Guitar great Doug Aldrich vaults from ‘Vault’; Wall of Sound encloses Rocks Lounge

By John Katsilometes

Monday, Aug. 3, 2015 | 7 p.m.

The Kats Report Bureau at this writing is Citizens Kitchen & Bar at Mandalay Bay. This is the site of the former restaurant Red, White & Blue where we often spot performers in “For the Record: Baz” across the walkway at Light.

This curved promenade leading into the casino is bubbling with activity. Red Square is across the way, as is Wolfgang Puck’s Lupo and Fleur by Hubert Keller. Mizuya lounge, which typically offers fine live music (including the raging rock cover band Phoenix) also is in the neighborhood. The reason I am here is to return to a performance of “Baz,” a show that is at once a curiosity and conversation piece as it enters its fourth week of production at Light.

“Baz” is a great show and addition to the city’s vast entertainment lineup but still needs to fit more snugly in its spacious surroundings at Light. But the show does enjoy the type of support not offered to many startup productions — the creative and financial horsepower of Cirque du Soleil and also a zealous supporter in Mandalay Bay President Chuck Bowling.

As we’ve learned too often, great art doesn’t always burn the box office in these parts, but given time, “Baz” could help stem that tide.

Let’s shimmy elsewhere:

• “Raiding the Rock Vault,” still tirelessly churning out the classics at Tropicana Theater, is seeking to replace one of its real rockers in guitarist Doug Aldrich. The former axe practitioner of Whitesnake announced on his Facebook page Sunday that he was leaving the band/production show effective immediately and that it was a “mutual decision.” He’s embarking on a “new chapter” and starting a “permanent vacation,” and here is where I apologize for my “seemingly random application of quote marks.”

Seriously, Aldridge is a model rock star and a great, great player. Evidently, his departure was not a huge surprise as he had been talking of making such a move for weeks.

Says “Sir” Harry Cowell, “We look forward to announcing a new addition to the lineup soon.” It’s not the first lineup change for “RRV,” and as someone far wiser than I once said, “Here I go again …”

• Mo5aic is serious about Sin City Theater at Planet Hollywood. How serious? During Sunday’s Nevada SPCA “Out of the Gutters” charity bowling event at Sam’s Town, I asked one of the vocal group’s members, Heath Burgett, about the act’s next venue. “If I guess it, will you tell me?” I asked, then reeled off the Colosseum, Thomas & Mack Center and the 24th Floor Event Center at Newport Lofts. When I hit “Sin City Theater,” he nodded and touched his nose.

Confirmation, right? And this is why you should follow me on Periscope, by the way. That’s where it all happened. Look for Mo5aic, victimized by some financial higgledy-piggledy at Windows during its spring run at Harrah’s, to return to a 5:30 p.m. slot at Sin City. They’ve earned the spot … by a nose.

• Rocks Lounge at Red Rock Resort has become the focus of some entirely unexpected conversation in the marketplace with the construction of a giant glass wall separating the bar from the stage, seating area and dance floor. This went into effect for last weekend’s shows, Friday night’s Zowie Bowie performance and Saturday’s show by David Perrico’s Pop Strings lineup.

The wall was built to improve the acoustics of the room and separate the gaming experience on the casino floor from the live-music experience inside the lounge. They were once the same experience. No more.

For the uninitiated: The 400-seat venue has been among the best midlevel clubs in the city since opening in 2006, and the bedrock of Rocks Lounge has been Zowie Bowie. And on Friday night, Chris Phillips — the founder of Zowie Bowie who opened the club in May 2006 — did something he has never done in nine years at Red Rock, which was to play through his break.

Phillips was concerned about losing his audience, which was caught off-guard, as was he, by the new design effect.

Perrico’s performance Saturday night also was affected, as the band started about 45 minutes late because of a UFC 190 viewing party. Perrico did take a break, then called the show four songs into the second half of the performance at 1:30 a.m., when the room was nearly empty. He expressly blamed the new wall (sounding off in a Twitter post), which he said killed the vibe that night. Perrico hits on an early concern: The club does have a less-animated feel now than it offered in its original, open design.

But before we get too aggressively hostile at this inanimate object, it’s important to note that Station Casinos is asking for patience during the change. The first weekend was not ideal, but over time the venue might actually offer an improved live-music experience (especially as the cocktail service is boosted, and if auxiliary bars are set up inside the club, behind the wall) for its improved acoustics. The same sort of closed-off design is employed at the other Station rooms, chiefly Sunset Station’s Club Madrid, Chrome at Santa Fe and Railhead at Boulder Station.

But crucial to the success of those rooms is they were effectively designed and built as fully functional clubs (compared to the after-market approach at Rocks Lounge), with bar access available inside the performance space. And the quality of the performances at Rocks Lounge on Fridays and Saturdays merits an early cool-down period. If the wall is a chronic problem, it will become obvious over the next few weeks. Like, really obvious.

We’ll be there for the consequences, even if it means staying after the break.

• Fright Dome founder Jason Egan has signed a new five-year contract extension to stay at Circus Circus. But, as always, staying in that location does not mean staying put. Egan is promising some expanded fright when his attraction returns in October. Think “Intense Crematorium Action,” and you’ll get what Egan is, um, burning to achieve.

• “Rock of Ages” experienced a first Thursday night: The performance at Palazzo Theater was canceled because the soundboard crashed. It does not get any more rock ‘n’ roll than that, and the cancellation of the show led to a night off for the cast, an event I like to call “Shunock Unleashed.”

And that is one of the most entertaining shows in town, folks.

The production celebrates its 1,000th performance in mid-September and is selling tickets through 2016, a positive sign for anyone who enjoys the possibility — a hypothesis at the moment — of Dee Snider guest starring in the show. One can always hope.

• Among the assorted celebrities and newsmakers to visit Penn & Teller at their show at Marquis Theater on Broadway has been Matt Stone, co-creator of “South Park” and “The Book of Mormon.” He stopped by for the matinee performance on July 25. Penn Jillette says Stone has been a fan for “well, forever,” dating even to the days before “South Park” was conceived in the mid- to late-1990s.

Stone joins a wide array of friends-slash-celebs to visit Penn & Teller at Marquis, an event that has become something of a must-see on Broadway. Dick Cavett, Salman Rushdie, Deborah Harry, Glenn Beck, Lawrence O’Donnell, Neil Patrick Harris, Alec Baldwin and Alan Colmes have been among those to attend show. A favorite quote, from Rushdie on opening night: “They blew my mind. I knew, coming in, they would blow my mind, and they still blew my mind.”

The duo’s return to New York after a 25-year absence has been an unqualified success, as Jillette says, “It’s going better than our highest, realistic hopes. The next step is the show here leads to world peace.”

It’s possible, but you’ll need to cut the Elsie act, and, really, is it worth it?

Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at Twitter.com/JohnnyKats. Also, follow “Kats With the Dish” at Twitter.com/KatsWiththeDish.