Be my guide: Las Vegas dance clubs don’t stray from pop

I’ve covered many types of music in my two-week, reader-driven road trip across the country. There was soul in New York, rock in Washington, D.C., blues in Chicago, folk-country in Nashville, jazz in New Orleans, weird dance rock in Austin, Texas, and weird circus music in Albuquerque.

One genre I have avoided like a pounding jackhammer to the chest is techno. I managed to dodge the hyper dance scene in El Paso, Texas, but in the Las Vegas Strip area, there’s nowhere to run. I would have to face my fear and fist-pump my way through the crowds.

Having received no reader tips for spots to go in Las Vegas, I took a shot in the dark. A single cover fee gains you entry to four large clubs at the Palms Casino Resort, just off the Strip. So I decided that’s where I would spend my night. Let the smoky, sweaty dancing ensue.

My first stop was the Playboy Club. After an elevator ride to the 52nd floor, I entered the dark bar. Inside, there were casino tables run by some of the most unrealistically beautiful women imaginable. The Playboy tables are all pretty high stakes —certainly too high for a green journalist just out of college.

As I glared outside of the glass window behind the bar with its beautiful view of the city, radio hits blared from the speakers at excessively high volumes. Lady Gaga and Beyonce dominated the sound waves.

Connected to the Playboy Club by escalator is Moon, a similar establishment that trades in the card tables for a large dance floor. The same basic play list of dance hits was recycled at Moon as patrons, mostly young people dressed to look their best, danced provocatively. The view from Moon’s balcony was even more incredible (picture at top).

Still, I found myself returning to the Playboy Club a few more times. I know it’s obvious, but these Playboy girls are unreal! Seriously, they can’t be real, can they? I’m assuming mostly not, but they’re really nice to look at.

On the casino level of the Palms is Rain. The dance floor is even larger than Moon’s, and everything about it just reeked MTV “Spring Break.” The place looked and felt like many clubs in Acapulco or Cancun, Mexico.

The DJ played the same hits that blare from the speakers of just about every other club, except with a techno flair. This essentially means spinning the record so that the same line from a song plays in succession for a few times, rinse and repeat.

Guys on the dance floor were spinning in circles for no apparent reason. Was this a new dance I had not been informed about? When the DJ instructed the patrons to “put your hands up,” most obliged. The DJ continued to request that we raise our hands numerous times throughout the night.

Rain made pretentious attempts at being chic. Girls danced to pumping techno music on platforms above the dance floor, wearing neon pink, glow-in-the-dark bathrobes. I am waiting in eager anticipation for the trend to catch on in the mainstream and am preparing to shop for my own neon robe soon.

I skipped the fourth club, Ghostbar, because it looked pretty empty.

I didn’t hear anything really new at these clubs. DJs seemed to strive for tracks that were recognizable so that bar-goers could sing along and dance without having to think too much. That’s disappointing since the Killers and Panic at the Disco, two showy and wildly original acts, both hailed from Vegas.

Conversations with a couple of locals indicated that the real Vegas music isn’t among the tourists on the Strip. I’m in the city for one more night, so I hope I can find some of it.

To provide travel tips for my road trip, inspired by music, send e-mails to mark.milian@latimes.com, leave comments on the Los Angeles Times Daily Travel & Deal Blog or, for those on Twitter, send tweets to @mmilian. To follow my road trip status live, visit http://twitter.com/mmilian. For the trip schedule and cities, check out earlier posts.

—Mark Milian, Los Angeles Times staff writer

[Photos from the top: View of Las Vegas from the balcony at Moon, and the Rain dance floor. Credit: Mark Milian / Los Angeles Times]

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This entry was posted on Sunday, July 5, 2009 at 5:17 pm by Mark Milian and is filed under Arts & Culture, Be My Guide, Celebrity, Hotels, Las Vegas, New Mexico, New Orleans & Louisiana, New York, News, Tips & Advice, Southern States, Summer, Washington D.C.. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.