"It's gonna blow people's minds," Maloof enthuses. "We wanted to create something that had never been created in Las Vegas-the most special place for music in the city."
For now, the Pearl remains hidden behind a thick pink wall along the south side of the casino, with nearby video-poker players blissfully unaware of the jack-hammering just a few feet away. "Once this wall comes down, it's a whole different world," Maloof says.
Since opening nearly five years ago, the Palms has hosted a number of headliners, from Santana to No Doubt to Kanye West, in the 1,800-capacity Rain Nightclub. Maloof acknowledges, however, that Rain-primarily a dance club with a circular riser in the center of its floor space-is not the ideal location for such events.
"A lot of acts wouldn't play Rain because it was a club and not everyone was comfortable with that," Maloof says. "We wanted to create a concert venue, not take a rectangular space and try to make it a concert venue."
Designed by San Francisco's Pfeiffer Partners, with support from Los Angeles' Jerde Partnership, the Pearl will feature three seating levels, including 18 skyboxes, all angled toward the stage and each with its own bar and restrooms. Depending on the show, the floor will be set up both general admission and seated, with even the first row of first-level seating capable of seeing over a standing-floor audience. Curtains will also allow the room to be scaled down to a capacity of 1,100 for smaller performances.
The venue's sound system will be anchored by 60 JBL VerTec speakers, and the stage will be flanked by twin 14-by-16-foot video screens. Additional plasma screens are planned for a large concourse area that will feature several bars, along with elevator service to upper floors.
The Pearl will also be wired directly into the Studio at The Palms, allowing live performances to be recorded in a space already utilized by The Killers, Celine Dion and Lil Jon. Such existing artist relationships should help attract top acts to the new Palms theater, but Maloof says the Pearl itself should be incentive enough for headliners to select his hotel from among Las Vegas' many casino venue options.
"We have great relationships with a lot of different people, but at the end of the day they'll want to play this venue," Maloof predicts. "It's really about the venue, and there's nowhere in Las Vegas-or anywhere else-like this place."