Exclusive Club

Spencer Patterson

Friday, April 8, 2005 | 8:40 a.m.

Fatboy Slim. Armin Van Buuren. Paul Oakenfold. Deep Dish.

Colorful and intriguing monikers, but hardly household names to the average music listener.

To fans of electronic dance music, however, they are legends, every bit as important as U2, Metallica or Toby Keith are to mainstream music fans.

And these days the world's top DJs are coming to Las Vegas with increased frequency, thanks mainly to an off-Strip club intent on drawing crowds from the casinos.

"People have to leave their hotels, go past clubs they could walk straight into and get into a cab to come to us," said Marc Jay, director of public relations for club Ice, located a little more than a mile east of the Strip at 200 E. Harmon Ave.

"So we do what we have to to get people here. We bring in the type of talent nobody else is bringing in."

Already this year, Ice's marquee Saturday nights have featured such renowned DJs as Roger Sanchez, Erick Morillo, Deep Dish, Bad Boy Bill, Josh Wink, Fatboy Slim and Carl Cox.

Upcoming bills include Mark Farina this Saturday, Oakenfold on April 16, Sanchez's return May 7, Christopher Lawrence on May 14 and Van Buuren on May 28.

Those DJs have carved out worldwide reputations for their ability to work a room, create a mood, mix multiple songs and fluidly move from one cut to the next.

Though many record and release their own original material, their live sets are typically filled with other artists' tunes, along with remixes of familiar songs.

Selecting those tracks, and arranging them in an order that keeps folks dancing, is considered a true art form by fans of the genre.

In large part, Ice has been able to attract its parade of big names thanks to a financial partnership with England-based Godskitchen, one of the world's largest promoters of electronic music.

Each year, Godskitchen stages around 2,000 club shows, along with a handful of dance festivals including England's annual Global Gathering.

"When they know the talent is coming in from Europe, they'll buy the whole tour and then they'll put them in here and in other venues (across the country)," Jay said. "If Carl Cox would normally charge $35,000 for a one-off gig here, Godskitchen can give him $150,000 for maybe 10 gigs. That's basically how we can get these DJs."

And once Ice gets them, it's easier to get them again, says Godskitchen Chief Executive Neil Moffitt.

"Ice is a very enjoyable place for the DJs to play, with very appreciative and knowledgeable crowds," Moffitt said. "Rather than us going out and trying to get them to come to Vegas to play the venue, now we're specifically getting requests from them to play (Ice)."

In addition to booking top DJs on Saturdays, Ice anchored its Friday night lineup earlier this year by signing acclaimed San Diego-based DJ Donald Glaude as a resident performer.

"The cool thing about playing at Ice is that since it's not in a casino, people are coming there to hear the music," said Glaude, who works the venue three Fridays each month. "They're coming because they've heard of the DJ that's playing, and they want to hear what we have to offer."

Not that every single person who walks into Ice is an electronic music aficionado. Glaude also sees folks who make the trip over to see the venue that was the subject of last year's Spike TV reality series, "The Club."

"When I started doing Fridays at Ice I had to learn about the people that just came in because maybe they got a free pass or saw the TV show," Glaude said. "I have to be a little bit more diverse and play things that are going to keep them on the floor. But I also want to show them new stuff and educate them as well."

As he grows into his role at Ice, Glaude is also branching out. His Friday plans include "Essential '80s" remix nights and "The DG Experience," which will feature live musicians, including Glaude himself on bass guitar.

Admission to Ice costs $20 on Fridays and Saturdays, with prices higher for top-tier acts such as Fatboy Slim. Local women get in free on Fridays, local men for $10.

Standing out

Though Las Vegas has long been home to a thriving club scene, with as many as two or three late-night venues in several hotels, few of those rooms regularly host DJs spinning traditional electronic music. In 2005, hip-hop rules the roost.

"Back in the day everyone was playing house music, and you had like one hip-hop club," DJ Scotty Boy, a Las Vegas-based DJ, said, using "house" -- a term for dance music based on a 4/4 beat and a repeating bassline and usually featuring a synthesizer -- as a blanket term for electronic-based dance music.

"Now it's reversed. Everyone's playing hip-hop, so Ice has cornered the market as the one club that plays house."

Noticing that, club Ra at the Luxor recently reintroduced PleasureDome nights -- a tradition at the venue from its 1998 opening until last year -- on Wednesdays.

Ra is again offering traditional electronic music, and booking respected, out-of-town DJs such as Derrick May, Doc Martin and Timo Maas.

"We think house music is going to be on the upswing this year, so we're launching that again," said Dave Fogg (aka DJ Create), a resident DJ and talent buyer at Ra.

"As far as dance music, us and Ice are really the only ones doing any kind of big-room nights for that. Everybody else is just kind of doing the same thing, playing hip-hop and top 40."

Bringing in electronic icons such as May, a veteran techno DJ and producer from Detroit, can help Ra stand out from the crowded Vegas nightclub pack, Fogg said.

"The trend with locals is to go to one of the newest spots in town," Fogg said. "So one of the ways to distinguish yourself, especially if you're an older club, is to keep the nights progressive and book talent that nobody is really focusing on."

Booked for upcoming PleasureDome nights at Ra: Armand Van Helden on Wednesday and a "Year of the Breaks" party featuring DJ Baby Anne and DJ Icey on April 20.

Admission to Ra is $20 for men and $10 for women.

"Ra is a place where you expect to hear house. It's got the big lights and video and sound," said Scotty Boy, a Ra resident DJ who also takes his turn at the console Wednesdays.

"It works better there than say if we were trying to do this at the House of Blues (at Mandalay Bay) or (the Hard Rock Hotel's) Body English. If we tried to do it somewhere like that, everybody would come up and ask, 'When are you gonna play hip-hop?' "