Tao Beach Club causes waves in Las Vegas Strip relaunch

To put it in vehicle terms, this is Tao Beach Club ZX, and Jason Strauss says, “We really want to take this car for a drive.”

Bigger and fancier than ever, Tao Beach Club is again purring along at The Venetian. The rooftop pool deck was an unseen oasis over the past two years before reopening this weekend. Decked out in burnt-orange and mahogany hues, the club now has a 3,000-guest capacity, double that of the original. Luxury cabanas, 29 in all, ring the pool deck. Thirteen of those are the Jungle Cabanas with their own plunge pools and views of the pool deck and DJ stage.

“I think what we have built is a really big, beautiful dayclub that is also intimate,” says Strauss, co-CEO of Tao Group Hospitality. “There is so much innate decor and little moments, I think guests are gong to be wowed by the evolution of daylife in Vegas with this property.”

As Strauss speaks, the sweet sound of a bamboo flute plays over the deck, as if we are about to meditate.

The brilliant TBC setting does feel unreal, as if walking into a movie set. It’s brand new, of course, yet to be overtaken by those thousands of visitors. But the club’s singular renovation and expansion shows there is no slowing the trend of massive, opulently designed dayclubs in Las Vegas.

Tao Group Hospitality operates many of those clubs, several scooped up in its April 2021 takeover of Hakkasan Group (with Hakkasan and Wet Republic at MGM Grand and Omnia at Caesars Palace in its arsenal). Its headliner lineup is dotted with such club artists as Above & Beyond, Alesso, Armin van Burren, Chris Lake Fisher, Flo Rida, John Summit, Loud Luxury, Mustard, Pauly D, Sam Feldt, Sofi Tukker, Timmy Trumpet, Tyga and Vintage Cultur. Tao’s resident DJs will also be circuiting through TBC. Lil Jon, Mustard and Tyga are heading Sunday’s grand opening party.

Saturday, famous folk turned out in the renovated club’s first weekend.Kendall Jenner, Angus Cloud, Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul, Scott Disick, Brody Jenner, Foodgod, Winnie Harlow, Nina Agdal, Anthony Mackie, Sean Stewart, Steve Aoki, Dude With Sign, Alesso and Lil Jon were on the VIP hot list. Supermodels Winnie Harlow and Nina Agdal, and Vinny Guadagnino (currently the guest star in Chippendales at the Rio) were also on hand. Afrojack, Fisher, Illenium and Kaskade performed the daylong music set.

Along the Strip, daylife competition has heated up with Encore Beach Club at Wynn Las Vegas, Drai’s at Cromwell and Ayu Dayclub at Resorts World Las Vegas (celebrating its first full-capacity pool season this year) are also satisfying tourists’ thirst for daytime revelry.

“Daylife is exploding,” Strauss says. “In nightlife, you get there at 12 and you are there for three hours and it’s kind of condensed. Here, people come at 1 o’clock and they leave at 6, they have all that time for the experience. Day partying is more enjoyable for a certain demographic, and you can have 15 to 20 people in a cabana as opposed to six at a table.”

Some of those VIP cabanas can run pretty steep. The Jungle Cabana, with full bottle service and capacity of 15, is $25K. These are the cabanas favored by the club’s celeb superstars. But the range drops to $1,000 for daybed cabanas and $750 for a terrace table (both for parties of up to six). Individual presale tickets are $20 for females, $30 for males.

In the longer horizon, Tao Group is a subsidiary of MSG Entertainment and has an interest in the MSG Sphere, set to be completed next year. Strauss promises, “We also have some restaurant announcements that will be coming, on the Strip, soon.”

MusicCares honors Mitchell

Joni Mitchell was Person of the Year for this year’s pre-Grammy MusicCares fundraiser. The event was held at MGM Grand’s Conference Center ballroom. Jon Bastiste and Brandi Carlile served as co-directors. Violet Grohl, daughter of Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters, turned in a performance of Mitchell’s “Help Me.”

The all-star lineup included John Legend, Herbie Hancock, Cyndi Lauper, Angelique Kidjo, Allison Russell, Sara Bareilles, Chaka Khan, Leon Bridges, Black Pumas, Chloe Bailey and Pentatonix.

Mitchell has been largely out of public appearances since suffering a brain aneurysm seven years ago. As she said from the stage, quoted by Variety, “That was such an exciting musical evening for me, to hear my music performed so well by everybody that was on stage. I could retire now and just let other people do it.”

Viva Boe Vegas

A Westgate Las Vegas headliner is up for a Grammy, and it is not Barry Manilow. Not this year, anyway. Musical-theater icon Alfie Boe is nominated for Best Musical Theater Album for “Les Miserables: The Staged Concert.” Boe has won a Tony as a cast member of Baz Luhrmann’s 2002 revival of “La Bohème” on Broadway. Boe is set to perform a show titled “Showstoppers” (we remember that title at the Wynn) on June 3-4. We remember him, too, as one of the first singers to christen “Super Karaoke” at Westgate SuperBook last June. “We Are The Champions” was the lid-lifter.

Prediction unmasked

“The Masked Singer” has a three-headed character named Hydra. This could be a duo inside that costume. The voice sounds so familiar to me. And Hydra is actually a Gillette product. Penn Jillette has been on contest shows before (“Dancing With the Stars,” “Celebrity Apprentice”). I think Penn & Teller are in this show, folks.

Block party on Fremont East

Cheapshot the nightspot and “Mavericks” the variety show both opened Friday night. Amy Saunders of “Miss Behave Game Show” fame has pieced together the type of show she promised: Ribald, unique, talented, funny and impassioned. Saunders hosts, also swallows most of a cocktail table leg and slides a rose stem through her tongue.

Snaps last night of @WeAllScreamDTLV “A sensory overload of club, music, art … and ice cream,” next to @cheapshotdtlv on Fremont East. Groovy 10,000-square ft. nightclub/confectionery. Soft opening Friday. Grand opening May 4, same as Cheapshot. #RJNow @reviewjournal pic.twitter.com/85SWYR2IjC

— John Katsilometes (@johnnykats) April 2, 2022

Among the many highlights: Adam Kutchler performs a throwback cigar box-juggling act. Burlesque icon and 2006 Miss Exotic World champ Julie Atlas Muz revives her original fake-hand act, dubbed simply “The Hand.” Harrah’s Cabaret headliner Tape Face guest-starred, bringing his “Endless Love” duet with his singing oven mitts. There is a chicken, or rather a person in a chicken suit, spinning hula hoops. She’s Tanya Gagne. Get to know her. Same for vocalist Trice B Phantom Magnetiq, aerialist Hugo Desmarais and dancing great Alexandria Beauregard with her tribute to wetness

We consider “Mavericks” the type of show that Vegas needs to fully earn its rep as Entertainment Capital of the World. We have festivals. We have stadium and arena touring shows. We have the superstar headliners, night and dayclubs (see above), top production shows, magic acts and comedy clubs.

Dig it: First night of @cheapshotdtlv w/ @stillmisbehavin handling the rudder. First of many terrific performances. #RJnow @reviewjournal pic.twitter.com/sqzM8IpYwq

— John Katsilometes (@johnnykats) April 2, 2022

But we need the edgy, off-the-midway, adult specialty acts downtown, too. And we need someone we can trust to bring it home. Something that isn’t the institutional fare. This is where Miss Behave steps in. She sings (kinda) “My Way” to close, and when you visit Cheapshot, you’ll know why.

Cone-ing out party

Fremont East has no ice-cream parlor. Hadn’t thought of that until Ryan Doherty off-handedly mentioned it as we were walking through what will be an ice-cream parlor. We All Scream is the place, a project of Doherty’s Corner Bar Management, next door to Cheapshot, which is also a Corner Bar space. The new confectionery/club opens softly on Friday, with its grand opening May 4, also when Cheapshot celebrates its formal premiere.

We All Scream is a two-level, 10,000-square-foot venue designed as the kind of malt shop hang where Archie, Bett and Veronica would hang out (Google it). The club opens to Fremont Street. On the back side, you see … well, the backside, the club’s alley patio, where some of the old Beauty Bar pieces are currently stored.

Inside there are pastel-colored ice cream cones, starbursts, a funky stairwell that leads to the rooftop deck overlooking such downtown sites as El Cortez, Therapy, Evel Pie and (on Friday) a string of Metro Police units.

There are a half-dozen flavors in We All Scream, but more pertinent, also a full bar, dance floor (or, if you will, grove deck) and a dedicated DJ booth. ” A sensory overload of club, music, art… and ice cream,” is the formal description. Hours will be 10 p.m.-3 a.m. Thursdays through Sundays. A day party opens in September, at 3 p.m. on those days, when temps cool.

Show moves

Expecting an announcement this week that a longtime Strip act is moving to an off-Strip showroom popular with locals. More to be revealed …

Silk Sonic is all that

Members of BTS visited Silk Sonic at Dolby Live on Saturday night. Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak posed with three of the guys, who would have been wise to take mental notes of the choreography in the show. And also work up a cover of “Fly As Me.”

Cool Hang Alert

The vocal ensemble These Guys Worldwide heads up the 5:30-8:30 p.m. slot Fridays and Saturdays at Desert Star Bar at Mohegan Sun Casino inside Virgin Hotel Las Vegas. That’s almost as many titles of things as there are members of These Guys. But the act is really fun, inventive, all the signing, rapping, music and beats coming from the voices. No cover. Tips accepted.

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 Twitter, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.