Explosion of live music during rodeo week could signal ‘next big wave’ for Las Vegas

You only get one chance to see Toby Keith and Big & Rich at the MGM Grand Garden on Friday, but neither is completely leaving town.

You can always pose with a cardboard likeness of Keith in front of his licensed I Love This Bar & Grill, a fixture at Harrah’s since 2005.

And Friday, John Rich was to lead a hard-hat media tour of Redneck Riviera, his country-themed bar opening soon at the Grand Bazaar Shops in front of Bally’s.

Themed bars are nothing new on the Strip — even if the sight of a “Red Solo Cup” antenna topper marked down to $5 in Keith’s gift shop is a sober reminder that they depend on the currency of their name brand.

But the real secret may be something else you find inside: live music.

Rich plans to follow Keith’s lead of offering live bands in his bar every night, long after the National Finals Rodeo leaves town. Finding “a great live country band on a Tuesday night” was “a real underserved thing in Las Vegas,” the singer-entrepreneur explained in August.

But for how long?

Rodeo week is an extreme example of the loss-leader music available to cowboys and their fans. But this year, it may also be an outlier.

“The lounges and bars with live music are what I think the next big wave in Vegas is,” MGM Grand President Scott Sibella said at last week’s opening of Losers Most Wanted Bar inside the hotel.

“We have the best nightclubs in the world. But not everybody wants to go to a nightclub every night,” Sibella added. “I think the town’s coming back to live music, great lounges and great bars.

And where does it start? At the MGM at least, “with this little country bar. It’s not too big, it’s not too small. Live music, great atmosphere. You don’t have to be a country guy to come in here.”

A NEW BAR SCENE

Losers takes its name from the Nashville location opened 12 years ago by Steve Ford and Erv Woolsey, who manages George Strait and other country music acts. Ford says the Midtown Nashville location of Losers has never charged a cover, but the big names often get inspired to jump on stage and jam.

Would Woolsey’s clients do likewise when they are in Las Vegas? “You gotta be here to find out,” Ford says with a sly smile. But no promises. “It’s just set up as a dive bar. Come in and drink and listen to good music.”

Losers tested the waters last year with a 14-day rodeo run as a “pop-up” bar in the place it has now taken over for good: the Rouge Lounge, a scaled-down version of a swank Las Vegas nightclub.

“Nobody wants the bottle service anymore. Nobody can afford the bottle service anymore,” Ford says. “Our drinks are reasonably priced and everybody’s smilin’.”

On this night, they are smiling at opening-night attraction Mark Chesnutt. The singer had his biggest commercial year in 1990, but it’s still unusual to see Chesnutt on the small stage backing up to the right-angled corner of the bar, his back turned to a major trafficway of the casino.

But the slot machines just 10 feet away are a reminder of something largely vanished from modern Las Vegas: the open lounges that were once a mainstay of every casino, offering free music from the likes of Sam Butera or The Checkmates.

“What you and I grew up with is what Vegas is coming back to,” Sibella says. “I regret when I took over the MGM that I closed a live entertainment venue. I thought it was just too loud for the casino. And now that’s what people want.”

On the eve of the NFR, the Strip faced tough competition from Old Dominion and Sawyer Brown playing a free kickoff party at Fremont Street’s Downtown Hoedown.

Even so, I Love This Bar & Grill was building on a small crowd as Chris Shrader covered Garth Brooks’ “Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old).”

A few minutes of walking led to more live music: “Come Together” inside O’Sheas at The Linq. Outside at Harrah’s Carnival Court, another band covering The Cars’ “Just What I Needed.” And dueling pianos attacking Styx’s “Come Sail Away” inside The Piano Bar at Harrah’s.

The Jimmy Buffet-themed Margaritaville bar and restaurant at the Flamingo expanded into its own themed mini-casino. As patrons there played beer pong, still another band served up Sugar Ray’s “Every Morning” at The 5 O’Clock Somewhere bar.

Five live acts in 15 minutes. This batch was all at connected Caesars Entertainment properties. But they can’t be far out of line from corporate rival Sibella’s estimate that 75 percent of the MGM Grand’s revenue now comes from nongaming sources.

“You’ve got to create an atmosphere where people are entertained,” Sibella says.

RODEO LEADS THE WAY

Rodeo week takes this philosophy to the extreme. The Mirage turns its sports book into a honky-tonk, offering Brandon Lay on Friday and Daryle Singletary and Easton Corbin on Saturday.

Back at the MGM, a long walk from Losers bar to the hotel’s convention area puts cowboys in line for a huge conference-center ballroom transformed into the Gold Buckle Zone, with as many as 3,000 people able to check out Craig Wayne Boyd on Friday and Eric Paslay for free on Saturday.

Sibella headed The Mirage before moving to the MGM, and he followed his own lead when he made the jump. The first rodeo stage was in the casino area of the MGM, “but we kind of outgrew it.” Last year’s move to the conference center was “a home run.”

While 60 percent of the MGM’s rooms are booked with rodeo fans, most of them will be lucky to get in for one night of the actual competition at the Thomas & Mack Center, he notes. The rest of the time?

“You watch it on TV, you go to shows, you gamble. They want to be around people with hats on. We create the whole environment,” Sibella says. “There’s nothing better than to go somewhere and feel like you’re wanted.”

Read more from Mike Weatherford at reviewjournal.com. Contact him at mweatherford@reviewjournal.com and follow @Mikeweatherford on Twitter.