Las Vegas Nightlife

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Back to Las VegasLas Vegas Nightlife Guide

You will not lack for things to do at night in Vegas. This is a town that truly comes alive only after dark. Don't believe us? Just look at the difference between the Strip during the day, when it's kind of dingy and nothing special, and at night, when the lights hit and the place glows in all its glory. Night is when it's happening in this 24-hour town. In fact, most bars and clubs don't even get going until close to midnight. That's because it's only around then that all the restaurant workers and people connected with the shows get off the clock and can go out and play themselves. It's extraordinary. Just sit down in a bar at 11pm; it's empty. You might well conclude it's dead. Return in 2 hours, and you'll find it completely full and jumping.

But you also won't lack for things to do before 11pm. There are shows all over town, ranging from traditional magic shows to cutting-edge acts such as Mystère. The showgirls remain, topless and otherwise. Las Vegas revues are what happened to vaudeville, by the way: Chorus girls do their thing in between jugglers, comics, magicians, singers, and specialty acts of dubious category. Even the topless shows are tame; all that changes is that the already scantily clad showgirls are even more so.

Every hotel has at least one lounge, usually offering live music. But the days of fabulous Vegas lounge entertainment, when the lounge acts were sometimes of better quality than the headliners (and headliners like Sinatra would join the lounge acts on stage between their own sets), are gone. Most of what remains is homogeneous and bland, and serves best as a brief respite or background noise. On the other hand, finding the most awful lounge act in town can be a rewarding pursuit of its own.

Vegas still does attract some dazzling headliner entertainment in its showrooms and arenas. Madonna's 2006 shows commanded the top prices on her tour; Bruce Springsteen played his first Vegas show ever in 2000; Bette Midler did an HBO special from the MGM Grand in early 1997 (and her Millennium show at Mandalay Bay); U2 started their PopMart tour at UNLV's stadium; the Rolling Stones played both the MGM Grand and the Hard Rock Hotel's The Joint; Pavarotti inaugurated Mandalay Bay's Arena, and Bob Dylan did the same for the House of Blues; Cher opened up The Venetian with a rare live performance, and Sting got a reported $1 million to open Red Rock Resort with a 60-minute set. The Red Hot Chili Peppers gave a free concert to celebrate the city's centennial. It is still a badge of honor for comedians to play Vegas, and there is almost always someone of marquee value playing one showroom or the other.

Admission to shows runs the gamut, from about $20 for Mac King (comedy magic show at Harrah's) to $200 and more for top headliners or Céline Dion. Prices occasionally include two drinks or, in rare instances, dinner.

To find out who'll be performing during your stay and for up-to-date listings of shows (prices change, shows close), you can call the various hotels, using their toll-free numbers. Or call the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (tel. 877/VISIT-LV or 702/892-0711; www.visitlasvegas.com) and ask them to send you a free copy of Showguide or What's On in Las Vegas (one or both of which will probably be in your hotel room). You can also check out what's playing at www.visitlasvegas.com. It's best to plan well ahead if you have your heart set on seeing one of the most popular shows or catching a major headliner.

The hotel entertainment options described in this chapter include information on ticket prices, what's included in that price (drinks, dinner, taxes, and/or gratuities), showroom policies (whether it's preassigned or maitre d' seating, and smoking policies), and how to make reservations. Whenever possible, reserve in advance, especially on weekends and holidays. If the showroom has maitre d' seating (as opposed to preassigned seats), you may want to tip him to upgrade your seat. A tip of $15 to $20 per couple will usually do the trick at a major show, less at a small showroom. An alternative to tipping the maitre d' is to wait until the captain shows you to your seat. Perhaps it will be adequate, in which case you've saved some money. If not, you can offer the captain a tip for a better seat. If you do plan to tip, have the money ready; maitres d' and captains tend to get annoyed if you fumble around for it. They have other people to seat. You can also tip with casino chips (from the hotel casino where the show is taking place only) in lieu of cash. Whatever you tip, the proper etiquette is to do it rather subtly -- a kind of palm-to-palm action. There's really no reason for this, since everyone knows what's going on, but being blatant is in poor taste. Arrive early at maitre d' shows to get the best choice of seats.

If you buy tickets for an assigned-seat show in person, you can look over a seating chart. Avoid sitting right up by the stage, if possible, especially for big-production shows. Dance numbers are better viewed from the middle of the theater. With headliners, you might like to sit up close.

Note: All of these caveats and instructions aside, most casino-hotel showrooms offer good visibility from just about every seat in the house.

If you prefer alternative or real rock music, your choices used to be limited, but that's all changing. More rock bands are coming to town, attracted to the House of Blues and the Hard Rock Hotel's The Joint, so that means you can actually see folks like Marilyn Manson and Beck in Vegas. But otherwise, the alternative club scene in town is no great shakes. Check out the listings below for bars and coffeehouses, several of which offer live alternative or blues music. If you want to know what's playing during your stay, consult the local free alternative papers: the Las Vegas Weekly, formerly Scope magazine (biweekly, with great club and bar descriptions in their listings), and City Life (weekly, with no descriptions but comprehensive listings of what's playing where all over town). Both can be picked up at restaurants, bars, record and music stores, and hip retail stores. Or you can call Las Vegas Weekly directly; act nice, and they just might give you a tip on the spot. If you're looking for good alt-culture tips, try asking the cool staff at the Buffalo Exchange vintage clothing store (tel. 702/791-3960); they have their fingers right on the pulse of the underground.

Be aware that there is a curfew law in Vegas: Anyone under 18 is forbidden from being on the Strip without a parent after 9pm on weekends and holidays. In the rest of the county, minors cannot be out without parents after 10pm on school nights, and midnight on weekends.

Lounge Lizard Supreme

All those faux-hipster artists doing woeful lounge-act characters in Hollywood and New York only wish they could be Mr. Cook E. Jarr, whose sincerity and obvious drive to entertain puts mere performance artists to shame. With George Hamilton's tan, Cher's first shag haircut (it's certainly not his factory-original coif), and a bottomless, borderless catalog of rock, pop, soul, swing, and standard favorites, he's more Vegas than Wayne Newton.

Cook has a cult following of blue-collar casino denizens and the youthful cocktail set, who listen enraptured as he plays human jukebox, complete with karaoke-style backing recordings, terrible jokes, an array of disco-era lights, and (his favorite) a smoke machine. He's actually a solid, throaty singer, with a gift for vocal mimicry as he moves from Ben E. King to Bee Gees to Tony Bennett turf. And his tribute the night Sinatra died -- a version of "My Way" in which he voiced, alternately, Sammy, Dino, and Elvis welcoming Ol' Blue Eyes to Heaven -- was priceless.

He moves around a lot, but you can often catch him on Friday and Saturday nights, late, at Harrah's Carnaval Court Lounge, at 3475 Las Vegas Blvd. S. (tel. 702/369-5222). Don't miss him! (And if he has left there by the time you read this, try to track him down.)

Vegas on the Upswing

Vegas: Everything old is new again, and again. Whereas once it was the thing to do -- to have a regular Vegas act, back in the Frankie and the Rat Pack days, and then again in the Elvis days -- so it went that such acts became cornball and cheese. Then you couldn't get a performer with any critical or commercial legitimacy to touch the place with a 10-foot roll of quarters. And now? Miss Céline Dion has made it safe again, and here comes Elton John, filling Dion's spot on some of her off nights with his The Red Piano show. It's a gorgeously mounted production, featuring Elton and his lacquered piano, plus artistic video installations and other touches that have earned the show critical raves. Too bad he does it only a few weeks a year. Oh, and that the prices make even Dion's look cheap. Call tel. 888/4ELTONJ (435-8665) for tickets, which run $110 to $275 plus Ticketmaster surcharge (no charge for box office walk-ups). Less technical pizzazz, but no less showmanship (not to mention more frequent dates and lower ticket prices) comes from Barry Manilow: Music & Passion, who, bless him, knows just who he is and how to use it. In the Las Vegas Hilton, 3000 Paradise Rd., tel. 800/222-5361. Tickets are $85 to $145, and shows are Wednesday to Friday at 9pm and Saturday at 7:30 and 10pm.

We really wish these guys, in making Vegas safe again for legit performers, also made it safe again for those on budgets. Oh, well, there's always Wayne Newton! Meanwhile, look for more performers to follow suit.