ENTERTAINMENT: Meet the new Joint

  The new Joint looks more like the old Joint than its closest competitor, the Pearl at the Palms. The former, at least, is deliberate.
  Hard Rock Hotels gave a group media tour Thursday of the $60 million concert venue, set to open April 17 with The Killers, closely followed by Paul McCartney on April 19.

  The 4,000-capacity room is still in the concrete-and-steel phase — the images here are artist’s renderings —  but it conveys a big, open-barn feel where most of the action will be on the floor. It looks like a roll-up-your-sleeves-and-party version (with more right angles) of the Colosseum at Caesars Palace, which was designed by the same firm, Sceno Plus, the Montreal-based company that also did the new showroom at Aliante Station.
  Two balcony levels wrap around the side walls; the lower one will be all-VIP access, while the third level houses about 730 seats, the venue’s only permanent ones. The worst seat in the house is touted as being “only 155 feet” from the stage. But much like the Colosseum — which bandied about a similar statistic for its nosebleed seats — it looks like a lo-o-ong 155 feet when you’re up there. (Maybe it’s literally a matter of perception, about whether you consider 155 feet to be “close” or “far.” For comparison’s sake, the more steeply-raked Pearl cites 120 feet as its maximum distance.)
  The floor is more gently tiered than the old room, and looks nothing like the Pearl or House of Blues, which "go vertical" fairly close to the stage. There’s a sizable flat area in front of the stage (where the ring will go for boxing). Behind it are a series of gentle step-ups. For seated concerts, about two rows of seating will occupy each tier, says Paul Davis, the Hard Rock’s vice president of entertainment. But someone besides McCartney will be testing out those chairs. The 66-year-old legend wants to put on a “down ’n’ dirty, real old-fashioned rock ’n’ roll show,” Davis says.
  Of course, the real McCartney trustafarian action will be on the VIP level, where seven luxury suites will be rented by event, with no plans for year-round leases. 
  The stage is 60-by-40 feet and can hang a full arena-concert rig overhead. But the shape of the stage itself and the proscenium that frames it deliberately copy the old Joint. So does the rail work that keeps people from falling off the balconies. “We want people to feel like they’re still at home,” Davis says. Decorative touches include giant guitar fretboards and real metal cymbals on the side walls.
  None of the light and sound equipment has been installed, but designers promise the room will sound a whole lot better than the old one, with 25 delay speakers that cut the echo for the back of the room. There will be 16-by-9-foot video screens on each side of the stage and a 23-by-13-foot screen at the center rear.