Saturday, July 7, 11:22 p.m.
When Tabu opened, I recall asking myself and everyone within earshot, “What the hell is an ultralounge?!?” If it hasn’t been clarified since then, let me now state that an ultralounge is exactly what the name implies—a lounge or bar that is so very much more, it actually runs the risk of—oops!—being mistaken for a small nightclub. So when the South Point Casino’s new Fever nightclub’s pre-opening campaign suddenly started speaking of a “showclub,” I made a familiar sound, one not dissimilar to a sigh, and said to my laptop: “What the hell is a showclub?!?”
I’m going straight to the source. It’s a bit of a hike for one so accustomed to the center Strip and all of its clubby charms. Especially when those charms are situated so close together. But I can handle a night off-Strip or, rather, just south of it. Entering from the garage, I believe briefly that I’m about to wander through the casino for 40 days and nights but am pleasantly surprised to find my destination located just across a bank of slots.
Once inside, I get my answer even before locating the director of nightclub operations, Rani John, who claims to have introduced the term showclub—a blend of showroom and nightclub—to Vegas. In one large square space, a dance floor, terraced booth seating and a stage dominate. Everything in the room points toward the latter, with the dance floor hinting at just how close one can creep up to the feet of a favorite performer.
Breakdancers have already claimed much of the slick, wood-paneled dance floor, while the rest of the crowd still files in to fill up the half-moon VIP booths or belly up to one of the two bars. Four plasma screens and one huge stage screen zoom in on the faces and other attractive bits of the go-go dancers heating up the elevated corners at the front of the room. DJ Inferno (is it wrong that I think that’s funny? Inferno spinning at Fever?) makes it from “You Shook Me All Night Long” to “Maneater” to some house and then back to hip-hop just before the Full Force B-boy brigade takes center stage with Fever barback Chris jumping in to show off an otherworldly sense of balance.
Now that I’ve seen Fever’s nightclub aspects, it is Young MC and Tone-Loc who get to christen the stage with a live performance. “We’re about to get wild in here!” says Young MC. The dancing crowd takes the cue and transforms seamlessly into an attentive forward-facing concert audience. He dedicates the song “Feel the Love” to Lamont, whom he met in the hotel elevator today and who was getting married at 3 p.m. today. The song features the line “swing low sweet chariot, you can meet me at the Marriott.”
“This guy is so much less washed up than I thought he’d be,” says the guy next to me. A sort of compliment from a sort of fan. Tone-Loc takes over, croaking out “Ain’t no party like a Fever party,” before “Funky Cold Medina.”
At the bar, a massive woman uses her massive posterior to scoot me out of her way. “We’re not on the Strip,” a posh friend says. “Ahhhh, yes we are!” I correct him, shelling out my $12 for a Goose and soda. Still, small details (male bartenders!) hint at the locals-friendly qualities of the place. That’s a phrase that will come up often tonight—“for the locals.” The south Strip locale makes Fever readily accessible for anyone who frequents the I-15 or 215 freeways. Like Green Valley Ranch to Henderson or Red Rock to us Summerliners, South Point is for the people.
“So, what do you think?” Rani John asks when we locate each other at the bar. After a number of years of trending toward multilevel, multiroom megaclub complexes, it’s rather cool to see a single-room venue. It’s refreshing, I tell him, honestly. “It’s hot.”
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Xania Woodman thinks globally and parties locally. And frequently. E-mail her at [email protected] and visit thecircuitlv.com to sign up for Xania’s free weekly newsletter.