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By John Katsilometes Las Vegas Review-Journal
December 27, 2021 - 7:28 pm
For the Vegas entertainment scene, the year 2021 was a little like a combo wrap of 2019 and 2020. For a brief burst in the summer, life blossomed back to normal. But as the year closes, it’s back to tracking COVID surge statistics, masking, vaxing, even avoiding crowds, feeling a lot like 2020.

We are at once entering the unknown and familiar as 2022 arrives. The Go-Go’s just canceled their New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day shows, moving to Feb. 11-12. “Magic Mike Live” at Sahara just ended a brief pause Sunday because of a COVID outbreak in its show. The Chippendales show at the Rio is due back Wednesday after abruptly going dark last week. This, too, was a COVID-enforced pause.

But 2021 does close with most of the city’s busy entertainment schedule returning, full force. We return, then, to the Kats! Awards, shelved in 2020, back now. Some of the highlights as we rest up, mask up and rev up for the new year:

Best New Aquatic Effect

To Carrie Underwood, who arrived at the Theatre at Resorts World with high expectations and elevated hype. She was the first headliner to open the venue after Celine Dion stepped away to deal with health concerns. The closing number, where Underwood winds up soaked as she sings, “There Must Be Something in the Water,” was an instant classic. So was the show.

Best Use of Las Vegas Talent by a Strip Headliner

We can’t give enough credit to Usher for his “Backstory Pass” pre-show at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace. His team parked it in its creative partnership with Majestic Repertory Theater and Table 8 Immersive founder Troy Heard, who enlisted such Vegas favorites as Skye Dee Miles and Eric Jordan Young. We even have ex-Olympic track athlete and longtime Caesars Palace dealer Martha Watson as the Den Mother, counting up the money as she extols life lessons.

The result: An amazing piece of recruiting to match a vision built inside a unique venue themed for a superstar headliner’s life story. If that all makes sense. Usher’s concept sure does.

Best Use of Las Vegas Talent by a Professional Sports Franchise

The Raiders entertainment team dug in, hit the scene and installed David Perrico’s Pop Strings as its house band at Allegiant Stadium. The Raiders season has been star-crossed, to put it mildly, but the Perrico call has been on the money. We get chills seeing those fiery Vegas musician rocking The Death Star...
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The Pop Strings Orchestra Christmas Concert has been REBRANDED as the "After The Holidays Concert" and RESCHEDULED for Wednesday, January 12th! 🎅🏻🎄

The show will feature vocalists Lily Arce, Serena Henry, Noybel Gorgoy, and Fletch Walcott., along with a 16-piece all female string section with music arrangements by Perrico on Christmas Holiday music classics. The show will also have surprise celebrity guest entertainers.

Tickets start at just $29 and are available for purchase via the link below...
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​NEW PERFORMANCE ANNOUNCED:
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On Saturday, Jan 8 at 8pm (7pm Doors), David Perrico & Pop Strings Orchestra will play Club Madrid at Sunset Station.

No Cover Charge

Reserve your table by calling 702-547-7768​
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LISTEN TO THE PODCAST EPISODE HERE
"My guest for this episode of the podcast is "Best of Vegas" award-winning trumpeter, composer, producer and conductor, David Perrico.
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If you've ever spent any time at the legendary Cleopatra's Barge in Caesars Palace, there's a very good chance you've seen David performing with his Pop Strings Orchestra, in which he takes some of the best musicians in Las Vegas and fuses together Pop Music with Classical Music.  And, in addition to Pop Strings Orchestra, David is also the creator & arranger of Pop Evolution, a mash-up of Pop & Big Band music.

Just this year, David landed what might be the most amazing gig ever: House Band at Allegiant Stadium for the Las Vegas Raiders.

David and I talked about what it's like performing in front of 65,000 screaming NFL fans, the inspiration behind creating Pop Strings Orchestra & Pop Evolution, other projects he's working on and much more.

Find out where David is going to be performing next, by visiting his website or following him on Facebook & Instagram.

And, if you want a sample of what Pop Evolution and Pop Strings Orchestra are all about, check these out!"
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Pop Strings Evolution performing Van Halen's "Hot For Teacher" (YouTube)
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Pop Strings Orchestra performing Journey's "Separate Ways" (YouTube)
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By John Katsilometes Las Vegas Review-Journal
November 21, 2021 - 5:51 pm
How’d it sound? No idea. Ask someone who heard it. Tough to tell from behind the stage. But it felt great, like a real rock show, with Sammy Hagar leading the party from at halftime of the Raiders-Bengals game at Allegiant Stadium.

Hagar’s hits were the highlight of an otherwise lackluster afternoon for the home team, which was dump-trucked 32-13 by the Cincinnati Bengals. But Hager, dressed in a new Raiders jacket embroidered with his name, seemed ready to suit up.

“It was like firing a bow an arrow, bam, man!” Hagar said after running through “There’s Only One Way to Rock” and “Right Now” with his guitarist Vic Johnson and David Perrico and the Raiders House Band. “It felt like it lasted three seconds. I feel good about it. Now, I have to sit down and figure out what happened. Did I just do that?”

Hagar was mobbed as he waded through fans at the end of the two-song medley at the Al Davis Memorial Torch. “Sammy! Huntington Beach! Can I get a picture with you!?” was a typical call-out.

But what it all means beyond the experience is yet unknown. Hagar is coming off a blistering, six-show residency at The Strat Theater, a run promoted by a similarly inspired, Strip-facing concert on the roof of Beer Park at Paris Las Vegas.

“I just think that this town is really valuable in a lot of different ways. It’s a place where I can say, ‘I’m going to play here for a month,’ to my fans, and I guarantee you, you’ll have a good time.” Hagar said in the Allegiant Stadium’s green room, which is actually the UNLV Rebels’ locker room, just before taking the stage.

The Red Rocker, simply, has a hot hand. But he’s not sure how he’ll play it.

“Kind of like having your presence here all the time that you’ll picture me jumping on the side of the wall. And I want to keep it that way,” Hagar said. “And, you know, I just think that this town is really valuable in a lot of different ways. It’s a place to where I say, ‘I’m going to play here for a month,’ to my fans, and I guarantee you, you’ll have a good time.”

Hagar says he would love to return to town in 2022, and it’s hard to imagine him not returning to The Strat or entertaining other suitors for his Cabo Wabo-style rock experience. He talks of playing three days a month, every month, in an expanded venue at The Strat or even a new facility. He’s loyal to the Strat hierarchy, longtime friends especially Golden Entertainment Executive Vice President and COO Steve Arcana.

​The Hagar shows were mutually beneficial to the property and to Hagar, who used the platform to launch his Beach Bar Rum line. The little cans ‘o booze have been quaffed with great zeal at The Strat, giving Hagar even more motive to come back to Vegas and grow his empire.

“I want to come back to Vegas, I want to do more residencies,” Hagar said. “I’d like to do half as many shows, and have the same amount of people, if you know what I mean. At my age, I’m not looking to do 100 shows a year, so I need a bigger venue.”

Hagar is 74. He knows what he likes, and he likes it here.

“Vegas is the kind of town where I’m happy to bring fans, because they have so much they can do, “I love this down. I really do dig this place.”
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By John Katsilometes Las Vegas Review-Journal
November 18, 2021 - 10:06 am
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Sammy Hagar leaves no venue unturned. He’s performed at his Cabo Wabo club at Miracle Mile Shops at Planet Hollywood, on the roof of Beer Park at Paris Las Vegas, and for six shows at The Strat Theater. And that’s just in the past two months.

The Red Rocker is donning the silver and black Sunday for his biggest Vegas crowd yet, at Allegiant Stadium during halftime of the Raiders-Cincinnati Bengals game.

“I’m actually nervous. I’ll tell you that now,” Hagar said in a phone chat Monday. “When they asked I said, ‘Yes!’ Then I went to my manager, ‘Wait, what am I going to do?’”

Hagar answered his own question, “I’m going to scream my (butt) off.”

Hagar and guitarist Vic Johnson from Hagar’s band The Circle will jam with David Perrico and the Raiders House Band.

“I’ve had a great conversation with Dave and I know that band is great,” Hagar said. “Who knows, after this, we might have to add some backup singers.”

Hagar plans to play some of his “stadium songs,” among them “Right Now” and “There’s Only One Way to Rock.”

“I’ll be playing to about 100 times more people than I’ve been used to playing for in Vegas,” Hagar said. “Who knows? I might feel a little weak in the knees. But I know what the team wants, and they want a rock show.”

Perrico is writing two new arrangements for the Hagar hits. The band leader spent 16 hours Wednesday re-charting the classics.

“It goes to the vision of the Raiders, it’s been their vision of how the house band can be integral to the game experience,” Perrico said. “It’s very much like the Doc Severinsen ‘Tonight Show’ band scenario, in that we are ready to play whoever they bring in.”

The team has brought in Carlos Santana, Ice Cube, Steve Aoki, Ludacris, Too Short, Marshmello and Grambling’s “World Famed Marching Band for pre-game and halftime shows. Criss Angel has performed an escape stunt 100 feet above the field. Gladys Knight, Marie Osmond, Yolanda Adams, Tinashe and Journey’s Neal Schon have been among the national anthem singers.

But Hagar is the first artist to actually perform with the Perrico band. This also is his first halftime show with the franchise.

Hagar has known Raiders owner Mark Davis for years and has followed the team through its history in Oakland, Los Angeles, back to the Bay Area and finally Las Vegas.

“The Raiders are a bit of an underdog in the NFL,” Hagar said. “I can relate to that.”

The “Sammy Hagar and Friends” concept has been a hit at The Strat. Hagar has welcomed such collaborators as Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead, Rick Springfield and Stephen Pearcy of Ratt. Hagar, Springfield and current Encore Theater headliner Bryan Adams partied at Cabo Wabo after last Friday’s show.

“I am so grateful that Las Vegas has accepted me into the community, that’s what’s really great about this,” the 74-year-old Hagar said. “I really feel like I’m part of the city, and these shows make me feel like I’m 26 again.”

Hagar plans to return to residency in Las Vegas in 2022. The details are to be sorted out, as Hagar wiped out The Strat Theater performances. The room’s seating was nearly doubled to 900 for his shows, and even that couldn’t match demand.

​The former Montrose and Van Halen front man says he’d be in favor of returning to a tented structure, similar to the defunct “Celestia” show that closed and hauled out during COVID. Or, he’d be up for an evolved Cabo party experience in if the existing theater is expanded.

“The have all that room in the lobby, near the entrance, and we could take over a lot of that space,” Hagar said. “If they did that, I would never leave Las Vegas.”
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David Perrico and The Raiders House Band are thrilled to be joining Opportunity Village as they the Las Vegas Aces at their signature Camelot at the Magical Forest gala on Thursday, November 11th.

The 20th annual black-tie event will feature special entertainment, cocktail hour, silent and live auctions, and a plated dinner for guests. Opportunity Village will highlight the many charitable contributions the Aces have brought to its organization – and Southern Nevada as a whole – since the team relocated from San Antonio in 2018.
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By: Kalyna Astrinos
Posted at 11:52 AM, Sep 13, 2021 and last updated 12:10 PM, Sep 13, 2021
LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — A 17-year-veteran of the Las Vegas entertainment scene has found a new home with the Las Vegas Raiders.

David Perrico and the Raiders House Band are ready to take over Allegiant Stadium for the Raiders first home game.

"Everyone's just dancing, grooving (and) having a good time," Perrico said.

The high-energy 19-piece orchestra is keeping a Raiders tradition alive.

"Mark Davis, the owner of the Raiders, was specifically looking for a house band in the tradition that the Raiders always had since the 60's," Perrico said. "Our name came up and they did some research on us and we did an audition process."

After more than a year of entertainment at a standstill across the country, this gig is showing hope.

​"I think it's great for, for all live entertainment, and for all the hard work hard working musicians in this town," Perrico said. "Not just musicians, all the sound and lighting, everything that goes into shows in bands, whether they're playing loud lounges, it doesn't matter what size they are. It's just great for live music."

The Las Vegas strip will serve as the backdrop for the band where David Perrico and the Raiders House Band will have the chance to show Raiders fans first hand what live entertainment is really all about.

"From Pitbull, to Beyonce, to Earth Wind and Fire, to Chicago, Michael Jackson, to James Brown. It's all fun," Perrico said.