Las Vegas Weekly

July 8, 2008 · 4:35 PM

Tuba in the club

By Sarah Feldberg

A tuba in the club? Members of the UNLV marching band join DJ Clinton Sparks on stage at Body English.

Photo: Sarah Feldberg

If you weren’t at Body English this past Saturday night you missed a truly unique nightclub accessory: a tuba. At most clubs in this city there are oddities that catch your eye on any given night. The guy who brings his monster python to the party in the hopes that a huge snake will help him get laid. (Note: This might actually work.) The pack of girls who dress in matching schoolgirl outfits in the hopes that plaid and thigh highs will help them score free drinks (Note: This definitely works). The dudes in full kilts for reasons we can’t quite ascertain – they’re Scottish? They were at a wedding? Creative frat hazing? They hate the restrictive nature of pants?

But a tuba?

Sure enough, around 12:30 a.m. last Sunday morning the music stopped, the lights turned to the stairs and in walked a guy with a tuba. The tuba player and a few other select members of the UNLV marching band were playing at Smashtime Saturdays at Body English as part of an elaborate entrance and performance by resident DJ Clinton Sparks. Sparks, a hip-hop producer and music correspondent for E!’s Daily 10 with a taste for the extravagant, led the band while dressed in a baby-blue bandleader outfit (click here for Sparks' profile on the Las Vegas Weekly DJ guide page). Sparks danced and marched in front of the group as they played Enur’s “Calabria 2007,” before relinquishing his costume and taking his customary spot behind the turntables. While the crowd on the dance floor cheered, Sparks and the UNLV musicians played a few more minutes before the band hit the stairs and headed out. The tuba left with them, but for a short while at least, the oddest accessory was the most popular piece of jewelry at the nightclub.

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