Nightlife

Richie Hawtin signs up for rare Vegas club gig at Marquee

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Techno pioneer Richie Hawtin.
Photo: Raminta Malinauskaite

Having played all three local Electric Daisy Carnival festivals, techno pioneer Richie Hawtin is familiar with McCarran Airport. However, he remains less acquainted with the Strip, having only once projected his minimalistic interpretation of house music, deep grooves and pummeling beats through a Vegas club’s PA system (a 2012 EDC afterparty at Drai’s).

On Saturday night, October 26, Hawtin will take another careful step into the local nightlife waters with a non-EDC-affiliated booking: an afterhours set at Marquee, which marks the first time the nearly 3-year-old Tao Group-owned megaclub has scheduled an afterhours headliner.

The booking is symbolic in that Hawtin finally will helm a Vegas nightclub associated with the modern EDM movement, which owes a debt to the artistic groundwork established over the years by the veteran producer/DJ, also known for his heralded side project, Plastikman (also an EDC participant, in 2011).

In an interview with the Weekly ahead of his EDC 2012 appearances, Hawtin had said his time headlining the clubs of the Strip hadn’t come yet, given the dominance of commercial electronic dance music and the more bombastic preferences of Vegas club audiences. But he seemed hopeful to play here once the atmosphere allowed for more underground sensibilities. Hopefully next month’s late-night experiment resonates with enough clubbers and nightlife brass to encourage similar bookings in the future.

Tickets ($20) are already on sale at marqueelasvegas.com. Local progressive house DJ Brett Rubin accompanies Hawtin for the event, which is separate from Marquee’s standard Saturday party (with Benny Benassi) earlier in the night.

Tags: Nightlife
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