Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

From downtown to Sunset Station, the creative among us are cranking it up this evening

Backstage at 'Absinthe'

Leila Navidi

Absinthe” performer Penny Pibbets gets ready in a trailer outside Caesars Palace on Friday, Oct. 28, 2011.

Lon Bronson’s All-Star Band at Cabaret Jazz

Lon Bronson's All-Star Band at Caberet Jazz at the Smith Center in March 2014. Launch slideshow »

Rare is it in VegasVille that we are treated to such a spate of groovy events on a Tuesday night. Tonight is one of those rare nights, as some hyper-creative artists are performing downtown, in Green Valley and on the Strip.

Follow along:

• The band fronted by Penny Pibbets of “Absinthe” and “Le Reve” clown captain Amos Glick, ticklishly titled Koocheckoo, is re-christening the Bunkhouse Saloon in downtown Las Vegas tonight with a celebration of its new CD, “Loose Screws.”

Dubbed a band of “seasoned Strip performers,” Koocheckoo is best explained by Pibbets in a post on AXS.com: “Amos and I met in 2007 during The Gazillionaire Show. We did a run in the Thunderbird Hotel (which is now the Aruba, one of the oldest hotels on Las Vegas Boulevard) when our friends who ran The New American Theater project produced it. He played a dumb diarrhea song in the show, and I knew that we’d create something really magical together one day.”

The show is set for 11:30 p.m. Tickets are $10 and about sold out, but the Bunkhouse back patio is open for drinks and food, and you can still hear the performance. Better’n nothing.

• Raging into Club Madrid at Sunset Station is BBR’s production of “Alice: A Steampunk Rock Opera Fantasy.” After a series of showcases at Tuscany’s T Spot Lounge, the project primarily envisioned by Anne Martinez is still seeking a permanent home (there will likely be at least one more venue added to the show’s resume). It might well hop around the city, white rabbit-style, for the foreseeable future.

As I’ve written many times, this production is fantastic, loaded with talent and passion, the sort of inventive project that is frankly too scarce in today’s Las Vegas entertainment scene. The show is a Steampunk adaptation of “Alice in Wonderland,” linked by new versions of familiar pop and rock covers (“Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” by The Eurythmics,” “Bad Romance” by Lady Gaga and “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” by The Beatles).

”Alice” is once more fronted by singers Martinez and Savanna Smith, fueled with rocket sauce by David Perrico’s nine-piece band and featuring a quartet of the city’s top dancers led by choreographer Ryan Kelsey. There is to be a new set and choreography in tonight’s performance, which starts at 11 (doors at 10) and costs $5 at the door. A pittance, I tell you!

• A veteran Las Vegas entertainer who is sold on BBR is Lon Bronson, but he won’t be at Sunset Station for tonight’s show. Bronson is otherwise committed, as his All-Star Band hits Mizuya at Mandalay Bay tonight for the first time. Bronson has been exploring new venues throughout the year ranging from Cabaret Jazz at the Smith Center to T Spot. The free-admission show at one of the city’s busiest lounges starts at 10:30 p.m.

Bronson is back at the Smith Center to serve as bandleader for the Nevada sesquicentennial all-star celebration at Reynolds Hall on Sept. 22 and returns to Cabaret Jazz with the All-Star Band on Sept. 26. He is one of the city’s great showmen for his great playing, inspired arrangements … and occasional onstage rant.

Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at Twitter.com/JohnnyKats. Also, follow “Kats With the Dish” at Twitter.com/KatsWiththeDish.

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