Tag: fremont street
View All TagsMusic / Events / Entertainment / Las Vegas Country Saloon / Downtown / Downtown Vegas / Fremont Street / Fremont East / → All Tags
LVCS: A Downtown Music Venue Steps Up Its Game
Music fans, we wonder how this will play out. A battle for the hearts, minds and wallets of concert-goers might be in the air. Ever heard of LVCS on Fremont Street? The Las Vegas Country Saloon is a music venue and bar opposite Heart Attack Grill and on the second floor in the same complex as Hennessey’s Tavern. We’ve been taking note of their booking schedule for a while and they’ve really stepped up their game. Big time.
Despite the country in their name, they schedule all kinds of acts. Hip-hop, hardcore punk, rockabilly. Some months back, we noticed a listing that 80s goth heroes, The Mission UK, were playing the venue. We thought it a misprint. In the U.K., the Mish can book 5,000 seat venues. LVCS? Bit smaller. We later discovered another 80s goth hero Peter Murphy was playing there on July 24. And, guitar destroyers Helmet set up on May 5. These are acts that can play House of Blues or Hard Rock, but are coming downtown. Check out their listings. For the committed music fan, there will be acts you’ll have heard of.
Openings / Music / Entertainment / VegasChatter Reviews / Bars / Drinking / Fremont / Fremont Street / Fremont East / Downtown / Downtown Vegas / Fremont Country Club / → All Tags
A Rough Opening For Fremont Country Club, But A Promising Future
As a recent transplant to the wonderful city of Las Vegas, this writer immediately noticed the lack of live original music in this town. Sure, you can see the biggest acts in the world here. Muse, Celine, and the Biebs pack the arenas that the larger casinos offer. For the hundreds of midsize acts that crisscross the country in battered vans, though, there is virtually no place in Las Vegas to play. Yes, we have Hard Rock on the Strip, which is a first-class venue. And, Hard Rock Hotel has opened a great little venue in Vinyl, but has underutilized it by mostly booking local cover bands. And, back on the Strip, The Cosmopolitan has stepped up its game by booking several wonderful acts (The Postal Service, The XX, Of Monsters and Men) this spring.
All of that is supposed to change, however, with the opening of downtown's Fremont Country Club. Carlos "Big Daddy" Adley and his wife/muse, Ava, have spent quite some time designing and building a 1,000 capacity music venue/radio station/recording studio that is connected to a pool hall (Backstage Bar and Billiards) and located across the street from El Cortez in the amazing Fremont East part of town. This writer couldn’t have been more excited to attend the grand opening. On March 6, we got our chance and Louis Prima Jr. was scheduled as the opening night entertainment.
March Madness / Fremont Street / Fremont Street Experience / → All Tags
Fremont Already Mad For College Hoops
The first weekend of March Madness is only a couple weeks away and will sneak up on a lot of folks with it falling after St. Patrick's Day this year. Those that have their Irish party plans finalized are now turning their attention to basketball. Those that haven't can pause and check out that last link which still has St. Patrick events being added regularly.
Fremont Street is hoping Vegas will experience the madness downtown and has already kicked Downtown Hoopstown into high gear. College banners have been hung, the Downtown Hoopstown t-shirts unveiled, and an area setup with 20-, 25- and 30-foot high hoops that may require physical abilities at a buck a shot. Not sure if anything other than bragging rights is up for grabs, but we've wasted singles on worse.
Construction / Openings / Slotzilla / Downtown / Downtown Vegas / Fremont Street / Fremont Street Experience / Ziplines / Flightlinez / → All Tags
Slotzilla Cometh, But In June?
Construction fencing is up and so are bits of Fremont Street as Slotzilla lumbers forward. The 11-story zipline posing as a ginormous slot machine is expected to open this June on Fremont Street. While only time will tell on when we'll actually see it, thanks to our friend Ted Newkirk at Access Vegas, we've a bunch of new construction photos to share.
Vegas History / El Cortez / Fremont Street / Downtown / Downtown Vegas / → All Tags
It's The Historic El Cortez Now
Ten things you should know about the El Cortez? Make that eleven.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that the El Cortez has secured a place on the National Register of Historic Places:
Constructed in 1941, the El Cortez remains one of the oldest establishments on Fremont Street and the only one to continue operation under its original name.
Downtown / Downtown Vegas / Fremont Street / The D Hotel / Vegas Signs / → All Tags
This Update Brought To You By The Letter "D"
The D really wants to erase any memory of Fitzgeralds from your memory banks.
Winner of VegasChatter's best Reopening of 2012 award, Fremont Street's Detroit-homesick casino has already added plenty of new signage and LED wrap-around displays as part of their revamp. They even went to the extent of covering their hotel tower with a 22,223-square-foot display that's hard to miss as you head downtown.
Pizza / Restaurants / Eating / Dining / Downtown / Downtown Vegas / Fremont Street / Fremont East / Pop Up Pizza / Pizza Rock / Slice / Radio City Pizza / → All Tags
How Many Is Too Many Pizza Joints In Downtown Vegas?
We love pie. We heart downtown. But, can Downtown Vegas handle not just one pizza joint, but four five?
Pop Up Pizza at the Plaza was one of our unexpected finds of 2012. So good, we've been time and time (and time) again. But, 2013 will pile on three more pizza shops to the downtown mix.
Further down Fremont Street, you'll find long-time pizza joint Piccadilly Circus, a hole-in-the-wall-type parlor as described (and knocked) on Yelp.
VegasChatter 2012 Awards / Reopenings / The D Hotel / Golden Gate / Downtown / Downtown Vegas / Fremont Street / Hotel Renovations / → All Tags
Best Reopening of 2012
Should this award go to Fitzgeralds or to the D? Or, both? The best reopening in Las Vegas for 2012 goes to the D. Even though the D never closed it was transformed, top to bottom (touting a new grill, D Grill, just today). Downtown Vegas has changed a lot over the past few years, but the end of Fitzgeralds and reopening of the property as the D was a landmark change.
The transformation of the Fitz into the D was bold, but it still kept the tradition of old Vegas. Out are the giant neon Fitzgeralds signs and in are new LED boards. Older slot machines and video poker machines have been moved out of initial sight to the second level and back side of the casino. Go-go dancers and loud music are abundant when you walk into the casino which now includes one of the longest bars in America with an endless supply of HDTVs (well, 1,000 square feet worth).
VegasChatter 2012 Awards / Denny's On Fremont / Downtown / Downtown Vegas / Openings / Restaurants / Eating / Dining / Drinking / Fremont Street / Neonopolis / Pop Up Pizza / Plaza / → All Tags
Most Unexpected Find of 2012
Downtown's Neonopolis is enjoying a resurgence on the coattails of its Fremont neighbors. After years of morphing into a teenage Vegas wasteland, the neighborhood has produced stores, restaurants, exhibits, and bars that are anything but a drag. However, when Denny's, complete with its own wedding chapel, was announced as the newest anchor tenant, popular opinion was that of one giant step backward toward downtown's roots of cheap eats, dirty dining, and cheese that only a mid-westerner could love.
Bets were made as to which VegasChatter writer would be drunk, desperate or both enough to land there first for an up close and personal. In other words, expectations were low, low, low, low. But, then a funny thing happened after a foodless night at Commonwealth. One starving writer entered, one impressed patron left.
Denny's on Fremont was a super clean, super friendly restaurant with a full bar, photo booth, gift shop and the same super cheap prices we're all familiar with. Yes, it was just a Denny's like every other Denny's yet nothing at all like any other Denny's. We became believers. Even the not-yet-built-but-rumored-to-still-be-on-the-way wedding chapel started to sound like a winning idea. Okay, we didn't go quite that far. But, Denny's on Fremont has inserted itself into our eating, drinking, and people watching rotation. Denny's on Fremont, a.k.a. the one with a bar, isn't gourmet, but is a solid downtown option open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Just like every other Denny's. Just expect it to be anything but.
Freaky Friday / Vegas On Film / Burt Wonderstone / Vegas Movies / Steve Carell / Fremont Street / Downtown / Downtown Vegas / → All Tags
The Incredible Burt Wonderstone Sure Loves Fremont Street
Has it really been almost a year since big-time film stars actually walked among us? No, not the cast of that Liberace movie or Hangover 3. But, "The Incredible Burt Wonderstone." Yes, in those far off innocent days of January 2012, Jim Carrey, Steve Carell, Steve Buscemi, Olivia Wilde and James Gandolfini were all over The Strip and downtown filming a madcap magicians comedy.
See that photo above? We saw them filming that very scene while stuck in traffic, sitting on the Deuce, heading to Fremont Street. And, now it all makes sense.
VegasChatter Reviews / Gordie Brown / Downtown / Downtown Vegas / Fremont Street / Golden Nugget / Shows / Entertainment / → All Tags
Downtown And Want To See A Show? See Gordie Brown
Gordie Brown was "Downtown" long before Tony Hsieh discovered the place.
We've never seen this comedian-singer-impressionist before and had formed an erroneous opinion he was performing one of those George Burns, Kermit and Louis Armstrong, "and now me" shows. We were wrong. And, when offered a media invite check it out, we didn't know we'd be so surprised. Somewhere along the way it appears as if Gordie decided to put on a fun show that made him happy. He became self aware. And, it's a bizarre mix of strange jokes and odd directions. A thoroughly entertaining mix.
A talented singer, with a tight backing band and, yes, a true talent for mimicry, a main feature of the act is spinning impressions into parody songs. The best description we heard was if "Weird Al" Yankovic did impersonations. They often turn surreal in content. The lyrics of Coldplay's "Clocks" are turned into a song about having a cold. Because they are 'playing' with a 'cold.' But, how many others do an impersonation of Chris Martin? He currently fits into a generational midpoint between Terry Fator and Rich Little. We saw all three this year and Gordie was our favorite. At the very least, he has to be the only performer out there who bridges his crowd's age and cultural interests by singing as R.E.M., Green Day, Alanis Morissette, Ray Charles, Randy Travis, Eminem and Tony Bennett. That last one's a real keeper. He has Paul Simon doing a stand-up comedy act. Willie Nelson? The pot jokes and tax jokes write themselves.
Downtown Vegas / Downtown / Rachel's Kitchen / Eating / Restaurants / Fremont Street / Flightlinez / Slotzilla / Lady Luck / Downtown Grand / → All Tags
Downtown Roundup: Downtown Grand Sneak, More Problems For Plaza, And More
Our downtown files are full to bursting again, thanks in large part to VegasChatter fan sammasseur.
First up -- Lady Luck continues with its transformation into Downtown Grand. New photos taken by sammasseur over the weekend (see above and in the photo gallery below) show first floor walls ripped down to steel frames. A reopening date in 2013 is still a vague one. The most recent references we've seen still refer to openings of either fall 2013 or by year's end.
