LOUD

It's all over now. Tower Records, with a store at 4580 W. Sahara Ave. and another next to the Galleria Mall in Henderson, has shut down for good. We know what this means for consumers—not much, apparently, as more and more music shopping shifts to online services. But the closure isn't a small matter to employees, that distinctive subculture of hardcore record-store workers for whom a job at Tower represented a mix of tight-knit friendships, laid-back attitude and the joys of being around music and culture all day. For them, the closure hits on multiple levels, financial and emotional.

According to Lopez, who had been working at the Sahara store for two years, employees were kept up-to-date on the store's financial happenings after the chain announced its bankruptcy in August of this year. "[Store management] started off with one meeting where they brought in the whole staff and said that Tower was going into bankruptcy to pay off its debts," Lopez said. "But we kept having update meetings where we were told that things were going fine, and we may be picked up by another company like Trans World Entertainment [owners of the mall-based music retail outlets F.Y.E.]. Instead, they told us that Great American won the company. In that same day, everything changed." After the announcement of the liquidation, staff discounts at the Sahara store were eliminated and morale plummeted as the employees had to learn the policies of the new owners while facing the fact that they would become unemployed in a matter of months. "We'd be stuck in the store until 2 a.m., and it wasn't Tower anymore," Lopez said. "They tried to cheer us up; they'd provide us with free lunch and butter us up, I guess. But I had to get out. I wanted to remember Tower for what it was. "It was unlike any job I had ever had," Lopez said. "We were all really tight."

"All my employees are like family," said former store manager Angie Tirone.

"Half of the people at my wedding party were other Tower employees," said Morrison. "We all love each other here."

But as the final days of the store arrived, the staff dwindled from 25 to between 10 and 15 holdouts, many of whom were longtime employees with little or no experience working anywhere but record stores.

"I've been looking for other stuff," Morrison said. "We're all looking."

Thanks to a number of ex-Tower employee websites, including a local MySpace page meant to help former Tower employees keep in touch, Morrison said that no one in her store family will have to be left out on the street.

"No one, none of us are going to be homeless," Morrison said. "We'll all be donating couches to somebody if we have to."

Las Vegas' newest music venue will be in experienced hands when the Pearl opens its doors this spring. Los Angeles-based promoter Andrew Hewitt, who has booked virtually every show in the 12-year history of the Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel, has signed on with partner Live Nation to be the exclusive booking agents of the Palms' inviting 2,400-capacity theater.

"I believe that the Pearl is the most unique and extraordinary building of its kind in the world," said Hewitt, who brought The Ramones, The Fugees, Neil Young, Massive Attack and hundreds of others to the Joint and was perhaps best known for enticing arena acts such as The Rolling Stones, Depeche Mode and Coldplay to play the intimate room. "The Joint was fabulous for a time, but this is the next level. I think I have a pretty proven track record in my years at the Hard Rock, and I think people can expect even more than what I was able to do in the past."

Hewitt's move will coincide with Peter Morton's sale of the Hard Rock Hotel to Morgans Hotel Group, slated for completion in early February. "I'm very proud of what Peter Morton and I did together," Hewitt said. "Peter was a real visionary to have allowed someone like myself to come in and book Ministry and Bad Religion very early on, to bring Steely Dan—a big act that should have been playing an arena—into the Joint. We turned everything around."

A spokesperson for the Hard Rock said Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG), one of the world's largest concert promotion and production agencies whose clients include Las Vegas resident performers Celine Dion and Prince, will begin booking the Joint after the completion of the sale. Hewitt said Palms owner George Maloof will announce the Pearl's opening set of acts in the coming weeks.

"Whoa! It's packed in here!" at least a half dozen Freakin' Frog regulars marveled upon entering the UNLV-area institution Thursday evening. It wasn't simply the beer selection drawing crowds; the evening also marked a sonic upgrade to the bar/burgeoning music venue. That's right, people—new sound equipment.

"It was a really fun show," noted Chemical Ex bassist Marites Velasquez. "We got a lot of support from our friends, and I was really pleased with the turnout."

The self-proclaimed "more than just a girl band"—celebrating a return to live performances after a year-long break spent writing and recording—took to the stage around 10 p.m. The tight five-piece (Velasquez, vocalist/guitarist Maryam Haddad, violinist Adrina Hanson, drummer Wills Blackmore and guitarist/keyboardist Chris Erle) delivered a mellow and moody set. It's rare for a band counting a violinist among its ranks to walk a fine line between rawk and refinement, but Hanson's strings offered a perfect balance to Haddad's provocative lilt.

Or as Velasquez put it, "Our songs are all kind of different, so no matter what kind of music you like, you're bound to like at last one of our songs."

Annum Ford followed with a set favoring cuts from their new full length, Of Analog. Obvious comparisons to Radiohead aside, vocalist/guitarist Nicolas Vincent, guitarist Nicholas Whalen, bassist Jonathan Losey and drummer Michael Reilly emphasized sparse, alienated lyrics over spacey, layered guitar work.

Though rumors previously abounded that the Freakin' Frog had acquired the neighboring Moose's Beach House, Director of Marketing Tommy Marth says it was an option owner Adam Carmer had merely looked into. In reality, the existing space was simply outfitted with full P.A. equipment to provide a more professional sound system. "It's not so much that the music has changed, because we've always been doing rock bands," says Marth, who has booked national touring acts through March, as well as a New Year's Eve show featuring Big Friendly Corporation and special surprise guests. "We're still doing jazz three nights a week, it's still eclectic, and we're still catering to whatever's fun. We didn't really change anything in the format, but we expanded. We're going to be the best-sounding small venue in town."