✦Weekender✦ Free trees | Cyborg rock | Author fair | Swing night | Wolf roof party 🐺

✦Weekender✦ Free trees | Cyborg rock | Author fair | Swing night | Wolf roof party 🐺
Robo calls: Don't be a paranoid android. Priest's compulsively catchy blend of industrial synth-pop and ethereal disco evokes a future where humans and robots get along just fine – because, uh, they've happily merged into a race of leather daddy cyborgs. The Swedish electro-goths (featuring Ghost alumni) bring their techno-spiritual awakening to Rockstars of Tomorrow Jan. 25 with Vampires Everywhere and Julien-K.

FROM ROLLER DISCO ragers to barroom brawl-rock to howlin' rooftop moonfests, here's what made The List this weekend. Cheers! – Andrew Kiraly 🤍

🛼 Friday Jan 24

  • Four years ago, boxing champ Floyd Mayweather bought the longstanding roller skate spot Crystal Palace on Boulder Highway and began transforming it from a more or less standard family rink into a bumpin' roller disco. The spruce-up was coupled with a vibe upshift that exalts roller skating as an acrobatic art form as much as a fam-fun pastime – witness the rotating roster of DJs spinning energetic sets and high-profile wheel pros such as Darrius Graham offering lessons. Today kicks off a weekend of anniversary events, with a meet 'n' greet happy hour (5p, Classic Jewel) and, at the rink proper, a blackout skate powered by the beats of DJ Smuurdaa. 9p, Skate Rock City
  • School yourself on suds at this tasting sesh with Neon Desert's brewmaster. Bonus: Something to Taco Bout serves up spicy bites to pair with those pours. Better yet, with entry you get nice discounts on four-packs. 6p, Neon Desert Brewing
  • X marks the spot at this swashbuckling staging of Treasure Island, where the Panto Company serves up mutiny, mayhem, and moral lessons through the wide eyes of young Jim Hawkins. (Long John Silver's still a jerk, though.) 7p, West Charleston Library
  • This is guaranteed claustrophobic-delight elbow-to-clavicle pit action: "We showcase as many local punk/ska/hardcore bands as we can fit in the building!" Tonight it's Broke in Vegas, Bad Days Only, and Dead at Midnite. 8p, The Punk Rock Museum
  • This setup is tailor-made for a night of knee-jogging, head-bopping and whiskey-sipping: Acoustic duo Cover Lane (VGK anthemists Carnell Johnson and Lynnae Meyers) paired with a complement of Frankie's Build Your Own Old Fashioneds. 8p, Frankie's Uptown
  • Prefer some blues with a rib-stretching side of smoked and 'cued protein slabs? Get an earful of Monk and the Po Boys channeling gutbucket blues legends. (Be sure to try the Jiggle Juice, the closest you can come to a whiskey IV.) 6p, SoulBelly BBQ
  • Confession: I was just methodically warming you up with those two shows for the whiskey-snortin' apotheosis, brought to you by the improbably Canadian Pat Travers, the legendary barroom bruiser-rock cro-mag renowned for his transcendently raucous boogie rock (and okay, the aggressively poignant "Tender Years"). 8p, Vamp'd Rock Bar & Grill
  • Whoa, cool, rad: Wayyy down on East Fremont – like, where it is functionally Boulder Highway, some great banda outfits – including Zacatecas' explosive, percussive Banda Alta Potencia – are busting out at the spot that was once home to the legendary Calamity Jayne's Nashville Nevada. 10p, Zuna

🎹 Hella more weekend here, which may contain drunk karaoke sopranos sporting tricorn hats:

🎭 Broadway rave | Murder improv | Rockin’ vox | Meadow yoga | Leather queens | Saddle sonnets
The coolest things to do in Las Vegas this week, ever.

✒️ Saturday Jan 25

  • Support home-grown words. Local scribes and artists take over Clark County Library for the massive Authors & Artists Fair, featuring 70+ authors, 18 artists, a publishing panel, craft demos, and secret weapon: the Clark County Library Jam Band? Bookmarked! 1030a, Clark County Library
  • Branch out and get some free shade going at this Tree Giveaway bonanza where Nevada Plants is giving out 100 future forests to first-comers. 11a, Valley View Park
  • I need Planty Hour in my life to find, um, fresh tenants for the veritable graveyard of empty pots I have around the house, the dreary legacy of departed souls victimized by my black thumb. Planty Hour pairs lonely pots with homeless plants in a green thumb matchmaking sesh. Buy either in-store for free potting, or bring your own botanical singles club for just $10. 12p, Spilled Milk
  • The now-pretty-much-institutional 702 Market hits Fantastic Indoor Swap Meet with a Valentine's preview – shop small vendors, snap pics at the love-themed photo op, scarf a box of birria fries, and let the kids bounce while you browse. 1p, Fantastic Indoor Swap Meet
  • When people ask what sketchy well I draw my spasmodic verbal inspo from, the answer is: Sure, books 'n' stuff, but actually: mostly hip hop. No, I will not battle-rap you, but the talent at Turbulence most certainly will. Bars fly when rhymesaying's regional finest face off, featuring heavy-hitters like The Saurus vs. Doms and 40 B.A.R.R.S vs Danny Myers in a nine-bout verbal throwdown. 4p, The Gas Station Studios
🍫
We can dance: If you've resolved to move more in 2025, there are more fun ways to torch lipids than the subjecting yrself to the grim rigors of the Assmaster 7000 at the gym. Feeling jitterbuggy? Bust out your best Lindy hop at Swingin' at the Blue Ox Jan. 25, where Minnesota-nice meets dance-floor spice. Between $2 mystery shots and those addictively squeaky cheese curds, you might just forget you came to dance ✦ A night at the venerable Oddfellows is always a surefire calorie burn; the crowd-pleasing 365 Party Girl night Jan. 25 promises sugary pop hits from Sabrina, Chappell, Charli and more ✦ If you've got a sweet tooth for kandi and retro rave hugpuddle vibes, the Blue Mule Saloon's Hardcore Foundations rave Jan. 25 is the blast-beat spacetime wormhole for you.
  • My, aren't we snippy today? Let your scissors go rogue at Collage Jam, where the Las Vegas Collage Collective provides the raw materials for your cut-and-paste fever dreams, all for a sliding-scale donation. Hell, I'd check it out just to grok inspo from one of my favorite snip-and-slap artists, the meticulous and visionary Laura Meyer. 6p, SPCKRFT
  • Between the name Mr. Speed and the decisively emphatic self-conferred honorific of "the best KISS tribute!," this sounds like a fine opportunity to blot "public indecency" on your 2025 bingo card. 8p, Sunset Station
  • No need to auto-bonk yr head with a cartoon mallet. See celestial bodies whirling around your head at the Las Vegas Astronomical Society's Star Party, where you'll get up close with cosmic wonders through pro-grade telescopes. Pro tip: BYO red flashlight for max night vision. 8p, Valley of Fire State Park

Hue dis: This trio of strikingly colorful exhibits makes for another can't-miss opening reception Jan. 24 at UNLV's Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art. Our very own List art curator Scott Dickensheets is most excited by "On Canvas," Yoko Kondo Konopik's potent abstract paintings that "convey an exactness of judgment, a sense of careful evaluation."

▼ Saturday cont'd

  • Consider this your once-in-a-long-while chance to drench yourself in the epic, arena-sized but buttery-smoove alt-R&B of Gallant in a club setting. 7p, Swan Dive
  • Canvas & Cocktails turns Gipsy into a live art laboratory where emerging talents whip up original works before your eyes, featuring 2-for-1 well drinks and sushi bites. Dynamic art maven and host Robin Slonina keeps the creative juices flowing. 8p, Gipsy
  • I dunno what cranny they're gonna cram rawk band Los Criminales into, but stoked to see Jive Turkey ramping up their programming to include live music. Also, get the transcendently nomzy chicken tenders and challenge me to darts. 9p, Jive Turkey
  • Artist and positive agitator Chase McCurdy is doing good work in the Historic Westside. His monthly open house After Hours lets art run wild at this late-night gallery gathering, where DJ CoolCobi sets the mood before the midnight open platform invites all forms of expression. BYOB – and bring your creative spirit. 10p, ThirtyThree Gallery

🌖 Sunday Jan 19

  • Ladies, get reflective among the ponds at this Women's Walk focused on mindfulness and connection. 9a, Wetlands Park
  • In "Mostly Mozart," the Las Vegas Sinfonietta serves up Mozart's Oboe Concerto and Symphony No. 39, with Richard Kravchak keepin' it reed. 3p, Clark County Library
  • Tbh, I have no idea what a New Wolf Moon is, but the flyer alone has me pre-tripping for this lunar lovefest where tarot readers divine destinies while live painters capture the magic and poets howl stanzas at the moon. 4p, Taverna Costera
  • Willkommen to Majestic Rep's steamy staging of Cabaret, where the Kit Kat Club's sleazy glamour is a haven from the creeping darkness of 1929 Berlin. I'm listing the Sunday matinee because Majestic's recent star turn in the New York Times suggests this run will see a lot of sellouts. 5p, Majestic Repertory Theatre
  • Vic's is typically known for simmering up jazz of all stripes, but Sunday night sees it host powerhouse pop when Ellie Smith celebrates her debut rock album Play the Villain, produced by Frankie Moreno. The former talent champ and, nice, horror-flick starlet (Miracle Valley) mines wall-of-sound rock with soaring vocals. 5p, Vic's Las Vegas

🙏 Hope you have the raddest weekend. Thanks for your support! – Andrew Kiraly 🤍


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