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PUBLISHED IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE OBSERVER MEDIA GROUP

Vegas Seven, 702-798-7000, 302 E. Carson Avenue, Las Vegas, NV 89101

Vegas Seven is distributed each Thursday throughout Southern Nevada

c 2016 Vegas Seven, LLC. Reproduction in whole or in part without the permission of Vegas Seven, LLC is prohibited.

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P U B L I S H E RMichael Skenandore

E D I T O R I A LEDITORIAL DIRECTOR Nicole Ely

MANAGING EDITOR Genevie Durano

DEPUTY EDITOR Paul Szydelko

SENIOR EDITOR, DINING, BEVERAGE & NIGHTLIFE , Xania Woodman

SENIOR EDITOR, A&E Geoff Carter

ASSOCIATE EDITOR Hubble Ray Smith

SENIOR WRITER Lissa Townsend Rodgers

STAFF WRITER Emmily Bristol

CALENDAR COORDINATOR Ian Caramanzana

S E N I O R C O N T R I B U T I N G E D I T O RMelinda Sheckells (style)

C O N T R I B U T I N G E D I T O R SMichael Green (politics), Al Mancini (dining),

David G. Schwartz (gaming/hospitality)

A R TCREATIVE DIRECTOR Ryan Olbrysh

SENIOR DESIGNER Cierra Pedro

STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Krystal Ramirez

V E G A S S E V E N . C O MTECHNICAL DIRECTOR Herbert Akinyele

ENGAGEMENT EDITOR Zoneil Maharaj

SENIOR WRITER, RUNREBS.COM Mike Grimala

WEB PRODUCER Jessie O’Brien

ASSISTANT WEB PRODUCER Amber Sampson

P R O D U C T I O N / D I S T R I B U T I O NDIRECTOR OF PRODUCTION/DISTRIBUTION Marc Barrington

ADVERTISING MANAGER Jimmy Bearse

S A L E SBUSINESS DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR Christy Corda

DIGITAL SALES MANAGER Nicole Scherer

ACCOUNT MANAGERS Brittany Quintana, Steven Kennedy

ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES Robyn Weiss

DIRECTOR OF SALES, BILLBOARD DIVISION John Tobin

I N T E R N SJasmina Salas, Ally Tatosian

Ryan T. Doherty | Justin Weniger

PRESIDENT Michael Skenandore

VICE PRESIDENT, MARKETING AND EVENTS Keith White

CREATIVE DIRECTOR Sherwin Yumul

CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER Sim Salzman

CONTROLLER Jane Weigel

LAS VEGAS’ WEEKLY CITY MAGAZINE | FOUNDED FEBRUARY 2010

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➜ NEIGHBORHOOD CASINOS WERE barely an afterthought in 1976 when Frank Fertitta Jr. opened the 5,000-square-foot Casino that was part of the Mini Price Motor Inn on Sahara Avenue.

It was only a mile or so from the bright lights of the fabulous Strip, but that was a long desert mile.

Fertitta envisioned a different kind of gambling hall, one that catered to people who lived and worked in Las Vegas, and he brought them in with exceptional value and service. The Casino had about 100 slot machines, a few table games and a snack bar, and quickly became a favorite hang-out for locals. A year later, the Casino expanded with a bingo room and changed its name to Bingo Palace.

Fertitta came to Las Vegas in 1960 from Galveston, Texas, and worked his way from bellman at the Tropi-

cana hotel to dealer and eventually general manager of the Fremont hotel and casino.

“Since the early ’70s, I had wanted to open a casino as an alternative to the Strip and Downtown that could offer loose slot machines, great food and value for the locals’ dollar,” he said at the time. “There was just no-where to go on the west side of town.”

Over the years, Bingo Palace added more gambling machines, table games and amenities. Fertitta wanted his guests to play a part in the casino’s evolution, so he held a contest to rename the property, re-ceiving 2,600 entries in three weeks. Las Vegan Claire Jarvis took the prize with her suggestion of Palace Station.

Fertitta’s sons, Frank III and Lorenzo, worked at the casino and learned the gaming business, eventually taking over the company

in 1993 when their father retired. They named the company Station Casinos and took it public with an IPO (Initial Public Offering) in 1993.

Recognizing the locals’ gam-ing market potential as Las Vegas grew, the Fertitta brothers opened Boulder Station in 1994. They went upscale (with the American Nevada Corp.) for the opening of Green Val-ley Ranch Resort in 2001, and took it to another level with Red Rock Resort in 2006. Along the way, they acquired other properties, includ-ing the Texas, Fiesta in North Las Vegas and Henderson and Santa Fe.

Today, Station Casinos (now known as Red Rock Resorts after another IPO in April) has grown into a gaming conglomerate with 19 properties and more than 12,000 employees. The com-pany recently announced it would acquire the Palms on Flamingo Road, paying $312 million for the property originally developed by George Maloof.

Station Casinos’ evolution has ex-panded the entertainment offerings beyond gaming and food to include movie theaters, bowling alleys, even an ice rink at Fiesta Rancho. Some properties have supervised day care, spas and concert venues.

The company’s casinos are a des-tination for anyone who lives in the Valley, Station spokeswoman Lori Nelson says.

“Our properties are great for a date night, group of guys hang-ing out on a football Saturday or Sunday or (NCAA tournament) March Madness, a family evening out to include the kids for a dinner and either bowling or the movies together. There’s truly something for everyone.”

It hasn’t been all sunshine and roses for the gaming company. In 2009, after the Fertittas had taken Station Casinos back as a private company, they filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, listing $5.7 billion in assets against $6.5 billion in liabili-ties. The filing stated that the com-pany had 510 holders of unsecured and subordinate debt totaling $4.4 billion. It emerged from bankrupt-cy two years later, led by Frank and Lorenzo. They invested about $200 million for a 45 percent share in the restructured company. Other own-ers include lenders Deutsche Bank AG (25 percent), JP Morgan Chase (15 percent), Colony Capital and a number of bondholders.

Red Rock Resorts kicked off its 40th anniversary with a fireworks show on July 1, the date the first ca-sino opened, and will continue the celebration with player promotions throughout the month of July.

News, deals and

a special perk for real people.THE LATEST

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Station Casinos Celebrates 40 YearsHow the company defined locals gaming in the city

By Hubble Ray Smith

THU 7 When the zombie horde arrives,

you’re going to need some

hand-to-hand combat skills. At Combat-

Con, through Sunday at the Westgate,

you’ll learn sword fighting, martial arts,

how to handle a broad axe — all the

stuff that will keep you from becoming

undead. CombatCon.com.

FRI 8 This year’s NBA Summer

League features the record-set-

ting Golden State Warriors, one of 24

teams that will be tipping off at the

Thomas & Mack Center and Cox Pavilion

through July 18. Best part: One ticket

gets you up to eight games in a single

day. UNLVTickets.com.

SAT 9 The year is half over and you

still haven’t acted on your New

Year’s resolution to get off the couch?

It’s not too late. Sign up for UFC’s Ulti-

Man 5K, which includes a beginner-

friendly one-mile option and fitness

stations along the route. 7 a.m. at Town

Square. MyTownSquareLasVegas.com.

SUN 10 Light is ubiquitous, mysteri-

ous and malleable. Light is

cool. Explore it at Springs Preserve’s

newest exhibit, Playing With Light,

daily through September 5. Sneak past

a laser security light, draw with infra-

red light, walk inside a giant kaleido-

scope and more. SpringsPreserve.org.

MON 11 If you aren’t aware of all the

excellent local theater being

produced here, consider the 2016 Valley

Theatre Awards an appetizer. The show,

8 p.m. at The Smith Center, includes

performances from the year’s best pro-

ductions and previews of upcoming pro-

ductions. TheSmithCenter.com.

TUE 12 “Disconnected: The Creation

of an American Phenomenon”

addresses that more-is-less feeling that

can creep up on Valley residents. The ex-

hibit combines objects from the Neon

Museum with footage from the National

Atomic Testing Museum to create a

uniquely Vegas experience. Through Au-

gust 8 at Donna Beam Gallery. UNLV.edu.

WED 13 Wet ’n’ Wild has a fantastic

deal going on: buy a day, get

the rest of the season for free. That

means splashing, sliding and frolicking

daily through August and weekends in

September. WetNWildLasVegas.com.

Seven DaysThis week in your cityBy B O B W H I T B Y

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Readers often ask me to jog their memories about Vegas places that used to be. These “What was the name of?” queries are perfect for a sleepy summer moment like this one. Ready?

What was the name of …

... THE RESTAURANT THAT IS NOW FIREFLY ON

PARADISE ROAD? In the ’70s and ’80s it was

the Brewery, a restaurant and nightclub infa-

mous for drug-fueled shenanigans. John Tra-

volta danced the night away here, while my

only experience was at an aunt’s wedding re-

ception. Later, it became Tyrannosaurus Mex,

a Mexican cantina that quickly morphed into

T-Mex, featuring nachos and live alternative

rock for the UNLV crowd. For a while, it was

an inviting branch of Z'Tejas (of Southwest-

ern fare and the fabled Big Stick margaritas),

and has been Firefly for three years now.

... THE FANCY JOINT AT RANCHO DRIVE AND

CHARLESTON BOULEVARD WHERE ALL THE

VEGAS SOCIALITES CONVENED? That could

be David’s Place, a gourmet eatery east of

the intersection. It was bombed in 1976, re-

putedly the victim of a union dispute, and is

now an empty lot. The other alternative is

the Aristocrat, a gourmet French restaurant

in the Rancho Town & Country strip mall;

it has been a video poker bar for about 15

years. Both were located just a skip from the

old-money neighborhoods of Rancho Circle,

Rancho Bel Air and Rancho Nevada, which

explains the fur coats often worn by patrons

exiting limos. I never visited David’s Place, but

my experience at the Aristocrat was a surreal

lunch meeting with maverick casino man Bob

Stupak while working with a BBC crew.

... THE ROCK ’N’ ROLL RESTAURANT AND BAR

ON WEST SAHARA AVENUE IN THE 1980S?

Just when you thought House of Blues

brought the Louisiana-style, two-story

rock-and-dine concept to Las Vegas, up

pops a 1989 UNLV Rebel Yell article about

Paradise Alley. The freestanding club

opened on December 1, 1988, for “people

who love rock ’n’ roll and want to come

have a good time in a class atmosphere,”

according to owner Jon Galane. Contribut-

ing to that atmosphere? A “new standard

for lighting in Vegas nightclubs,” a sound

system that “blows away anything in this

town” and, of course, sexy waitstaff “in ris-

qué Playboy bunny-type costumes” known

as Alley Cats. About 1992, the spot became

Big Dog’s Brewery, until 2013. It’s now slot

parlor Jackpot Joanie’s. Today, rockers

can roll just west to Count’s Vamp’d. … All

of which just goes to prove that there ain’t

nothing new under the Vegas sun.

Have a question about Las Vegas,

past, present or future? Send it to

askanative@vegasseven.com.

J A M E S P . R E Z A

LVMPD Celebrates Its Best➜ They’re on the streets protecting and serving us every

day, so how about showing a little appreciation for the Las

Vegas Metropolitan Police Department?

The LVMPD Foundation is holding its fourth annual Best

of the Badge fundraising gala July 8 at Red Rock Resort.

Proceeds from the event help to fund 30 programs, including

assistance to families of fallen officers, education of teenage

drivers and placement of state-of-the-art firearms training and

target identification systems at the LVMPD Firearms Range.

The Foundation, established in 1999, is dedicated to pre-

venting crime, saving lives and making the Valley a safer

place to live, work and play, says Thomas Kovach, execu-

tive director of Friends of LVMPD Foundation.

The gala pays tribute to Metro officers who put the lives

of others ahead of their own to make a difference in public

safety, he says.

“All too often, we are reminded of the dangers that come

with wearing a badge, and this event allows our officers

to get the recognition that they deserve and gives com-

munity members the opportunity to show their support for

LVMPD,” Kovach says.

Tickets to the gala are $150 and can be purchased at

LVMPDFoundation.org.

The Foundation helps families of officers killed in the

line of duty with travel costs to attend memorial ceremo-

nies in Washington, D.C., where the officers’ names are

added to a national monument each spring.

In addition to a cocktail reception and silent auction,

the Best of the Badge gala features a gourmet dinner and

commendation program that highlights the heroic efforts

and life-saving actions of Metro officers and staff.

“By the time the commendations conclude, there isn’t a

dry eye in the room,” Kovach says. –Hubble Ray Smith

➜ The fifth annual UFC International Fight Week, the world’s largest celebration of mixed martial arts combat, is being held in Las Vegas this week and features the UFC Fan Expo, 2016 UFC Hall of Fame induction ceremony and the landmark UFC 200.

Three fights are scheduled in three nights, headlined by the UFC 200 bout between Daniel Cormier and Jon Jones on July 9 at the T-Mobile Arena. It’s a heavily anticipated rematch between the light heavyweights, with Jones coming out on top at UFC 182 in January 2015. He was later stripped of his title after a hit-and-run arrest.

Fighting starts with a matchup between Rafael Dos Anjos and Eddie Alvarez for the world lightweight championship July 7 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, followed by the Ultimate Fighter Finale with UFC straw-weight champion Joanna Jedrze-jczyk in a title defense against top-ranked contender Claudia Gahelha July 8 at MGM.

UFC legend Chuck Liddell, who is coming to Vegas for

the event, says this weekend deserves all the hype it’s getting. With three current UFC cham-pions and six former champi-ons, the fight card will have the most firepower he’s ever seen.

“The card is ridiculous,” Lid-dell says. “The UFC is providing a must-see spectacle for every-one from the die-hard MMA fans to the casual sports and enter-tainment fan. I’m excited to see the fights on Saturday night.”

The week tops off with the UFC Fan Expo July 8-10 at Las Vegas Convention Center. En-compassing more than 600,000 square feet, the expo gives fans an opportunity to meet athletes during autograph and photo sessions, and to participate in various sponsored activities. The UFC Fan Expo will also include amateur martial arts tournaments featuring athletes from around the world.

Tickets for the event start at $45 for a one-day pass, $65 for two days and $75 for all three days.

The 2016 UFC Hall of Fame induction is scheduled for noon July 10. Among the pioneer class of 2016 inductees are Brazil’s Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, who compiled a 34-10-1 career record in 15 years; and Arizona’s Don “The Predator” Frye, who notched a 10-1 record during four events over an 11-month span in 1996. Pioneer athletes are those who turned pro before November 17, 2000. Other cat-egories are modern era (athletes who turned pro after November 17); a contributors wing (signifi-cant contributions and accom-plishments outside the Octagon); and a fight wing (most legendary fights before July 10, 2011).

There will be viewing parties, concerts and charitable events leading up to the weekend bouts.

Fight ClubMMA mixes it up at

weeklong celebration

By Hubble Ray Smith

Daniel Cormier

and Jon Jones.

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The Life of a Backyard MermaidCool off during the dog days of summer by taking a playful dip in candy-colored swim looks

Kore Swim Athena bikini top ($112) and bottom ($113) in Blue Serpent; KoreWear.com.

Vitamin A Rayna Maillot, $220, Nordstrom in Fashion Show, VitaminASwim.com

Paul Smith Polka Dot bikini top and bottom, $95, Paul Smith in Crystals.

Peixoto Flamingo one-piece, $115; ShopBop.com.

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Your city after dark, photos from the week’s hottest parties and a little womp and wobble

NIGHTLIFE

Stay What You Are

How a basement music ritual for teens became a

nationally touring party for the enduring emo scene

By Ian Caramanzana

Alex Badanes (left), Yellowcard’s Ryan Key (center) and Ethan Maccoby.

➜ IN JANUARY 2015, about 100 partiers packed a tiny room in Brooklyn’s Cameo bar to witness a DJ set by Ethan Maccoby and Alex Badanes. Their collaborative set list didn’t include the hottest trap banger or newest tropical-house hit, however; it didn’t consist of any EDM or hip-hop at all, for that matter. As the line for entry curved around the block, the denizens inside screamed back lyrics to a curated selection of early 2000s emo/pop punk. But this isn’t some bizarre cult ritual; this is Emo Night Brooklyn. Maccoby and Badanes have since provided doses of

swoopy haired nostalgia to thousands in New York, Las Vegas, Toronto and Lon-don, and the party’s just getting started.

This story begins on the foggy streets of London. “Ethan and I have been best friends since we were 4, and we’ve al-ways clicked when it comes to music,” says Badanes. The two, both 26, were particularly fond of American rock bands at the time, acts such as Yellowcard and Taking Back Sunday, who were spear-heading the emo/pop-punk revival of the early aughts. They’d attend concerts on a weekly basis, and if there wasn’t one

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NIGHTLIFE

scheduled during a particular week, they’d take matters into their own hands. “We’d play emo and pop punk in our parents’ basement,” Badanes says. “We’d rock out and have the best time. Sometimes there was beer involved—actually there was beer in-volved the majority of the time.”

The childhood friends moved to Bos-ton together to attend college (Badanes at Berklee College of Music; Maccoby at Tufts), and their bond remained strong. They continued the weekly tradition of attending concerts, which were more accessible given the geography, and jammed out in their dorm rooms if no such event was happening. Mind you, these were mainly listening parties, but air guitar and air drums were definitely involved. “It became our favorite activ-ity—the perfect pregame for concerts. Then we both moved to apartments in New York and suddenly, all of our friends got involved,” Badanes says. The move to the Big Apple marked a turning point for the two, as they moved their dance parties to the basement of Cameo, a small bar across from Badanes’ apart-ment. The result was groundbreaking.

“It exceeded our biggest expectations. We invited friends for a party with free beer and no cover, and it was absolutely insane right off the bat. Everybody was singing to Saves the Day, and the line went out the door.”

Emo Night at Cameo became a monthly event, and the turnout exploded such that Badanes and Mac-coby were forced to move the party to bigger rooms. They spread the word via Facebook and relentlessly promoted the flier online, which garnered local press, which, in turn, grew the parties even bigger. Their dreams came true when a local 800-capacity venue, Brooklyn Bowl, opened its doors to the party. “It’s one of our favorite spots. We live near there, we go to shows there,” Badanes says. Although they were ner-vous, the night sold out, and more than 800 people indulged in nostalgia via songs by My Chemical Romance, New Found Glory and others of the genre. Emo Night Brooklyn became a recur-

ring event, getting co-signs and guest spots from the likes of Jordan Pundik of New Found Glory and Fred Mascherino of Taking Back Sunday. It opened the doors for the party to go national—which brings us to Las Vegas.

After seeing the party’s success in New York, Brooklyn Bowl Las Vegas reached out to Badanes and Maccoby to bring the party to the center of the Strip. The gig, set as an after-party for the New Found Glory and Yellowcard concert in No-vember, would be the most daunting endeavor yet, representing a number of firsts: It was the first time the two would take the

party west of the Mississippi, and the first time they’d spin after a live band, which proved to be nerve-racking. “People just watched two amazing emo bands play live; now they’re just going to listen to it,” Maccoby says. “We had the help of Ryan [Key, singer/guitarist of Yellowcard], who was doing a DJ set, but that’s the most nervous I’ve ever

been.” As Key, Maccoby and Badanes switched off on the virtual turntables, they saw that this party would work in Vegas, too. “Standing on that stage and saying, ‘What’s up, Vegas?’ was just so surreal, and everybody was into it!” says Maccoby. And they still are: The two re-cently locked in a bimonthly residency at Brooklyn Bowl Las Vegas.

So what drives thousands to dig up their old band tees and tight jeans just for a night? Badanes and Maccoby at-tribute it to the 10-year anniversary celebrations and tours of landmark albums such as New Found Glory’s Sticks and Stones and Brand New’s Deja Entendu. “The people in our age brack-et were kids when those albums came out, and now they’re adults in the real world with real jobs and real prob-lems. This is an escape,” Badanes says.

As for the future of Emo Night Brooklyn, Badanes and Maccoby hope to expand. “We want to bring it to more venues, more cities and have more guest DJs,” Maccoby says. “But if it gets smaller and we’re back to our bedrooms sipping beers while rock-ing out to Thrice, that’s cool, too.”

EMO NIGHT

BROOKLYN

$8, 11:30 p.m.

July 15,

Brooklyn Bowl,

BrooklynBowl.

com/Las-Vegas

FRIDAY, JULY 8

DJ MOSTHURSDAY, JULY 7

DJ POLITIK

SATURDAY, JULY 9

CONOR McGREGORHOSTS THE LAS VEGAS FIGHT WEEKEND AFTER-PARTY

WYNNSOCIAL.COM @INTRIGUEVEGAS

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You have a track with NGHTMRE

that’s not officially out yet, right?

We’re looking to put it out in a few months, I believe. Maybe next month. I’m not entirely sure.

Why not?

The second a song is finished, I want to release it as quickly as I possibly can. We finished

earlier this year, so we were planning on putting it out as soon as possible. Due to a variety of annoying occur-rences, it’s just getting pushed back. It’s like all contractual and legal stuff.

I’ve already heard it online.

Was that just a rip from a set?

We’ve been playing it, and

we’ve given it to a whole bunch of people for months now. It’s been all around the circuit. It’s weird: You’re working on music and then you don’t get to release it for a year and a half, and I just believe the concept of making music and stopping people from being able to listen to it seems ... it doesn’t seem like it should work like that. I make music so people can listen to it. So, yeah, writing a song, and then holding onto it for months so people can’t hear it is kind of against what I like. I just play music out straight away, and it gets ripped and it’s cool, as long as people are listening to it.

Is that your way around all of

the legal roadblocks?

It doesn’t necessarily please the label, or please my man-agement. I don’t really care. If someone’s going to find a copy of my track and download it illegally, I’d rather someone be listening to my music than be stopped from it. Just [because of] the fact that they want to listen to it, it should

be accessible to them. That’s the way I’ve always looked at it. I just play stuff out. I try not to keep stuff a secret.

Have you ever debuted a track,

then decided that you were

going to completely change it,

so then the rips aren’t of the

actual, finished song?

I can normally get away with playing something just randomly, at a few shows, and no one will really notice because it’s just kind of in the moment. Out of every 10 sets, maybe one will get recorded. I pick and choose which ones I test things out on, basically.

EDC Las Vegas, then, probably

didn’t get to hear your new work.

Yeah. If I worked on a new idea that morning, I probably won’t play it at EDC. Which is a good practice, because I’m not sure all those people paid all that money to hear some weird idea that I came up with. I always make sure that it’s as professional as possible.

How do you choose with

whom you work?

I’m always dreading that the new guys are going to be better. When I hear a new kid and his music excites me more than my own music, that kicks me up the arse to get more creative and get more experimental in my own stuff. NGHTMRE was like that. I heard his stuff and I thought, “Damn, his new things are better than my new things, so I need to kick myself up the arse and keep on top of this.”

Your collaborators keep you

working hard, then.

It’s really important for a new artist or an established artist to always be ready for someone to take your space, for someone to fill your shoes. If you get complacent and lazy and think you’re always going to be on top, someone’s going to take that from you—someone who’s hungrier, someone who works harder. So it’s important, wherever you are, to always just be prepared to work, and be prepared for it to all be over. P

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NIGHTLIFE

Hard HitsThe U.K.’s Flux Pavilion womped and wobbled

his way to the top, and works hard to stay there

By Kat Boehrer

➜ JOSH STEELE has created a dedicated following for himself under his artist name Flux Pavilion. Steele’s bass-heavy tracks helped push dubstep to the forefront of dance music in the 2010s, and he’s still playing his wobbly sounds for crowds including the sunbathing partiers of Rehab at Hard Rock Hotel on July 30. One thing that’s kept Steele on top of his game for so many years is his refusal to become comfortable within the music game. His philosophy on his art is that anything a new producer can do, he should be able to do … but better.

T I C K E T S & V I P R E S E R V A T I O N S | O M N I A N I G H T C L U B . C O M | 7 0 2 . 7 8 5 . 6 2 0 0 |

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Restaurant reviews, news and Pub 365 readies to pour

The first time I tried jamón de bellota, it made me ask, ‘Why hasn’t this

been a part of my life?’

SOME PIGS! | PAGE 53

DINING

➜ IS IT WRONG TO LUST AFTER A SANDWICH? Because I understand why Alvin Cailan named his egg sandwich restaurant Eggslut. During my days in New York City, I devoured quite a few of those sand-wiches. Day or night, on my way to work or after a long night of partying, a craving would arise and I just had to have it. I didn’t need to be romanced by a nice dining room. I’d take it where I could get it, which was just about anywhere. And it was always satisfying.

Then I came to Las Vegas, and they were gone—at least the good ones. I searched high and low for something to satisfy my cravings. Hell, I even settled for the occasional McMuffin. But it wasn’t the same.

Cailan knows this desire. “My family’s from New

York, but I grew up in L.A.,” he says. “So my mom would drop me off at my grandma’s house for the summer. And that bacon, egg and cheese [sandwich] was always in my head.”

During his time studying at Oregon Culinary Institute and cooking at the award-winning Castagna in Portland, Cailan had no trouble finding an egg sandwich to scratch that itch. But after relocating to California, first at Bouchon in Yountville and later at Spago and Hatfield’s in L.A., he hit a dry spell. “Liv-ing in L.A., it was nonexistent,” he says of his time in the egg-barren wilderness. “If you wanted a breakfast sandwich, you had to go to Starbucks.”

In 2011, Cailan abandoned the high-end restaurant

world and launched his Eggslut food truck. Its suc-cess inspired him to open a brick-and-mortar loca-tion in downtown L.A. in 2013 that became known for its long lines. Now he’s brought the concept to a tiny space that formerly served coffee and pastry on the second floor of the Cosmopolitan.

Eggslut is less a restaurant than a grab-and-go food stand. Guests order from a counter on the resort’s con-course and either take the food to go or share one long communal dining bar across from the open kitchen.

Given the place’s inspiration, it might surprise you to learn that the namesake dish on this 10-item menu is not a sandwich. The Eggslut is a glass jar filled with potato puree and topped with a coddled egg, gray

Incredible, Edible Egg-cellenceThere’s nothing shameful about Eggslut By Al Mancini

The Gaucho (left), cheeseburger (right) and the original Eggslut jar.

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Your second tenure with the band has long

outlasted the time you spent in retirement.

Does it still feel fresh to you, this second life

with Duran Duran?

Yeah. People still regard me as if I’ve freshly come back! They say, “God, Roger, it’s great that you came back. How is it?” It feels good; we’ve got something going that could really last a long time. None of us talk about retirement. The first time was a little bit like being caught in the middle of a storm, but we got through that, and we’re in a good place.

Do you feel like you’re still developing as

a player—learning new tricks, new licks?

We’re all developing as musicians. John and I were talking about this recently: You can't stand still as a player. You always have to try to keep moving for-ward, while you can. Every hour that you play develops your art, if you like. Considering the thousands of hours that we’ve played together over the last few years, there’s definitely been some development. We’ve also been playing with Dom Brown, our guitar player, for 10 years. We’re a tight, cohesive unit.

Though you're of the 1980s, Duran Duran

is not a nostalgia act. What motivates the

band to stay fresh, contemporary?

We’re motivated by our past success. It’s quite a big thing to live up to. But at the same time, we don’t want to be stuck in the past. We want to be current, mod-ern and vital. You want to be part of what’s next. That’s motivational in itself.

How often does the band write new songs?

Are you writing while on tour?

We never write on the road. When we’re touring, we have tunnel vision: It’s all about the show, and every ounce of energy that we have goes into the performance. I do hear of people that write on the road, but that’s never been something that we’ve done. We literally have to shut ourselves away for as long as it takes in a room to come up with new stuff. It’s one or the other for us.

Who are you listening to these days?

Who fires you up?

Tame Impala is big with us. I’m really loving the new Jess Glynne album at the moment; she’s an incredible singer. I can listen to a Led Zeppelin album, or to dance music; I like a lot of that. Everything and anything.

Let’s backtrack a bit. You’ve said in the past

that Chic was a big influence on your playing;

now, you’re touring with Chic’s Nile Rodgers.

Does that ever seem surreal?

It is surreal. Arriving at the venue ev-ery night to hear Nile Rodgers playing those incredible songs that he wrote and produced ... I remember as a teen-ager sitting in John’s bedroom listening to the early Chic records, thinking, “My God, this is incredible.” The rhythms and the textures of Chic were a major influence. To have had Nile producing our last record and playing with us is dreamlike, actually. He’s such a hero.

When was the first time that you felt fully

accomplished on the drums?

My first instrument was actually bass,

which I didn’t really get along very well with. Somebody at school sug-gested that I try the drums because they were looking for a drummer; everybody wants to be a guitar player or a singer. Drummers were a pretty rare commodity. And I sat down at the drums, and I felt that I could play. I listened to a lot of music, but I felt that I could play something off the bat, that I had a natural aptitude. But my father always believed that practice makes perfect, so I practiced and practiced.

By the time I got to jam with Duran Duran for the first time, I felt pretty good. John jammed with me on the bass and, hey, we weren’t Chic, but we could knock out a few funky rhythms.

What’s your favorite of the band’s songs

to play live?

I’ve got a soft spot for “Save a Prayer.” Something about the lyrics and the melody and the arrangement cap-tured something very special. It was a whole new side to the band: It wasn’t funky, it wasn’t disco, it wasn’t rock; it was a whole new vibe. And I’ve been really enjoying “Rio.” It’s high-energy; we wrote it when were 22, 23 years old. I still love playing that one.

Is there a track that you don’t play live,

but wish you could?

I’d love to see “To the Shore” put back into the set. It’s the darker side of Duran. That one’s dropped off down the back of the sofa; I’d like to play one again.

Would you ever consider playing a whole

album, start to finish, like some other bands

do? I ask because I love (Duran Duran side

project) Arcadia’s So Red The Rose, and I

wanna hear “Goodbye Is Forever” played live.

I don’t know if that’s going to happen. We do play some of the Arcadia stuff sometimes: We play “Election Day,” and we thought about playing “Lady Ice” possibly at some point. But John wasn’t involved in the Arcadia project, and it’s very much about the four of us at the moment. It’s probably not something we’d want to do, unless it was a complete diversion.

What’s your single favorite thing about

playing live with Duran Duran? Is there

a moment in the show where you think

to yourself, “I’m really glad I came back?"

The end of the show. It’s that moment of affirmation. Oftentimes, before the show, you can be tired; we may have just done a few shows in a row and you’re not particularly maybe in the mood to play, but that’s what we’re there for. But it’s an incred-ible feeling when you’ve completed a show, walk up to the audience and get that amazing audience feedback. That’s probably why we still do it—for that moment.

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Duran Duran performs at Life is Beautiful 2015.

DURAN DURAN WITH CHIC

FEATURING NILE RODGERS

July 29, 7 p.m. at Mandalay Bat Events

Center, $47-$138, 702-632-7777,

MandalayBay.com.

THE MOST FABULOUS THING

ON IMPROV BLVD.In which your nerdy showgirl enters the Hub

and goes full clown By Charlie Starling

➜ IN THE EARLY DAYS of this column, I promised to bring you to visit the Vegas Theatre Hub (VegasTheatreHub.com), Vegas’ improv and comedy school. The moment has finally come.

The Hub, led by the infectiously enthusiastic Darren Pitura (a Second City alumnus you can catch in Cirque Du Soleil’s Zumanity), has a new home: an old VFW Hall (705 Las Vegas Blvd. North) opposite the Neon Museum. (Performances will soon happen here, also.) The space is a work in progress, and a Kickstarter campaign is on its way to install a fully mobile stage, as well as a new box office and sound booth. As it stands, the VFW space is already a ton of fun to work in. The floor space is huge, offering plenty of room for us to run around and act like idiots—which is, after all, the point of improv. I’ve already had the pleasure of making an artsy-arse of myself in the new space, having re-cently completed “Freaks in the Box,” a clown master class hosted by Voki Kalfayan and Jonathan Taylor.

Clowning is no laughing matter. You have to dig deep with this shit and be ready to fail hard, which was an incredibly difficult lesson for me. High-strung perfectionists gener-ally avoid the danger of failure, you feel me? Luckily, the Hub is the safest space to fall on your proverbial back-side, and that’s the only way to get to the all-important funnies. Eventu-ally, you are assured that a joke or skit that doesn’t land is not the end of the world. More than likely, all will be for-gotten by the end of your next scene.

I was honored to have had a place in this class, as I got to spend three days learning from some of the best clowns in the business. Vegas is, after all, the home of Cirque and Spiegelworld. To quote the Hatter: We’re all mad here. (And we’re fucking good at it.)

Keep an ear to the ground and an eye on the Hub’s website for any workshops Kalfayan and Taylor may present. Nothing is set in stone yet, but the Hub will likely host a lot more clown instruction going for-ward, adding to its already impres-sive roster of improv programs.

Having already completed Improv 1, 2 and 3, with wonderful teachers Darren Pitura, Derek and Natalie Shipman, I’ve now moved on to my first long-form course with Vegas Improv legend Paul Mattingly. (More about him, and his podcasting and Bucket Show buddy, Matt Donnelly, in a later column.) We’ve only had one class so far, but I already love it. Also, there’s an Improv for Film master class with Jet Eveleth, and a Solo Show creation workshop with TJ Dawe (of "One Man Star Wars" fame) in the offing that I’m well and truly signing up for. Once again, all eyes on the Hub’s website for news of upcoming classes.

If I may get serious for a moment: Pitura and the Hub have been a great source of solace and playfulness for me in what have been some fairly turbulent weeks. Shootings on both sides of the Atlantic, followed by a vote for Britain to leave the Euro-pean Union, have left many of my friends and I feeling emotionally bat-tered. I’d like to extend my thanks to the teachers and students of the Hub for the opportunity to leave it all behind and make each other laugh. After all, what is the point of art but to escape our pain, confront ugly realities and create change?

Improv Level 1 starts again on Au-gust 29. Face the fear! Come play!

See Charlie Starling in Absinthe, twice nightly in the Spiegeltent at Caesars Palace, 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. Wed.-Sun. Visit AbsintheVegas.com for tickets. Follow her on Twitter: @charlistarling.

The author (second from right) gets her degree in insanity.

M A R K E T P L A C E

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UPCOMING SHOWS

JUST ANNOUNCED

THIS WEEK

FRIDAY, JULY 8

TED NUGENT

FRIDAY, JULY 22 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 16

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SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 4

ROGER CLYNE& THE PEACEMAKERS

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In 1967, DePaul University students Walter Parazaider, James

Pankow, and Lee Loughnane went to Roosevelt University to

lure you in. Did you have an inkling they were coming?

I didn’t know them. I had no idea who they were, no idea how they got my number. I later found out [they had seen] the little quartet I had been playing with on the North Side [of Chicago]. Nothing more than a cover band. Nothing special. I guess they were looking for a guy who could sing and a guy who could play keyboards. They wanted to know if I was interested in trying to put this thing together, with horns, and I was fascinated by it. For me, the whole key of my fulfillment … I was constantly just writing and experimenting, trying to learn some-thing every time I wrote a song. And these guys were

willing to play it. For me, that was just the greatest situation, regardless of whatever success resulted.

Of 35 Top-40 singles, “If You Leave Me Now,” which came

out in 1976, garnered the group’s lone Grammy Award.

When you first heard it or rehearsed it, did you guys

believe it would be such a success?

Just the opposite. The manifesto of the band was to be edgy. We started out as an organic, jazzy, funky psychedelic band. It was the late ’60s and early ’70s. That’s what we were doing, what was working. By [late 1975] we were recording in Colorado. Our pro-ducer, Jim Guercio, built a studio outside Boulder. Our thing was eclectic pieces, which included a lot of horns. When Peter Cetera contributed this song, we

Robert LammThe singer/keyboardist on Chicago’s early days, the surprise of the band’s

biggest single and the longevity of the Stones By Rob Miech

just kind of looked at each other and said, “Well, we don’t know about this. This is kind of not what we do.” The very soft, ten-der ambience of the track … it was not anything we couldn’t play. It’s just, we weren’t used to that kind of thing. So, honestly, nobody thought anything would happen. It was the last tune on the Chicago X album to be recorded; we ended up in L.A. doing the string sessions to give it that finish.

So its fabulous reception

was surprising?

Yeah. We were stunned. And what we really didn’t realize, at the time, was there was a whole spec-trum of people who suddenly were listening to Chicago who had not listened to us before, even though we had sold tens of millions of albums. So, yeah, the 10th album … it was not just No. 1 on the Billboard charts; it was No. 1 all over the world. I think we went to Eu-rope twice that calendar year; it was such a big hit. And when we got the Grammy … we thought, “This is great!” and, “Let’s not do this again; let’s continue doing what we set out to do.” It changed the way people saw Chicago; it wasn’t what we set out to do, but it was very suc-cessful. We still play it at virtually every [concert].

That song and album

propelled the group into a

busy touring schedule; did

those travel plans include

Las Vegas?

In those days it was ver-boten for rock bands to play casinos. We would come play [the Thomas & Mack Center] or the open-air arena at Caesars, but that was by the late ’70s and early ’80s, when the generation that was going to Las Vegas was shifting into the generation that was once the countercul-ture of the late ’60s, early ’70s. Caesars was first, for a number of years. That was the beginning of that thing. We would pass through Vegas once a year, or once every other year.

Has there been a particular

spot on the planet where

you’ve found yourself

pausing, saying, “Wow!”

to yourself?

I’ve had a few of those. We still tour abroad every year, sometimes to Asia, South America, Europe. … It’s just a matter of somehow slowing everything down and really being in the mo-ment, where I was not dis-tracted so much to where I didn’t have that thought, What a life! You just savor it. I could sort of see the sweat on my body evaporating into the air, you know what I mean? And we don’t get many of those; it’s a very distracting world that we live in.

Could you guys have

imagined, when you first

started out, that you’d still

be touring, experiencing

success, and having fun

nearly 50 years later?

Yes, we’re still having fun. No, we could not have imagined it. We are sort of sprinting into our 50th

year. It’s really amazing, how energized, in spite of … our average age now is some-where in the 50s. But, you know, with the advances in medicine, diet and nu-

trition [he laughs], we’ve been able to stay pretty healthy.

Is Chicago out to defeat the

Rolling Stones in a longevity

marathon?

Well, we’re way ahead of them. other than Mick [Jagger], who is pretty much a healthy guy. They only tour, what, every five or six years? Meanwhile, they’re having their blood oxidized on machines … we’re on the road [fre-quently], ordering room service at 3 in the morn-ing. I think that we are far beyond … we’ve accom-plished more than the Stones have. [But] I love the Stones.

What made the band alter its original name twice? How have radio and record companies affected the band’s sound? Read the full interview at VegasSeven.com/RobertLamm

CHICAGO

July 9, 8 p.m.,

The Pearl,

$69-$188,

Palms.com