Las Vegas Weekly

July 7, 2012 · 2 AM

Vinyl countdown under way at Hard Rock Hotel; Santa Fe thinks twice about Cabaret Jazz

By John Katsilometes

A look at the brick exterior of the new Hard Rock Hotel music venue Vinyl.

Photo: John Katsilometes

A raking of the scene has picked up the following:

• The refurbished entertainment venue at Hard Rock Hotel is about ready for public scrutiny. The new enclave is where the Hard Rock Lounge was formerly positioned and is to be called Vinyl. A brick façade and wood flooring are new effects in the space, which will seat around 300 and compete with similarly sized venues at resorts around town (such lounges as the Lounge at the Palms, for instance).

An August grand opening is being planned, and I’m hearing Sammy Hagar will be at the hotel to take part, though it has not yet been announced if he’ll perform in the new venue.

A big reveal is scheduled for Wednesday at the Hard Rock, which has shuffled the amenities around the perimeter of the main casino floor. Media tours are planned for the new restaurant Culinary Dropout, an outpost of the Scottsdale, Ariz., gastro-pub eatery that abuts the pool and will offer occasional live music. (A gastro-pub is a hangout that serves high-end beer and food, for those not familiar with that term.) Upgrades have been made to Mr. Lucky’s Café (including new menu items), Starbucks has been replaced by a Hard Rock-operated java pub called Fuel, the HRH gift shop has been relocated to a spot nearly opposite its original location next to the sports book and a new high-limit gaming area called Peacock High-Limit Gaming is up and running.

The new activity, and also the flashy Cantor Gaming-operated sports book, has freshened up the main Hard Rock casino space, which opened in 1995 and was due for an overhaul.

• One of the acts being bandied about to perform at Vinyl is Santa Fe & the Fat City Horns. A column favorite for a few years now, Santa Fe performs at 10:30 p.m. Mondays at the Lounge at the Palms. They regularly overfill that venue, but the manager of that room who has booked Santa Fe at the Palms — Oliver Porter — is reportedly moving to Vinyl at the Hard Rock. This could signal a move for Santa Fe to Vinyl. Regardless, the band’s venue plans are a frequently discussed topic around the scene.

Not long ago, there was talk of the band moving to Cabaret Jazz at the Smith Center for the Performing Arts. That would make perfect sense, a pairing of one of the city’s best live acts with the intimate venue at the city’s lavishly appointed performing arts center. Cabaret Jazz seems ideal for its 240-seat capacity and attention to audio and visual detail. But bandleader Jerry Lopez has balked at making the move, citing the venue’s “reflective” surfaces. He is concerned the sound coming from a horn-powered, 16-piece band would bounce around the room. The term among musicians is the room would sound “too live,” with the powerhouse music and vocals boomeranging around the club.

Interesting. Smith Center officials have stressed since even before the venue opened that Cabaret Jazz is equipped to handle big bands and the loud sounds they furnish.

“Every wall has sound-absorbent acoustic panels. That room was designed for loud music,” says Smith Center President Myron Martin, who happens to be a Santa Fe fan and a frequent visitor to the Palms for the band’s weekly “healing” performances. “We have had, and will have, acts that are big and loud.”

Aside from the wood floors and the windows behind the stage that are exposed when the curtains are opened, there are no hard surfaces in Cabaret Jazz. As for high-volume acts, the R&B revue Spectrum and Radiance in August and Pancho Sanchez and his Latin Jazz Band in September are booked at the club. Each performance will supply ample sound.

There also is the matter of location. Lopez, and Santa Fe band members have preferred the Palms’ location largely because of its close proximity to the Strip. Many of them perform in production shows up and down L.V. Boulevard, and the Palms is a quick in-and-out for the performers. And, there is a question of how much to charge. Santa Fe is a $10 ticket at the Palms. That fee would likely need review to make the show profitable for the Smith Center, maybe $15 per ticket and a ratchet-down of comps. Re-training Santa Fe fans to relocate to a new venue would take some time. The band has long been a casino-lounge entity, benefiting from hotel guests who happen to hear the band playing and popping in for half a set.

“I think it would be a good thing to have Santa Fe at Cabaret Jazz, and if not Santa Fe another big band of that type,” Martin says. “We’re still open to it, but I’m past the ask-and-answer stage. Maybe after we see some big acts come into the room, we’ll have changed some minds.”

Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at Twitter.com/JohnnyKats. Also, follow “Kats With the Dish” at Twitter.com/KatsWithTheDish.

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