First time festivals are always a crapshoot. Promoters can overpromise, venues might not know what they’re in for, police could be annoying, there are so many ways that this could go wrong. Those first year fears were a major reason why some were tentative to check out the Bender Jamboree, but this event had some ways of moving the odds of success in its favor. The first is simply that it’s in Las Vegas. When you’re in a town known for prioritizing fun (as long as you’re spending money) over strict adherence to the rules, one that is a newly minted legal state so the biggest excuse for crack downs is non-existent, it’s hard to imagine a police state style environment unless we did something to earn it. While that is a relief, the bigger reason I took the leap was the promoter.
The Blues Bender is on its 5th year of running. Also held at the Plaza Hotel, it receives rave reviews from the attendees to the point where many people went to the Jamboree solely because they have so much fun at the Blues event, that they’d gladly go to another. With loyalty like that, a lineup of most of my favorites, and an excuse to get out of the Seattle rain for a few days, it was just too tempting to resist.
With this recent trend of combining music and resorts, my favorite pairings have been the ones where the latter is more off the beaten path. Jam Cruise had a home for many years on MSC; the shipping company got to learn how Americans like to cruise – pro tip: hot dogs are not a desired topping on pizza – and Jam Cruise didn’t receive the same treatment that Carnival gave them. That is why I was excited that Bender was located in the Plaza hotel.
Despite being right by the Fremont Street Experience, The Plaza Hotel and Casino is no one’s idea of a Vegas destination. It doesn’t have a faux Italian village or a dancing waters routine and it most definitely is not luxurious [1]. However, it does have a charm that the bigger strip casinos don’t. Its main claim to fame are the three murals on the towers. “Behind Closed Doors” is my personal favorite. The English artist D*Face painted a 1950s horror comic book style scene of a terrified woman being stalked by a monster. This is visible from the pool – and therefore was the backdrop to the pool stage – and led to the endlessly amusing contrast of her being terrified by whatever the musicians were doing.
In addition to that, the Fremont Street vibe is much different than that of the Strip. Was it designed to separate you from your money? Yes. It is Las Vegas. But it did so in a much calmer way. There wasn’t the same pressure to pretend that you’re a high roller and throw down hundreds of dollars for meals. The lower scale made the surrounding environment more conducive for a festival; the main way that that could be seen was in the casino.
The problem with Vegas casinos is that they can trap you in a land where you can never escape. When Phish played the MGM, I regularly found myself wandering in an endless loop throughout the casino, somehow never getting closer to the Grand Garden. The Plaza Casino was human sized. It had a ton of slots, a row of tables, and a sports book. It was worrisome ahead of time seeing that the map showed you had to go through the casino to get from the Bender Showroom to the Casino Lounge, but it turned out to be a very quick walk, one that gave plenty of time to check out the lounge when they were switching up bands.
The smaller scale of the Plaza allowed us to take it over. Throughout the festival, they played nothing but Jamgrass. My friend Annette had Fruition’s “Mountain Annie” stuck in her head. When she heard it over the speakers, she sat down at a slot machine for the song’s duration and won big as a result. One of the most surreal moments of the weekend was walking through the casino floor while Shook Twins “Time to Swim” was playing over the PA. As the ethereal vocals of the end played, I felt like I was transported into a world where the top 40 was dictated by my tastes.
Bender Jamboree had four stages. In order of desirability, they were the Juke Joint, the Bender Showroom, the Casino Lounge, and the Pool Stage. The Joint wasn’t so much bad as one that suffers from contrast. It was the indoor stage for day events. While the Plaza didn’t completely conform to Vegas rules, this side room in the casino had no windows to the outside. When you’re escaping the grey of the Pacific Northwest (and there was a large contingent of Northwesterners there), the last place you want to be on a sunny day is inside a very dark room. Since it was the secondary stage, it didn’t really have a good light show to break up the dark. Still though the sound was impeccable there and there was a good mix of dance space and sitting room. It was definitely a case of least interesting instead of bad.
The Showroom is also an interior, windowless room but it was a more interesting one. It’s a mini theater, complete with chandeliers. The space was mixed between dancing areas and a few curved couches. While the venue could get packed, especially for Greensky Bluegrass and Del McCoury, somehow there always seemed to be a seat free when you needed it. The dance floors could get crowded, but there were a few secret areas – no. I’m not telling you. They’re a secret for a reason! – that always had room. The best thing about this venue (other than the fact that it had the most interesting music of the weekend) was it was the home of the most amazing security guard in all of Clark County: Precious Flowers. Just by sheer force of personality and love, she could get us to do anything. She danced with and hugged and (on one occasion) even kissed a fan, and as a result we all followed her every request. Treat us with genuine warmth and respect and we’ll do anything for you. I wish more people would learn that.
The Casino Lounge was the most surreal of the venues. It was located on the side of the casino floor, right by most of the tables. It was the one venue that non-festival attendees could hear; the difference between being inside and outside the venue was what side of a rope you were on. While it’s amazing to be dancing a few feet from people losing their life savings at Pai Gow Poker, its small space led to people having to find areas outside the official space to dance which led to a few minor conflicts with the staff who wanted to keep the aisles clear. Billy Strings’ lounge set was the one time where it felt like this stage might not be working. Fortunately, you could hear the music at any of the tables or slots around the performer, so there were workarounds.
The indoor venues had pros and cons, the centerpiece was the Pool Stage. While it is a truism that any festival that has stages by water will have those be the most popular, the 5th floor pool had more going for it than just the ability to lie by the pool and a cool mural to stare at. There were desert hills off in the distance, the rotating sign for the Golden Gate Casino across the hill, and as night fell, the neon from the surrounding hotels slowly turned on. There even is a view of the Fremont Street Experience. While it would have been nice if there were secondary speakers making it easier to hear the music from the hot tub, when you’re saying that the sound was slightly suboptimal when you’re sitting in a hot tub, no one is going to feel too sorry for you.
When the setting is working, the music already has an advantage. While a few times it might have been needed because if you throw us all together in a small casino, shenanigans might be prioritized over sleep [2], there still were some incredible peak moments. Some of these were just perfectly positioned songs. The Infamous Stringdusters suddenly busted into a well-played version of the “Stash” introduction out on the pool stage, doing enough of it that Nugs felt compelled to labeled it as “Stash Tease” on the official recording. Greensky Bluegrass brought out an Elvis impersonator and two showgirls to sing “Viva Las Vegas” (and later lead us through the “woah” section of “Leap Year”); the following night’s setlist would spell out Viva Las Bender. Dustbowl Revival performed an amazing cover of The Knack’s “My Sharona” on the casino floor complete with musician in feline masks for the Caturday Night Fever theme. Even the hardened gamblers were dancing in place at the tables. The Jon Stickley Trio’s instrumental mashup of songs centering on “Smells Like Teen Spirit” had a similar effect. However, the most magical song happened on the pool stage on Saturday.
Fruition was wrapping up their set with “The Meaning.” The song is set on a perfect day for the couple, the sky was bright blue, the sun was about to set, and the wind swung by to check out the happenings. This performance was already going to have extra – sorry can’t resist – meaning as the cloudless desert day was winding down with the sun disappearing behind the Spring Mountains. What made this so extraordinary was the mysterious desert wind. There had been high winds on Friday that forced the moving of the pool sets down below, but it had completely died down overnight. As though it had a copy of the Fruition songbook, as soon as Kellen strummed the opening chords, it went from completely calm to a steady, strong gust. The breeze listened to them tell their tales, picked up in intensity during the jam at the end, and then stopped on a dime as they left the stage. Sorry desert wind, I wanted another song too, but schedules don’t make exceptions even for unforgettable natural phenomena.
While those performances were incredible, there were two whole sets that really stood out: Saturday night Billy Strings and Sunday’s The Lil Smokies. What they have in common is that they showed a new side of the artists. Billy Strings has incredible talent. It would be enough for a performer in his mid 20s to have the gravitas that he has to put on his traditional bluegrass shows. He even can legitimately channel the spirit of Jerry and credibly sing Garcia/Hunter ballads. That would be enough to have a strong career. However, three or four times during the night set, Señor Strings changed the game. He’d strum a little holding pattern for a few bars that meant, “Let’s take this one for a ride.” It was like watching an anime transformation sequence, but one where the transformed character already started out with superpowers. Watching him take his band from a great bluegrass band to one that could jam with an intensity and rapport that usually takes years to develop and then immediately bring it back to the song as though nothing had happened – Superman? I missed him again? – was fascinating to watch. I know it’s a tad clichéd right now to gush over Billy Strings’ talent, but he’s likely to be a force for a while now.
When I first started seeing The Lil Smokies, there were a few songs that really stood out: “Decades,” “California,” “Mending the Fences,” and “Fell Asleep” told these stories that used the power of ridiculously infection choruses and hooks to make them sound like epic adventures. I might not know what I was ordered to don’t dare forget, or know what song they were trying to sing when they didn’t know the words, but I cared immensely about these characters. I felt for the Californian heartbreak and wondered just why the singer felt that multiple decades were just lost. They’ve written other songs since then and I have other favorites, but these formed a core of material that I could hear every night. What made the Sunday show so special was that I walked out wondering if it was the best Smokies concert I had seen, and that was despite none of these songs coming out. The power that normally got channeled into making the choruses feel like the most important message in the world instead moved into expanded jamming. When there was a mid-set spontaneous (or seeming spontaneous at least) drop into “Paint it Black,” I knew that this band had reached a new level of performance. This is the advantage of the festival circuit. Bands can inspire each other to discover new ways of expression that they might have never thought of if they just played in a vacuum.
As much fun as the Bender Jamboree was – and I prebooked for 2019 on the pool deck, so it was a blast – I do have a suggestion and a warning for next year. The suggestion is a minor one but might make a huge difference. Since this is an event that caters to improvisational music, it would be nice if some of the times could be extended a little bit. A few of the sets felt a tad rushed as the musicians had to pack a ton of material into not quite enough time. Festival sets will never be full blown shows, but extending some of the 75 minute time slots to 90 and the 90 minute headliners to 2 hours would give a much greater opportunity for the once in a lifetime sit ins between musicians that make festivals so fascinate to attend.
And now to play Cassandra. Part of what made this so perfect was the size of the event. There were enough people around to make it feel like a real spectacle, but it was small enough to feel like a community. The musicians and fans formed a much tighter bond than even on Jam Cruise. That was partially due to the casino being a logical place to focus our downtime between music, but the size of the event helped a lot. Musicians could hang out without having to worry about being overwhelmed. OK, maybe Vince Herman wore a dinosaur suit on “Beer and Loathing Night” but that was more getting in character with the theme than hiding. So many perfect events have made a big attendance leap and never were quite the same afterward. What growth happens needs to be slow and organic to preserve the soul.
Ultimately, if the big feedback from a first year festival is, “Wow, that was so much fun that I’m scared too many people will try to attend next year,” you know it was a success. Hopefully one of my sports futures bets that I placed will pay off to help fund next year’s trip. Either way I did learn one very important rule. If you’re at a hippie festival that has a cat themed night and the venue has a slot machine called Kitty Glitter, don’t play it. The machine was on to us!
[1] The biggest downside to the event was most definitely the rooms. While the actual room was nicely sized, the bathrooms were poorly arranged (closing the door was a challenging task), there were no refrigerators – the clear backpacks they gave out quickly got repurposed to be portable coolers – and there were a lot of small problems. Some rooms had a loud whistling noise from the high winds of the first night, others clogged sinks, or – in our case – a very loud toilet. For the most part, it was the sort of thing that you could laugh off and there was so much music that little time was really spent in the room, but it’s hard to imagine wanting to stay at the Plaza outside of a festival.
[2] I may or may not have some funny stories, but any ones I did have would not be posted here. This definitely is an event where reporting would prevent repetition. I’m afraid that you really do have to attend first hand to fully experience this event.
David Steinberg got his Masters Degree in mathematics from New Mexico State University in 1994. He first discovered the power of live music at the Capital Centre in 1988 and never has been the same. His Phish stats website is at http://www.ihoz.com/PhishStats.html and he’s on the board of directors for The Mockingbird Foundation. He now tweets and has a daily update on the Phish Stats Facebook page
His book This Has All Been Wonderful is available on Amazon, the Kindle Store, and “his Create Space store.”: https://www.createspace.com/4667209
