Sound Check: Lenz ponders the potential of new nightclub Sanctuary

Friday, March 26, 1999 | 11:52 a.m.

"I know you'll find this hard to believe," Richard Lenz says, "but I don't club. I go home to my family at night."

One look at the Huntridge Theatre operator bears out his assertions. He's a classic TV dad type, with an earnest face and easygoing manner. You might tag him a doctor, a councilman (he did run for local office once), even a construction foreman.

But Lenz runs Las Vegas' premier locally owned theater and concert venue -- an 800-capacity room that has hosted everyone from Nine Inch Nails to Beck these past seven years. He is one of the local music scene's biggest supporters -- and still manages to be home in time for meat loaf and Letterman, which is more than I can say for a music columnist of our acquaintance.

And -- of course! -- he's opening a new nightclub, Sanctuary, on April 9 with a spoken-word performance by former Dead Kennedys vocalist Jello Biafra. Sanctuary marks Lenz's entry into an arena that, remarkably enough, he had little or no knowledge of until recently, when he let dinner go cold in the name of research. He visited every local bar and club that featured live music, finding most of them "a little dank for my tastes.

"Those places sell alcohol, and that's about the sum of what they do," he says. "They seem to use live music only as a magnet to get people through the door."

Enter Sanctuary, a 300-capacity club adjacent to the Huntridge in a former postal substation, circa 1950. It is a high-ceilinged, yet intimate room, intended to serve developing artists and acts that would get lost in the cavernous Huntridge. Lenz promises live music every Friday and Saturday ("come hell or high water") and a musical mix that incorporates folk, funk, rock, country, jazz and any combination thereof, preferably on the same night.

"I'd like to see Sanctuary mix things up a bit -- more than the scene has recently, with the same eight to 10 bands playing everywhere," Lenz says. "There should be more eclecticism to the scene, more of that Woodstock feel. I think we can develop that."

Part of Lenz's enthusiasm is, admittedly, born of necessity.

"(The Huntridge was) able to compete honestly with the Hard Rock," Lenz says of the hotel/casino's venue The Joint, inside which Lenz has never stepped foot. "Now, with the House of Blues online, we won't see a piece of that business. The Hard Rock and the House of Blues will be slaughtering each other for dumb acts -- acts we wouldn't take."

Hence a smaller room, with the same devotion to the big beat. Like its parent venue next door, Sanctuary makes ingenious use of available space. An elevated, quarter-circle stage fills one corner. Subwoofers will be placed under the stage, and the speakers hung above it; the mix will be evenly spread without any speaker "blasting in your face," Lenz promises. Two raised seating areas will grant almost everyone an uninterrupted sight line. And the arched, natural-wood ceiling really makes the room.

"When Unity Church of the West (the previous tenant) vacated, I noticed the false ceiling in here was sagging a bit. And I'm sensitive to roof problems," Lenz says with a grin, the memory of the new roof he put on the Huntridge a few years back still fresh on his mind. "I lifted one of the (ceiling tiles), and there it was," he says, gesturing skyward.

He may not let on, but it's the would-be club hopper in Richard Lenz, and not the shrewd businessman, who is intent on raising the roof, again and again.

"My enthusiasm is a reflection of people having a good time. I feed off of that," Lenz says. "We're still about the music here; we always have been, and always will be."

Stereo Dynamics

The Roots, "Things Fall Apart," MCA.

A lot of friends and acquaintances love Jay-Z's "Hard Knock Life," and they're welcome to it. I can't think of anything more annoying to my ears than a hip hop number that sounds like it was built from the samples down. Throw some crotch-grabbing, self-aggrandizing and comically misanthropic vocals over the mix and the next thing you know, Celine Dion, Soul Sister No. 1, is handing you a Grammy. Thanks, but no thanks.

The Roots aren't like that. From the opening of "Things Fall Apart" -- the slop beats of "Table of Contents (Parts 1 & 2)" -- it's immediately apparent that these savvy Philadelphians have stronger hearts and better ears than most of their contemporaries. The fat jazz of "Dynamite" will shake all but the most obstinate rumps, "Act Too (The Love of My Life)" boasts the breathy, delightful vocals of Zap Mama's Marie Daulne, and a sweet string break.

The Erykah Badu-fortified "You Got Me" is truly gorgeous, and "The Next Movement" proves its mettle as a summer jam inside of 30 seconds.

By the time the set's over, you want to cheer -- the Roots listen. They know what they'd want to hear if they were in your shoes, and play nothing else.

"Things Fall Apart" is as explosive a social and musical statement as its title. If this is what entropy sounds like, just put me at ground zero of the Y2K bomb ... wearing a Roots-rich set of headphones, of course, and with an unlimited well of gin slings.

Get Up, Act Out

* Hey, you can knock off three at once! King Cartel, Los Trios De Nada and the Nines -- three of Las Vegas' most original bands -- play the Boston Bar and Grill tonight at 10. Five bucks gets you a fatty mitt full of entertainment. Call 368-0750.

* Also tonight: He ain't God, but they share the same limo. B.B. King plays the House of Blues tonight -- finally a blues act at the House of Blues, how novel -- at 8. Call 632-7600. If you miss him tonight, he rocks Saturday night as well.

* Houston, the evil has landed. Outrageous surf band Apollo 14 touches down at Money Plays Saturday, 9 p.m. No cover, but you better put away a lot of beers in that hollow leg of yours. Call 368-1828.

* Get funky, space monkey! Popular jam band Ominous Seapods throw down at Legends, Sunday at 9 p.m. Seven dollars will change your perception of reality, but you must be 21. Ain't it always the case?