Latest / Vegas Revealed / Live Music Rundown in Las Vegas, Mayor Pushes for I-15 Widening in California to Ease Traffic, Spiegelworld Buys Nipton, CA | Ep. 151
Transcript
- 0:01Sean McAllister: Welcome to episode 151 of Vegas Revealed.
- 0:05Sean McAllister: Should California step up to make Las Vegas easier to get to and from?
- 0:11Sean McAllister: Hear what our mayor's saying about it.
- 0:13Dayna Roselli: She's all fired up.
- 0:15Dayna Roselli: And where have all the small and medium-sized shows gone?
- 0:19Dayna Roselli: Well, this question we asked on social media sparks a lot of conversation.
- 0:24Dayna Roselli: The response and our take.
- 0:27Sean McAllister: And a centuries-old town outside of Las Vegas becomes a circus town.
- 0:32Sean McAllister: We're not kidding.
- 0:33Sean McAllister: More on the unusual purchase.
- 0:36Dayna Roselli: All that and more coming up on Vegas Revealed.
- 0:40Sean McAllister: But first, this just in the Vegas Near Me app is now available in both the Apple App Store and on Google Play.
- 0:48Dayna Roselli: Yeah, think of Vegas Near Me as a concierge in your pocket.
- 0:52Dayna Roselli: You'll find more than 16,000 Las Vegas businesses and activities.
- 0:56Dayna Roselli: There's tons of detailed information, and it's accurate and up to date.
- 1:00Dayna Roselli: You can even book an Uber right from within the app.
- 1:03Sean McAllister: Use our Vegas Revealed link that we have provided down in our show notes and download it on your phone today.
- 1:10Dayna Roselli: Instead of reviews, Vegas Near Me has compiled thousands of Las Vegas-related YouTube channels and podcasts like Vegas Revealed so that you can hear about and see real life experiences at the places that you're searching.
- 1:23Dayna Roselli: You watch and listen all inside the app.
- 1:27Sean McAllister: It's taken six years and a team of more than 40 people around the world to develop Vegas Near Me.
- 1:33Sean McAllister: Download and don't forget to use our link.
- 1:37Dayna Roselli: And again, it's available now in the Google Play Store, in addition to the Apple Store.
- 1:43Dayna Roselli: Exciting news.
- 1:44Dayna Roselli: If it's fun to do or see, it's on Vegas Near Me.
- 1:47Sean McAllister: Let's spin the wheel.
- 2:01Dayna Roselli: Dana Roselli and Sean McAllister here on our second podcast of the year on a rainy Vegas day.
- 2:08Sean McAllister: I was just gonna say, like my fingers and toes are freezing.
- 2:12Sean McAllister: Granted, I'm wearing like sandals and not like I'm wearing like flip-flops and not real shoes and socks.
- 2:19Sean McAllister: And you should in the wintertime.
- 2:20Dayna Roselli: Well, I feel like too in Vegas, like we don't really turn the heat on and crank it up.
- 2:24Sean McAllister: Right.
- 2:25Dayna Roselli: We, you know, it takes a little bit to actually turn it on.
- 2:27Dayna Roselli: And then when you do, you're not like, you know, putting it up to like 80 or anything like that.
- 2:32Sean McAllister: No.
- 2:32Dayna Roselli: Yeah, it's like a soft heat.
- 2:34Sean McAllister: It's like a soft 72.
- 2:37Dayna Roselli: Speaking of raining, hey, by the way, just thought of this.
- 2:40Dayna Roselli: Um, on our Instagram on Vegas Revealed, I posted a little video going underneath the welcome to downtown Las Vegas sign on New Year's Eve.
- 2:50Dayna Roselli: It was sprinkling out.
- 2:50Dayna Roselli: And I said, Oh, it's a rare site, you know?
- 2:52Dayna Roselli: And these a couple people have come back to me saying it's not a rare site.
- 2:57Dayna Roselli: It rains all the time in Vegas.
- 2:58Dayna Roselli: What are you talking about?
- 2:59Dayna Roselli: And I'm like, having this back and forth, like, am I crazy?
- 3:03Dayna Roselli: But they think I'm crazy.
- 3:05Dayna Roselli: Like they literally think like they're fighting me on it.
- 3:08Sean McAllister: Well, listen.
- 3:08Dayna Roselli: But would you say it rains a lot here?
- 3:10Sean McAllister: No, I would never say it rains a lot here.
- 3:12Dayna Roselli: Because it's a desert.
- 3:13Dayna Roselli: We get like what and that's so I Googled it.
- 3:15Sean McAllister: Well, I was gonna say, I uh just know that if you take on Roselli, she's gonna come back at you with facts, with facts and figures and percentages.
- 3:25Dayna Roselli: So I was like, okay, my hometown of Rochester, New York got 38 inches of rain last year, and Las Vegas got four inches total.
- 3:37Sean McAllister: So no, it does not rain a lot.
- 3:39Dayna Roselli: So anyway, I just had to point that out.
- 3:41Sean McAllister: I think in 2022 we were under three inches of rain for the whole year.
- 3:45Dayna Roselli: Exactly.
- 3:46Dayna Roselli: I mean, we've had like a little bit of a rainy couple weeks on and off here.
- 3:49Dayna Roselli: You know, it's winter.
- 3:50Dayna Roselli: Sometimes we get that, sometimes we don't.
- 3:52Dayna Roselli: We're thankful for it.
- 3:53Dayna Roselli: The more rain, the better.
- 3:54Dayna Roselli: We need it, but it's the desert.
- 3:58Sean McAllister: And don't fight Roselli.
- 4:00Dayna Roselli: And then I think I looked up last month and it was like 0.22 inches of rain, just so you know.
- 4:06Sean McAllister: We we might need to start a Vegas revealed rain gauge, check in the official numbers from the airport.
- 4:12Dayna Roselli: Well, I'm not the only one fired up because our mayor, Carolyn Goodman, is fired up on Twitter this week, isn't she?
- 4:19Sean McAllister: She sure is.
- 4:20Sean McAllister: It's literally driving her crazy to see all of these Las Vegas visitors who drive into town from Southern California for the weekend.
- 4:29Sean McAllister: And then when the weekend's over, of course they're all hitting the road to go back home.
- 4:34Sean McAllister: But at the state line, Nevada has done a pretty, you know, healthy investment, has put in a pretty healthy investment to widen the lanes to accommodate all of the traffic that continually comes and goes from California.
- 4:51Sean McAllister: However, as soon as you cross the border, those lanes shrink right back down, and then you get a pretty nasty backup.
- 5:01Dayna Roselli: Every single time, right?
- 5:03Sean McAllister: Every just about every weekend.
- 5:04Dayna Roselli: You can literally bank on it.
- 5:06Dayna Roselli: And the problem is like there are no alternative routes.
- 5:10Dayna Roselli: Like, there's like, I mean, you'd really have to go like off the beaten path and in the middle of no and all that kind of thing.
- 5:15Dayna Roselli: Yeah, there's that kind of route, but not really.
- 5:17Dayna Roselli: That is literally the one way you can go.
- 5:21Dayna Roselli: So it's not like everyone has all these other plans and alternate routes.
- 5:24Dayna Roselli: No, we don't.
- 5:25Dayna Roselli: That's the way we have to go back, right?
- 5:27Sean McAllister: Yeah, and you know what?
- 5:28Sean McAllister: In the winter time, it may not be that much of an issue, but when you're sitting there, let's say after 4th of July weekend and you're backed up, it's I mean, it can be an hour plus uh backup at the border.
- 5:44Sean McAllister: And when you're sitting there in 105, 120 degree heat, your car is running, you can start to run low on gas.
- 5:54Sean McAllister: Maybe you don't know that you should have gallon jugs of water in the car in case you get stranded and things to snack on.
- 6:01Sean McAllister: Like people do get stuck out there.
- 6:03Sean McAllister: Oh, yeah.
- 6:04Sean McAllister: And cars catch on fire out there.
- 6:06Dayna Roselli: It's crazy.
- 6:06Dayna Roselli: I mean, it is bumper to bumper.
- 6:09Dayna Roselli: It the visual for miles for the traffic cameras.
- 6:12Dayna Roselli: It's incredible.
- 6:14Dayna Roselli: So our mayor, Carolyn Goodman, she tweeted once again we had travelers spending hours and hours of their time trying to get home on Interstate 15.
- 6:22Dayna Roselli: California must step up and complete widening of I-15 between State Line and Barstow.
- 6:28Dayna Roselli: The drive times remain intolerable.
- 6:31Sean McAllister: Intolerable.
- 6:32Dayna Roselli: And then just literally before we were about to do our podcast, she got on there again.
- 6:37Dayna Roselli: This is like a few days later.
- 6:39Dayna Roselli: And now she's thanking everyone for coming to CES.
- 6:42Dayna Roselli: And then in the other sentence, she says, Oh, and for those who drove home to California and experienced delays on 15, contact your reps and let them know you want a freeway widened between the state line and Barstow.
- 6:55Dayna Roselli: So she's using a lot of different examples.
- 6:58Dayna Roselli: And, you know, uh Carolyn is coming toward the end of her mayoral term and she'll be termed out.
- 7:04Dayna Roselli: And so you and I were just chatting, going, I bet she has a lot of things that she really wants to see done.
- 7:10Dayna Roselli: She doesn't really have any jurisdiction or anything over that, but she's just kind of letting her voice be heard while she has the power.
- 7:17Sean McAllister: Yeah, well, maybe that's what happens when you come to the end of your tenure.
- 7:23Sean McAllister: You just start saying the things that have been on your mind.
- 7:26Sean McAllister: Although she's not shy.
- 7:27Sean McAllister: No.
- 7:27Sean McAllister: Neither is her husband, former mayor, uh Oscar Goodman, right.
- 7:32Sean McAllister: Neither is shy about voicing their opinions about anything.
- 7:35Dayna Roselli: About anything, exactly.
- 7:37Dayna Roselli: So I think she makes a good point.
- 7:39Dayna Roselli: You and I support that.
- 7:40Dayna Roselli: We should uh widen the highway.
- 7:42Dayna Roselli: A lot of people chiming in on Twitter saying, you know, we need, you know, light rail and we need a train and we need other things too.
- 7:47Sean McAllister: And it's like, yeah, we need all that, but well, they've been talking about a train for 20 plus years.
- 7:52Dayna Roselli: Yeah.
- 7:53Sean McAllister: Literally.
- 7:54Sean McAllister: And you know, there are people who say, well, California doesn't stand to benefit from you know, widening the lanes.
- 8:01Sean McAllister: Other people say that you know, that is a vital roadway, and it's good for business on both sides of the border.
- 8:09Dayna Roselli: Exactly.
- 8:10Sean McAllister: If you widen it up.
- 8:11Sean McAllister: So who knows?
- 8:12Dayna Roselli: Um, and I keep thinking of these things we didn't have in, and I was just thinking, we're talking about getting to California.
- 8:17Dayna Roselli: And you and I did our first segment on CBS2 and KCal in Los Angeles this week.
- 8:25Dayna Roselli: That's right.
- 8:25Dayna Roselli: We had a lot of fun doing it.
- 8:27Dayna Roselli: We're uh going to be doing two appearances monthly on Thursday mornings.
- 8:32Dayna Roselli: That's the plan.
- 8:33Dayna Roselli: Uh, you'll be able to see us and just let people know in California what there is to do in Las Vegas and what's going on, little news bites, uh things happening, specials, all that kind of thing.
- 8:45Sean McAllister: Yeah.
- 8:45Sean McAllister: KCal News is uh like an iconic Southern California uh news outlet.
- 8:52Sean McAllister: They were the first in Los Angeles, I believe, to really launch um into full prime time news broadcasting.
- 9:00Sean McAllister: And, you know, they have a brand new morning show, and that's now um what we're a part of on a bi-weekly basis.
- 9:08Dayna Roselli: Yeah, we're thankful for that.
- 9:09Dayna Roselli: And it's been a lot of fun to kind of get it together.
- 9:12Dayna Roselli: If anything changes, we'll let you know.
- 9:13Dayna Roselli: That's the plan for now.
- 9:15Dayna Roselli: And it seems like that will be a regular thing on Thursdays, unless they switch the day.
- 9:19Dayna Roselli: But for now, it's Thursday mornings.
- 9:21Sean McAllister: And for all of our listeners in Southern California, it's good to see you.
- 9:26Sean McAllister: Yeah.
- 9:29Dayna Roselli: All right.
- 9:29Dayna Roselli: Well, something I tweeted, uh, just like the mayor, uh, one of my tweets when I think your tweet got a lot more attention.
- 9:36Dayna Roselli: It might have.
- 9:38Dayna Roselli: I started a whole thing and um we wanted to talk about it today because boy, I didn't expect it to take off as much as it did.
- 9:45Dayna Roselli: But you and I have mentioned this before, and it just has to do with how, you know, Las Vegas has become more of a town where on the strip, and we're talking about on the strip, on the Las Vegas Strip and our hotels, um, it's it's kind of gone in the way of larger shows.
- 10:01Sean McAllister: Right.
- 10:01Dayna Roselli: Big theater shows, concerts with uh thousands, you know, like a Zappos Theater, Coliseum, uh, Park MGM.
- 10:11Dayna Roselli: But the medium and smaller shows have gone away.
- 10:13Dayna Roselli: And I don't think anyone's denying that that's happening.
- 10:16Dayna Roselli: I think even the heads of casinos have said, yeah, they are.
- 10:19Sean McAllister: Yeah.
- 10:19Sean McAllister: So it doesn't fit our business model anymore.
- 10:21Dayna Roselli: Exactly.
- 10:22Dayna Roselli: So we've talked about that.
- 10:23Dayna Roselli: Well, I had someone, an acquaintance that comes into town every now and then for business, and they sent me a direct message and they said, Hey, in town for CES, like what shows are out there anymore that like I can go and get a ticket and it's like a show with live music.
- 10:39Dayna Roselli: And he was referring to he had been to shows in the past, like the Frankie Marino show at the Strat, the Matt Gosh show, at Caesars.
- 10:48Dayna Roselli: And so I thought, hold on.
- 10:51Dayna Roselli: And I'm sitting there and I'm like, I can't think of any.
- 10:54Dayna Roselli: And then I was like, the Shintas.
- 10:56Dayna Roselli: Well, Frankie Shinta does a show, but down at the South Point, but only once in a while, once every few months.
- 11:02Dayna Roselli: Um, and I was like, yeah, human nature does a show at the South Point, but not like regularly.
- 11:07Dayna Roselli: It's not really uh, like it's not up near the strip activity of where CES is, but they used to be at the Venetian.
- 11:12Dayna Roselli: So I had trouble thinking.
- 11:14Dayna Roselli: And I thought, okay, so I tweeted, had an acquaintance ask me for a live music recommendation on the strip in Vegas tonight.
- 11:20Dayna Roselli: He's in town for CES.
- 11:22Dayna Roselli: Can't think of one.
- 11:23Dayna Roselli: Small and medium shows are gone.
- 11:25Dayna Roselli: Live music doesn't really exist besides larger shows.
- 11:28Dayna Roselli: This is a problem.
- 11:29Dayna Roselli: Fix it Las Vegas.
- 11:31Dayna Roselli: That's what I wrote, and it it got I got a huge response.
- 11:34Dayna Roselli: I mean, um like 176 or something like that, I think I'm oh 187 responses.
- 11:43Sean McAllister: Which is crazy.
- 11:44Dayna Roselli: It's crazy for Twitter.
- 11:45Sean McAllister: Yeah, and a lot of people, you know, chimed in with their two cents on where you can find stuff, but it it kind of some of the responses kind of missed the mark of what you were trying to say.
- 11:58Dayna Roselli: Right.
- 11:58Dayna Roselli: So, okay, I need to condense this.
- 12:00Dayna Roselli: What I what I wrote could have been worded maybe in a better way, because I did say in one sentence that the person was looking for a live music recommendation.
- 12:10Dayna Roselli: Later, I said I can't think of one small and medium shows are gone.
- 12:13Dayna Roselli: So what I was talking about is a show that includes live music.
- 12:17Dayna Roselli: A band, maybe some dancers, some charisma, some cover, some original music, you know, uh intimate, you know, medium, small room where you're like, this is a Vegas show, you know?
- 12:29Sean McAllister: And where you actually have a seat assigned.
- 12:32Dayna Roselli: A seat, you can get a cocktail.
- 12:34Dayna Roselli: No, not a concert venue where you stand and all that.
- 12:36Dayna Roselli: So that's kind of what I was trying to talk about.
- 12:38Dayna Roselli: But anyway, I got such a huge response of people saying, some people saying, yeah, it's a huge problem.
- 12:43Dayna Roselli: Um, it's been dwindling, some people saying since the pandemic, some people say for years.
- 12:48Dayna Roselli: But then I did get a lot of responses.
- 12:50Dayna Roselli: Like, what are you talking about?
- 12:51Dayna Roselli: You know, I gig up and down the strip all the time.
- 12:54Dayna Roselli: And it created this response that I thought, well, let's just keep this going.
- 12:58Dayna Roselli: I'm not even gonna try and correct my tweet at this point because I thought we're getting a great list of free, some with a small fee, uh, music that's happening in lounges up and down the strip.
- 13:10Dayna Roselli: And it was great.
- 13:12Dayna Roselli: A lot of people did miss the mark, and they started giving me all sorts of venues all around Las Vegas, which I know of.
- 13:17Dayna Roselli: And I do know of a lot of lounges too on the strip that do have bands every now and then.
- 13:22Dayna Roselli: But I guess my point is, is how do you find, even if we went to see a band, how do you know there's not like a place that literally says, here is all the live music happening tonight, up and down the Las Vegas strip, located in this hotel and this lounge, who's playing?
- 13:42Dayna Roselli: So that you know.
- 13:42Dayna Roselli: I mean, you can go to a lounge, but maybe they're not gonna be playing the music that you like.
- 13:46Sean McAllister: Right.
- 13:47Dayna Roselli: I mean, there's all sorts of music.
- 13:48Dayna Roselli: There's 80s, 90s, rock, old school Vegas, all that kind of thing, country.
- 13:53Dayna Roselli: My point is, we got a great response of all sorts of live bands that play up and down the strip.
- 13:58Dayna Roselli: So I love that.
- 13:59Dayna Roselli: There were some recommendations like Brooklyn Bowl and stuff.
- 14:01Dayna Roselli: I was like, yeah, but you have to stand.
- 14:03Dayna Roselli: And it's not really what we were talking about.
- 14:05Sean McAllister: Right.
- 14:06Dayna Roselli: And we were talking about kind of like a Myron's cabaret at the Smith Center.
- 14:10Dayna Roselli: Yes, that's at the Smith Center.
- 14:11Dayna Roselli: It's not on the strip, but that's kind of what we're thinking.
- 14:13Dayna Roselli: Like you go, you know who's playing, and then you can choose to buy a ticket.
- 14:18Dayna Roselli: It's not super expensive.
- 14:20Dayna Roselli: You can get something small to eat, maybe, a drink, and watch a show.
- 14:25Dayna Roselli: We're missing that on the strip.
- 14:26Dayna Roselli: We have a lot of comedians, a lot of magicians, and we have large-scale shows.
- 14:29Dayna Roselli: Listen, I love the large-scale shows.
- 14:31Dayna Roselli: I loved Katy Perry.
- 14:32Dayna Roselli: I loved Luke Bryan.
- 14:34Dayna Roselli: I love Miranda Lambert.
- 14:35Dayna Roselli: And I'm up for that.
- 14:36Dayna Roselli: I love Oh and Awakening at the Win.
- 14:39Dayna Roselli: But what do you do if you're a visitor and on an off night, you kind of are like, okay, now what?
- 14:45Dayna Roselli: I want to go see kind of a Vegasy show where it's like you don't get this up close and have this experience.
- 14:51Dayna Roselli: I'm gonna watch the drummer or the guitarist do a riff.
- 14:54Dayna Roselli: You know what I mean?
- 14:55Dayna Roselli: Like things like that.
- 14:56Dayna Roselli: And then the singer is gonna work the crowd.
- 14:59Dayna Roselli: And then, you know, we might see a Vegas dancer or a couple dancers work the crowd and have some fun moments.
- 15:05Dayna Roselli: So I think that's what's missing.
- 15:07Sean McAllister: Yeah, and you do kind of get that vibe at some of the uh supper clubs that have popped up.
- 15:13Sean McAllister: However, they can be booked out as far as six months in advance.
- 15:17Sean McAllister: So it's not an easy thing to get into.
- 15:20Dayna Roselli: No, and we were saying, well, maybe that's why people are craving this.
- 15:23Dayna Roselli: You're in Vegas.
- 15:24Dayna Roselli: This should be around.
- 15:26Dayna Roselli: We should have options.
- 15:28Dayna Roselli: You know, there should be a few medium-sized shows.
- 15:31Dayna Roselli: If we don't want to go super okay, if we don't want to go small, small, then how about some medium-sized shows, somewhat affordable, where you know, you know, you can go and see some live music and maybe it's mixed in with some originals and covers and old school and current and just have a fun time.
- 15:47Sean McAllister: Yeah.
- 15:48Sean McAllister: Several episodes ago, we did we talked about uh the different eras of Las Vegas entertainment.
- 15:54Sean McAllister: And, you know, we talked about how you know there was the era of the big headliners, like you were saying, Dana.
- 16:02Sean McAllister: And, you know, these shows got pushed to the side, but I I think the pendulum is swinging back a little bit, and there there is a desire from people to want to be in the room with that kind of experience.
- 16:18Dayna Roselli: Experience, yeah, like the intimacy of it, you know.
- 16:21Dayna Roselli: We were trying to think of other shows where like all the Bronx Wanderers, they just finished a run at the Westgate.
- 16:25Dayna Roselli: I think they're gonna be doing some South Point shows, Cocktail uh and Cabaret.
- 16:29Sean McAllister: Yeah, that was such a fun show.
- 16:30Dayna Roselli: Yeah, at the barge.
- 16:32Dayna Roselli: Um, and then Tenors of Rock used to be out there as well doing shows.
- 16:35Dayna Roselli: So those kinds of shows.
- 16:38Dayna Roselli: But coming up in tips, we got such a long list of where you can go see live music, just like at lounges and in different bars and stuff.
- 16:47Dayna Roselli: We're gonna share some of it.
- 16:48Dayna Roselli: And even we've even we just got off the phone with John Castlamedes.
- 16:51Dayna Roselli: He's going, hey, that's a great list.
- 16:52Dayna Roselli: I'm gonna start using it because people chimed in.
- 16:55Dayna Roselli: So if you want to know where to go, go look at this tweet and you'll find all sorts of places.
- 17:00Dayna Roselli: 90s bands, country, you name it.
- 17:01Dayna Roselli: So I'm glad that people are working.
- 17:03Dayna Roselli: I did go to a jazz club off the strip on Friday night to see uh my friend Brian Bissell.
- 17:09Dayna Roselli: He plays guitar.
- 17:10Dayna Roselli: He used to be in Matt Goss's show for years and years, and he gigs too.
- 17:13Dayna Roselli: But I but I think a lot of musicians are still struggling and finding regular shows to be in where you know where you need to be, what time, what day of the week.
- 17:25Dayna Roselli: It's a lot of changing.
- 17:27Dayna Roselli: You're in this, you're playing the lounge at Aria this night, you're playing the, you know, this bar at the Bellagio.
- 17:33Dayna Roselli: And that might be fine too for some people, but I think the consistent work is missing.
- 17:38Sean McAllister: Yeah, well, and also from an audience perspective, like you want to know where you can go to get that kind of entertainment.
- 17:45Sean McAllister: Exactly.
- 17:46Sean McAllister: You don't want to have to search and be like, oh, am I gonna be at the north end of the strip this weekend or the south end?
- 17:52Sean McAllister: Or you know, just that kind of thing.
- 17:55Sean McAllister: So, well, you definitely struck a nerve with that post and got quite the response.
- 18:00Sean McAllister: I'm excited to hear what some of the responses are coming up in tips.
- 18:04Dayna Roselli: Yeah.
- 18:05Dayna Roselli: And a lot of people did chime in and agree with it too.
- 18:07Dayna Roselli: We even got a tweet from uh Louis Prima Jr., who said, you know, a lot of people ask him, um, why aren't you playing anymore?
- 18:15Dayna Roselli: He goes, it's not even like that I can't find a place to play.
- 18:17Dayna Roselli: It's like I've kind of lost the uh desire.
- 18:20Dayna Roselli: It's just not fun for, you know, so I'll actually read his tweet in in tips.
- 18:24Dayna Roselli: And also wanted to quickly mention something else that came out of our conversation.
- 18:28Dayna Roselli: And even when we were chatting with John Castlemedias, he was saying, um, and John's an entertainment columnist for the Review Journal, by the way.
- 18:34Dayna Roselli: We were saying Station Casinos does a really great job of putting on live music shows on all their properties.
- 18:40Sean McAllister: They do.
- 18:41Sean McAllister: I know there's especially for local entertainers, they do a really nice job of um, you know, providing a venue for for them to perform, whether it's individuals or groups.
- 18:54Dayna Roselli: Right, exactly.
- 18:55Dayna Roselli: Well, we weren't clowning around, were we?
- 18:58Sean McAllister: We absolutely were not, but there is a group of people who are.
- 19:03Sean McAllister: Spiegel World is the company that produces uh the show Absinthe over at Caesar's Palace.
- 19:10Sean McAllister: You may have heard of that.
- 19:11Sean McAllister: Love it.
- 19:12Sean McAllister: Another of their shows is Atomic Saloon over at the Venetian.
- 19:17Sean McAllister: I I'm not gonna say they abandoned the strip because those shows are still here.
- 19:20Dayna Roselli: And then Opium, right?
- 19:21Dayna Roselli: Too is that their cosmopolitan.
- 19:23Sean McAllister: Cosmopolitan, yeah.
- 19:25Sean McAllister: Uh they're kind of broadening their horizons and uh kind of making a small town their new stage.
- 19:35Sean McAllister: Spiegel World has just purchased the town of Nipton, California.
- 19:41Sean McAllister: Okay, and they are turning it into a performer retreat.
- 19:47Sean McAllister: And I mean, I imagine eventually turning it into a destination where people will want to go to have kind of a cool like literally a circus town experience.
- 19:59Dayna Roselli: I know.
- 20:00Dayna Roselli: I mean, they're calling it a circus town.
- 20:01Dayna Roselli: They opened up an Instagram called Circus Town USA.
- 20:04Dayna Roselli: I mean, they it it's like, what?
- 20:06Dayna Roselli: This is this is gonna be cool.
- 20:08Dayna Roselli: And you and I were saying, because we went to visit the clown motel, and that's an attraction, a tourist attraction.
- 20:14Dayna Roselli: But can you only imagine a whole town centered around the circus?
- 20:18Dayna Roselli: I mean, this is gonna be, I think, a tourist attraction, but it's right now on they're calling it the Spiegel World Global Headquarters.
- 20:26Dayna Roselli: So the whole town will be kind of their global headquarters.
- 20:29Dayna Roselli: And then when you read the description on the website, it says Nipton, Mojave Desert, California.
- 20:35Dayna Roselli: Now, what if an audacious circus company purchased a small town in the middle of the desert, a living town where performers and artisans can retreat to dream and create, a place to tell stories around a campfire, a place to dine under the stars and wake up to panoramic views of the mountains, as a new caretaker of the circus oasis in the desert, Spiegel World, will be writing the next chapter of Nipton's Centuries Old Story.
- 21:02Dayna Roselli: Will you be in it?
- 21:03Dayna Roselli: We can't wait to see what happens.
- 21:05Dayna Roselli: So this is cool.
- 21:06Sean McAllister: It is cool.
- 21:07Sean McAllister: And when you look at uh images of Nipton, it it almost looks like kind of an old ghost town.
- 21:14Sean McAllister: It does.
- 21:14Sean McAllister: Like with you know, uh an airstream trailer just parked out in the middle of the desert.
- 21:20Sean McAllister: Tumbleweeds.
- 21:21Sean McAllister: Tumbleweeds, you know and by old uh the the body of an old 1940s car, uh like small buildings.
- 21:30Sean McAllister: It's uh very much uh a desert ghost town, I guess is the best way to to explain it.
- 21:38Sean McAllister: So to have new inhabitants and creative inhabitants who are now going to breathe new life into uh this small crossroads uh that's about an hour outside of Las Vegas.
- 21:51Sean McAllister: Uh it's gonna be interesting to see what they do.
- 21:54Dayna Roselli: Yeah, it is.
- 21:55Dayna Roselli: Because I think I can see a lot of people going, Hey, let's go to that circus town.
- 21:59Dayna Roselli: Let's stop at that.
- 22:00Dayna Roselli: Circus Town.
- 22:00Dayna Roselli: And then um, you know, it's gonna be so Instagrammable, first of all, in the world of Instagram.
- 22:05Dayna Roselli: And see, the mayor's in the right track here, right?
- 22:08Dayna Roselli: Yeah, you gotta widen the road so everyone can get off at Nipton.
- 22:11Sean McAllister: So everyone can go to Circus Town USA.
- 22:14Sean McAllister: But this is kind of the the same idea that um the creators of Omega Mart over at Area 15.
- 22:23Sean McAllister: Yep.
- 22:24Sean McAllister: Um, they kind of had uh an entire like little village, if I'm not mistaken, of creators that kind of put together all these I'll say weird experiences, but people go and make it a destination and go there to experience what these creators uh are are putting out there for the world to enjoy.
- 22:49Dayna Roselli: Right.
- 22:50Dayna Roselli: No, I get it.
- 22:51Dayna Roselli: I mean, yeah, and that's it's like it's like they go away from the noise of the world and go into their own kind of precisely, yeah, small area to just focus on that and be free and think and create.
- 23:05Dayna Roselli: And so we really look forward to seeing what this is gonna turn into.
- 23:09Dayna Roselli: We know we want to visit, and they had a great article in the Wall Street Journal all about it.
- 23:13Dayna Roselli: So congratulations to Spiegel World.
- 23:16Dayna Roselli: I feel like they always come up with really unique ideas.
- 23:19Dayna Roselli: Um, you can see their shows, uh, Opium, uh, Atomic Saloon, and Absinthe here in town.
- 23:26Dayna Roselli: They've also got Super Freako, which is a restaurant that includes entertainment, a little bit of a supporter club, right, at the cosmopolitan as well.
- 23:33Dayna Roselli: So uh they got a lot of things going.
- 23:35Dayna Roselli: They've got the ski lodge too, which is like a bar at the cosmopolitan.
- 23:39Dayna Roselli: So uh good luck.
- 23:40Dayna Roselli: We'll definitely be visiting Circus Town, USA.
- 23:44Sean McAllister: All right, let's get to tips.
- 23:50Sean McAllister: All right, as promised, the overwhelming response to Dana's tweet about small and medium-sized shows going away and where to find live entertainment.
- 24:01Sean McAllister: Dana, I'm gonna hand it over to you.
- 24:03Sean McAllister: I know you're saving your breath for this.
- 24:05Dayna Roselli: I know.
- 24:05Dayna Roselli: Well, I just wanted to read some of the location.
- 24:07Dayna Roselli: So, again, this these are not like shows that you buy a ticket to and sit down at a table and watch a show that includes a singer and a band and all that.
- 24:16Dayna Roselli: This is the response that I got of where you can find great live music, though, up and down the strip.
- 24:21Dayna Roselli: And hey, even better, for free, a lot of these places, you know.
- 24:25Dayna Roselli: So uh we wanted to share some of that.
- 24:27Dayna Roselli: Uh, I told you I'd read that tweet I got from Louis Prima Jr.
- 24:30Dayna Roselli: And he said, Sadly, live music has been on a steady decline in Vegas for decades.
- 24:34Dayna Roselli: And arguably the entertainment biz as a whole, he says, Some think I left due to a lack of opportunity when truly it was just a lack of enjoyment.
- 24:42Dayna Roselli: So um, I said, Yeah, I really miss the small um shows that had like a band and just a tiny bit of production, nothing too over the top.
- 24:50Dayna Roselli: And he responded with, Yeah, me too.
- 24:53Dayna Roselli: I enjoy seeing people practice their craft.
- 24:55Sean McAllister: So And that's a a big thing coming from Louis Prima Jr.
- 24:59Sean McAllister: to say that it was just like not exciting the way it used to be.
- 25:05Sean McAllister: I know.
- 25:05Sean McAllister: Because of course his dad, Louis Prima, I mean, was huge on the strip, right?
- 25:12Sean McAllister: Huge in entertainment, period.
- 25:14Sean McAllister: But you know, he was a a staple.
- 25:16Dayna Roselli: Yes, an absolute staple.
- 25:18Dayna Roselli: And that and you're right.
- 25:19Dayna Roselli: And that's why when I saw him respond, I thought, oh my gosh, like that we're getting some and tons of other people responded too with some really good.
- 25:25Dayna Roselli: There were so many responses I couldn't even keep track for the podcast.
- 25:28Dayna Roselli: I just kind of like went through.
- 25:29Dayna Roselli: So if you want to read that thread, feel free.
- 25:32Dayna Roselli: Um, some people said you just don't know where to look.
- 25:34Dayna Roselli: And I go, I've lived here forever, like I know where to look.
- 25:36Dayna Roselli: And I said to one person, like, name me five shows that include a band, a singer, live music.
- 25:41Dayna Roselli: It's a medium or small venue, and you can buy a small price ticket too.
- 25:45Dayna Roselli: And then there were crickets.
- 25:47Dayna Roselli: So, and again, I'm not knocking the big shows and the headliners.
- 25:51Dayna Roselli: We're so lucky.
- 25:52Dayna Roselli: We have Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars, and all it's amazing, but we just need more variety.
- 25:57Dayna Roselli: But do people support those shows?
- 26:00Dayna Roselli: I mean, maybe they they did see a lack of support.
- 26:03Dayna Roselli: People weren't buying tickets, and they I mean, the casino bosses and the entertainment directors up and down the street, maybe they, you know, I was maybe they know better than I do.
- 26:11Dayna Roselli: They do know better than I do, but there must be a reason.
- 26:15Dayna Roselli: Right.
- 26:15Dayna Roselli: I just feel like, come on, can we have two shows?
- 26:18Dayna Roselli: Two shows that center around that so people have something to go to and have that real Vegas experience.
- 26:23Sean McAllister: Yes, you don't have to oversaturate, but at least give give a a few options.
- 26:29Dayna Roselli: Right.
- 26:29Dayna Roselli: Okay, so let's quickly run through the list because I know we've talked about this a lot, but we pointed out that Station Casinos does a great job.
- 26:36Dayna Roselli: And we had a tweet from oh, see, now I I copied the tweet and then I forgot the name of the band.
- 26:44Dayna Roselli: But they said, You missed us in the Chrome showroom last night, but we will be back January 20th from 9 to 11 p.m.
- 26:53Dayna Roselli: at Station Casinos.
- 26:55Dayna Roselli: Hold on, now I feel like I need to find it because I can't do it without the the name of the place.
- 26:59Dayna Roselli: Uh hold on, hold on.
- 27:01Sean McAllister: And as we were mentioning earlier, Station Casinos does have a lot of really good showrooms that accommodate exactly the type and size of show that you were talking about in your tweets.
- 27:16Sean McAllister: And they've kept this alive, but it's on the strip where we've seen this kind of go away.
- 27:21Dayna Roselli: Exactly.
- 27:22Dayna Roselli: So that's weird.
- 27:23Dayna Roselli: Okay, it's the Soul Juice Band.
- 27:25Dayna Roselli: All right.
- 27:26Dayna Roselli: The Soul Juice Band is a Vegas original funk soul rock and jazz band with a screaming B3, gritty vocals, and five blazing horns.
- 27:35Dayna Roselli: So it sounds great.
- 27:36Dayna Roselli: Yeah, so they they sent me a note.
- 27:38Dayna Roselli: So again, they will be back at um Santa Fe station January 20th, 9 to 11.
- 27:45Sean McAllister: Okay.
- 27:45Dayna Roselli: Tons of response about barbershop cuts and cocktails at the Cosmopolitan.
- 27:49Sean McAllister: Yep.
- 27:49Dayna Roselli: People say great shows, great live music regularly now.
- 27:54Dayna Roselli: I'm not sure because I haven't walked into that part.
- 27:58Dayna Roselli: I've only seen the front.
- 27:59Dayna Roselli: I think I did see some tables and some pictures, but I think a lot of people stand in there to watch.
- 28:05Sean McAllister: There are uh kind of there are places to sit, but I think that they're kind of um it's like if you're getting bottle service or something like that.
- 28:15Sean McAllister: Um, if you're doing like kind of a whole package thing, I believe that's what the seats are for.
- 28:20Sean McAllister: But there is an area in front of the stage where it's all standing room.
- 28:25Dayna Roselli: Okay, okay.
- 28:26Dayna Roselli: Brooklyn Bowl people mentioned, but they did say, but you have to stand and you know, you never know, it's a different band all the time, and it might be something that you don't like, so look into it first.
- 28:35Dayna Roselli: And yeah, so more of a concert type deal.
- 28:38Dayna Roselli: And somebody was saying it, I think somebody mentioned it's not huge, huge, but it's more of an intimate space, which is which is good because I mentioned that's what we were looking for.
- 28:45Dayna Roselli: Um, losers at MGM and the Doghouse Saloon at Resorts World got a big response.
- 28:51Sean McAllister: Yep.
- 28:52Dayna Roselli: Um, and I know we need to get to Doghouse.
- 28:55Dayna Roselli: We've been there um as a band was setting up, but I've actually never seen live music there.
- 29:00Dayna Roselli: And they reached out and said, You guys gotta come check out check out our spot.
- 29:04Dayna Roselli: It's great.
- 29:05Dayna Roselli: Uh look at what we're doing over there.
- 29:06Dayna Roselli: So we want to do that.
- 29:07Sean McAllister: I I went over there after, I believe it was after we went to see Luke Bryan.
- 29:12Sean McAllister: And there was uh an up-and-coming country singer performing, and she was phenomenal.
- 29:20Dayna Roselli: Oh, good.
- 29:21Sean McAllister: So it is, and I have actually been by there several times when there were bands performing, but I was like on the way to a dinner or something, right?
- 29:29Sean McAllister: Um, and didn't stop in for the music, but that is a great option.
- 29:33Dayna Roselli: Okay.
- 29:33Dayna Roselli: And then, yeah, and then the other spot was losers at MGM, is apparently very popular as well.
- 29:39Dayna Roselli: Um, then Kenny Davison um reached out on Twitter.
- 29:43Dayna Roselli: He's great, and he's got a show over at the Tuscany, which is just off the strip, like a couple blocks.
- 29:48Sean McAllister: Two streets over, yeah.
- 29:49Dayna Roselli: A few streets over, yeah.
- 29:51Dayna Roselli: And I said, I know Kenny, but you were playing Friday night.
- 29:54Dayna Roselli: Um, and this person was that I was trying to find was Saturday night.
- 29:57Dayna Roselli: He's like, Oh, okay.
- 29:58Dayna Roselli: But he was saying he had a bunch of cast members from that used to be in you know Bat Out of Hell and I think Vegas the show.
- 30:04Dayna Roselli: So he always has people accompany him, and that's a great room.
- 30:08Dayna Roselli: At the Tuscany, there's a bar right inside and seats.
- 30:11Dayna Roselli: And he said, for the most part, you can usually get a seat, but he's consistently been there.
- 30:16Sean McAllister: That's great.
- 30:16Sean McAllister: And I love that other performers come and join him too.
- 30:19Sean McAllister: That's a total throwback vibe.
- 30:21Dayna Roselli: It is.
- 30:22Dayna Roselli: I love that.
- 30:22Dayna Roselli: So the Tuscany and the Tuscany's a great little uh casino.
- 30:25Dayna Roselli: I like it over there.
- 30:26Dayna Roselli: It's nice, it is nice, it's an easy in and out.
- 30:29Dayna Roselli: And I did look, and their calendar is full with tons of other live music on the days that Kenny isn't there.
- 30:34Sean McAllister: So and don't they have uh like a brew pub over there with like a ridiculous amount of uh beers on tap?
- 30:41Dayna Roselli: They they might have the ridiculous amount.
- 30:43Dayna Roselli: I've been in there, I didn't count because I'm not as much of a beer fan as you are.
- 30:49Dayna Roselli: But if you noticed that or heard that, then I'm sure it's true.
- 30:51Sean McAllister: I need to go work my way through those taps.
- 30:53Dayna Roselli: It's good, it's good there.
- 30:55Dayna Roselli: I've had the food there at uh it was a rehearsal for a wedding, like the pre, you know, when the family comes into town.
- 31:00Dayna Roselli: Everyone gets to me.
- 31:01Dayna Roselli: Yeah, it was a good there.
- 31:02Dayna Roselli: Uh Nelly's Southern Kitchen, been there over at MGM Grand.
- 31:05Dayna Roselli: Um, it's the Jonas family restaurant.
- 31:08Dayna Roselli: They do have, and we mentioned this before, a great stage in the back and tables.
- 31:13Dayna Roselli: Um, so you know, usually a lot of people go in to sit and eat, or I guess go grab a drink.
- 31:18Dayna Roselli: And apparently they have live music.
- 31:20Dayna Roselli: Uh, someone who wrote said every single night.
- 31:23Dayna Roselli: Great.
- 31:23Dayna Roselli: So that's a good thing to know, right?
- 31:26Dayna Roselli: And then a couple other people said, hey, check out the bands in town app.
- 31:30Dayna Roselli: I also looked, you can look it up right on the web as well.
- 31:34Dayna Roselli: And they said most of the big shows are on there, but some of the smaller um gigs, smaller acts, um, smaller lounge shows are starting to input where they're playing.
- 31:46Dayna Roselli: And so you can find, you know, you can find where people are doing shows through that too.
- 31:52Dayna Roselli: So hopefully more people will start filling that up as well.
- 31:55Dayna Roselli: Wanted to also mention the Vegas Near Me app that sponsors our podcast.
- 31:59Dayna Roselli: Um, we were looking through there, and they do have, if you type in live music, um, a lot of venues or all the venues that have live music in them regularly.
- 32:09Dayna Roselli: Then if you type in bands, it looked like they had a calendar um of different shows that were coming up.
- 32:16Dayna Roselli: Maybe not every single thing.
- 32:18Dayna Roselli: They're constantly updating this app.
- 32:20Dayna Roselli: So it just launched.
- 32:22Dayna Roselli: So they're they're inputting all that too.
- 32:24Sean McAllister: Yeah, and there was a variety of uh different bands and performers that came up.
- 32:29Sean McAllister: It wasn't just those big headlining acts.
- 32:32Sean McAllister: So yeah, Vegas Near Me is definitely another great option.
- 32:35Dayna Roselli: Yeah.
- 32:36Dayna Roselli: So anyway, that is just some the the list goes on and on.
- 32:39Dayna Roselli: There was another nine nineties band that I couldn't find the tweet.
- 32:42Dayna Roselli: So go to at Dana Roselli on Twitter, find that tweet and you know, favorite it and look through.
- 32:48Dayna Roselli: But that's just a highlight of some of the places where you can catch live music here on the Las Vegas strip.
- 32:54Sean McAllister: And that is also only 50% of our tips.
- 32:57Sean McAllister: We have another tip right now.
- 32:58Sean McAllister: This is more of a dining thing.
- 33:00Sean McAllister: Um, Michael Mina's strip steak over at Mandalay Bay, it is such a good restaurant.
- 33:09Sean McAllister: Right.
- 33:09Sean McAllister: The steaks there are phenomenal.
- 33:13Dayna Roselli: Although you've been trying to cut back on steak.
- 33:15Sean McAllister: Well, I the doctor told me that my cholesterol is a little too high.
- 33:18Sean McAllister: So I gotta rein that in.
- 33:20Sean McAllister: So I'll be eating a lot of leafy greens and and chicken in the near future.
- 33:26Dayna Roselli: That's okay, that's okay.
- 33:27Dayna Roselli: But steak you can still indulge every now and then.
- 33:33Sean McAllister: It's just uh reopened recently after uh undergoing uh a bit of a makeover.
- 33:39Sean McAllister: Uh there's a a stylish uh new dining room that's kind of reimagined from you know what you've come to know know of uh strip steak.
- 33:50Sean McAllister: Um but it is, it's so good.
- 33:52Sean McAllister: Yeah, and that's right at uh Mandalay Bay, and it's um just off the casino floor, I think, near it's almost like as you uh if you're uh in the casino, if you follow the signs back to the convention uh area, the it's not back in the convention area, but if you make your way toward that, you'll see it on the right hand side.
- 34:15Dayna Roselli: Okay, yeah.
- 34:17Sean McAllister: Oh it's so good.
- 34:18Dayna Roselli: It is good.
- 34:18Dayna Roselli: I'm glad to see that's back.
- 34:19Dayna Roselli: Michael Mina, amazing.
- 34:21Dayna Roselli: Yeah, you can't you can't beat it.
- 34:22Sean McAllister: So a long time presence here in Las Vegas, too.
- 34:25Dayna Roselli: Yeah.
- 34:25Dayna Roselli: Open December 30th, so it's officially now open over at Mandalay Bay.
- 34:30Dayna Roselli: Hey, by the way, an email just came in from Stoney's Rockin' Country with their calendar for January.
- 34:35Dayna Roselli: So I was just thinking that's another live.
- 34:37Dayna Roselli: If you love country music, go to Stoney's.
- 34:38Dayna Roselli: It's a town square.
- 34:40Dayna Roselli: Yeah.
- 34:40Dayna Roselli: Town Square is south of the Welcome to Las Vegas sign, north of the South Point.
- 34:47Sean McAllister: Yeah, so it's it's north of the Silverton.
- 34:49Sean McAllister: You know, Uber ride if you're you know coming from the Las Vegas strip.
- 34:54Dayna Roselli: So hey, and I saw Vegas Vicks, the restaurant that's going to be opening and bar across from the Smith Center, is looking to hire.
- 35:04Dayna Roselli: So I think they're planning to open soon as well.
- 35:07Dayna Roselli: And he planned to have jazz music there.
- 35:11Dayna Roselli: That was a huge part of opening this restaurant, an Italian restaurant.
- 35:15Sean McAllister: Yep.
- 35:16Dayna Roselli: Or sorry, I was a bar and Italian restaurant with the jazz music in there.
- 35:21Dayna Roselli: So um the the folks that over there at that run Stoney's are actually also opening Vegas Vicks, which will be great for folks that leave shows at the Smith Center.
- 35:33Sean McAllister: Right.
- 35:34Dayna Roselli: And you know, Myron's Cabaret and that kind of thing to be able to go and have a place to hang out afterwards.
- 35:39Sean McAllister: Yeah.
- 35:40Sean McAllister: So that's another thing that we're looking forward to, hopefully, in 2023.
- 35:45Sean McAllister: Yeah.
- 35:46Sean McAllister: Um, and more episodes of Vegas Revealed.
- 35:49Dayna Roselli: That's right.
- 35:50Dayna Roselli: You and I will be going to a dinner at Italy at Park MGM, a special dinner.
- 35:54Dayna Roselli: We'll be talking about that coming up in our next episode or so.
- 35:58Dayna Roselli: And then we're also going to see Moulin Rouge at the Smith Center.
- 36:01Sean McAllister: Yeah.
- 36:02Dayna Roselli: That'll be fun.
- 36:03Sean McAllister: So lots of good stuff uh still to come on Vegas Revealed as we plow our way right through 2023.
- 36:11Dayna Roselli: Have a great week, everyone.
- 36:20Sean McAllister: Talk to the 15 West on Twitter.