Friday, November 29, 2002
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

NIGHT BEAT: Doug Elfman

Double Down Saloon celebrates 10 years of cold beer and wild times

What could be more appropriate for an independently owned Las Vegas bar, on its 10th anniversary party, than the staging of a concert by a tattooed porn star named Bridget the Midget?

The bar is the Double Down Saloon, which observes its 10th anniversary this weekend. It's one of the few Las Vegas drinkeries that remains consistently cool in an offbeat, pro-punk, anticorporate way.

The Double Down's reputation over the years has been pinned to its grungy look, its eclectic jukebox, and an even-handed treatment of regular customers.

When owner P Moss opened the place, it was isolated at 4640 Paradise Road. Then the Hard Rock opened a block away. Now it's in the vicinity of the hotel, a strip club, some gay bars and the Thomas & Mack Center.

The Double Down started simply with music by the quarter, Moss says. The jukebox right now includes 100 albums ranging from blues hero Louis Jordan to the punk of the Ramones and the theramin-aided garage-surf-punk band, Ray Daytona and Googoobombos. A Hives song was on the jukebox, but it was in the process of being displaced at interview time.

"Now that it's on the radio, I'm gonna yank it off," Moss told me. "Everywhere you go, the jukebox is the same compilation of radio songs (people) hear in the car. People want to hear something good, something different and something they maybe don't have at home."

Double Down customers love the dichotomy of eclectic music, he said:

"There were three girls in, the other late-afternoon, shooting pool and playing music, and I overheard of one of 'em say, `A Frank Sinatra song in a punk bar?' And they were smiling."

To be in business for 10 years in Las Vegas is like a lifetime, I told Moss.

"That is a fact," he said. "The music scene is not like any other city. ... Clubs and bars come and go in the blink of an eye."

Very few people cared about the Double Down in its beginning. The following was small if loyal. DJs at the college radio station, KUNV, 91.5-FM, played college rock at the time (jazz now) and helped build a word of mouth. Local artists came in and painted murals. And after a few years, Moss finally brought in concerts.

"Once, maybe a year into it, I got this call on a Sunday, five o'clock, and this girl is going, `Man or Astroman is supposed to play (at another bar), but it's closed. We need a place to play.' So I thought, it can't really hurt. ... Maybe it'll be fun."

By 10:30 at night, 300 people were in the small bar for Man or Astroman.

"We were totally ill-equipped to handle this, but we did and everybody had fun," Moss said.

Since then, Moss has booked "bands that are really big names, but only to people who know that sort of stuff. The regular Joe would go, `Who the hell are you talking about?' "

This year, the Double Down has staged such independent acts as the punk-blues royalty of the Immortal Lee County Killers, as well as Stromboli's Island of Donkeys and Dolls, which was billed as a "gender-bending cabaret performance troupe."

College students used to come in more often, but many ended up not being able to afford the drinks. Moss wouldn't turn down business, but ...

"College kids are a pain in the ass," he said. "They don't have any money, and we have a lot of hot girls in here, and they annoy the girls. And the girls leave, and if the girls leave, the guys leave. ... Maryland Parkway is a good place for college kids."

Moss' idea is to treat the Double Down as a bar first, and as a concert venue second. That way, employees treat customers fairly, building a steady base of regulars who play any of 15 video poker machines while drinking the bar to good financial health.

"That enables us to do music. And we never charge a cover," Moss said. "Anybody can fill a joint three hours a night. What are you gonna do the other 21 hours a day to pay the rent? So we're basically going about it the opposite way."

Moss is serious about customer service being nice. Or, at least, democratic.

"Regulars are like family. I know that sounds stupid, but it's true. People get kicked around every day at their job and at home. Life is stressful," he said.

The dusky atmosphere seems sort of safe-dangerous, not dangerous-dangerous.

"It's like dating the bad boy. It's just like that," Moss said.

And you never know when things will get weird. My first winter trip to the Double Down ended with a snowball fight. Some customer or employee drove to the mountains, filled his pickup with snow, and brought it back to the bar.

"Not too many bars have had snowball fights," Moss said.

The bar used to show pornos now and again, but it had to stop. In the most popular porno, a guy would take a suitcase into a hotel room, open it and receive favors from a midget. That midget was Bridget the Midget. Moss tracked her down for the anniversary. It turned out she had her own band, Blakkout, which headlines Saturday's show. The Vermin opens at 10 p.m.

On Friday, the line-up includes Cheap Chick (an all-woman Cheap Trick cover band), plus the broken blues-punk outfit the Latest Flames and the local up-and-comers The Pull-Outs.

There's no cover for either show, as usual. Showtime for each is 10 p.m.

For more information, call 791-5775.

Round town

Vicente and Alejandro Fernandez perform Saturday at the Mandalay Bay Events Center. Showtime is 9 p.m. Tickets are $50-$125. They go on sale at 10 a.m. today at the box office, 3950 Las Vegas Blvd. South, and through Ticketmaster. To charge by phone, call 632-7580. ...

Surf-guitar king Dick Dale rips into the Beach nightclub on Thursday. Opening act Sin City Surfers starts 8 p.m. Tickets are $12 through Ticketmaster. To charge by phone, call 474-4000. ...

And the Orleans tonight hosts TourBaby, a tour of local bands from around the nation, playing rock, jazz, rockabilly and singer-songwriter music on four stages. A few acts have bigger name recognition, such as Thomas Dolby of "She Blinded Me With Science" fame in the early 1980s. Admission is $10. Doors open at 6 p.m. at the Orleans, 4500 W. Tropicana Ave. For more information, check out Tourbaby.com. To charge by phone, call the Orleans at 365-7075.