Nightlife: Not all cheezy lounge acts and Elvis impersonators
By Joe Gosen, Outpost contributor
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Open mike night at Great Basin Brewery |
That's partially true. On any given night in Reno, casino lounge acts play their hearts out while their audiences go about losing and winning their money.
Stacy Tolle is all too familiar with that image. Tolle is a guitarist and lead singer for Gunshot Licker, a local country punk band with a loyal fan base.
"People say Reno is so lame, but they don't pay attention to what is going on in the area," she says. "If you look at the percentages, yes 70 percent is cheesy casino entertainment. But 30 percent is happening at bars like Blue Lamp, Area 51, The Zephyr, Little Waldorf, Cantina Los Tres Hombres and Harry's Watering Hole. And if you look at casinos, they're cutting back on the entertainment and have more solo acts and duos playing to save money. Western Village cut their cabaret shows altogether."
Weekend visitors are lured to the big casino shows like Aireus, Legends in Concert, American Superstars, Smokey Joe's Cafe and free circus acts. But if they do a little poking around, they'll find some quality entertainment not too far from the casinos downtown.
The key, say locals who've scouted out the alternative hot spots, is knowing where to look and taking advantage of what's here. Laura Brigham, for one, says she's found plenty of good night life in the area in the few years she's lived in Reno.
"If you look at Reno, it's really hop'n," she says through a thick haze of smoke at a bar. "You've got everything from poetry readings to screaming music to all of those casino shows. People just don't take advantage of all the entertainment that is offered. I guess people in Reno want their cake but they don't always want to eat it."
Jack Sosnowski of Reno voices a similar refrain: "Reno doesn't support the intermediate band either. Like the 2,000-seat venue. For instance, when Barry, owner of Hacienda del Sol, brought groups like Los Lobos, Emy Lou Harris, George Thorogood, Santana and Joe Cocker to town, he couldn't sell out the shows. There were 600 to 700 tickets left over. For some reason when the groups come, the people don't go out."
Jim Ray used to go out a few nights a week. Ray was a radio station operations manager at KMMT in Mammoth Lakes, Calif., before moving here three years ago. When he first moved here he saw shows like Aerosmith, Pearl Jam and the Smashing Pumpkins. But the big-name acts dried up. "Now it's mostly revival groups playing," he says.
Ray explored the local scene and found good bands scattered around town. Overall, he says Reno offers a variety of music from angst rock for the younger crowd to jazz for the mature crowd. But it's not easy finding good night life without doing a little leg work.
"Night life in Reno is only as lame as you want to make it," he says. "Because Reno is not a metro, it lacks clubs, so you have to be experimental and open minded to different venues. Whether or not you enjoy the night life in Reno all depends on your frame of mind."
So I opened my mind and set out to see if Ray was right. Recently, I set aside three nights in a row to see what kind of entertainment I could find in this town. I hit XX venues from bars to clubs to theaters. And not once did I stumble on a cheezy impersonator or burlesque act. Ray was right. Read on.
copyright 11/15/97 Nevada Outpost
http://www.jour.unr.edu/outpost
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