Unplugged tunes in a neon city

By Joe Brown

Thursday, Aug. 7, 2008 | 2 a.m.

One of the most plugged-in cities in the world, Las Vegas seems to have every kind of entertainment you could wish for. But we’re not operating at full power in some categories — for one thing, there’s hardly anywhere to get unplugged on the Strip.

While other cities such as Washington and San Francisco have lively acoustic music scenes and venues, here in Vegas you have to know where to look.

One place to start is Acoustic Strip, a free, weekly Thursday night showcase of original music at the House of Blues. It occasionally attracts a national headliner such as Duncan Sheik or Ari Hest, but the night is geared toward Vegas locals, with 80 percent resident performers and 20 percent touring acts.

Acoustic Strip continues at 9 tonight with One Pin Short, a Vegas-based ska-reggae outfit that opened for Dirty South rap-rockers Rehab on Tuesday on the House of Blues main stage; young Vegas rockers Think; singer-songwriter Julianne Lassard; and actor-singer Thomas Ian Nicholas (“Rookie of the Year,” “American Pie”), a Vegas native performing in a duo with singer-songwriter Loni Rose.

“Acoustic music is relatively rare in Vegas,” says Michael Soli, who books and produces the event, and hosts the evening from the soundboard at the back of the room. “And it’s rare that it’s been embraced by a large multinational corporation (House of Blues).”

Soli, an acoustic performer himself, says his record collection is “embarrassingly singer-songwriter-ish,” with heavy representation by John Gorka, James Taylor, David Wilcox and Cheryl Wheeler, among others. He was drawn to the acoustic form, he says, “because to me, the essence of any great song is melody and accompaniment. If you can’t pull that off, I’m not interested.”

When he moved to Las Vegas, Soli noticed something was missing.

“There was nothing for acoustic music lovers, except for open mike nights and small things here and there,” he says.

So he pitched a show called Acoustic Asylum to the Palms in 2001. Management liked it and locals supported it.

“After that, House of Blues reached out and said, ‘Hey, we want to do an original music night at the House of Blues. All we do is cater to tourists. We want to do more than that,’ ” Soli says. “Of course, the conventioneers and casino guests come in and enjoy it as well but it’s locally driven, that’s what’s so cool about it. In the last few months, other shows are sprouting up on the Strip that are supporting original music and that’s great.”

The Aruba Hotel, for instance, offers a no-cover indie rock singer-songwriter night called Resodence every first, third and fifth Thursday of the month.

Soli is politely interrupted by a waiter who comes by to pitch tonight’s Southern-style dinner specials: surf and turf, and jambalaya.

We settle on catfish nuggets and sweet potato fries, and he continues.

Acoustic Strip thrives in Las Vegas, Soli says, because there’s a deep and varied talent pool here, with a steady churn of young bands looking for exposure and eager to get House of Blues on their resumes, and performers from Cirque and Strip shows seeking outlets for their original material. Stephanie Jordan, lead singer at the Fantasy revue next door at the Luxor, plays the Acoustic Strip every now and then, and the guys from Blue Man Group have shown up — out of makeup — to perform their own music.

“Most bands or performers that play this show don’t ordinarily play acoustically — it’s not their forte,” Soli says. “But here’s what happens: Their fans go crazy for it. In this format, you can hear everything. For out-of-town bands, if they’re doing three or four nights in a row of doing heavy, heavy crazy-loud shows, to break it down acoustic for one night is good for them, too.”

There are other benefits to pulling the plug, Soli says.

“Touring performers will often hook up with the locals and say ‘Hey, thank you for packing the house for me tonight, I sold X-number of CDs. Whenever you want to come to L.A., you can open for us and we’ll bring out a hundred of our fans.’ ”

Soli says several artists who have played at Acoustic Strip have gotten offers to play corporate and convention gigs or have been invited to open for national acts downstairs at the House of Blues main stage.

Still, it’s tough for relative unknowns to draw a crowd, and Acoustic Strip depends on the bands to get the word out to their own fans.

“Even with MySpace and street team and heavy promotion, if you’re not from this market, it’s tough to get people to come out and see you play,” Soli says. “So if the locals can supply you with the bodies, and you can connect with them and create new fans, they’ll do the same for you when you’re in their market.

“It works for everybody,” Soli says. “From a production standpoint, it’s easy. The fans can watch if they want to, chat if they want to, eat dinner. And at the end of the day, it’s profitable.”

A recent showcase was opened by Bonnie Mizell, who frequently sings at the Paris, Rio and Orleans casino showrooms.

“I mainly have to play cover songs, so this is special for me,” Mizell tells the crowd. “I get to sing my own songs, share my original stuff.” Accompanying herself on electric piano, performing beneath a sign that says “Have Mercy Las Vegas” in light bulbs, Mizell belts tunes from her new CD, “Two Sides,” in the soulful folk vein of Patty Griffin.

Next up is Summit Grove, a young band of UNLV freshmen. Earnest and impressive, with a sound and lyric style reminiscent of Death Cab for Cutie, they’ve brought along a high-spirited audience of school friends and parents.

Closing out the night is the Andy Walo Trio from Los Angeles (Walo played lead guitar with Junior Wells for several years), and Las Vegas blues rock hero John Zito, who was celebrating the release of his new CD.

At this point, it should be noted that Acoustic Strip can be plenty loud — it takes a lot of amps and extension cords to put on an unplugged show in a noisy restaurant.

“The people who are in that room want to be in that room,” says Joe Taylor, who flew in from New York to open a recent show, armed only with his acoustic guitar. “It’s really different from a New York venue, where you have to fight for attention.”

A singer-songwriter who earned his chops entertaining in subways and train stations — The New York Times called him “Subway Idol” — with the look of a young Jackson Browne and the powerhouse voice of a Steve Perry, Taylor compelled everyone to listen to a set of his own songs.

“It’s a lot harder to get people’s attention when you’re performing acoustically, and especially when you’re playing original songs,” he says. “You can’t hide behind anything — every mistake is amplified when you play unplugged.”

Taylor says his Vegas stay inspired him to write a new song.

“After a few drinks over at Circus Circus, I got to thinking about the whole idea of the casinos, with the slot machines that are ringing all the time. That spawned a swirly, carnival-sounding song that basically says I wouldn’t want to live in a world without silence.”