By John Katsilometes
Yesterday, I walked in from the bright 116-degree sunlight and into Tommy Rocker’s Gentlemen’s Club. I was met by a wall of darkness, some fairly muted dance music and, after a few moments, Rocker himself.
My eyes had not quite adjusted, but it was definitely the man whose given name is Thomas Greenough, wearing a red Hawaiian-style shirt and something of a smirk. I knew he was in the club because his red VW bus was parked in front of the club on Dean Martin Drive, just south of the Rio and in the same complex as Citadel Gun & Safe.
(The latter reference is in reference to the place where yesterday I picked up a 9-millimeter firearm, which is another story for another time.)
Rocker has followed through on something he mused about a little more than a year ago, which is to turn Tommy Rocker’s Cantina into a topless club. For years, Tommy Rocker’s has been the home of Rocker, his Fender six-string and an open mike where addled Parrot Heads joined him onstage to sing such party favorites as “Cheeseburger in Paradise.” For a while, Rocker envisioned building a high-rise, mixed-use project on the site, and the adult club was Plan B.
Welcome to Plan B.
Business at the new Rockers, which opened last month, is predictably slow. The key is to balance the male and female clientele (in terms of numbers, not with an actual scale), because you don’t want too much of one or the other. Rocker still plans on being the business’s walking slogan, as it were, since he owns the place. He’s even entertaining ideas of entertaining at the new club.
“I’d like to get up there and play (guitar) with the girls, do some numbers like that,” he said. “I see myself doing a kind of Robert Palmer, ‘Addicted to Love’ kind of thing.” The man is a genius.
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We’ll go ahead and plug Tiffany Cleaners, for decades an anchor of the Commercial Center (now known as the District at Commercial Center), as the finest dry-cleaning business in the city. Well, it’s the finest dry-cleaning business I have used. And I have used three. But it is also the finest dry-cleaning business in the city that needs a new computer system. Every time I go in there, the computers are acting up. But I keep going, because they do great work.
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Vegas moment: A couple of evidently homeless (or, habitat compromised) gentlemen plucking a very old microwave oven from the condemned cottages on Casino Center Boulevard and Colorado Street and running off. To where? Who knows. Freedom! Or maybe to cook something certain to keep them, shall we say, compromised.
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Our favorite French horn-playing former radio personality, Beth Lano, is now with the Firm PR agency of Las Vegas. Beth is a good friend (of mine) and is part of the “Monty Python’s Spamalot” orchestra.
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A couple of weeks ago I made note of the great classic rock music played at Trader Joe’s. I mentioned the Stones, Badfinger, the Beatles and Sam & Dave as artists I heard (and even did a cart-dance to) during a recent trip to the haven of organic products. I also said that KKLZ 96.3-FM should borrow Trader Joe’s play list. Well, the next day KKLZ morning DJ Charly Kayle e-mailed to say that her station does indeed play all of those artists. But KKLZ does not have the Trader Joe’s brand of antiperspirant whose main ingredient is cotton fibers, which means that if you sweat enough you get a pair of wristbands. And if you sweat even more, you get a pair of tube socks.
Anyway. Where was I? …
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Remember a few months ago when Flamingo comic George Wallace pulled a coup by booking Sly Stone to perform a one-out show, which was Stone’s first public performance in about 20 years? Remember? Well, that did happen. And Stone and the latest version of The Family are playing Arena Green in San Jose on Saturday night. We’ll have to check back and see how that gig went. I’m particularly interested in Sly’s health; he took the stage at the Flamingo wearing a neck brace that was concealing a growth he had (at least, up to that point) refused to have diagnosed. He’s 65, and not a young 65, either.
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Those of you who are big Tony Danza fans – and I think that counts just about all of us, right folks? --- might be interested to know that the cast of “The Producers” is not exactly performing cartwheels at his arrival in September. Not that Danza is anything but a consummate professional (hence, the paycheck) but the man he is replacing, Brad Oscar, is considered by many in the production as the best Max Bialystock alive (Zero Mostel being non-living, and that assessment includes Nathan Lane). Oscar is also said to be a joy to work with, and will be missed personally by the company. But if the show lasts through the end of Danza’s contract, it is possible Oscar could return to the role. That would be in December, likely.
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Release me: Golden Rainbow has sent word that its 21st annual “Ribbon of Life” performances last month at the Jubilee Theatre raised $285,000, which will be spent on housing and financial assistance for those suffering from HIV/AIDS. Golden Rainbow also promotes prevention of, and education about, HIV/AIDS.
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Plate in my head: MTLLICA on a silver Toyota Tacoma, possibly driven by Butt-Head.
Fabulous Las Vegas appears daily (well, almost) at this Web site. John Katsilometes can be reached at 990-7720, 812-9812 or at [email protected]