In most every sense, Finger Eleven's opening set mirrored Saturday night's full proceedings: musically solid but lacking that magical, defining quality and sense of wide-eyed wonderment expected of a concert christening the newest jewel in Southern Nevada's casino-housed venue array. Had Maloof not commemorated the evening with a few words before headliner Evanescence took the stage, attendees could have confused this for any old show at the Pearl, rather than the first of many to come.
Special settings demand special beginnings, and the Pearl certainly appears to fit that designation. All night, sound rang clear and true, every niche of the theater filled with booming bass lows, crisp vocal highs and everything in between, making it easy to distinguish each of Evanescence's three guitars beneath singer Amy Lee's goth-opera roaring.
The Pearl's layout is shrewd, designed so that every spot—from a curved general-admission floor to spacious luxury boxes—angles smartly toward the stage, and even the farthest seat in the third level hangs close enough to feel a part of the action. Traffic flowed smoothly, and a thoughtful re-entry policy permitted folks to track down cheaper alcohol elsewhere (it ranged from $7 to $10 inside), or grab a cigarette outside the walls of the nonsmoking venue.
Still, like its first round of music, the Pearl's overall look lacked a certain degree of sparkle. The concourse, though wide and spacious, was entirely without decoration or artwork, its plainish walls, cement staircases and nondescript bathrooms a bit more industrial than the rest of the Palms.
But obviously, there's still plenty of time to spruce up the place. The Pearl is, after all, only days old, as a bit of debris and a few dusty footprints on a carpeted staircase showed. Reclaiming the curtain-raising first night of music won't be as easy, however, even if an April 21 Gwen Stefani date is being billed as the official "grand opening." When an injury forced Tool to cancel what would have been the Pearl's first show on March 15, the honor was left in the hands of Evanescence, a band that, while popular in 2007, could easily be forgotten by 2010. Why not throw money at the reunited Police? Rage Against the Machine? Jay-Z? Dare we even say, Radiohead? Unrealistic, sure, but given the grandeur we've come to expect from Maloof and the Palms over the years, we wouldn't have minded a few splashy fireworks to get it all going on Saturday. Or at least a little fire-breathing from the mouth of Scott Anderson.