For a short time, I loved staying at the New York, New York in Las Vegas. It was fairly inexpensive, was in a good location, and had my favorite bar on the strip, The Big Apple Bar.
It seems like every bar or lounge I enjoy goes away. I liked the small little lounge in the middle of Mandalay Bay, I liked the lounge in Monte Carlo, and I loved the Big Apple Bar. All of them are long gone now.
The Big Apple Bar was my favorite because in between being a nice club with nice comfy seats, it had some great live bands. Some nights I was treated to rock cover bands pumping out Journey and Def Leopard songs. There is nothing like a bunch of drunk old Gen X’ers screaming out for more Journey, or trying to remember lines to Livin on a Prayer. It was much like I imagined my generations retirement home being.
Other nights I would be treated to some great acts like Michael Grimm, who would really bring a little something special to the bar.
But these lounges are being replaced by techno thumping DJ’s who consider themselves musicians, or maybe even better. The places are filled up with moused up douchebags who think Entourage is a documentary about success and that pants are best worn under your ass. I would complain about the half naked women in the club who have actually become accustomed to be called “girl” or “woman”, but my only problem with them is that they like the moused up douchebags.
Gone are the days of sitting back and listening to live guitar. The New York, New York took down the Big Apple Bar to expand out their High Limit room, which has about as much use in the New York, New York as a fine wine shop in Hooters.
The New York, New York did put in a new club called Rok. They advertise that they have “live like” music. I guess that’s just as good.
Clearly the hotels have figured out that the expense of actual musicians is unnecessary since the guest in their 20’s like crap music produced by untalented hacks with a remix of old song riffs.
A couple weeks ago I stayed in the Palazzo. I called down to see if they happened to have a live band. They said they did. They had a live band playing hits from the 80’s and 90’s. Sounded promising, so we headed down. Not to judge, and certainly not to put down any musicians, but hearing a long montage of jazz fusion break into a strange rendition of Word Up, was not what I was looking for.
So we ended up heading to Freemont, since I know of a club live clubs in the area. We ended up at Hennessey’s listening to Finnegans Wake. That was pretty good. But I’m not happy to have to leave the comfort of my cushy strip hotels just to hear music. I know downtown Las Vegas is where the clubs are starting to pop up. As a matter of fact, the last conversation I had with Hilly Kristol, the founder of CBGB’s, before his death, was about his desire to relocate the club there.
How I don’t expect to find a CBGB’s, nor am I sure I need one, I would sure like a nice bar to sit and listen to some good old fashion rock music. Hip Hop culture is killing Las Vegas.
Off the subject, we just launched the plant resource center, so check out a couple plants:
