The Movable Buffet: Palms’ Matador at 21 fest highlights an alternative turn

On a recent Friday night at the Palms, mixed among the usual, the beautiful — the latest in duded-up dudes and hotties coifed in “Jersey Shore” look-at-me outfits — stood a throng of hundreds of what looked like near 40-year-old graduate students or the cast of “High Fidelity” a decade on.

The reason for the ill-fitting crowd was the Palms’ hosting of Matador 21, a three-day birthday celebration the first weekend of October featuring bands associated with the influential label whose artists (including Belle & Sebastian and Pavement — both of whom performed) helped define the alternative sound of the ‘90s. Yet from back then until very recently the sorts of bands performing at Matador 21, such as Yo La Tengo, Guided by Voices and New Pornographers, were largely ignored by the Vegas casinos.

And so, to some extent, Matador founder Chris Lombardi admitted he picked Vegas for this celebration with a sense of irony. “Vegas is not a touring stop that figures for our bands. A lot of these bands have never played Vegas. When you think of Vegas, you think of greed. What do you think of when you think of Matador?” Even the choice of casino to Lombardi had to hit the exact note of hipster appreciation: “We could have done this at the Hard Rock but the Hard Rock makes rock nostalgia, something to look at in a glass case. It wouldn’t have fit…. The Palms is purely about partying. It is just a profit-making enterprise. At Matador, while we like to party, our business model is to put out great records.”

To Lombardi, the trend-chasing of the casino business is on a different level than his label’s decades of connoisseurship choices in art that led to success at commerce. Yet the college geeks of the ‘90s are affluent adults today and so, like it or not, Vegas is done shunning them and ready with an embrace totally lacking in irony.

Said Palms owner George Maloof: “The Matador event was unique and a special moment for Las Vegas. Some of those bands don’t perform here often and some have never even been to Las Vegas — it was a great way to expose the city to the music and some of the musicians to our city.” And, as much as he is a music fan, Maloof may be making other considerations. Bands with small cult followings of dedicated fans are economically appealing to many hotels with rooms that might otherwise sit empty. Most tickets to Matador 21 had to be purchased with a Palms room package.

Indeed, as the festival was getting started at the Palms, Weezer was performing at the Mirage as part of its Live Like A Rock Star Weekend offering, which also came as part of a room package. The event at the Mirage also included a nightclub after-party at Jet with a red carpet to celebrate Rolling Stone’s Hot Issue.

After performing in clothes so casual that as a tourist he might not make the dress code at Jet, Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo reflected on the oddity of playing Vegas. “We definitely don’t fit into Vegas. It was weird and Vegas contributed to the weirdness. But it was weird in a good way,” he said.

The next night at Matador 21, Las Vegas City Life’s A&E editor, Mike Prevatt, a longtime fan of the alternative music scene, sensed this recent change in the tourist offerings. “Normally it would be extremely weird to have Matador 21 at the Palms, and it is still kind of weird. However, this year, particularly in recent weeks, we have been getting bands of a different caliber.” Prevatt pointed to the Pixies’ belated Vegas debut at the Hard Rock last month. “I can’t think of another time when the offerings of left-of-center music in this town have been this good as right now.”

From dining to shopping, Vegas long ago expanded in range and reach to the high-end and niches, but music has mostly remained an exception that rarely deviates from proven successes. Strip showrooms are still more comfortable with Barry Manilow, Donny & Marie or Celine Dion. But increasingly, as once nearly verboten alternative bands gain a toehold performing in resorts alongside the usual boomer fare, Vegas’ musical options suddenly look impressive, as well as expansive.

Rolling Stone’s senior editor Jonathan Ringen, in for the weekend, made what even a few years ago would have been a stunning observation from a rock magazine about Vegas in 2010. “Las Vegas is easily one of the best live music towns in America, and this weekend was perfect evidence of that. In just one weekend, you could check out Weezer at a tiny venue, the Matador blowout, Van Morrison and the Dukes of September [both at Hard Rock Casino]. Outside of New York and Los Angeles, there’s nowhere in America with that much variety.”

Another show that will appeal to alternative fans is set for Tuesday, when LCD Soundsystem plays the Palms. And Leonard Cohen, of all pop stars, is due for two shows in December. Perhaps even at the fringes, the hype moniker of “entertainment capital of the world” has really begun to be true of music in Vegas.

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