For many, there was a small slice of recent music history in Las Vegas that was golden, and at the heart of it was the now-defunct Bunkhouse Saloon. From the mid-2000s to 2019, the Downtown venue was a cornerstone and sanctuary, a place we flocked to nearly every week to enjoy our favorite bands and discover new sounds.
When Bunkhouse closed its doors shortly before the pandemic, it left a void in the ever-changing landscape of Las Vegas nightlife. And when a fire broke out at the shuttered venue in June 2021, it felt like losing an old friend. Sometimes it seems we’re still chasing the high we once felt enjoying live music within those walls.
From that void emerges Swan Dive, a new music venue perched on the upper floor of the two-story Colorado building in the Arts District. Harvey Graham, owner of Fremont East club Oddfellows and other Swan Dive locations in Austin and Portland, saw in his new event space an opportunity to try replicating that Bunkhouse magic.
“[Swan Dive] actually came out of desperation, when we thought we were going to lose Oddfellows,” Graham says. The alt-club eventually survived its COVID-era closure and prospered, leaving Graham to consider what to make of the nearly 10,000 square feet of space he’d claimed in a then-unfinished Arts District building.
“It became apparent that there would be a need for a venue for medium-sized touring bands and to fill the void left by Bunkhouse,” Graham tells the Weekly.
The sprawling Swan Dive space includes a wrap-around outdoor balcony with a great Downtown view, indoor and outdoor bar access, an elevated stage, and plenty of standing room, all enlivened by wall projection displays.
Graham says Mike Henry, the former talent buyer at Bunkhouse, helped plan and develop the venue’s soapbox. “He helped a lot developing the stage and telling me what all needs to go into making a proper live music venue, which is a completely different beast from a nightclub,” Graham says.
To book the space, Swan Dive partners Graham and Tim Kam teamed up with local promotional music company We The Beat, known for its curated concerts that focus on showcasing up-and-coming talent. As the in-house talent buyers, We The Beat works with local music promoter groups such as Pulsar Presents and Black Sheep Booking to secure a variety of acts.
“It takes a while to build programming, and it’s six months out,” says Graham. “But we’re developing a good calendar and have some good stuff coming up.”
For the past few months the venue has been working in a soft opening phase. It has hosted shows featuring surf punk band Agent Orange, techno-house DJ Biscits, Brazilian tropicalia band Os Mutantes, synthwave duo Glass Spells and more.
Swan Dive’s official grand opening is scheduled for August 9, a 21-and-over event featuring a west coast tour stop by German synthpop artist Roosevelt.
Graham’s vision for Swan Dive is to create a national brand, and considering his two other operational locations, it looks like he’s on the right track.
Here, his goal is to make this venue a space for both tourists and locals to come experience the best of live music in one of the hottest neighborhoods in town.
”It really looks like the live local scene is growing,” says Graham. “Vegas is going to become a place for artists to come to … there’s so much to offer now.”
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