This Joint an improvement, but still has some of that old Joint spark

By John Katsilometes

Wednesday, April 8, 2009 | 5:39 p.m.

With its new, rapidly evolving concert venue, the Hard Rock Hotel is evoking memories of The Joint. Hotel officials have named the new place The Joint, for starters. Not “Joint II” or “The Next Joint” or “Son of Joint,” but simply The Joint. Same as the old place, which has a familiar title that is both apt and cool.

Considering a name change was a conversation that was “short,” Paul Davis said today during a tour of the new Joint. Davis, the vice president of entertainment at the Hard Rock Hotel, said stoking the Joint’s embers is important, even as the new space is markedly improved. “There is a lot of equity in that brand,” Davis said, and if you sub “money” for “equity,” it makes sense. Davis said he’s attempting to instill “the vibe, even the smell,” of the old Joint into the 2009 model, and how he expects to revive the fragrance of sweat mixed with Drakkar Noir with a splash of stale Corona is anyone’s guess.

My favorite design effect at the new Joint is a scarred strip of wooden flooring torn from the old Joint and set near the music hall’s entrance. Davis said the idea was inspired (not at all surprisingly) by the thin strip of bricks at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which were saved from the original track and serve as the speedway’s start/finish line. The old Joint had cymbals bolted to the sides of the walls; the new Joint has even bigger cymbals -- gleaming 400-pounders painted with the black Ziljian logo -- hanging above the back bar (oh, that concept remains intact, too). If you have enough “ups,” you can crash those cymbals with your head, and by God I’d like to interview the first concert-goer to execute that act. When he regains consciousness, of course.

No, the new Joint is not radically different in vibe or even in appearance than the original, which was quite the novelty when it opened in 1995 as the city’s foremost small-venue music hall but was soon surpassed by House of Blues at Mandalay Bay and positively dusted by The Pearl at the Palms. The upgraded rock house has the same linear design and versatility in floor seating as the old space. There are no non-human viewing obstructions, and the floor is slightly angled (which wasn’t the case at the old place), which should appease relatively short concert-goers. The new Joint has a capacity of 4,000 standing and 3,000 seated, and the folding chairs are stored under the stage in big cabinets, almost like how you would put away the card table and folding chairs in a giant rec room. But the new Joint is high-class, featuring seven VIP suites (compared to the zero VIP suites at the old place) situated just 100 feet from the stage. The balcony is relatively close, too, between 105 and 155 feet from the action. You can hit the stage with a Frisbee, in other words.

Somehow, I always felt uncommonly removed -- not by security, mind you -- from the show when seated upstairs at the old Joint. I finally figured out why: The stage was small, far too small for an arena-sized spectacle. Those who were on hand for the Rolling Stones show at The Joint and who saw them at MGM Grand Garden Arena witnessed a pair of radically dissimilar performances, one a stripped-down saloon gig and the other a full-scale rock production complete with a mobile auxiliary stage that moved slowly to the middle of the arena. Both were effective; the Stones don’t disappoint whether they are playing a nightclub or the Rose Bowl, but the idea at the new Joint is to deliver an arena-sized spectacle in its intimate setting.

The stage is as large as any arena in the city, Davis says, using the Planet Hollywood Theatre for the Performing Arts as an example. He also reminded that the new Joint is a music venue first and foremost, even though it will stage boxing and mixed martial arts events. The Joint is not built for hockey or hoops or even jai-alai (I instantly thought of The Orleans Arena when Davis talked of the Joint’s specific purpose). Music is what it’s about at the Joint, and Davis repeatedly talked up the venue’s acoustics. The arena features the crisp and explosive DNB Speakers of Germany. I don’t know much about audio sound, but DNB is the preferred company of Paul McCartney, so “sold!” The venues innards are cushioned, too, to prevent audio “bounce” (visual bounce will remain a Joint hallmark, however).

Poor sound quality was a constant issue at the old Joint, even I know that. I remember a Joe Jackson show from 2001. Jackson uses a lot of variance in volume, in tempo, with booming percussion followed swiftly by light piano parts (don’t worry, I’m not reviewing an 8-year-old concert). During those lighter moments, such as his balladic take on “Breaking Us in Two,” you could hear what seemed to be a generator humming from stage left. So it was, “Don’t you feel like (whirrrrrrr) breaking out (bzzzzzz) or breaking us in two (hmmmmmmmm)?” Tough question, Joe, but I can’t concentrate because of ALL THE BUZZING. But keeping the name and some of that old Joint feel, making the place bigger and more comfortable, improving the acoustics, is all good. Right now the new Joint looks, and sounds, fine from here.