greenie

Completely agree with lefty's comments. What bugs me the most about Vegas clubs on NYE is not so much the cost (a close second) but rather the crowds. For such a high premium you would hope that the clubs would resist the urge to pack you shoulder-to-shoulder, chest-to-back, but it's sardine city. If you spring for a table it helps, but forget trying to mingle about. Also note that the highest costs and crowds are for the primetime clubs (10p-4a). To get your clubbing fix on NYE my recommendation is to spend the money on a table at an afterhours spot instead. The music will be better, the people will be better, and you'll actually have move to dance. For less money. Set yourself up with some swank dinner reservations, enjoy the midnight countdown outside on the Strip, and head to the club around 3. All this said, if you're looking to do a primetime club be prepared to drop at least $150-200 and spend an hour or more in line. That's assuming you get in line around 9:30; the later you arrive, the longer your wait.

One of the absolute biggest names in house music will be playing Drai's next weekend, hence the big cover. Not sure if the artist has been publicly announced so I'm not sure if I'm supposed to say anything.

And whenever any of the clubs book guys like Grandmaster Flash, Jazzy Jay, Robb Siwft and... oh say it ain't so... Z-TRIP... make sure to stay home, because they too all use Serato Scratch Live.

Tryst will have a good ratio and plenty of beautiful women. BE gets quiet on Sundays after 3:30am largely because the place is entirely off the chain before 11pm. Few "primetime" clubs in town are going strong at 4am no matter what the night -- people either hit the wall or they hit afterhours. As stated previously I can't recommend any spot in the Palms. None of the better clubs in town will cause you problems for nice jeans. The only time you'll have a problem with jeans is if they're torn to shreds. As long as you have a decent shirt and nice shoes, you'll be fine pretty much anywhere. ESPECIALLY if you have a table. The only clubs where I've run into hassles for dress code in the past 6 months are Pure (shoes) and Light (shirt); in both cases they were at least polite about this at the door and let me right in with no wait once I returned with what they wanted (I drove so fortunately had backup shoes/shirt in the garage). Dress code in Vegas in very relaxed, especially compared to NYC/CHI/MIA.

Go to Body English. Best ratio in town. If you do bottles at Tao I'm sure you'll be quite happy too. Give your table security a tiny tip and you'll be up to your ears. Pure and any spot at the Palms have the worst ratios, IMO.

After making the first 3 nights of 3400, I'm going through withdrawal...

Fridays at the Icehouse feature a big multi-room house event, with the primary focus being DnB. That's the only dedicated DnB event that I'm aware of at this time. Might be other DnB going on that week but too far out for anyone to have announced their DJ lineup...

When you say "good" that really doesn't mean much. Please be more specific. Especially with regards to someone saying that Tao isn't "good" on a Friday. I just sent a group of 5 gals there last Friday, all regular clubbers, and they all agreed they had an unbelievable time. On any Friday/Saturday pretty much every popular will be slamming with business and packing people in. So Tao, Jet, Tryst, Body English, OPM, and Moon will be insane. Most likely 54, Rain, Ghostbar, Tangerine, VooDoo and even Rumjungle will be packed as well. Can't speak about Asia, don't know anyone that's gone yet. If you want to find yourself at one of the top spots in town but want less hassle with the crowds then suck it up and reach down into your wallet for a table.

For Friday it depends on what how you want to spend your 11p-3a hours. Kicking back, a table on the Pure terrace is great. Dancing like mad, go to Jet. The terrace on Pure is absolutely fabulous for kicking back, enjoying the Vegas lights above you and some solid mid-tempo house beats, but it's limited if you really want to shake your thing. If you're planning on making it a big evening and getting your dance on at Drai's or Empire later, a good pre-party spot for a house lover. The sound system is a bit limited and there's not a dedicated dance floor (just an area in front of the DJ). The house room at Jet is cozy but it's always a great time, especially if you get one of the corner tables by the DJ (worth the extra tip, trust me). Always a great crowd in there without being so packed that you can't do your thing on the dance floor. For Thursday your best bet early (pre-2am) is VooDoo. If you want to stick at the Plams, Moon does feature house in their small side room many nights... but not always, so I'd recommend asking before you book a table or pay cover. The room itself is a bit of a disappointment given the time/expense that was put into the rest of the club (especially the sound), but hey, you'll at least be able to do get your house fix without leaving your hotel. And taking the occasional stroll down into the Playboy Club isn't the worst place to sip your drink, either. Around 1-2am you can head over to Empire for Local Love, designed to "showcase" local house DJs. Crowd is up and down, sometimes it feels a bit dead, but you gotta give Empire props for an unbelievable sound system. Not sure when the next Soundbar is rolling around, that's usually on Thursdays at Tabu. If it's happening next week, that would be a great option for Thursday night.

Here's an all-house lineup for you... Wed: Body English then Seamless Thur: VooDoo then Local Love at Empire Fri: The Downtown Lounge then Icehouse then Drai's or Empire Sat: House room at Jet then Drai's or Empire Sun: Revolution Lounge then Drai's Mon: 3400 @ Jet there are some other options out there of course but that would be my recommendation as a mix of favorite spots along with a bit of variety

Thursday: Tryst and/or Tao Friday/Saturday: pretty much anywhere Sunday: If you like house music, leave Rehab early and go to Sunset Sessions at Tao Beach, then follow it up with Revolution Lounge. Otherwise recharge after Rehab and hit up Body English for hip-hop and rock. Monday: Jet

I've been to Drai's probably 8-10 times in the past 6+ weeks. When you say "back in the day," how long back are you referring to? What were some of the aspects of "the day" that you loved? IMO Drai's is outstanding these days, I'd say the past few months has shown it improve and become much better overall than it was for much of the last 2+ years. As for Empire, I all but refuse to go to that place these days. Takes a headliner that I *really* love for me to go. Place is filthy, door staff is rude and arrogant, management is greedy and I've known a few too many industry people that have been screwed over by Empire on a professional level. Shame, because I used to love it there. There are some other afterhours that have opened up lately, such as Triq and Eden, but I haven't been by either and haven't heard from anyone who has.

Drai's hasn't switched to hip-hop. They've added hip-hop in a separate room, but house is still the main focus every night that Drai's is open...

Only a few short months ago you could find quite a few people strongly proclaiming that house music was dead in Vegas, forever doomed to the fringe. Really? A quick scope of the spots where you can get your house groove on at least one night a week: Jet Revolution Pure Body English Tao Tao Beach Drai's Empire Seamless Foundation Room Icehouse Barcode The Downtown Lounge Red Room Moon Tangerine No, there may not be a giant main room catering to house during the prime 11p-4a hours but there are great options for house lovers every single night of the week... not to mention during the day too, with spots like Tao Beach playing an equal amount of house to hip-hop, sometimes more. Hell, last Tuesday I happened to walk downstairs at Pure and what did I hear? House in the main room... and the entire crowd LOVING it... shouting and raising arms in approval... granted it only lasted for 20 minutes (that I witnessed, anyway) before going back to top-40 hip-hop but hell, who woulda thunk... Yes, surely house music is dead here...

WOW second installment of 3400 was even better last night! Best of all, they're getting the sound system in that room tweaked much better for house music (as compared to rock/hip-hop/whatever)... was good in there the first week, but last night the sound quality was really outstanding. Kaycee took part in the whole evening with his always-amazing live drumming, and the opening set from Eddie McDonald was sick, probably the best I've ever heard from him. I was pretty spent from gigs of my own in 4 of the previous 5 days so I had to duck out around 4am, but the room was still slamming when I left. Really great crowd in there, a lot of different people from the previous week but an awesome vibe all the same, great balance of locals and visitors, gorgeous women everywhere. Big ups to the wait and bar staff for embracing the Ibizia theme and dressing in bikinis as well.

KILLER evening last week... one of the best house nights I've experienced in Vegas in quite a while... 3400 was packed and absolutely hopping all night... Eddie, Chris and Faarsheed all put on truly solid sets, each of them with their own flavor yet all feeding the vibe of the night perfectly... and Jes sounded absolutely incredible in there, she sang two different sets, bunch of her new tracks as well as the crowd favorites... ...and hell yeah beautiful women were filling the room that night... even by Vegas standards it was a VERY good-looking crowd... locals were out in force to be sure... Great thing is that word is already spreading among the house lovers all over the southwest. Both before and after 3400 I was running into people in SoCal and Denver that knew about it, everyone is making damn sure they're around for a Monday night on their next Vegas trip...

I'll be there! Definitely looking forward to 3400 getting off the ground with a great first night... even if it's a "soft" opening, gonna be one hell of a time!

GRAND CHIPMUNK THEODORE

Big two-page spread in the June issue (print) of 944 has Oakey listed at Rehab... but yeah I did get that email this week putting the Hobbit at BE on Friday. Which is interesting... has BE ever had a house (if you can call him that these days) DJ on a Friday or Saturday?

Oakenfold is scheduled for Rehab as part of 944's anniversary celebrations.

You know what they say about things that sound too good to be true. Here's the deal. Despite what the fine print on the passes/offers actually say, when it comes to the top clubs in town (like Jet) there's no guarantee that you'll be able to use them no matter how early you line up. The bottom line is that the top clubs can -- and often do -- decide that they're not going to honor those passes on any given night, without advance notice. It may be because they consider that night a "special event." Of course, every night can be a "special event" if the club decides. Or it could be that the club will only honor the first 100 passes that come through the door. If you do decide to use these passes, you'll need to get to clubs a lot earlier than 10:45. At the top clubs in town, at that time the line will be so long that you may not even get in until 1am, let alone receive no benefits from your pass. About the only passes I've ever heard of that are guaranteed gold (provided you're through the line before the cut-off time) are those issued by the hotels and clubs themselves. And even then, there's always fine print. Buyer beware.

good to know -- thanks

No disrespect intended by saying this... but wow, I didn't realize that Theo was still playing! Great booking, hope you have a solid turnout.

Agree with Epope that it's the best pure house room on the Strip for "primetime" club hours (10p-4a). Revolution Lounge at Mirage has been pulling in some very big-name house DJs this summer for Sunday nights. I haven't been there yet so can't immediately recommend it... what I can say is that on Sunday it'll be worth it to tip a host at Body English to get you access to The Parlor. Great music, great crowd, amazing vibe. On Monday I recommend going to Jet again, although if you already hit up Jet and want a different venue then Foundation will be a solid choice. Better yet... do both! Go to Foundation early, then pop up to Jet around 1-2a. Personally I think that for the house music fan your best bet is to adjust your sleep patterns dramatically. Catch your ZZZs from 6p-2a, hit the afterhours spots starting around 3a, grab breakfast at 9a and relax by the pool. Repeat. For afterhours, I've always been a HUGE fan of Drai's. As a house music lover you definitely need to get there at least once. If you do end up doing a few nights of afterhours and want different venues, Empire is a great option as well, especially if they get a headliner in (which they haven't done for a while). Shame you're not around on a Friday night, because you'd probably love Reson8 up at Icehouse. Finally, a lot of people tend to overlook Mix, at THEhotel in Mandalay. It's a killer lounge with a rooftop view that's second only to that of Foundation Room, they always play house music, it's a great relaxed vibe, no cover before 10pm (they open at 7 or 8, I think)... basically a kickass pre-party spot, in my opinion. Here's a Sat-Sun-Mon breakdown for ya of spots/rooms that are house-only * indicates afterhours, i.e. 3am and beyond Saturday: Jet house room (Mirage) <-- RECOMMENDED Mix Lounge (THEhotel at Mandalay) Pure roof deck (Caesar's) Tangerine patio (TI) The Downtown Lounge (in Old Downtown, at Las Vegas Blvd & Fremont) * Drai's <-- RECOMMENDED * Empire Sunday: Body English Parlor <-- RECOMMENDED Revolution Lounge (Mirage) Mix Lounge (THEhotel at Mandalay) * Drai's <-- RECOMMENDED * Seamless Monday: Jet house room (Mirage) <-- RECOMMENDED Foundation Room house room (Mandalay) Mix Lounge (THEhotel at Mandalay) * Seamless

They held P&H last year... I didn't make it over but wish I did... I spent the night at Pure kicking myself as I kept getting texts from my friends at P&H telling me it was off the chain... and based on their photos they weren't lying. HDNet aired a half-hour show covering P&H and it was held at the Orleans with a pretty sizeable attendance. Given that kind of success, I'd be surprised if it doesn't return this year! The VegasStatus crew was there so perhaps they'll chime in with a few stories of their own... like the stripper-pole-equipped limo they booked for the night...