Rage Against the Machine, Iggy Pop rock Vegoose music festival

ENTERTAINMENT

The old dudes got it done in '07. Once again, when it came to touring, the biggest attractions of the year were decidedly long in the tooth: namely, comeback jaunts by The Police and Van Halen.

Elsewhere, long-running acts such as Rush and Eric Clapton continued to acquit themselves well in packed arenas.

Hey, who says Grandpa can't rock? Certainly not me, judging by this year's roundup of the best Las Vegas concerts.

1. VEGOOSE -- From Iggy Pop and The Stooges demonstrating that dirty old men can still knock your teeth down your throat to Rage Against the Machine providing CPR to rap-rock's dying husk to M.I.A. nearly collapsing a stage after inviting the crowd up to dance with her, Vegoose had its banner year in 2007 at Star Nursery Field. Thirty-seven thousand people showed up, not an overwhelming number, so will it be enough for Vegoose to return next October? Let's hope so.

2. FIRE FEST, DAY 1 -- As combustible as its name implies, this two-day, D.I.Y. death metal and hard-core fest turned the Fort Cheyenne Events Center into a blast furnace of sweaty hair and swollen larynxes in June. Day one was all about the metal, with the mind boggling technical fireworks of Necrophagist, Decapitated and Cephalic Carnage blasting the crowd like they were moshing on a minefield. On a sad note, the show marked the last time Decapitated's amazing drummer, Witold "Vitek" Kieltyka, would perform in Vegas, as he was killed in a bus accident in November at the age of 23.

3. BJÖRK -- Björk's first solo gig in Vegas in The Pearl at the Palms this month melted retinas and hearts in equal measure, a thunderbolt of color and sound flush with more pageantry than the Rose Bowl parade. At the center of it all was a pocket-sized chanteuse who dug her heels in and rode all the wildly bucking rhythms the way a ranch hand breaks a wild horse.

4. BOB SEGER -- Bob Seger looks like a guy you'd call to fix a leaky toilet, but once he hits the stage, he's a classic rock jukebox come to life. His brawny, sax-fired rock 'n' roll still swings as hard as a prizefighter, and he sent the capacity crowd home with a couple of shiners at the MGM Grand in March.

5. DIMMU BORGIR -- These demon lovin' Norwegians savaged the House of Blues in May with blasphemous black metal equal parts fury and finesse, with sweeping orchestral passages tempered with the speed and precision of a heat-seeking missile. Score one for Satan.

6. SMASHING PUMPKINS -- Billy Corgan's guitar swallows buildings whole. When the Pumpkins played The Pearl in September, it was as bombastic as alt-rock gets, with Corgan improvising wildly and the band's repertoire growing walrus-esque tusks live. And the light show still has us seeing spots three months later.

7. HEAVEN AND HELL -- Ronnie James Dio is like a furry little shotgun shell: A lot of explosiveness is packed into a pretty small package. His presence completely electrifies his former Sabbath bandmates, Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler, who attacked their instruments like famished wolverines gorging on a pile of kittens when the band stormed into The Pearl in October.

8. DILLINGER FOUR -- Compared to the other bands that played the Punk Rock Bowling kickoff show at the Empire Ballroom in January, this working class punk firebomb was like a mason jar of moonshine versus a clutch of wine coolers. Awash in beer guts and callused hands, these dudes battered the crowd with their gruff, galvanized rock 'n' roll, then joined them on the sidewalk afterward for a drunken serenade.

9. GEORGE STRAIT -- The Ron Burgundy of honky-tonk, George Strait is as classy as they come. An ace showman with the best backing band in the business, Strait lit up the MGM Grand in February with his cool and confident amalgamation of traditional and contemporary country that proved that Nashville isn't completely bankrupt these days -- just really, really close.

10. TRUE COLORS TOUR -- As jubilant as a 4-year-old's birthday party, this eclectic tour enlivened the MGM Grand in June with a powder keg of adrenaline. The Dresden Dolls amazed, Deborah Harry oozed cool like a leaky air conditioner and the ceaselessly buoyant Erasure could have made a corpse smile.

Contact reporter Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-0476.

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