Vegas Rocks is the new venue at Neonopolis in the old Jullian's place. Against all odds, Josette LeBlond and Tony Sacca have teamed together to try and make something work at Neonopolis. They have a bar, a restaurant/lounge, and a showroom. Josette's specialty is hospitality and food. Tony has been in the Las Vegas entertainment business almost as long as he can remember.

The bar area is pretty complete. They have worked on their menu for dining to bring more traditional food than the French selections that were previously found at Josette's Bistro. And they gave them cute Vegas entertainer names. They also came up with a limited lunch special menu. They are still trying the lounge music scene on a nice stage in the restaurant area. This area is decorated with many of the odds and ends previously found in Josette's Bistro. Around the corner from the lounge is the show room. It has about 250 folding chairs. They've had a couple of evening shows that stayed for a while. They has an Elton John/Billy Joel tribute. They now have a show that was a hit on America's Got Talent. And they have an occasional headliner.

I went to the opening of their new afternoon show called Vegas The Show. It features Tony Sacca, Tom Wallek, and 3 singer/dancer/showgirls. The show focuses on Las Vegas entertainment through the decades, such as the 30's, 40's, 50's, etc., up to today and what may happen in the future. The show has canned music that was recorded in the lounge. It does have professional stage lighting. And it has some vintage video clips. As a new show, it has a lot of bugs to work out. There's only 5 people in the cast and lots of costume changes. I think it has potential as an afternoon, downtown, cheap show. The show costs about $20, and there is a lunch option for an additional $7.

Certainly not a must see for the occasional tourist, Vegas The Show works if all the "ifs" are there. If you happen to be in the area, if you are tired of the casino scene, if you want cheap entertainment, if you want an afternoon show, etc.

One interesting thing is what it has in common with David Saxe. David owns the V-theater and now the old Steve Wyrick theater. David utilizes his rooms for multiple purposes to get good utilization of his real estate. The restaurant/lounge, and the afternoon and evening shows are multi-tasking the rooms at Vegas Rocks. The folding chairs in the show room remind me of the V-theater too. And finally, the show I saw was called Vegas The Show and David Saxe is working on a show for his new theater called Vegas The Show. It will be interesting to see how the names play out.

Finally, it will be interesting to see how Vegas Rocks plays out. As I said, the whole project is against all odds as NOTHING has ever worked out at Neonopolis, even in good financial times. If Vegas Rocks has anything in it's favor, it would be that they got the property cheap, the nightlife outside of the FSE canopy has picked up, the strip bus drops off right outside their door, the El Cortez has gained some popularity, Fremont East is established, the talents of Tony and Josette pack a punch. Still, it's gonna be a long hard road and a Las Vegas first if it survives.