"Yeah, I think it's going good, so far ..." Seven-fifty p.m. Saturday night, 10 minutes before Beauty Bar officially opens for the Rawkers one-year anniversary blow-out, and Johnny Rox takes a smoke out front to survey the traffic, ignore his cell phone and reminisces about how he got here in the first place.
With his heart set on spinning his signature eclectic mixes in the Strip's clubs, Johnny left California's Imperial Valley for Vegas in 2001. But the megaclubs weren't into his "house is house" DJ aesthetic, and he couldn't catch a break. Organizing his own party seemed like the only way. An evening at Sasha's and DJ Aurajin's short-lived Room 26, which overstuffed the Artisan for just a few Saturday nights, introduced Johnny to Las Vegas' indie scene and gave him hope for his particular interest in obscure DJs and fledgling bands.
So Johnny and Jared Nicholas launched a Saturday night at Pounders dubbed Rawkers. Johnny admits he and Pounders were unprepared for the success of the party and added, "but Beauty Bar was cool and wanted us, they've got more room; the stage—it's a better place." One year later, Strip-weary hipsters routinely spend their Saturday evenings at Rawkers. As thanks to loyal patrons and low chaos, Rawkers' anniversary party was an all-out orgy of a half-dozen DJs and nine bands.
DJ WIP, a regular on the decks at Rawkers, spun that oh-so-Beauty Bar mix of '80s new wave, neo-new wave and club classics, with just a taste of pop-rock hip-hop for the kids in vintage polyester with asymmetrical hairdos. Love Like Fire sweated out a quick set, bass-guitarist Jesse Hayes goading the ever-growing crowd closer with his petition to sidle up to the stage, "just five feet closer, c'mon, it'd make us extra happy." In return the band turned up the heat on a set that melded every imaginable '80's rock genre but came out sounding new and not unlike the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
The party moved inside to refresh drinks and catch a bit of A/C before the band Morningwood went on. High on their new album, Jetsetters (Capitol Records), and having trekked to the Netherlands on tour, Morningwood stirred the Beauty Bar crowd in a chaotic set with fellow tourees The Lashes. A blur of rock anthems, wet T-shirts, roman candles, a birthday tribute and a declaration of ever-lasting "favorite-est-ness," in which Morningwood's brazen front-babe married her band to the Lashes with an already eaten Ring Pop—they almost stole the show from Beauty Bar veterans Buddy Akai.
Buddy Akai performed their usual high-energy rock electronica to a packed house, never mentioning that some of their gear had been snaked earlier in the evening. Just after 3 a.m. the Drug Scene hopped up for a brief set, and 50 On Their Heels closed the show, only one song into their set when the clock struck 4. Skaught, designated doorman, said that even the light late-late-night crowd was a success. "I've seen smaller crowds during a regular Rawkers. I think it went really well ..."
Ozzie, one of the event's mainstays, chimed in with that familiar Rawkers reticence: "... So far."