Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Lopez, Santa Fe keep that big-band groove alive on and off the Strip

Santa Fe and The Fat City Horns

Bobby Gladd

The Santa Fe and the Fat City Horns horn section.

Click to enlarge photo

David Saxe.

Click to enlarge photo

Sidney Crosby and Mark Messier at the 2010 NHL Awards at the Palms on June 23, 2010.

2010 NHL Awards: The Big Night

The 2010 NHL Awards at the Palms on June 23, 2010. Launch slideshow »
Click to enlarge photo

Ali Spuck and Kristofer McNeeley.

Click to enlarge photo

Josef Vann, Kourtney Kardashian, Kim Kardashian and Kate Bennett at Vegas' seventh anniversary party at Surrender in Encore on June 19, 2010.

Notes taken from the week that was:

• I’ve often been accused of petty theft … I mean, I have often been accused of giving an inordinate amount of attention to Santa Fe & Fat City Horns. But the band, most notably front man Jerry Lopez, is always centered in a convergence of three things I love: Old Vegas, great live music and cool venues.

A dynamite guitarist and vocalist, Lopez is sharing the band-leading assignment with former Danny Gans music director Pat Caddick in the throwback variety production, “Vegas! The Show” which finally opens tonight at Saxe Theater at Miracle Mile Shops at Planet Hollywood.

Lopez calls the 11-piece ensemble, “a band-estra,” too big for a regular band, not quite an orchestra. A real ’tweener.

“I can tell you this: The music in this show will be great,” Lopez said during a phone conversation Friday. “The band is awesome.”

Two original songs bookend the show. It opens with, “Let Me Take You to Vegas,” which was crafted by show producer David Saxe, Lance Horne (a high-caliber lyricist and composer who won a 2008 Best Original Song Daytime Emmy Award for “Chemistry” from “One Life to Live”), and former “Jersey Boys” cast member Erich Bergen. The closing number, named for the show, was written by Saxe and Horne (which does sound like the name of a two-piece brass band).

As Lopez had worked the hamster wheel in rehearsals with the Saxe production, Santa Fe has found another Monday night gig at a comfortably hip venue – the Lounge at The Palms. This renewed partnership begins July 5.

Santa Fe regularly drew overflow audiences at the Lounge before leaving for its three-month residence at Tiffany Theatre at the Trop. The return to the Palms is a week-to-week deal between the band and the hotel, and as before the shows start at 10:30 p.m. The difference now is, there is a cover charge: $7 per ticket, with all the riches going to the band.

“We’d been looking at showrooms and it’s just not the economic climate for hotels to be brining in big bands into a showroom,” said Lopez, who had been in talks most recently with the Las Vegas Hilton before Santa Fe opted for a return to the Palms. “You don’t want to be the F&B (food and beverage) director who is in the red. Nobody wants to take that chance.”

• More Palms-related matter; A great line from Jay Mohr during Wednesday’s NHL Awards show at Pearl Concert Theatre: “Since Bryan Adams couldn’t be here, I’ll turn it over to my favorite Canadian, Luc Robitaille!”

And, after members of the Cirque du Soleil cast performed a scene from “Love,” featuring “Get Back”: “Nothing says NHL to me like Billy Preston!” Mohr then paused and said, “Exactly one person got that reference.”

Hey, I got it. Preston. Legendary R&B keyboardist. Played on the song. Not at all a hockey figure. I’m on it.

Also, this observation from co-host Reese Waters, of “The Line” on Versus: “I really enjoyed watching hockey in the Winter Olympics, or as I like to call them, ‘Let’s Play Count The Black People.’ In fact, we could play that here tonight.”

The crowd was of a largely white persuasion, while Waters is black.

Afterward, I experienced two remarkable sightings at N9NE Steakhouse. Chris Hanson of “The Predator,” (it was all I could do to resist offering him a plate of freshly baked cookies) and NHL Hall of Famer Mark Messier. A six-time Stanley Cup champion, the 49-year-old Messier has been retired for five years. But when he walks into a restaurant, he still looks like he can rock the house. Something about that menacing leer …

• The title of Kristofer McNeeley’s one-man show at 2:30 p.m. Sunday at Liberace Museum (tickets are $15) is something of an insider reference: “Holding the Space.” McNeeley, whose credits include Tommy DeVito in “Jersey Boys” at Palazzo, is holding the Sunday slot usually occupied by his wife, Ali Spuck. But Spuck is unable to perform because she doing some off-stage work, caring for the couple’s month-old daughter, Emerson Lila McNeeley (let it be known that this column is Emerson Lila’s first publicity).

Spuck gave birth on May 16, the same day she was scheduled to appear at the Liberace Cabaret as part of the weeklong Liberace birthday celebration. Liberace’s birthday is, in fact, May 16, which might confirm that the center of the Las Vegas entertainment universe is indeed the Liberace Museum.

• It is with an airy disposition but a heavy heart that I must report the imminent departure of my longtime friend and colleague Kate Bennett. Most recently Kate has been editor-in-chief of our sister pub, Vegas magazine. But she has let it be known that she has taken a job as editor-in-chief of Capitol File Magazine in her former hometown of Washington D.C.

Kate’s date of departure is still to be determined, but it will be too soon as far as I’m concerned.

We go back 11 years, to when Kate was hired as the first gossip columnist at the Sun. One of my favorite moments working with her, and there have been scores, was introducing her to Monti Rock III at the Rio after a news conference announcing David Cassidy’s production show, “At the Copa.”

“Would you like to pet my kitty?” Monti asked Kate, using more colorful language and pushing his famed stuffed feline in her direction.

“Uhhhhm, sure! Yeah!” was Kate’s startled response.

It was sort of horrifying.

I thought we might lose Kate that day, after just a couple of weeks, but she stayed far longer. I’m grateful she did, and wish her, husband Cab and daughter Tess nothing but happiness in fulfillment in her new and old hometown.

Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at twitter.com/JohnnyKats.

Join the Discussion:

Check this out for a full explanation of our conversion to the LiveFyre commenting system and instructions on how to sign up for an account.

Full comments policy