While Las Vegas Sleeps…

Having been open for well over a month, last night I finally ventured out with my friend Christopher Nolan to LAX to take a look around Las Vegas’ newest superclub. I’ve heard good things, but I’ve been really busy as of late, and in general I tend to avoid club openings and the celebrity worshipping madness that takes place around such things. Most importantly, though, I really just enjoy partying at a club once it has a real solid weekly night of good music and dancing and has some recognizable faces in the crowd. These things take time, my friend…

So anyhow we ventured out for a bit. There is a lot of construction still taking place at the Luxor, which rumor has it, by the way, might not be the Luxor for very much longer. The more new bars and space redesigns they go through over there the more dated and gaudy the existing faux-’gyptian decor is looking. I’ve read about ongoing discussions in management at MGM Mirage renaming the place “The Pyramid” to go with it’s newer, hipper look. Okay, I’m all for remodeling. I’m all for rebranding if you think you can pull it off and not undermine the existing customer base in the name of being “hip.” ..But “The Pyramid??” Come on guys… MGM Mirage can afford the best brand consultants on planet Earth. Geometric shape descriptions are not good enough to be a new brand identity. What’s next? Renaming the MGM Grand “Green?” I think we can do a little better than that, but I digress…

Once we made it around the around the center construction area of the Luxor’s casino floor I saw the entrance to LAX and quite a line to go with it. That’s not surprising at all for Las Vegas, even for a Wednesday night, but still we had no trouble getting in due to some local love at the door. Up the stairs and through a red-lit hallway and into a round foyer, I admired the middle of the area. I’m assuming there was something in the structure of the hotel that required them want to build this big round structure to cover up some obtrusive thing, but I suppose it could have been just for random looks, as well. It’s a really large, leather, padded.. uhm round thing? Quite tall, difficult to describe in terms of purpose… Kelly was with us and says it smells good. “Leathery!” An apt description of smell for something that’s made of leather. Anyhow, whatever the purpose of it, it seemed catch our attention for a bit.

Around the other side of the thing is the entrance to the club. As you enter the main club area you are on the second floor of the entire place, looking out over the dance floor. It’s a great view.. I like the layout of the entire place. It’s shaped like a jogging track, with the DJ booth in the middle of one side and two levels of booths and balconies around the other three sides (essentially identical to Studio 54, layout-wise.) The lighting system was great. I heard sound system clipping a little, though, but it’s possible it was getting overloaded by the DJ and not really the house system’s fault. It definitely could have stood to be a little more powerful, particularly on the low end. The only other problem I really saw with LAX Las Vegas was lower level’s restroom hallway area. There is a major stagnant airflow issue there - smoke was hanging horribly in the air and I was hating it. I actually watched a security guy fanning the air in a feudal attempt to try and get it to move out of his face. I suspect they will be addressing this issue since the staff is already noticing it being a real problem.

All in all, the club is very well done. The decor - mostly in reds, with black glass chandeliers high in the ceiling and candlelight flourishes all above the DJ - creates a great environment. Like all such superclubs, though, it’s the music and people and the vibe inside that will ultimately determine the place’s fate. I’ll be back, but next time it’ll be when there’s a good weekly going on and I have the whole crew out with me. For now, LAX Las Vegas is off to a good start.

[Pardon the quality of the photos - I just had my little digital camera last night. There'll be more, better photos in the future...]

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