It’s that time of year when school starts and the seasonal programming calendars of many venues begin. Just don’t call it fall, because it sure as hell won’t feel like it until the next issue of Desert Companion. Still, there’s a ton on offer culturally, especially during September and October. Fortunately for you, we’ve fine-tuned our event filter in anti-algorithmic fashion. Which is to say: We won’t predict what you will like — instead, we’re gonna tell you what you should like.
Music seems like a good place to start, and the Encore Theater — the rare Strip venue strong in both the quality and quantity of its bookings, to say nothing of the fantastic sound and intimacy it provides — comes through with a rare Jon Batiste headlining stand. The award-winning composer/singer/instrumentalist has mostly performed locally in tribute and award shows, but these two Encore gigs ought to spotlight his rapidly growing reportoire, which includes a modern interpretation — and live improvisation — of (deep breath) jazz, blues, country, R&B, and soul music.
If you’re overwhelmed by the sheer number of concerts timed for Mexican Independence Day, try an alternative to the usual mainstream/traditional Spanish-language shows: Cuco, the bilingual, bedroom/indie pop sensation who might play more instruments and blend more genres than even Jon Batiste.
For the whole family: The Las Vegas Philharmonic again devotes an entire show to the music of the Looney Tunes canon in time for Bugs Bunny’s 85th birthday. Watch the wisecracking, boundary-defying, animation legend on the big screen while the Phil cranks out the score onstage — a shrewd way to introduce the young ’uns to the majesty of a live orchestra.
From music to plays about music that aren’t musicals: Stereophonic was the golden child of the 2023 and 2024 theater-award seasons, ultimately nailing a record 13 Tony nominations (winning five, including Best Play). Its story about a band’s mid-1970s recording session overwhelmed by interpersonal conflicts — rumours it borrowed heavily from the studio travails of a certain British-American band were greatly … settled out of court — is enhanced by former Arcade Fire principal Will Butler’s songs, all recorded live by the cast onstage. No, really.
A mobster, a singer, and a president tussle in the eighth book by P Moss, crime fiction enthusiast and dive bar proprietor. Screwing Sinatra is a sordid tale, with Moss having fun with the mythologies of Ol’ Blue Eyes and JFK while reminding us that the backroom machinations of politics, entertainment, and the casino industry are as eternally colorful and occasionally squalid as the Double Down bathroom. Hear Moss rap about it all on September 18 with attorney/commentator/man about town Dayvid Figler — a chat we hope is equally colorful and squalid.
Avi Kwa Ame is making headlines again as a result of government efforts to rescind its national monument status (see p.16). Painter Alina Lindquist presents the sacred space with much more reverence in her exhibit Between Presence and Protection, currently holding court at the program galley for Nevada Humanities, which has also been subject to recent government edicts.
Over at the Flamingo Library, stream-of-consciousness painter/illustrator Kirby M. Brownell channels his storied past in the Las Vegas arts scene and his artistic practice of what he calls “surreal automatism” with his new exhibit, Scribble.
Finally, Halloween season will start even earlier with the grand opening of Universal Horror Unleashed, the permanent haunt attraction by Universal Studios. On the Immersive Vegas Attraction scale, this one’s gonna hit pants-dampening levels.
And speaking of pants, they’re not even on some of the cast of Urban Death, a work of lurid horror-theater by Jana Wimer for the 17-and-over crowd.
Or, if you’re seeking a ghoul time no spookier than a Goosebumps paperback, outdoor family alternative Haunted Harvest returns to Springs Preserve, reminding us that Halloween — like Las Vegas — is often much tamer than its reputation would indicate.
Correction: This story has been updated to reflect that Will Butler’s songs appear in Stereophonic. Desert Companion regrets the error.
