Vegas baby, Vegas

This past week I have been out of town, as well as away from an internet connection where I can write posts to my blog. But now I am back, home sweet home. I spent the last weekend and the greater part of this week in Las Vegas, NV, mainly for the Mobile Beat DJ Conference held at the Stardust Casino Hotel. My buddies and I decided, however, to come up the weekend prior to the show and have ourselves a party weekend.

So Friday after work the three of us headed to sin city.

Now, since the slogan goes: “Whatever happens in Vegas stays in Vegas,” no one will know what we actually did, those are just memories now.

The reason why I’m writing this is because in the 6 nights we stayed in Vegas, we went to 4 different night clubs: Ra, Risqué, Jet, and Studio 54. So since we can’t discuss what happened, I will tell you all about the ups and downs of each. Enjoy!

Dance your ass off
Ra Nightclub at the Luxor
As our first Vegas club destination, I didn’t really know what to expect. The clubs here in Arizona are all I really know, and from what I heard they can hardly be called nightclubs compared to the ones in Vegas. We stood in line at the Luxor for about 45 minutes, which is pretty standard for any of the top rated clubs. Without giving away all my thoughts right away, the experience was definitely worth the wait. A $20 cover charge got us into a great Saturday night party. The entrance features an Egyptian theme, with guard statues and marble flooring. Inside the club was more of an industrial rave theme, the walls silver metallic, with large projection TVs at the two ends. This club, like many of the major nightclubs is a DJ-featured club, where the DJ booth is front and center, and much higher than the rest of the club. The sound quality inside was exceptional, but only in certain places. The dancefloor had the best sound of the room, but just to the left or right of the floor, because of the speaker positioning, guests lost a lot of quality. The club boasts their enormous mount of bass, booming from 8 22 inch subwoofers. They were lifted off the ground, which I had never seen before – it did not seem to affect the quality of resonance, however. Overall, I give the sound quality a B+.

The demographics of the club varied, as Vegas itself did, but the common areas seemed to be flooded with middle-class workers, dressed well, as if this was a night of celebration from a tough work week. The VIP areas were flooded with no-named big spenders, many of different ethnic groups showing off their wealth.

The music, which is most important to me, was very broad in range. The DJ was knowledgeable in everything from hip hop to techno, including Latin and Reggeatone music. We walked in to a powerful house/techno set, which the mix in clashing genres didn’t seem to bother anyone. After a little breakdown, it was back to hip hop – which to me it looked as if the DJ had already covered much of, since his time he was digging deep in the crates, only playing an occasional powerhouse hit. A lot of old school, which is always great for our demographic. I give the DJ an overall rating of A-. I deducted a little for the fact that his mixing was shoddy, never a train wreck, but occasionally there was a drop of beat pattern that threw dancers off.

The ambience of the club was very impressive, smoke generators pumped out clouds of smoke at a constant rate, which some would consider a bad thing. I however, enjoyed the smoke feeling, it added to a more concert-like effect, as well as assisted in me looking better. There were plenty of TVs showing cool visual effects, as well as the occasional music video in the mix. It was a great light show, the vibe was dark and intense, and the drinks were exceptional. The overall rating for Ra Nightclub: A. It is a definite must attend for a fun late night visit, the club stayed open until 4am.

More clubs to come tomorrow - good to be home!!