhead in Boulder Station (10 p.m.

June 20). Often said to have influenced everyone from Jimi Hendrix to Buddy Guy, Shorty has performed with all the greats, including Little Richard. This dude simply cooks on the six-string.

Like last time, I imagine he’ll likely perform his own originals plus some covers. Shorty’s version of “Hey Joe” is hellacious.

There’s a Clash of the Titans taking place at 10 p.m. June 21 at Artifice, and no, I’m not talking about the Greek myth of Perseus. I mean a night of Vegas bands performing covers by two titanic figures in rock ’n’ roll—Iggy Pop and David Bowie.

The local groups chosen to play this event are on the ramshackle side, what with punk-rockin’ D&Daddicted stonerds 3d6 and garage-blues animals Tiger Sex. Other acts on the bill—Sex in Latex, A Grand Distraction, Brad Bailey—I’ve never heard of, so I’m eager to hear what they deliver. At the least the music is guaranteed to be awesome.

Portland, Maine, alternative hip-hop artist and Anticon label co-founder Sole sneaks into the Bunkhouse Saloon at 10 p.m. June 22. Sole is riding high after having just released socialist-MC concept album No Wising Up No Settling Down. According to the artist himself, the disc explores “personal and social/philosophical aspects of the class struggle.” Songs such as “Insurgent Rap” and “My Veganism” are unlike anything you’ve ever heard on the mic, making this the must-see underground hip-hop show of the year. Also on the bill: Moodie Black, Late for Dinner and Jay R Beatbox.

Two underground Wisconsin-weaned bands that frighten me more—Dresden, The Parish—descend on The Dive at 9 p.m. June 24. Dresden is a crustpunk group that sounds like a giant dentist drill held aloft by a tribe of serial killers and poised to grind off your entire face. The Parish, meanwhile, is a crushing stoner-doom trio that doesn’t sound at all like the religious unit of a church. Unless we’re talking the Church of Satan. Gooseflesh is already erupting on my eardrums.

Michigan modern heavy-metal juggernaut Battlecross wages total war in Cheyenne Saloon at 10 p.m. June 27. If you haven’t heard Battlecross yet, let me just sum it up for you: Pantera meets Lamb of God with a modern emphasis on technical guitar-riffing and double-kickdrum blasting.

Because the band hasn’t yet released a follow-up to its proper 2011 debut album Pursuit of Honor, I’m hoping Battlecross performs some new songs.

Also, last time I was at Cheyenne, the sound was superb, as good or better than any venue in town.

Your Vegas band releasing a CD soon?

Email Jarret_Keene@Yahoo.com.

stage Ralphie May.

Zero Dark Laughter

Late-night comedy show resurrects the dirty jokes of Vegas past

June 20–26, 2013

the late-night lounge show is the stuff Soleil dancers and the performance of Vegas legend and, sadly, is mostly industry, where they don’t have to go confned there. Let’s all be honest: to a nightclub and spend $500 for a It’s highly unlikely Zombie Buddy bottle of cheap vodka.”

Hackett is going to set up shop after May and Lopez split booking duties, midnight on Saturdays anymore. drawing talent from L.A., Chicago and First off, he’d be entirely confused New York. California’s Jeff Garcia is about what happened to the Sahara. slated to headline June 21, while May But local comic Gabe Lopez and name-checks Joey Diaz and Ari Shaffr national powerhouse Ralphie May as others he’s working to bring in. Lohave returned a slice of Vegas arcana pez also hopes to lure Charlie Murphy, to the arena with The Dirty at 12:30 whom he opened for, in the future. show on Friday nights at South Point’s Ultimately, Lopez says the room Grandview Lounge. would be the ideal spot in Vegas to work It’s a free show that’s signed for on new bits, not unlike when Dave a 10-week run, the ffth edition of Chappelle comes by the Laugh Factory which is June 21. in L.A. to work out routines.

“After a show, the former [South “We’re hoping this is where if Ron Point] entertainment director Damian White is going over to The Mirage, he Costa was talking about old-school Ve- comes here to practice his new stuff,” gas, and how there used to be a dirty he says. “We want it to be a major comedy show that all the acts would headliner workout room.” come in and do,” May says. “They’d It’s part of a comedy groundswell sit around and drink and crack jokes at South Point, particularly for May, and have fun with the audience. That’s who appears regularly in the showwhat we wanted to do.” room there, and taped a special in the May headlined the frst show, when space over Memorial Day weekend. more than 500 people came out to The show is being shopped to Comcatch him, after he’d already had a edy Central, Showtime and Starz. regular headlining performance in In particular, May says he was the showroom. drawn to the new lighting setup in Lopez, the former Los Angelesthe showroom. “I’m getting lighting based comic who relocated here six I can’t afford, for free. I get a great years ago, came up through the ranks audience that’s from everywhere in with May’s wife, Lahna Turner. He America, and I get a hell of a great, became May’s opening act professional environment. before the pair turned their It was too good to resist.” the Dirty at 12:30 attention to the late show.

May says he’ll be back for a If anything, he says, show or two before the end of Grandview the show fnally gives the the 10-week run July 26, but Lounge at South after-work theater crowd hasn’t formally picked out Point, 12:30-2 something to do. dates. They’re in discussions a.m. Friday “There’s no late-night with South Point to carry the nights through thing for the industry,” Lopez show over for an extended July 26, free, says. “Not bartenders and run, though negotiations 797-8299. servers, but for Cirque du haven’t fnalized.

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Photo by Tina Compise\QuickStylePhotography.com

By Jason Scavone

A&E

Movies

High times in the end times with James Franco, Danny McBride and Craig Robinson.

Last Comic Living

Rogan, Franco, Hill and a dream-team of celebs get apocalyptically funny

By Michael Phillips

June 20–26, 2013

Tribune Media Services

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The hangover Movies, even the third one no one defends, barely qualify as comedies in the traditional sense.

They’re more like grimy action pictures with a joke or two tossed in to avoid the charge of false labeling. Their ugliness of spirit compounds a disinterest in verbal jokes and a reliance on brutality (which isn’t the same as artfully violent slapstick), and nobody involved seems to care about making the talk snappy or keeping a scene moving forward.

Whatever. They’re hits. The public hath spoken, even as the public groweth weary.

This Is the End is a different story—outrageous-plus, but often hilarious. I could

pre-write some of the protest emails I’ll be getting and save some of us some trouble. But that wouldn’t be a free and fair exchange of opinions.

Co-writers and co-directors Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen have acknowledged their surprise in getting away with an R instead of an NC-17, given the movie’s most out-there and inthere sexual sight gags, along with some excessively gory details (Michael Cera impaled by a street light, but coming up with a zinger regardless).

“Ludicrous,” Goldberg told the Los Angeles Times regarding the Motion Picture Association of America’s oh-whatever decision to give it an R without cuts.

Rogen added, “Insanely, (we)

didn’t have a ratings issue.”

But you know? The thing really moves. Even the grottiest bits have a way of hitting their marks and darting onward, the way they did in Borat. This apocalyptic lark, an extended bull session among various highly competitive comedians trying to be nice to each other under extreme pressure, barely holds together as a movie. The central joke—Rogen, Jonah Hill, Craig Robinson, et al., playing pretend versions of themselves, the way Bill Murray did in Zombieland—is nothing new. Yet the best of the foul-mouthed byplay sounds improvised on the spot.

At one point, James Franco gets into it with Danny McBride, also playing himself, in an escalating

dispute regarding the loutish Your Highness star’s selfsh mishandling of a porno magazine, and the taunts are so relentless and stupid, you’re initially astonished at how long the scene’s allowed to play out. Then it keeps going, and the cutaways and the pacing actually make the effrontery funnier. I predict walkouts across America during This Is the End, along with a healthy number of satisfed, vaguely guilty-feeling customers who go along for the ride.

It helps to have sweet-natured Jay Baruchel at the center. He’s our adenoidal stoner 21st-century edition of Don Knotts, and his golden-arches eyebrows, suspended in permanent alarm, are the perfect accessories for an End-of-Days frst responder. Like everybody else in This Is the End, he plays a version of himself. Rogen has invited his old pal and fellow Canadian down to L.A.; he and Baruchel waste a few hours getting high and gaming, and then Rogen gives the insecure, paranoid Baruchel the bad news. They’ve been invited to Franco’s party, where lots of fellow comic actors and come-

dians will be in attendance, including Hill, whom Baruchel is convinced detests him. No less than Judd Apatow’s Funny People, This Is the End speaks a lot of truth about the way comics joke around, or don’t, in each other’s company, even before people start dying.

Bailing on Franco’s party (where Cera, that nice kid from Juno, turns out to be a grossout skeeze on the order of Neil Patrick Harris’ portrayal of Neil Patrick Harris in the Harold & Kumar comedies), Baruchel and Rogen run down the street for some snacks, and suddenly biblical-scale destruction and mayhem surround them: Fellow citizens get sucked up into the sky, the Hollywood Hills are in fames and a massive sinkhole leading to a fery pit of lava appears on Franco’s lawn, gobbling up party guests with impunity. For a good while, This Is the End spins a variation on Panic Room, with Franco hunkering down with Rogen, Baruchel, Robinson and Hill inside Franco’s modernist fortress. (“Designed it myself,” brags the actor/writer/director/Renaissance dude.) They squabble about the rations, meet up with the occasional intruder. Emma Watson, as herself, drops in and then takes off because she doesn’t like the “rapey vibe” of the situation.

(If I never hear another rape joke, especially in the context of a male-centric ensemble comedy, I’ll be fne.)

This is the sort of comedy wherein someone yells, “Someone throw me a knife!” and even if you know where the gag is going, it arrives a half-second sooner than expected.

The audience-identifcation fgure is Baruchel, who (like the flm itself) greets the End of Days developments with a reasonable amount of deadpan seriousness. The movie’s an expansion of a nine-minute short flm Rogen and Goldberg made six years ago called Jay and Seth vs. the Apocalypse. Unlike so many Hollywood comedies, this one isn’t squashed by the size of its budget or its digital effects. It’s a one-joke movie, full of smug, blasé comic fgures poking fun at their own limited resources of courage and grace under pressure. But sometimes one joke is enough.

The Is the End (R) ★★★✩✩

Marketplace

How much of what we see and experience at EDC directly refects your own taste, your own aesthetic?

Pretty much everything. I have people on the ground, but particularly this year, I pretty much art-directed everything.

I’ve been more hands-on, and I’m working very closely with artists that we’ve never worked with before.

June 20–26, 2013

Are you actually out there in the crowds during the event—riding the Ferris wheel, twirling glow sticks?

I defnitely try to experience as much as I can. A lot of the heavy lifting is done before the event happens, so last year I went on the Ferris wheel, and I defnitely walk around and experience the event as a headliner would. I’m out exploring the event as a headliner up until there’s an issue that needs to be handled.

VEGAS SEVEN

118

Pasquale Rotella

The founder of Electric Daisy Carnival on being a fan, keeping the party safe and minor injuries sustained while break dancing

By Geoff Carter

Pasquale Rotella is many things: Most famously, the 38-year-old is the founder of Insomniac, the company that stages the Electric Daisy Carnival. He also happens to be the fiance of Holly Madison and the father of a newborn daughter, Rainbow Aurora. But Rotella is, above all, a fan. He truly loves electronic dance music—the sounds, the scene, the communal exuberance—and that lifelong fandom drives him to make each EDC bigger, better and bouncier than the one before.

You’re a fan as much as an impresario. How far back does that go?

Even before I went to my frst underground (party), I used to break dance. The music was all in the hip-hop category, but it was all dance music: Kraftwerk, Herbie Hancock’s “Rockit,” Newcleus’ “Jam On It.” You remember that song? “Wiki wiki wiki wiki …” “Jam On It” was the frst dance-music song that I loved. I was, like, 10 or 11 years old. That was a jam. My break-dance moves would get a little out of control because I would get too excited and put too much into it, you know?

I’d overextend my moves when that song came on.

Has becoming a father made you feel more protective of

the kids who come to EDC? You know, I’ve never looked at them as kids. Having a kid is life-changing, but I didn’t suddenly consider myself older than the fans. I grew up in this; I was doing events when I was 15 years old, so they weren’t kids to

i gRew uP in this; i was doing events when i was 15 yeaRs old ... and my view has not changed. me then, and my view has not changed. I love human beings, and it’s always been a priority of mine to make them feel safe.

I actually just hired someone on as a full-time employee to handle all our safety and medical needs. It’s a big deal.

Lately you’ve been investing in Las Vegas businesses, charities and events—Park on Fremont and GlowRun, among others. Is this the future of EDC, taking the energy and inspiration of the festival and bringing it into the city?

Absolutely. I’ve always wanted to, but we haven’t always had the means to do it.

It’s all about giving back. Vegas is amazing; it’s so supportive of what we do. We want to do as much as we can in return.

Look ahead 20 years from now: Do you think we’ll still be having this conversation? Does EDC have staying power?

I do. I look at the Glastonbury Festival in the U.K., and I think it’s been going for more than 20 years. I have hopes that Electric Daisy will be America’s longest-lasting, longest-running festival. It will be here for a long time. Hopefully my kids can take over!

Photo by Anthony Mair

7 questions

When you staged your frst electronic dance music festival in 1995, did you have any idea that you’d someday be in charge of something as huge as EDC? You know, in my head, I saw massive crowds of people, a sea of people. I had hoped for it to be this big, but I really didn’t think about it too much. I just had these ideas in my mind, and I wanted to see it become a reality. I’m a strong believer in that if you deliver quality, there might be a little bit of an investment at frst, but eventually it will come back to you. Not cutting corners to make an extra buck is the right way to do business.