Hey Vegas, it’s pool season! Well, pool gossip season anyway.

The construction that has led to the deforestation of the Encore entrance by Switch restaurant will come to a good end when The Encore Beach Club and Surrender Nightclub open there over Memorial Day weekend in May.

At around 60,000 square-feet total, the project is said to devote 50,000 square-feet to the Beach Club complex, which will include three pools, 30 private VIP cabanas and outdoor gaming. Around 4,000 square-feet is set aside for Surrender Nightclub (size-wise, think Blush’s slightly bigger cousin), and another 6,000-8,000 square feet is slated to become multiple, climate-controlled decks between the two.

Neighboring Switch Restaurant will also be drawn into the fold for the now-traditional Vegas ensemble of pool, restaurant and club, which makes for a nice day-to-night-to-day transition. Switch will be getting an overhaul to “be more in union with what we’re doing,” says Surrender/Beach Club operating partner Sean Christie. “It will have a different feel.”

Open seven days a week, the new pool will take on Light Group’s Liquid Pool at Aria—also opening this summer—as both new kids on the block host sizzling daytime pool parties. The Encore Beach Club deck is expected to remain operational up to 10 months out of the year thanks to the climate-controlled patios that will also allow for nighttime pool parties. The nightclub is currently slated to open three to four nights a week for starters.

Total budget for the whole shebang? Well over $70 million, says a source, and possibly up to $100 million when all is said and done. It will be “the most opulent and luxurious pool club ever built,” the source says with confidence. The project’s operators intend to build a venue that can stay relevant for the next 10 to 15 years, hence that hefty price tag.

Christie confirms to the Weekly that his Las Vegas Nightlife Group is behind the projects, joining forces with owner Steve Wynn, who is said to be “intimately” involved in this important undertaking. With the help of Roger Thomas and the Wynn design team, The Encore Beach Club and Surrender will transform much of Wynn’s new casino, which opened in December 2008.

“We’re looking to do something special,” says Christie. “All you have to do to understand that is drive by the front of Encore and that gives you a glimpse of the scope and size of it. We’re hoping to change the playing field for these types of venues.”

Christie also confirms that three marketing directors have been brought on to work side-by-side: Longtime club operator Dave Pappas will be focusing on customer development alongside Larry Murphy (Light Group, Blush), who will be working with the hosts and promoters. Hip-hop/entertainment mogul $hecky Green (aka Jonathan Schechter) confirms that he will be tackling the events, talent and DJs.

“I'm focusing on a broad range of entertainment, marketing and event planning,” says Green, “including high-end performances (artists, DJs), brand tie-ins and local promotions.” Also poised to contribute to this formidable think-tank is former MGM Mirage “whale”-hunter and host-of-hosts Bob Mancari.

Competition is known to be fierce in the small-but-powerful world of Vegas pool parties and nightclubs, but the combined weight of this group’s “little black books” alone could tip the scales very much in this project’s favor.

As posted on the Las Vegas Weekly by Xania Woodman

Game-changer

The triumphant arrival of Garth Brooks may be the first glimpse of the next Las Vegas and a new showbiz paradigm: the anti-spectacle. After a decade of ever-more-elaborate (and impersonal) Cirque-dominated, can-you-top-this? extravaganzas — epitomized by Celine Dion and then Bette Midler — Brooks and Steve Wynn are keeping it simple. They're even keeping a low overhead (well, except for that jet). As a headliner, Brooks is unplugged and unpretentious, just a singer and his songs, up close and personal.

Art of artlessness

No costumes (the audience is more dressed-up than the star) means no costume changes, no running around the stage. Although production values are high, with luxe lighting, a wireless headset and a bit of reverb in the pin-drop audio, there are no special effects, no band, no dancers, no pyrotechnics. Dressed down in a hoodie, jeans, baseball cap and work boots, Brooks, 47, could be a husky Anyguy — you'd never recognize him if you bumped into him in the casino. Joking that Friday's first show was "rougher than a cob," Brooks made a show of tuning his guitar (it may be a bit of shtick), and for a while his headset mike popped annoyingly with every breath. But his crowd doesn't care if he spaces on a lyric or biffs a guitar lick — in fact, they eat it up. Brooks is quick with self-effacing jokes, but make no mistake, he knows what he's doing and is in utter control of the stage and his aw-shucks image.

Country encapsulated

Brooks' repertoire — and his voice — is a skilled, distilled summation of country music's past hybridized with '70s singer-songwriter pop. At Friday's press conference, Brooks asked reviewers to preserve the surprise of his set list, which seems apt to change. I will abide, but I can say his influences and inspirations are big on Boomer icons, warming up with Merle Haggard, George Jones and "my king" George Strait, nodding to Bob Seger, and reserving special love for his man-crushes, James Taylor, Cat Stevens and Billy Joel. (He found it necessary to inform the audience, "I'm not gay, but...") His fans clearly share his sentimental journey: Several times Brooks stopped singing entirely, for instance, leaving the last choruses of "Piano Man" to the audience, who joyously took over.

Killing us softly

What the multiplatinum Brooks is doing for an estimated $125 a ticket is the same thing he was doing as a green unknown, playing covers and singing for tips at Wild Willie's as an Oklahoma college student. While Brooks' audience is paying rapt attention to his high-end busking, you can bet that somewhere else in town, some singer is playing his or her guitar at a bar — singing Garth Brooks covers, most likely — while paying customers obliviously carry on drinking, talking, singing and playing beer pong. Who knows where or when the next Garth Brooks will be incarnated? He may already walk among us.

Any requests?

After a few songs and a Field of Dreams reference, Garth brings up the house lights and takes questions — and requests! This is where Brooks really breaks from the pack, the rare superstar ready, willing and able to work on his feet. And these apparently spontaneous, unexpected requests included some early and obscure Brooksiana, providing some of the most polished and powerful moments of the show. He got around to "Friends in Low Places," of course ("I'm gonna make you wait"), and when he did — teasing out the opening chords, standing close to the crowd with the toes of his work boots hanging over the lip of the stage — it seemed joyously unfollowable. Until Brooks followed it, with "The Dance," which had people near me singing along through tears.

Photo: Henry Diltz

Garth Brooks performs at Encore Theater in the Wynn on Dec. 12, 2009.

Just like us

The early buzz about Brooks' engagement was about thwarting scalpers and Wynn giving Brooks a private to jet to commute between shows and be a soccer dad for his three teenage daughters (one of whom is named after James Taylor). The audience loves this — humble superstar as daily commuter. Stars: they're just like us. (The only hint of superstar regalism was Brooks' odd habit of referring to himself with the royal "we.") The crowd went wild when Trisha Yearwood, Brooks' wife of four years and every bit the big-time country star he is, walked on and instigated some Sonny-&-Cher-style banter. "Wardrobe change," Yearwood cracked, when Brooks turned his cap front to back. "Nice ring!" someone shouted. "Looks real, doesn't it?" Yearwood said. "That ring," Brooks shot back, "is the reason we had to take this gig." The pair's tender harmonizing on "Walk Away Joe" was one of several money's-worth moments in the 90-minute set. Is it too much to hope that Brooks and Yearwood will have his-and-hers deals at Wynn?

Close to you

The main takeaway: The fans want to be in the room with the object of their affection or adoration. They want to feel as if the star might see them or hear them. This isn't possible in, say, the cavernous Colosseum, where the performers' main objective is to project persona, hit their marks and cues in an assembly line show that's virtually the same night after night. Each concert of Brooks' five-year engagement has the potential to feel like a one-of-a-kind occurrence, which makes the audience feel special. This is likely what the next Vegas is going to be about.

Is that an iPhone in your hand?

Hypervigilant ushers rushed up and down the aisles, aiming their blue penlights at anyone who seemed to be texting or Twittering or recording forbidden video or audio from their seats. The ushers' hovering omnipresence was more annoying than the lights from the tiny screens, but they were just doing their jobs, on a mission from Headquarters. "Mr. Wynn told us that he doesn't want to see this show on YouTube," one middle-aged usher told me after the show. As the audience filed out, she leaned against a wall, catching her breath after 90 minutes of search-and-destroy stair sprints.

The house wins again

Wynn deserves to be hailed once more for his genius in booking this act at this time. Somehow he alone found a retired superstar with international reach, but a particular appeal to American heartland devotees, who has been off the stage long enough (since 2001) to build up an appetite, who has the charm and chops to turn in a show that feels like an extraordinary privilege and is worthy of repeat visits.

As posted on the Las Vegas weekly by Joe Brown

Anyone who knew Adam Goldstein - better known as DJ AM - knew he was trying hard after surviving a horrendous 2008 airplane crash to live his life and stay clean. Unfortunately, Goldstein, a Philadelphia native who grew up in Rittenhouse Square, was found dead Friday evening at age 36 in his Manhattan apartment, where police found a crack pipe and prescription pills. He had been dealing with burn injuries received in the airplane crash and post-traumatic stress disorder he'd developed afterward.

DJ AM had, had a long battle with drugs.And lived with the constant struggle to stay off the drugs that had marred his life nearly a decade before.

In a july interview by with Associated Press, iit seemed clear that Goldstein's new MTV show "Gone Too Far," was a project that struck close to the heart. He called it a teenage version of "Intervention," (referring the A&E reality show where people are confronted by family and friends about their addictions.)

Himself a hero for many young music fans and himself a long-recovering addict, Goldstein was seemed the perfect host for the show. It was scheduled to air October 5. MTV has not yet said whether or not Goldstein's show will air, but said in a statement that it "was honored to support him as he helped young people battle their own addictions."

So as of yet, we don't know if the show will still air