HIP-HOP'S HOT AF ARTIST Anderson .Paak returns
FREE August 31–September 6, 2017
THURSDAY 31 DANCE: Chuckie (the DJ, not the killer doll)
spins at Wynn Las Vegas’ Intrigue Nightclub. Although it would be awesome if the doll got a residency. Tell me that couldn’t happen in this town. 10:30 p.m., $25–$35, intriguevegas.com
FRIDAY 1 EXPERIENCE: It’s First Friday, on the first of the month, which makes this one even more special. Enjoy a night of art and music in Downtown’s Arts District. 5 p.m., ffflv.org HEAR: Kevin Hart takes over The Cosmo-
politan for HartBeat Weekend and he kicks things off with a performance by Usher. A portion of the weekend’s proceeds will support Kevin Hart Charities, benefiting children’s cancer nonprofit BrittiCares International. 9 p.m., tickets start at $49, at The Chelsea, cosmopolitanlasvegas.com Palms Casino Resort goes big for Labor Day weekend with a performance by Mary J. Blige at Pearl Concert Theater. 8 p.m., tickets start at $70, palms.com And Dokken rocks Hard Rock Hotel & Casino’s Vinyl showroom. Why is that important? Two words: “Dream Warriors.” 9 p.m., $25, hardrockhotel.com DANCE: After the Usher show, Kevin Hart
W HA T TO DO
AF T ER DARK By JASON R. LATHAM
hosts the official HartBeat Weekend After Party at The Cosmopolitan’s Marquee Nightclub. Remember the “official” part just in case someone tries to scam you with a Kevin Hart party in Henderson or something. 10:30 p.m., $23–$41, marqueelasvegas.com
Martin Garrix plays Omnia Nightclub at Caesars Palace with an assist from frequent collaborator Justin Mylo. 10:30 p.m., $25–$40, omnianightclub.com
Take a Nightswim with Major Lazer at Encore’s Surrender Nightclub. 10:30 p.m., $25–$35, surrendernightclub.com And Hard Rock Hotel & Casino hosts the 18+ Buygore Pool Concert featuring Borgore with AFK B2B Ray Volpe, Spock and London Bridge. 7 p.m., $35, hardrockhotel.com
SATURDAY 2 CHEER: A new season of UNLV Rebels
Mary J. Blige
football begins when the team takes the Sam Boyd Stadium field against Howard University. Get out and support the Rebels, or support Howard, it’s a free country. 6 p.m., $14–$45, free for students, 7000 E. Russell Rd., unlvtickets.com LAUGH: And HartBeat Weekend continues with two chances to see Kevin Hart and Friends tonight at The Chelsea. 7 p.m. & 10:30 p.m., tickets start at $57, inside The Cosmopolitan, cosmopolitanlasvegas.com
Aug ust 31–September 6, 2017 vegasseven.com
DEE JAY SILVER FRI, SEP 1
FLO RIDA LABOR DAY WEEKEND
SAT, SEP 2
DJ ENVY
BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION LABOR DAY WEEKEND
SUN, SEP 3
LABOR DAY CELEBRATION MON, SEP 4
REHAB@HRHVEGAS.COM | 702.693.5505 | HARDROCKHOTEL.COM | REHABLV.COM
/REHABLV #REHABLV
From top: Ty Dolla $ign, Marshmello, Minus the Bear
HEAR: After a few months away, Bruno Mars
returns to Park Theater for another installment of his residency with two shows on Saturday and Sunday. 9 p.m., ticket prices vary, inside Monte Carlo, theparkvegas.com
Roger Clyne and The Peacemakers play Elation Pool at The Stratosphere Casino, Hotel & Tower. 9 p.m., $28, stratospherehotel.com
Meanwhile, over at Mandalay Bay Beach, the I Love the ’90s Tour checks in with— lordy, look at this lineup—Salt-N-Pepa, All-4-One, Kid ’n Play, O-Town, Tone Loc and Young MC. 9 p.m., $53, at Mandalay Bay, mandalaybay.com Or if a night of the ’80s sounds good, catch Toto, Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo as they take the stage at Red Rock Resort’s Sandbar. 8 p.m., $44, stationcasinosevents.com EXPERIENCE: Celebrate the finale of Plaza Pool
Nights at Downtown’s Plaza Hotel & Casino.
There will be swimming, a DJ and free entry, and that’s all one really needs. 7 p.m., free, plazahotelcasino.com After the UNLV game, Howard University’s alumni group hosts The All White After Party at Mandalay Bay’s Daylight Beach Club. All-white attire (including swimwear) is encouraged, obviously. 11 p.m., $50, daylightvegas.com DANCE: David Guetta returns to XS Nightclub
for a Labor Day weekend performance. 10 p.m., $30–$50, inside Encore at Wynn Las Vegas, xslasvegas.com
Catch a sneak preview of Life Is Beautiful 2017 headliner Wiz Khalifa at Drai’s Nightclub on the roof of The Cromwell. 10:30 p.m., $40–$60, draisnightlife.com Or get in line for Ty Dolla $ign at The Venetian’s Tao Nightclub. 10:30 p.m., $23–$33, taolasvegas.com
TY DOLL A $IGN BY JORY LEE CORDY; MINUS THE BEAR BY SHERVIN L AINEZ
SUNDAY 3 EXPERIENCE: Hard Rock Hotel & Casino’s MB Steak just launched
The Magic Hour Sunday night party, featuring drinks, DJs and dancing. It’s the three D’s. 11 p.m., mbsteaklv.com DANCE: Calvin Harris is back at MGM Grand’s Hakkasan
Nightclub. Tomorrow’s a holiday, so there’s no excuse to miss him. 10:30 p.m., $50–$100, hakkasanlv.com
Unless the excuse is already purchased tickets to Steve Aoki at Omnia Nightclub. 10:30 p.m., $20–$30, inside Caesars Palace, omnianightclub.com Feel like taking a dip in the pool while Marshmello plays? Do just that at XS Nightclub’s Nightswim party. 10 p.m., $50–$100, inside Encore at Wynn Las Vegas, xslasvegas.com
MONDAY 4 HEAR: Celebrate Labor Day Downtown with Las Vegas native Caked Up behind the decks at Beauty Bar. 9 p.m., $20, 517 Fremont St., beautybarlv.com
Or hit up The Bunkhouse Saloon for indie rockers Minus the Bear. Bluesy rock duo Deap Vally opens. 9 p.m., $20, 124 S. 11th St., bunkhousedowntown.com DANCE: Zedd spins at Jewel
Nightclub’s Flawless Mondays party. 10:30 p.m., $20–$30, inside Aria Resort & Casino, jewelnightclub.com
Aug ust 31–September 6, 2017 vegasseven.com
WEDNESDAY 6
TUESDAY 5 DANCE: It’s Swim Night at
Drai’s Beach Club, and if that isn’t enough reason to go, there’s also Kayper on the bill. We’re intrigued. $20–$30, at The Cromwell, draisnightlife.com
EXPERIENCE: Hit the water in a kayak, paddleboat or paddleboard at Lake Las Vegas’ Full Moon Paddle event to catch the sunset and party all night to a DJ on the dock. 7 p.m., ticket prices vary, lakelasvegas.com DANCE: Relieve some of that midweek stress at Mandalay Bay’s Light Nightclub, where
DJ Crooked and Neva
supply the sound. 10:30 p.m., $26–$38, thelightvegas.com 7
EVERY SATURDAY 104.3FM TAKE-OVER WITH SUPA JAMES
SATURDAY, SEPT. 9 DOORS OPEN AT 9AM
COORS LIGHT BUCKET AND GREY GOOSE MAGNUM SPECIALS
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LABOR DAY WEEKEND!
PLEASURE POOL
BIKINI CONTEST
FINALE SEPTEMBER 2 AT 3 P | DJ 7PM | DRINK SPECIALS ALL WEEKEND LONG
OVER $2,500 IN CASH PRIZES AND GIVEAWAYS! LIVE ULTRA DJS INCLDUING: TA4, SHAI PERI, ROGER GANGI AND MORE! On The
Cool off with an ice-cold bucket of Coronas or Ketel One Cocktail!
FAME SETS THE SCENE
THE MANY SOUNDS OF
ANDERSON .PAAK
W
GET FAMILIAR WITH THE GRAMMYNOMINATED SINGER BEFORE HIS LABOR DAY WEEKEND APPEARANCE AT JEWEL
Anderson .Paak 10:30 p.m., $20–$30, Jewel Nightclub inside Aria Resort & Casino, jewelnightclub.com
Aug ust 31–September 6, 2017 vegasseven.com
By ZONEIL MAHARAJ
hen the raspy-voiced Anderson .Paak rose to prominence in 2016 following the release of his highly praised sophomore album, Malibu, it was a much-needed win for the singer/rapper/drummer/producer, who at one point in his career was homeless. It earned him Grammy nominations for best new artist and best urban contemporary artist earlier this year. It was a longtime coming for the 31-year-old performer, whose underground roots stretch back to 2009, when he went by the moniker Breezy Lovejoy. If you’re just now getting hip to the “Come Down” singer, then you’re in for an audible treat of soulful crooning, eclectic covers, slick pimp talk and turn-up-inducing bangers as we share five essential cuts from his catalog. Head to vegasseven.com/paakplaylist to listen along.
K-TOWN GIRL (as Breezy Lovejoy) Before he adopted his signature nose ring, .Paak had another distinct look during his Breezy years: a dreadlocked mohawk/ Mongolian warrior cut (it looks better than our description implies). The music, though, was essentially the same: feelgood, bouncy jams like the 2012 cut “K-Town Girl,” featuring his friend and battle-rap veteran Dumbfoundead.
DRUGS While Malibu is absolutely deserving of every bit of praise it received, .Paak’s 2014 debut, Venice, should have been enough to put him on the Grammy panel’s watch list. The diverse and eclectic album was a perfect melding of soulful hip-hop and R&B, groovy house and trunk-rattling beats. If nothing else, the speaker-destroying “Drugs” should have been played inside every damn club on the Strip.
SUCH GREAT HEIGHTS (the Postal Service cover) In 2013, .Paak dropped a nameyour-price EP of covers on his Bandcamp page titled, fittingly, Cover Art (it’s still up, and you should definitely download it). The six self-produced songs are beautiful reimaginings of songs by the Postal Service, the White Stripes, Neil Young and others. Though .Paak isn’t overtly political in his music, this concept was. White artists in the ’50s remade songs from black musicians and turned them into commercial hits; .Paak flipped the process. The results are funky, soulful and electronic takes on “rock and folk classics from your favorite stringy-haired singers,” per the EP’s notes.
CHEAP WHISKEY / 70’S RIESLING .Paak doesn’t get emotional too often. This two-part song, off the Blended Babies–produced The Anderson .Paak EP (2015), might be his deepest. Addressing his estranged father, he croons “Wish I had a chance to like ya / Wish I didn’t look just like ya” before the track erupts with psychedelic guitars. SUEDE (with Knxwledge, as NxWorries) Get your pimp hand ready. Yes Lawd!, .Paak’s 2016 collab with choppy beatmaker Knxwledge, might be the silkiest thing we’ve ever heard, as .Paak waxes pimpish over classic soul samples. Listen to “Suede” for its finest display, with the unapologetic chorus of “If I call you a bitch, it’s ’cause you my bitch.”
X September 4, 7:30 p.m., $30–$35, Brooklyn Bowl, brooklynbowl/las-vegas
[ HEAR THIS ]
show. We have another person who’s playing with us, Craig Packham, and D.J. [Bonebrake] plays vibes on a few songs, while Billy plays saxophone on a couple songs. We’re playing these songs that we haven’t played, like “Come Back to Me” or “Dancing With Tears in My Eyes,” and then we’ve also reimagined a few songs so that they are in that same outside, weird realm. X has an exhibit at the Grammy Museum right now. Did you have to dig relics out of your garage for display? We took all the stuff out of
things we’d collected. Some of the instruments that we have that are going to be in the exhibit are ones that we still use—luckily, I’ve got a spare bass. … They wanted to have us represent for the West Coast the way that they have the Ramones to represent from the East Coast. So, yeah, it was very rewarding to have someone put [on] that stamp of approval. We’re legit. We’re in a museum. That was always the goal! You know, I like to make light of this, but I think everybody appreciates when you work at something for a long time and then somebody else gives you some validation. We might poohpooh it, but when it happens, you think, “Oh, wow, that’s great.”
Your book, Under the Big Black Sun, wasn’t the typical “Here’s my rock star life” autobiography. You brought in a lot of other people to tell their stories. Why did you decide to do it that way? I didn’t really live a rock star life, first of all.
NOT SO ANONYMOUS JOHN DOE REFLECTS ON 40 YEARS OF X AND THE EARLY DAYS OF PUNK ROCK By LISSA TOWNSEND RODGERS FOR FOUR DECADES, X HAS BEEN THE SOUND of Los Angeles. Born from the city’s punk scene in the late
’70s, the band set itself apart with its male/female perspective, courtesy of singers John Doe and Exene Cervenka, as well as a willingness to move beyond punk into country, roots rock and beyond. John Doe has also released a number of solo albums—most recently The Westerner—and has had a career as an actor in films such as Great Balls of Fire! and Boogie Nights and TV shows including Roswell and Children’s Hospital. Last year, he added author to his résumé with Under the Big Black Sun, a combination of autobiography and history. X is celebrating its big birthday with a 40th anniversary tour and an exhibit at L.A.’s Grammy Museum. Doe recently talked to Vegas Seven about it all.
Did you imagine that there would be an X 40th anniversary tour? Of course not. It’s shocking,
but I think we’re old enough to be grateful for it. We’re one of the last bands standing [with] all original members. No matter when you start, you always have hope that it’s going to be successful and rewarding. We still enjoy each other, probably more now than maybe 10 or 15 years ago. You go through a bunch of shit, like Billy [Zoom] having cancer, just
Aug ust 31ñSeptember 6, 2017 vegasseven.com
the toll that playing music takes [and] traveling— and then you stop sweating the small stuff. You’re just like, “This is cool. You mean I get to make money and have a career doing this thing?” How did you decide which songs to play on this tour? X’s music is not just one thing. There
are four unique personalities. Now we are doing a show that includes some of the more outside and varied songs—it’s not just a straight-up punk rock
Exene and I were married most of the time, and I was faithful to her, most of the time. And that was something we were against, the rock star life. … But I didn’t want to have to be the authority—it also was a lot more work. And I realized that if I got other people to tell their stories, number one, it would be similar to the spirit the rest of the scene was, which was kind of a collaboration and community, and, number two, it’d be a bigger picture of everybody’s truth. I can talk about how I appreciate the equality that women had in early punk rock, but I can’t talk about what it’s like being a woman: Jane Wiedlin and Exene and Kristine McKenna, they could. Everyone who we thought were experts were given a topic as well. Dave Alvin was an expert in what it was like for a roots band to get pulled into the punk rock world, and Jane Wiedlin was an expert on the Canterbury scene—that was where people exchanged a lot of ideas and got high [and] created the scene by their alliances. Henry Rollins was an expert in being from out of town and getting pulled into this pretty well-developed, hardcore scene, so he could tell that truth. X is so identified with Los Angeles, but only one member is actually from that area. Do you think coming to the city from the outside gave you a different perspective? Definitely. Some
people, like directors and writers, can capture an essence sometimes better than a person who’s from there. For me, it was like the candy shop was open, and it was also really dirty and falling apart, and I thought, “That’s what I need. This is the decline of Western civilization, and I can just be a chronicler, a reporter.” 7
Wet Republic:
A Decade of Bikinis 2009
was all about tattooinspired prints from Ed Hardy by Christian Audigier
2011
shocking but fun— David Guetta’s F*** Me I’m Famous party made its way from Ibiza to the desert
2010
The #BabesInBlue have a few different azure-hued suits each year as well as some themed ones
2013
2012
Models: Emily Zupan, Ashley Vu and Wendy Macias
This year, Wet Republic is celebrating 10 seasons. And with every passing year comes a selection of new uniforms for its bikini-clad cocktail servers. Here’s a timeline of nine of those signature looks, modeled by the women who wear them all so well.
In
2017
2014 and 2015,
ushered in lacy two-pieces from NSA
bikinis paid homage to parties from DJs Steve Aoki and Tiësto
2016
was the year of bright coral suits that screamed Sunday Funday in honor of the Endless Sunday’s party
Tawny Jordan Wins Hot 100, and Steals MayweatherMcGregor Spotlight The Corona ring girl is fight weekend’s big winner Even on your phone’s sketchy Periscope feed, you could see Tawny Jordan’s unbreakable smile throughout Saturday night’s Mayweather-McGregor bout. It was a winner’s smile. The kind you can’t fake. The kind of smile that only comes after 16 exhaustive weeks of campaigning for the grand prize in the 2017 SPYONVegas Hot 100 bikini battle royale. The event, held annually since 2008, is a collaboration between SPYONVegas and MGM Grand’s Wet Republic dayclub that offers more than $100,000 in cash and prizes. Jordan, a 25-year-old Peoria, Illinois native turned model, entered the selection rounds in April. She bested hundreds of competitors and eventually about 20 fellow finalists in the voting rounds before earning the title of “Las Vegas’ Hottest Pool Partier” (and a $25,000 prize) at Friday afternoon’s grand finale. Darrian Dallas took the $15,000 second prize, and Jana Breslin came in third place, taking home $10,000. Posing for a post-victory Instagram photo with her giant check, first place sash and a bouquet of flowers, Jordan thanked all 702,000 of her followers, saying she was “forever grateful” and “still in complete shock” from winning. The shock, and the smile, hadn’t worn off by Saturday, when Jordan was back in her “night job” as a Corona ring girl, sporting a logo-enhanced bikini and hoisting round cards before a celebrity-packed audience at T-Mobile Arena. Jordan, whose previous ring girl duties include Mayweather’s 2013 victory over Canelo Álvarez and last fall’s Ward-Kovalev bout, stayed out of the spotlight during the action but stole the show on social media. A Twitter search of “ring girl” will net you dozens of comments and photos of Jordan (and her smile) prominently in the frame during pre- and postfight interviews. And you thought Mayweather was the night’s big winner. –Jason R. Latham
Aug ust 31–September 6, 2017 vegasseven.com