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...

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...

​NEW PERFORMANCE ANNOUNCED:
​
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​

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST EPISODE HERE

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.”