Just about every facet of Las Vegas’ arts and culture scene has struggled post-COVID, from the closure of art galleries to the escalating overhead of theater operations. Other than the endless parade of resident Strip performers, live music has fared shakily, especially after the (brief) post-pandemic rebound.
For example, consider the recent closure of so many locals-oriented venues (Sinwave, Artifice, Count’s Vamp’d, Sand Dollar Lounge at the Plaza — and, eventually, the Downtown Las Vegas Events Center), and those on the Strip that rarely book outside of their mainstream comfort zone. Remember the years when the latter would pack the calendar with Coachella-overlapping acts? At press time, I’ve only found four such bookings for this year’s edition — though two of them are big gets, like acclaimed singer-songwriter Ethel Cain.
The second is alternative rock pioneer David Byrne.
Honorable mention: Fans of hardcore shouldn’t sleep on Drain.
And Black Flag is not to be missed, either.
Another big get on the concert calendar is the New York Philharmonic. You might wrinkle your brow at one of the country’s Big Five orchestras having a history in Las Vegas, but it played a legendary gig with Leonard Bernstein at the Las Vegas Convention Center in 1960, returning in 1981 and 1999 to play Artemus W. Ham Hall. Though a smaller representation, its string quartet heads to the UNLV big room this spring, each musician a principal NYPhil member and heavily decorated.
One event where local culture is presented in a living, even thriving, light is the annual Home + History Las Vegas. Does the idea of a history and architecture festival sound drier than a Mojave June? Fret not. H + H excels at diversifying the activities that celebrate the city’s aesthetic heritage. From special presentations and cocktail mixers to a downtown “coffee and cruising” bike tour and a survey of vintage homes, expect the enlightened and the enlivened.
If there were ever an obvious cultural partnership in Las Vegas, it would be the Black Mountain Institute and Las Vegas-Clark County Library District. Lo and behold, the two are teaming up on free BMI Live events this spring, to be held at the recently expanded and reopened West Las Vegas Library: a book writing presentation with authors George M. Johnson and KB Brookins.
At the same venue is also a slated conversation about ecology, sociology, and reflection featuring Black artists and scholars Lazarus Letcher, Erica Vital-Lazare, Claytee D. White, and Saretta Morgan.
Two art exhibits — one at another library — also examine nature’s role in the human experience. First, the local: From What to My Wondering Eyes Do Appear, by conceptual painter and arts advocate Nancy Good. The second: a multidisciplinary touring show parking itself until midsummer at UNLV’s Barrick Museum, called Actions for the Earth: Art, Care & Ecology.
Mythology is a thematic well to which Las Vegas stage programmers often go back, and that’s no critique. Midwestern playwright Sarah Ruhl found inspiration in Eurydice, whose legend is typically overshadowed by her husband, Orpheus. Ruhl, however, centers the woman who famously goes through it. Locals Breon Jenay and Jake Staley will co-direct Ruhl’s 2003 play Eurydice for A Public Fit.
Meanwhile, you can find your grail again when Monty Python’s hilarious musical spoof of the King Arthur myth, Spamalot, returns to town 19 years after its Wynn Las Vegas run.
Springtime is near, and that means ample opportunities to touch grass — or at least watch athletes do so. Here’s hoping the home opener for the Lights FC portends a season more like the 2024 playoff run than last year’s dead-last ranking.
