Las Vegas Nightlife

Shows

Night Clubs

Bars

You will not lack for things to do at night in Vegas. This is a town that truly comes alive only after dark. Look at the difference between the Strip during the day, when it's kind of dingy and nothing special, and at night, when the lights hit and the place glows in all its glory. Night is when it's happening in this 24-hour town. In fact, most bars and clubs don't even get going until close to midnight. That's because it's only around then that all the restaurant workers and people connected with the shows get off the clock and can go out and play themselves. It's extraordinary. Just sit down in a bar at 11pm; it's empty. You might well conclude it's dead. Return in 2 hours and you'll find it completely full and jumping.

But you also won't lack for things to do before 11pm. There are shows all over town, ranging from traditional magic shows to cutting-edge acts like Mystere. The showgirls remain, topless and otherwise; Las Vegas revues are what happened to vaudeville, by the way, as chorus girls do their thing in between jugglers, comics, magicians, singers, and specialty acts of dubious category. Even the topless shows are tame; all that changes is that the already scantily clad showgirls are even more so.

Admission to shows runs the gamut, from about $28 for An Evening at La Cage (a female-impersonator show at The Riviera) to $90 and more for top headliners or Siegfried & Roy. Prices occasionally include two drinks or, in rare instances, dinner.

Every hotel has at least one lounge, usually offering live music. But the days of fabulous Vegas lounge entertainment, when the lounge acts were sometimes of better quality than the headliners (and headliners like Sinatra would join the lounge acts on stage between their own sets), are gone. Most of what remains is homogeneous and bland, and serves best as a brief respite or background noise. On the other hand, finding the most awful lounge act in town can be a rewarding pursuit of its own.

If you prefer alternative or real rock music, your choices used to be limited, but that's all changing. More rock bands are coming to town, attracted to the House of Blues or the Hard Rock Hotel's The Joint, so that means you can actually see folks like Marilyn Manson and Beck in Vegas.