Las Vegas Weekly

December 30, 2009 · 6:24 PM

Four Las Vegas nightspots are opening on New Year’s Eve

By Robin Leach

Eva Longoria Parker hosts the grand opening of her Beso restaurant and Eve nightclub at CityCenter on Dec. 3, 2009.

Photo: Erik Kabik/Retna/www.erikkabikphoto.com

Eve at Crystals in CityCenter, Haze in Aria, Vanity in the Hard Rock Hotel and Smokin’ Hot Aces in The Venetian open tomorrow for New Year’s Eve revelers. Here’s the ROYAL ROBIN RUNDOWN on each new nightspot:

Eve in Crystals @CityCenter

Reality TV star Kim Kardashian jets into town from a Cancun, Mexico, photo shoot in time to host tonight’s pre-grand opening party of her Desperate Housewives actress friend Eva Longoria Parker’s nightclub Eve above her restaurant Beso in CityCenter’s retail palace Crystals. We’ll have full photo coverage of Kim at the hot new club right here at Vegas DeLuxe tomorrow.

Eva and her husband San Antonio Spurs star Tony Parker will host the official New Year’s Eve gala opening. Eva officially opened her Spanish-themed steakhouse Beso earlier this month. Eve is spectacular, and Eva used some of this year’s shimmering Swarovski crystal Academy Awards curtains as chandeliers in her Beso decor. She also personally handpicked the designs of the sexy cocktail server outfits.

Eve overlooks the Henry Moore Woman and Child sculpture in the CityCenter pocket park and the ever-changing color dancing fountains at the main Aria arrival court. Eve features a 360-degree screen that wraps around the dance floor. Incidentally, those sexy legs on the welcoming photo wall are Eva’s very own!

Haze @Aria

All eyes are focused on the new mega-club Haze that The Light Group is opening at Aria, with world-renowned DJ Tiesto as the New Year’s Eve headliner, quickly followed by David Guetta on Saturday and with John Legend, Flo Rida, Usher and Katy Perry set to appear later next month.

The 25,000-square-foot nightclub features innovative architecture and spectacular design, and its two levels feature state-of-the-art lighting and sound systems. Haze is three times the size of sister club the Bank in the Bellagio and almost twice the size of Jet in The Mirage.

I’m told the DJ booth is staffed with video editors and audio engineers to keep all the techno toys in full play. The guest deejays need an advance day of rehearsals to acclimate to all the cutting-edge equipment. Sensuality abounds, especially at the entryway with the glass-walled Human Aquarium, where gorgeous girls primp and pose in various sexy outfits. Opening night and the first week will feature a decadent Moulin Rouge cabaret theme saluting Baz Luhrmann’s movie musical starring Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman.

Photo: Shadow PR

A rendering of CityCenter's Haze.

The backdrop wall of interactive projection screens and a performance stage measures 100 feet, and the screens can vanish rising up into the ceiling to reveal VIP boxes for guests to look right down on the dance floor. The most spectacular part, though, were the five huge steel-trussed lighting grids that raise and lower directly over the dance floor to change the look and mood of the room all night long.

Haze strikes me as more European and Ibiza than anything we’ve seen before in Las Vegas. It’s definitely all new to Sin City. I took an advance private tour with The Light Group’s chief executive, the beautiful and brainy Jody Myers.

Here are just a few of the highlights I learned:

*Haze has spent nearly $3 million on champagne for tomorrow night’s festivities and opening weekend, including 12 of the 18 six-liter Methuselah bottles shipped to Nevada that will sell for $25,000 apiece! Only 2,000 were made as Millennium gifts for New Year’s Eve 2000.

*Haze will be able to project not only larger-than-life imagery on a 70-foot video wall, but also real-time 3D animation, which is a first. The DJ booth is center stage.

*Haze has LED eco-friendly lights buried into the kinetic walls and articulating ceiling to create an additional, unparalleled sensory experience.

Jody told me: “Your perception of reality is changed from the minute you walk in, with the big mirrors and oversize columns. It’s a very theatrical feeling, with the live performance art and theatrical performances we have integrated into the experience. We hired a production company from Ibiza.

Photo: Erik Kabik/Retna/www.erikkabikphoto.com

DJ Tiesto spins at the Bank in the Bellagio.

Photo: Erik Kabik/Retna/www.erikkabikphoto.com

Crowds packed the Bank for DJ Tiesto's wheels of steel.

“The ceiling is made up of five moving trusses. They can go all the way up and down, so if you are on the dance floor, we can move them all around so you feel enveloped by it. So if you were down there, you would feel like the ceiling is very low and with the lighting and everything, then it rises up and guests on the mezzanine level feel they are rising, too.”

When I watched the testing, it looked deceptively double the large size it already is. Jody continued: “The entire wall behind the screen is made up of lights that we can do all kinds of things with. We can turn them on and make patterns and illuminate the performance stage, which also rises.

“The entirely new sound system built by John Lyons makes its world debut here on New Year’s Eve. I’m not sure when Tiesto gets in, but he is definitely going to have to come in and get familiar with the system. We have a lot of new things. It’s an audio enthusiast’s dream come true.

“There are many, many levels here. Some people prefer to be in the dance floor, and some people would prefer to be far removed. I don’t think there is a bad seat in the house. It is a trend that nightclubs are offering stars and concerts in tandem with the dance experience. People are spending a lot of money in the clubs, and we want to give them something back. When you come to the club and it is just the DJ, yes, you have a great experience, but now you can say I went and saw Tiesto or all these new and upcoming acts. People from all over the world will come to CityCenter, so we really created a unique experience. We thought of it as a world nightclub rather than a Las Vegas club.”

I ask Jody her response to the often-heard complaint that Las Vegas nightclubs have become too high-priced. “If you just want to come in and not get the table, we have three bars, so we have plenty of room around the club,” she replied. “There is a spot to hang out and have a cocktail at the bar. … One thing that we have learned in Las Vegas is that people won’t complain about pricing if they get exceptional service.”

Photo: Courtesy

Gold Lounge at Aria.

Photo: Shadow PR

A rendering of CityCenter's The Deuce.

VIP seating tomorrow night for Tiesto started at $5,000 and topped out at $20,000 for a VIP table seating 15 people with four bottles of liquor, two magnums of Dom Perignon, plus water, Red Bull and mixes.

Jody also operates Aria’s Deuce and Gold Lounge, which provide a club ambiance in a smaller setting. She laughed: “With our fun and edgy, contemporary, right-on-the-casino-floor-restaurant Union, you know I’ll be riding the tram from Bellagio to our four CityCenter properties as often as a commuter! That’s four now, and then when we open Liquidity pool, which is half as large as our Bare Pool at The Mirage, with its underwater music speakers in March, we’ll have five properties here.”

Going back to my favorite subject of bubbly, the club expects to sell more than $1 million of fine champagne tomorrow night alone as the long weekend gets underway. I can hear you now asking, “What economic collapse?”

Photo: Courtesy

A rendering of the dance floor and cyclone chandelier inside the new Vanity nightclub at the Hard Rock Hotel.

Photo: Courtesy

A rendering of a view from the DJ booth at Vanity.

Vanity @Hard Rock Hotel

Over at the new HRH Tower of the Hard Rock Hotel, it’s New Year’s Eve that winds down the illustrious life of Body English and begins a new legacy with Vanity. We posted a sneak peek at Vanity on Dec. 9, and, six days later, featured the new HRH Tower with Reliquary Spa and Vanity.

Smokin’ Hot Aces @The Venetian

The newest kid on the block also is the Strip’s first true rock ’n’ roll bar, and thus not a nightclub in any sense of the word. Smokin’ Hot Aces at The Venetian will feature rock ’n’ roll DJs, a real jukebox and top local and national rock bands in guest performances. The center platform bar features go-go dancers and shot girls, but no disco or dancing for customers. New York’s Lake Effect Mudd kicks off the grand opening celebration tomorrow night.

Deejays will work with classics by Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, The Who, Nirvana and The Rolling Stones. The 350 guests will even be able to request and spin their own rock from a vintage jukebox while playing pool. And don’t miss the sexy Vargas pinup girls or the 6-foot-high x 5-foot-wide slot machine past the entrance hallway.

Photo: Smokin' Hot Aces

A rendition of the interior of Smokin' Hot Aces.

The 4,500-square-foot space, which provides incredible patio viewing, was previously home for Jack’s when Tao headquarters was a Disney store, the nightlife lounge Venus and then Vivid, followed by an attempt to install a Fun House that kept it empty the past 18 months.

“It fills a real rock void in the city,” said Smokin’ Hot Aces General Manager Marty Helfand. “It’s everything Vegas has been missing: the best rock ’n’ roll in town in an easygoing, relaxed environment. “

With the four new nightlife additions and the older clubs still rocking, there’s plenty of party space for what will be a “fully sold out” status of some 140,000 hotel rooms, even with all the new suites added in the past two weeks!

Robin Leach has been a journalist for more than 50 years and has spent the past decade giving readers the inside scoop on Las Vegas, the world’s premier platinum playground.

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