It's a Hard Rock Life
Appeared in Naked Eye, 2007Bodies are everywhere. Hard bodies, tanned bodies, bodies precariously bound in glittering string bikinis and dangerously low-riding camo trunks. Thousands of bodies rippling to the sounds of smooth house music, packed like sardines in slurry of chlorinated water and coconut-scented oil. Hot bodies, cool bodies; a sea of beautiful bodies gathered together in a tropical, man-made lagoon that stretches as far as the eye can see.
This is Rehab.
Or at least, the Las Vegas Hard Rock Hotel and Casino’s version of it. The scene recalls memories of Daytona Beach but less collegiate, ritzier, more grown up. A Rehab reveler might catch a glimpse of a Britney S. or a Lindsay L. lounging poolside in a private cabana, but you can bet your bottom dollar chip they’re not doing any detoxing here.
And then the devotees. Call them Rehab addicts. They hail from all over – LA, New York, Miami, Chicago and abroad. Young, affluent urbanites that return again and again to these infamous summer Sunday afternoon pool parties. Boys on boys’ trips, stags and 30th birthday bashes, flashing their cash. Girls on girls’ trips with French manicured nails and wearing makeup at the pool.
Michela has been to Rehab twice this year. “It’s like an adult playground,” says the 26-year old media sales rep from Vancouver. “It blows your mind, especially the first time you go… There’s like 3000 people all partying in a pool during the daytime. It’s just insane – not something you experience every day. The Hard Rock is where you’re gonna go if you want to rip it up.”
That’s the Hotel’s unabashed mission, to provide the platform for over-21-year-old kids to rip it up like rock stars whether it be around the pool, on the dance floor, in the high-end restaurants, the VIP suites or concert venues. Rock memorabilia adorns the hotel walls, a deliberate nod to the Hard Rock’s Café origins as a showcase for collectibles (Café co-founder Peter Morton opened the hotel in 1995 the same year he sold his interest in the restaurant chain. See sidebar for more details.). But within this context of velvet, gold, damask prints and rich wood tones, these objects do more to contribute to a plush hyperreality that looks and feels more like a rock star’s mansion than a throwback to the cheesy, rock’n’roll themed restaurants.
“When you walk through the front door it’s like walking into a music video,” boasts Phil Shalala, VP marketing for the Hotel and Casino. “It just hits you right in the middle of your chest and you’re like, ‘Something cool is going to happen to me this weekend while I’m here… I’m going to have the best time of my life.’ People come here and they want that feeling, they want to be that person. It’s totally aspirational, and that’s the experience we provide.”
And they’re willing to pay for it. According to Alicia Malone, PR specialist for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, 2006 gaming revenue made up for 52.5% of the city’s total revenues, up from 49% just 6 years ago. “Dining, hotels, shopping, entertainment, spa, golf – all of those amenities are generating more revenue than the casinos themselves,” she explains. “Even if you don’t gamble, you can still come here and have a wonderful experience and get to see and do things that you probably wouldn’t get to see and do in your own hometown.”
Like eat Nobu-cooked dinners, ride in 20-passenger stretch limos complete with stripper poles, enjoy premium bottle service and drive ice blue Lamborghinis…
Like the one Chris and his buddy rented when they were in town for five days in late October. “In the rooms they have a menu of cars to rent,” explains the 31-year-old project manager for a Toronto real estate developer. The kind of guy who works hard and parties harder. “It was our last day and we’d spent so much money already so we figured, ‘Why not?’ [Let’s] take it out for a drive.”
By “so much money” Chris means he and his friend dropped about $12,000 in a five-day period. A modest sum for high-rolling celebs like Paris Hilton (who recently spent her 26th birthday at the Hard Rock’s famed Body English nightclub), but a small fortune to the rest of us. “Not that we brought that much [money] with us but when we first got to Vegas, my first pull on the slot machine I won $2,000, and then when I played cards I was up about $1,800 the first night I was there,” he says. “If you win, what, are you going to come back with $5,000? Sure, that would be great – or, you can go there and whatever you win, spend it and enjoy it. We won a lot of money and we came back with absolutely nothing. We even upgraded our seats to first class on the way home. We’d slept maybe six hours in five days so, the thought of getting on a plane and sitting in a little seat in the corner just wasn’t appealing,” he laughs.
“Anyway, we took [the car] down The Strip,” he recalls. “It was kind of like Pretty Woman at first because we couldn’t drive the thing very well. It doesn’t have a clutch – it’s techtronic so you switch the gear on the steering wheel. We went back and forth like, crrr-crrrrr. Eventually we took it out to the desert and that’s where we learned to drive it.”
Malone concedes that this rise in non-gaming revenue is in part symptom of an old town that’s getting younger by the minute. “Our visitor profile study reveals that our average visitor age I believe, is 47, and that has come down a bit from previous years,” she says. “We have noticed with the recent popularity of celebrity endorsements and the entire celebrity nightlife scene, it’s brought in a lot of younger people to Las Vegas and not necessarily a gaming customer.”
A trend which Shalala would attribute to the efforts made 13 years ago by Peter Morton when he opened the Hotel and Casino. “A lot of people were very skeptical,” he says. “They weren’t too sure who the brand appealed to and how he was going to get a gaming customer… And what I mean by that is the 45-65 year old slot player or table games customer that wants to sit on the tables for ten hours and eat at a free buffet. We started out, and still are in a way, anti-that, and because of that we’ve become the cool, hip hot spot amongst this new generation of Vegas customer. We were the first ones to ever put a nightclub inside of a casino. No one ever thought that could be done and we did it with Baby’s. And now they’re everywhere, you have to have a nightclub in a casino in order to even be recognized.”
DJ Larry “Dig Dug” Graham would know about this better than anyone. He’s been working as the Hotel’s resident DJ for 10 years and from his perch at the DJ booth, he’s seen his audience evolve significantly. “Initially the Vegas club scene was a techno atmosphere,” he says. “People weren’t going into the nightclubs to be seen or see someone famous, they were going in to dance to the music and drink overpriced drinks. Now, going into the club, you’re getting an experience. Now you have the the bottle service, the celebrities, the very attractive cocktail waitresses and the hosts that pretty much take care of the guests at the nightclub.”
By hosts, he means independent Vegas tour guides, who specialize in making high-roller-for-a-day fantasies come true. Companies like Vegas VIP work to transform you from a nobody with a $10,000-limit credit card, to somebody who can bypass even the longest club lineups, command impossible dinner reservations complete with naked women serving as sushi platters, and summon helicopters at a moment’s notice with the wave of a plastic card wielding hand (and maybe a bit of notice).
Of course, a $10,000 gold card is only going to get you a low-rent version of the high-roller life. Dan Nunes Vegas VIP co-owner says that he has some clients that will spend up to $150,000 in one night in Sin City. “That’s buying bottles of Cristal until the night runs out basically. When you get into that upper eschellon of of clients it becomes a kind of a competition. Like the story not too long ago, Kobe Bryant was hanging out at one of the nightclubs and some Arab guy bought 3 or 4 bottles of Cristal and Kobe’s says, ‘You know, ‘I’ll buy 7 or 8 bottles,’ and the Arab guy’s like, ‘I’m going to buy ten more bottles than Kobe bought.’ A lot of times they’re not even drinking it. They’re inviting people to their table to enjoy it but it’s just showing off, that’s all it is.”
But for the majority of young Vegas revelers, whatever they can afford is close enough.
Chris was more than satisfied with his hosted experience. “We got picked up from the airport in a limo and dropped off… We walked right in [to the clubs] and had a VIP booth right on the dance floor, we even had security guards at one point… We got two bottles of Grey Goose, two bottles of rum, shots all night… All in all, I think we spent about $1,800 that night,” he laughs. “The hotel actually sent us a bottle of champagne to our room after that night. It was a good time.
“I found whenever we spent excess money or whatever we’d say, “Aaah, it’s Vegas.” That’s what you say, “Aaah, it’s Vegas,” and that’s the end of it. You don’t give it another thought. I remember at one point I had $500 in chips in my pocket and I put it all on red and it hit black and I was like, “Aaah, it’s Vegas.” Who cares right? “
It is, however a very different story for the ladies. Michela recalls, “I talked to some girls before I went there asking how it was going to be. I really don’t go places thinking that I’m going to get a free dinner tonight. I just think, ‘I want to go out, I’ve got to pay for myself.’ But they were like, ‘Are you kidding me? You’re not going to pay for anything when you’re down there.’ And I was like, ‘How do you not spend any money?’ Girls will literally fly down there not intending to spend a dime, and a lot of girls get away with it.
“Some guys there have serious cash. The last time we went we were lucky enough to meet these guys who had a cabana [by the pool] and just to give you an example, their bill at the end of the day – and this is just one day at Rehab – was $19,000 bucks. When you don’t even blink an eye at your $19,000 tab, obviously you’re not just trying to be that guy. You are that guy.”
“There’s definitely a double standard,” says Chris, but he doesn’t seem to mind. “Guys are expected to spend money and I think women are expected to dress up and look a certain part. Do I think it’s unfair? I think it’s Vegas.”
Did it work? Were the ladies impressed? Did he hook up? “How do I answer that… yes?” says the recent divorcé with a hint of trepidation. “I met lots of different people but I think one of the problems is finding time to hook up and spend time with that person because it’s not set up to go off as a couple, so to speak. It’s set up to meet a lot of people and keep within the social atmosphere. You’d go back to your room there’s like 12 people there.”
[His advice: Sneak up to the room while your roommates are busy partying and re-join them when the deed is done. “That’s the only alone time you’re gonna get,” he says.]
The boys aren’t the only ones that have to spend to impress. The Hotel is well aware that even die hard Rehab addicts need more junk in the trunk to get high. More rooms, more palm trees and more bodies to gaze at in the pool. Shalala says the Hotel is planning a massive expansion –$800 million – $1 billion will be spent to build two new towers, a new Joint (the Hard Rock’s concert venue), which will accommodate 4000 as opposed to 1800 now. And, of course, they’re doubling the size of the pool.
“You know, excess is what sells,” says Graham. “They say that sex sells but you could take that s off and add an -ess on the end and you got your excess right there.”
And the proof is in the profits. Shalala says the Hotel raked in $6 million in revenue in 22 weeks of the Sunday afternoon party. “It’s unheard of,” he says. “We’ve really changed the model to embrace the person that likes to party.”
“Rehab is overboard but it’s good overboard,” says Graham.
For a little while anyway. Maybe for a long weekend, or a week at most. just long enough to keep the creditors at bay and the liver and kidneys functioning without the aid of dialysis. “If that was somebody’s regular life they’d live till they were about 20,” says Chris. “It’d be easier to find your way out of the desert than to find your way out of Vegas.”