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March 29, 2024

Frankie Moreno plays cabin for ‘Live at 35’; SLS cuts include Griddle, buffet hours; ‘Mondays Dark’ targets Joint

Frankie Moreno Southwest Airlines

Courtesy of LVCVA

Stratosphere headliner Frankie Moreno and his band perform a surprise “Live at 35” concert on board Southwest Airlines flight 4305 from Dallas to Las Vegas, an event honoring the termination of the Wright Amendment, which forbid Southwest from flying to states outside of Texas from Dallas. The flight was Tuesday, Oct. 14 2014.

Updated Thursday, Oct. 16, 2014 | 5:38 p.m.

Frankie Moreno on Southwest

Stratosphere headliner Frankie Moreno and his band perform a surprise Launch slideshow »

The Kats Report Bureau at this writing is the Stratosphere, where on Tuesday the hotel’s resident headliner asked, “Coffee, tea or medley?”

We are speaking, in an altitudinal sense, of showroom standout and part-time flight attendant Frankie Moreno. Members of his backing band at the Strat and he were recruited by the LVCVA for a “Live at 35” performance aboard Southwest Airlines as part of the carrier’s in-flight concert series. Gavin DeGraw, ZZ Ward and Casey Abrams of “American Idol” are among the many artists who have been booked for these in-flight performances.

This particular flight was to trumpet the termination of the Wright Amendment, instituted in 1979 to prevent Southwest from flying outside Texas from Dallas (this was to protect financial investment in Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, which had lured Braniff Airlines to the region as its primary national and international carrier).

Over time, Southwest became one of the country’s largest airlines and has just added 15 cities to its list of nonstop flights out of Dallas, including Las Vegas. Moreno was booked on the first nonstop Dallas-to-Vegas flight out of DFW. He performed two songs, “I Think About You,” and his ode-to-Schwimmer rocker, “Lacey Mae,” for an unsuspecting but giddy mass of passengers. They were told that the odds of experiencing a “Live at 35” performance were 1 in 75,000.

“It was crazy,” Moreno said after returning to town. “People were really into it. I’ve played a lot of venues but nothing like that. I was worried about how people would react, but it was great.”

Moreno landed and jetted (in his car) to Hakkasan for a corporate gig. Likely, this is the first time a Las Vegas headliner has performed at an altitude of 35,000 feet and in a club of 80,000 square feet in the same day, but we’re checking on that.

Meantime, let’s take flight elsewhere ...

SLS Las Vegas Grand Opening

The grand opening of SLS Las Vegas on Friday, Aug. 22, 2014, on the Strip. Launch slideshow »

• The 2-percent solution at SLS (Slightly Lopping Staff) is not the only change recently enforced at the Strip’s newest resort. The hotel also has drawn down the hours at the formerly 24/7 Griddle cafe, which is now open from11 p.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays (overnight and for lunch, essentially) and 24 hours Fridays and Saturdays.

The reason for the hourly change, according to an SLS spokesman, is because of “strong customer demand” at such SLS restaurants as Bazaar Meat by Jose Andres, Cleo and Katsuya. The end result is the Griddle is not open for dinner on weeknights, but you can still eat at any time, around the clock, at SLS.

The second-floor SLS Buffet, too, has changed its hours and days. Originally opened daily, it is now only serving on Fridays through Sundays.

“Based on group and casino business demands during the fall and winter seasons, we always planned to maximize the venue and its proximity to the meeting rooms, ballroom and casino floor as additional space for private events following opening,” according to an email statement from the company.

The hotel reminds that it has created more than 6,000 direct and indirect jobs in a $400 million overhaul of the old Sahara, a vital investment at the northern tip of the Strip. The staff reduction was small (but important if you happen to be one of the 2 percent issued termination slips), and there is certainly no reason to panic at Sahara and Las Vegas Boulevard.

But it is clear that the officials at the hotel need to think nimbly and adjust to the real business trends of a tourist crowd accustomed to SLS luxury and a locals crowd that always values value.

‘Mondays Dark’ Debuts at Body English

Mark Shunock’s debut “Mondays Dark” benefiting Opportunity Village on Monday, Nov. 18, 2013, in Body English at the Hard Rock Hotel Las Vegas.
Launch slideshow »

• We’ll have more on another SLS — the Supremely Loquacious Shunock — in a few days, but at the moment give it up for the man who made “Mondays Dark” a charity bonanza.

I met Mark Shunock after one of the first performances of “Rock of Ages” at the Venetian in early 2013, and we talked for a long while at the Palazzo’s center bar, mostly about Las Vegas and how to plug into this city and make a difference. He talked of this “Mondays Dark” idea then, a monthly all-star show that raises money for a different charity during each performance, and brother has he followed through.

Simply, “Mondays Dark” has grown to one of the great philanthropic projects, and nights of entertainment, in the city. The most recent show on Monday at the Hard Rock Hotel, dubbed “Women Who Rock,” was the latest example. One great vocalist after another, some of the best of the best in Las Vegas and guests from L.A., tore the place apart. Next month, on Nov. 11, the theme is “One-Hit Wonders,” also set for Vinyl.

After that, “Mondays Dark” celebrates its year anniversary Dec. 15 in the Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel, with Shunock’s most ambitious concept yet: An all-star show inviting all 13 previously highlighted charities for a single night of entertainment and celebration. He hopes for an audience of 1,500, far and away the largest production for “Mondays Dark” ever. I expect that he’ll get there. Don’t underestimate Lonny, ever.

‘Showbiz Roast’ of Chris Phillips

George Wallace calls out Clint Holmes during the first Launch slideshow »

• Chris Phillips, known forever as Zowie Bowie around VegasVille, celebrated his birthday Tuesday night. He’s, what, 17? That right?

No, Mr. Phillips is 48 now. Believe it. A man after my own heart. He celebrated in characteristic fashion, fronting the new act Devil Deluxe, throwing back shots of Crown Royal and roaring through two sets of ’80s rock classics at Tuscany’s T Spot Lounge. Lorena Peril of “Vegas! The Show” even turned up for a high-modulation take on “Under Pressure,” the Queen/David Bowie classic.

Hotel overlord Bret Heers continues to slug it out at Tuscany, bringing in topnotch entertainment pretty much on a nightly basis. Phillips and his burning backing band Devil Deluxe perform each Tuesday. Bow-tied piano practitioner Kenny Davidsen is onstage each Friday at 10 p.m. with his Celebrity Piano Bar showcase, with killer artists joining him each week — and no cover charge. Just have a couple of drinks, OK?

Monday night, it’s the Savanna Smith-fronted Moonshiner’s (the regular pop prohibition party in the T Spot), and Shaun DeGraff returns on Oct. 25.

Down the hall, at Piazza Lounge, Laura Shaffer and The Nightingale Trio are the highlight of a similarly busy entertainment schedule. I’m often asked why I spend so much time at Tuscany, and that’s easy to answer: I like talent. You’ll find a lot of it there, believe me.

• Omnia sounds a lot like amnesia, right? Omnesia? But for those who remember, or don’t, the old Pure Nightclub at Caesars, maybe this new title fits.

The renovations at that nightspot will lead to a case of amnesia for those who were around when Pure opened about a decade ago. My favorite moment, among just a few highlighted times at Pure, was seeing the B-52s pound it down in that spot a few years ago. Omnia is Latin for “all things,” and I, for one, have high hopes for all things anew in that 75,000-square-foot nightspot. The renovation, enacted by Hakkasan Group, was long overdue.

• One of the highlights of Saturday night’s charity performance by Michael Buble at the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health was that Tommy Ward got to meet one of his idols. We speak of Buble, naturally. Ward, the telegenic singer out of Las Vegas who is under the professional umbrella of Quincy Jones, met Buble during the night and sent an Instagram photo with the note, “Dreams really do come true.”

Somewhere along the line, Ward picked up the nickname “Baby Buble,” I think from Claire Sinclair during Ward’s six-month run opening for Moreno at the Stratosphere (where Sinclair stars in “Pin Up”). Whatever the case, it’ll be interesting to track Ward’s path from Las Vegas to who knows where.

No matter what the outcome, he’s been walking in tall cotton, as the saying goes.

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

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