"It’s a good time to be in the concert business,” says Kurt Melien, president of Live Nation Las Vegas, and if you look at the new and existing venues where his company is booking entertainment, it’s easy to see why. There’s the Foundry at SLS, the Downtown Las Vegas Events Center, the stalwart House of Blues, and of course the arena spaces at MGM Grand, Mandalay Bay and the new T-Mobile Arena on the Strip. “We’re the largest provider of arena content in the city, and we’ll do a dozen shows in T-Mobile this year, and another dozen at MGM Grand Garden and Mandalay Bay.”
But more huge concerts at those Vegas venues is only one aspect of this live-performance boom. Melien, who got his start in entertainment hospitality at Six Flags before signing on with Caesars Entertainment and moving to Las Vegas, is particularly excited about what’s going on at the Axis theater at Planet Hollywood, where resident megastars Britney Spears, Jennifer Lopez and Pitbull are creating massive buzz with spectacular productions that bridge the gap between Vegas-style nightlife and theater-based concerts.
“In the entertainment business it’s really about how you present a product to the artist,” Melien says. “That’s where we saw an opportunity here, where there are lots of traditional theaters but nothing like this, youth-oriented, free-designed, with the ability to project 180 degrees and build your own thrust.”
For these shows, Axis has a GA pit where concertgoers can stand and dance, nightclub-style VIP tables with bottle service, and plenty of traditional theater seating. “You have three choices depending on who you are or how you feel on that given night,” Melien says. The result: a nonstop party that feels like club and concert rolled into one.
“Vegas is the only city in the world doing stuff like this,” he says. “You don’t see young artists who have hits in this millennium sitting down doing long-term deals. And if you open up Billboard and look at the Hot 100 [chart], we’re in conversations with nearly all of them.” Which means the Vegas concert business has a lot more good times ahead.
