Monday, Sept. 25, 2006 | 7:18 a.m.
If Mickey Spillane were alive, he'd have written that the beautiful blond lounge singer had more curves than the Pacific Coast Highway, and her low-cut dress clung to every one of them as if for dear life.
She stood at the edge of the small stage at the Sahara's Casbar Lounge, singing like a lark.
Kim Styles was fronting Gary Steven's band, Fast Company. The group was there for a 30-minute gig, bringing in the crowd for the main attraction, longtime Vegas comedian Tony D'Andrea.
I hadn't seen Styles in almost a year. The last time was at a lounge at Wynn Las Vegas, shortly before Steve Wynn decided to purge the $2 billion resort of live entertainment.
Vegas lounges, those with flesh-and-blood performers, are going the way of dinosaurs, replaced by the ultra-rooms geared toward younger crowds raised on techno music and who treat DJs like celebrities.
Too bad. Future generations will miss the experience of listening to (and watching) Styles and Fast Company and hundreds of singers and musicians like them.
The Sahara is one of the few venues that seems to value old-style Vegas entertainment. Its lounge features a rotating cast of performers.
When Styles began to sing - from a songbook that ranged from the Latin pop of Gloria Estefan to the country of Faith Hill - the room was empty, save for myself and, sitting across the way, an elderly woman sipping from a glass of beer.
Gradually, as the music reached out into the casino, people began drifting in - singles, couples, groups. The set ended too quickly, but the group had done its job - bringing in a crowd for the comedian.
"It's been a bit of a struggle," said Styles, a Vegas entertainer for almost 11 years. "When Wynn closed his lounge, a lot followed suit. It's been kind of detrimental."
At Wynn, she sang with brothers Howard and Phillip Baker. They still work together occasionally, the last time at a corporate gig for Wynn a month ago. She says there's no hard feelings about being let go; it's the nature of the business. "He may have some work for me yet," she said.
Meanwhile she's doing more corporate dates, teaching voice, singing at weddings and funerals and in church, and the occasional lounge.
Earlier this year, the Rhode Island native cut a country album in Nashville, and the single, "Afraid to Love You," is getting some radio play.
"I'm fighting the good fight, struggling forward," she said. "It's such a shame. There are so many of us out there, and so many people who want to hear live entertainment. But the casinos are saying that's old school, the way Vegas used to move, and we've got to move in another direction. It's ridiculous.
"If you don't you just go under in this town," Styles said. "A lot of my friends have done just that. They've left town or left the business."
Spectrum hits the road
The humble Boardwalk casino disappeared in a cloud of dust earlier this year to make way for the Strip's latest mega-development, CityCenter.
But Spectrum, which entertained fans there with R&B classics, walked away from the implosion unscathed. The lounge quartet - founder Cushney Roberts, Darryl Grant, David Prescott and Pierre Jovan - is hitting the symphonic road.
Over the next few months the group will perform pops programs with the Wichita Symphony Orchestra, the Rochester Philharmonic, Jacksonville Symphony, Long Beach Symphony, Florida Symphony, New Mexico Symphony and San Antonio Symphony Orchestra.
Spectrum formed 11 years ago as a Four Tops tribute group, but gradually expanded its repertoire to include acts ranging from the Mills Brothers to Boyz II Men.
Ka-TV
"Ka" gained a national audience during Thursday's season premier of "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," which featured the Cirque du Soleil production.
Will the exposure on TV's No. 1 show translate into increased attendance?
"Anyone who watched 'CSI' probably wasn't thinking about coming to Las Vegas for six or seven months. It's going to be hard to quantify - but we knew it was never going to be a losing situation," "Ka" company manager Calum Pearson said.
The cast, crew and media members were invited to a sneak preview inside the Ka Theater on a screen that seemed to be about 100 times bigger than the average TV screen. One of the episode's multiple plots involved a young couple sneaking into "Ka's" technically complex backstage area and the woman being crushed by gigantic elevators.
Several times during the show, cast and crew broke into laughter or applause, including a discussion of Portuguese cork. "It was an inside joke. We really do use Portuguese cork instead of sand" in a beach scene, Pearson said. "It is imported every single month, an exclusive element of the show. We gave ('CSI') some ideas on how it could be used in the script, and that was done."
Pearson said everyone was happy with the way the story played out on TV. He stressed that what happened in the script could not happen in reality.
"No one could find their way into the theater the way they did," Pearson said. "One of the things we were ensuring was to make sure it wasn't something that could be repeated in real life."
Birthday parties
Drummer Benny Bennet, lounge performer Howie Gold and entertainer Kelly Clinton all celebrated birthdays with recent parties.
Some performers are sensitive about their age. Not Bennet, who celebrated No. 84 during his regular gig at Rocco Capozzoli's, the legendary Italian restaurant and nightspot. Gold kicked off a regular gig at PJ McRae's (formerly Club Monaco) with a party that drew a large crowd of friends. Clinton drew a standing-room-only crowd for her regular Monday night Celebrity Karaoke at the Bootlegger.
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