Not the usual Vegas act

Saturday, Sept. 23, 2006 | 7:37 a.m.

The shirtless lifeguard patrolling the hot tub, located stage right, received many puzzled looks. Fans at other locales on Gnarls Barkley's worldwide tour are not likely to encounter such an obstacle. Nor will more applause be directed at a blackjack table, located stage left, than toward the opening band.

But such is the reality of performing in Las Vegas - er, make that Summerlin - specifically, at Red Rock.

Two additional lifeguards were center stage Thursday night, but DJ Danger Mouse and singer Cee-Lo were not there to save lives. The duo, which don thematic costumes when in public, wore red swimming trunks to either reflect the bizarreness of playing poolside or to mock "Baywatch."

Nevertheless, with a bikini-clad string quartet at their side, the Baltimore-based surprise superstars played to an unfortunately apathetic crowd scattered around the casino's three-acre pool.

Gnarls Barkley might be the biggest music phenomenon you've never heard of - though you've surely heard their massively popular single, "Crazy." All summer, the song has ridden high on the charts both here and in the U.K., where it matched Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" for most weeks at No. 1 and was the first single to reach that spot based solely on download sales. The song has also appeared on nine different Billboard charts, including hip-hop, dance, pop and adult contemporary - a testament to its undeniably broad appeal.

"Crazy's" meteoric success, however, hasn't lifted the group to similar heights. Case in point: Instead of playing to a packed arena at MGM Grand, they rallied roughly 2,300 people to a 2,900-person venue on the edge of town.

Even Joe Santiago, the Station Casinos executive who booked the show, admitted he hadn't heard the 13 other songs on "St. Elsewhere," the duo's album. His wife asked him whether Charles Barkley's brother was performing.

Much of the mostly young crowd shared those sentiments. Conversations were heard explaining exactly what Gnarls Barkley is (the duo is no relation to the former NBA power forward), and it was clear many paid $40 just to hear "Crazy."

It was the only point during the evening when both crowd and performers were mutually excited.

It's unclear whether Thursday's show was a bigger departure for the performers or the venue - and that confusion says a lot about the awkwardly expanding Vegas music scene.

Gnarls Barkley is a bit experimental, a bit difficult to categorize and hardly established. "Crazy" is a spaghetti Western soundtrack turned digital, fused with Cee-Lo's soulful lyrics. The rest of the album spans topics (necrophilia to schizophrenia) and sounds (acoustic guitar to turntable).

Station Casinos, which owns Red Rock, is known for booking established acts in established genres such as rock, country, jazz and blues. A commitment to booking acts other than the typical Vegas fare, as only the Hard Rock and the House of Blues do consistently, could establish Station as a new conduit for fresh music.

Santiago, a UNLV business management grad, slipped into a bit of marketing-speak, calling Thursday's performance "a great branding show" and outlined how Station was "building equity" each time they booked a major act.

Until Thursday night, though, the most significant show at the Summerlin casino was Sting - proving there's plenty more equity to be had.

But it seemed equally paradoxical for Danger Mouse, who has talked at length about the art of music, to take the stage in a city where performances are more often consumed than appreciated.

The discord was at times obvious.

Early in the show, Cee-Lo asked where the Gnarls Barkley fans were. Following a meek response, he quipped, "Too bad they couldn't make it." Later in the show he pleaded, "I'm not boring you all too much, am I?" And, even less rhetorically, he asked, "This is the party town right?" (He didn't seem convinced by that response, either.)

Even with a major hit under its belt, Gnarls Barkley was too experimental, too nuanced and maybe too ironic to succeed on a Vegas stage.

Before the show started, Santiago said, "We have to be very aggressive in looking at emerging talent. We don't always get them."

But, when a group who has gone platinum and broken two significant records overseas is still considered "emerging" in the context of Las Vegas, it's probably a sign that this town has yet to build a stage for truly emergent artists.