As Las Vegas continues to grow, both as a city where people live and as a tourist destination, the music scene here evolves in a strange way. 2003 saw some huge developments here as a destination for top-level music acts: The opening of Celine Dion's show at Caesars Palace and the subsequent booking of Elton John as its regular fill-in; the continued immigration of awards shows; and big-ticket acts like Simon and Garfunkel, The Rolling Stones, and Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera hitting town.
At the same time, 2003 was another rocky year for local and independent acts, with several venues (Café Espresso Roma, The Huntridge, The Rock) shutting their doors or facing uncertain futures. There seems to be an increasing divide between the expensive, big-ticket shows designed for well-heeled out-of-towners and accessible, reasonably-priced shows catering to locals.
Many shows that come through town with ticket prices in the triple-digits are significantly cheaper elsewhere, but as long as there are tourists and wealthy locals willing to pay, the prices will most likely stay high. The one beacon of hope on the Strip is The House of Blues, which this year showed a willingness to book many more underground and local acts for reasonable ticket prices. With the Huntridge Theatre temporarily gone, the Crossroads Room may well be the best place in town for touring indie rockers.
The power of Las Vegas as a vacation destination doesn't only hurt locals looking to see concerts, though. In the case of February's two-night stand by jam band Phish at the Thomas & Mack Center, the influx of Phish fans meant jam bands at every venue in town, and if you couldn't get in to the sold-out Phish or Moe shows, you could still head to the Huntridge, Double Down or Rock to catch a number of smaller-name noodlers. August's Las Vegas Metal Fest and September's rockabilly festival, the Las Vegas Rockaround, both drew fans from all over, and enriched the music experience for locals rather than distancing them from it. The Rockaround is a veritable institution; the Metal Fest, in its first year at the now-closed Huntridge, faces a murkier future.
We had to put together our own festivals (UNLV's Rebelpalooza and X-treme Radio's Our Big Concert, both in spring, are two examples) since big summer tours Lollapalooza, OzzFest and the Warped Tour all skipped town this year. None have yet announced plans to return, so don't hold your breath.
Vegas still does better with glitzy TV events like the Billboard Music Awards, the Radio Music Awards, VH1 Divas Duets and the Academy of Country Music Awards, all of which taped in town this year. Then there are the Tiger Woods and Andre Agassi benefit concerts, raising tons of money and attracting celebrities. With Dion and Elton at Caesars (not to mention Gloria Estefan's run in October and the rumor that Madonna wants a stab at it), Vegas has glamorous event concerts down cold. So many celebs flock here, we've even been saddled with Michael Jackson, hiding out in town both before and after his arrest on child molestation charges just a few weeks ago.
The old Vegas elements remain, of course, with Coast and Station casinos trotting out familiar names like Neil Sedaka and Engelbert Humperdinck again and again. Vegas mainstay Bobby Hatfield of the Righteous Brothers, who were regulars at the Orleans, passed away in November. He and partner Bill Medley had been bringing their hits, including "Unchained Melody" and "You've Lost that Lovin' Feeling" to town for years.
On the local front, it was a year of ups and downs, as always. The venue situation remained volatile; at the beginning of the year, the all-ages Castle in Henderson had just closed and the all-ages Huntridge Downtown had just reopened. The summer started a round of venue musical chairs: The Boston reopened in its new location in June; Live opened in August; The Rock closed in September after a fatal shooting outside the club; and Café Espresso Roma closed in November. The Huntridge closed in November, too, supposedly to reopen after a face-lift a few months down the road, though whether it will feature local and independent rock bands is uncertain. Got all that?
Things were a little brighter for Vegas acts finding success out of town. Although Clockwise was dropped from RCA, singer-songwriter Franky Perez found a home at Lava-Atlantic and had his video for "Something Crazy" in light rotation on VH1. He has opened shows for everyone from Lynyrd Skynyrd to Jason Mraz, and is looking toward a second record in the big leagues. Garage-meets-glam rockers The Killers had a hit in the U.K. with "Mr. Brightside" and were snatched up by Island. They're busy recording their major-label debut. Emo kids The Higher got themselves a deal with Fiddler Records, distributed by powerhouse Universal Music Group, and released an EP in October. A full-length debut is on the way. Metalcore act Curl Up And Die continued to tour the country, releasing a pair of EPs to tide fans over until their next album. Slaughter played more '80s nostalgia tours, and Mark Huff finally moved out of town to Nashville.
We've still got 6,000 people a month moving to town, and it's a safe bet that at least some of them like music, so 2004 will probably bring more growing pains, with bigger event concerts and a bigger variety of smaller shows to cater to all sorts of tastes. Maybe one local venue will manage to stay open the entire year. As long as we can get Michael Jackson to leave, the future should be bright.