‘Not in a casino’: Vegas club owners heed Green Day’s call

Green Day played Sears on Thursday night.

At least, in a historic sense. Fremont Country Club and its connected Backstage Bar & Grill at 601 Fremont Street was originally a Sears department store, opening in 1942. That store eventually pulled out to become the anchor of Meadows Mall in the late-1970s.

The building served as the office that issued sheriff’s work cards. Terry Caudill of Binion’s and Four Queens, who is a co-investor in the music club, once remembered being fingerprinted himself at that office many times. That was practice for anyone who needed a work card.

But it was a different level of security for Green Day’s no-surprise, pop-up performance. A lot of check-that-guy-for-a-wristband activity to herd about a thousand ticket holders and invited guests.

Those folks happily braved a mosh pit, some stage surfing and elevated temperatures to watch the punk band from Berkeley tear through a 2-hour set.

Maybe we know this one … @GreenDay last night @FremontCCLV #Vegas #RJNow pic.twitter.com/HCjktNU68m

— John Katsilometes (@johnnykats) October 20, 2023

Club co-owners Ava Berman and “Big Daddy” Carlos Adley heard from Live Nation officials about two months ago. They were happy to hear that Green Day was looking for a club to warm up for this weekend’s When We Were Young festival at Las Vegas Festival Grounds, a Live Nation event.

A stipulation: The club needed to be free-standing. No casinos.

“They realized that Fremont Country Club is the premier club in Las Vegas that’s not in a casino,” Berman said Friday afternoon, having returned home at 5 a.m. after the show and load-out.”That’s what they were looking for. We’ve been here for 12 years and have done a lot of big shows.”

Berman and Carlos opened “Triple B,” as it is often called, in 2011. Berman has more than a three-decade career in the nightlife industry, longer than any woman in the country, as Forbes magazine has claimed. Berman has launched more than a dozen venues in three cities.

“Big Daddy” was once one of the biggest DJ’s in Hollywood, personality-wise and popularity-wise, who built the Viper Room with Johnny Depp.

The next big project for the club operators is the $100 million Hotel Indigo/Central Las Vegas, being built just behind the the music venue.

A couple of familiar faces in ye olde mosh pit … @GreenDay #Vegas @vegasrevealed pic.twitter.com/FiqjMhz3Cl

— John Katsilometes (@johnnykats) October 20, 2023

So there is no one better to make Green Day on Fremont East a one-off hit. Berman ably steered her team’s organization of the show.

“Every nook and cranny of the club was thought out,” Berman said.

Still, it was not clear until during the performance that the entire Backstage Bar performance venue was being turned into Green Day’s green room.

“They literally made it backstage, like if you were backstage at T-Mobile Arena or someplace like that,” Berman said. “That’s what they were after, hospitality for the production people and the band. They brought catering in, they ran a tab. We totally got it, though Big Daddy was kind of losing his (mind). ‘My friends are not leaving!’”

But Big Daddy still DJ’d the party. Even after the performance in the big green room, the show must go on.

Berman noted that a total of 500 tickets were put on sale to the public at 10 a.m. Thursday. Within five minutes, the queue to purchase was 10,000 deep. But there would be no gouging of this crowd. The ticket prices held at $64.

Aside from the 500 sold, the balance of the crowd was Green Day’s personal invitees, Live Nation guests and promoter VIPs.

LN execs Kurt Melien, Amanda Moore and Billy Conn were in the house. Life is Beautiful music director Craig Nyman, venerable Vegas PR rep Dave Kirvin; rock-guitar virtuosos DJ Ashba and Chris Kael; well-known Vegas entertainment couples Christian Brady and Cassie Stone (who are getting married at the space on Halloween), and Frankie Moreno and Lacey Schwimmer took up the invited-guest platform. Vegas promoter and producer Alice Goldstein was also in the mix. A mere sampling, but Green Day’s club gig drew an array of Vegas entertainment types.

At the close of the show, the band signed an official poster for Berman, Carlos and the staff.

“They told us that the band said this was the most fun they’ve had in the longest time,” Berman said. “That was a direct quote. It was nice to hear, because we work with people on all levels, and they were totally pros, everyone on their team. It was a momentous night.”

Cool Hang Alert

The music of Taylor Swift is the theme for Mondays Dark at 8 p.m. Monday (naturally) at The Space. The nonprofit foster-care organization Kids Uplifting Kidz is the performance’s charity. Mark Shunock, the Travis Kelce of emcees, hosts. Go to MondaysDark.com for tickets and livestream intel.

John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. His “PodKats!” podcast can be found at reviewjournal.com/podcasts. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on X, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.