Sunday, November 11, 12:30 a.m.
Once upon a midnight chilly, while I wandered sauced and silly through the Forum Shops at Caesars Palace ... shit. I can’t rhyme. Seriously. How much whiskey did Edgar Allan Poe have to guzzle to make “that is” rhyme with “lattice”? This I pondered weak and weary while reading his gloomy verse, off a giant black banner outside Poetry nightclub, formerly OPM.
There’s a calm not often found at a solely hip-hop club. No athletic gear, no baggy jeans with floor-skimming crotches, no ’do rags and no security walkie-talkie chatter. Music rains down from Poetry’s twin cloaked balconies, the admission line winding out and away, the mall teeming with suited fellows and ladies in party dress. Poetry already gets a heap of points in my book for reigning in the once-chaotic door situation. In her new boutique reincarnation (a change in decoration and attitude, mainly), it seems Poetry has struck a balance between truly upscale and truly hip-hop.
And I haven’t even been inside yet!
Boutique—it’s just a tasteful way of saying smaller. But it requires that the club still maintain the level of quality in service, décor, entertainment and amenities as its mega-clubby peers. In fact, in a small environment, the importance of these things becomes pronounced; a boutique nightclub cannot rely on labyrinthine rooms and sprawling dance-floor vistas to inspire awe.
At the top of the stairs, after a petite purse check and pat-down, a massive mirror greets guests under a custom chandelier hanging from the cracked-mirror ceiling. To the left, the long bar sports two frighteningly modern new fans. Beyond, the Orchid Room has now become the Chandelier Room, with a new, raised VIP stage, black sheers and smarter seating arrangements. Vibrant rose murals almost leap off the black walls while two sultry, ceiling-high black-and-white paintings of women cast glances at each other from across the club.
Each lady keeps an eye on one of Poetry’s two dance floors, where a solid mass of bodies dip down in time. “Like this, like this ...” Their arms wave like kelp. Where black curtains surround more rose murals, a new mirror will soon hang, giving the illusion of a larger space. Not much has been changed structurally: the bars, VIP booths and DJ setup all remain. An elevated stage now adjoins the dance floor in anticipation of live performances.
One of the most notable things about Poetry is the way in which owners Mike Goodwin and Branden Powers chose to incorporate lyricism into their club’s redesign; motion and stillness can be found throughout. Plasma screens and strobing gobo lights all create movement among the blooms frozen on the walls and the wisps of verse captured on the walls like Tupac Shakur’s “The Rose That Grew from Concrete.” The words of the Marquis de Sade are projected on screens around the venue. An unusual choice for a mascot, the man was a prolific philosopher-writer but also a licentious author of sexually violent novels, his name lending a root to the words “sadism” and “sadistic.” More are on the way, says Powers.
All S&M aside, Poetry still offers 100 percent hip-hop and R&B music as spun by Dre Dae and Andy Gill. “We dabble occasionally here and there with visiting DJs who wish to add a mash-up element,” says Powers, “but I’m not really into becoming another carbon copy of the monotonous, boring ‘Jessie’s Girl’ remix played at everyone else’s club. If I want wedding music, I’ll go to a wedding.
“We are reaching out to a wider demographic, and people are embracing it.” Hmmm. Maybe that explains the presence of rogues Poe and the Marquis: Goodwin and Powers are renegade nightclub owners with close to 40 years of industry experience between them. Hanging on tight to their hip-hop format while urban music in Vegas nightclubs comes under increasingly close scrutiny, neither has any intention of backing down and going mainstream; they spread the gospel of diversity. “We love our position as the Davids versus the ... Goliaths. We are planning our next moves, waiting for these giant houses of cards to fall around us. We have several new clubs planned for 2008 and beyond.” Hey, that’s not far off! I can wait.
Xania Woodman thinks globally and parties locally. And frequently. E-mail her at [email protected] and visit www.thecircuitlv.com to sign up for Xania’s free weekly newsletter.