Neon Riffs and Lounge Acts Author:Jarret Keene, Jason Bracelin, Betty Burston, Alycia Calvert, Sara Dudo In Las Vegas, some performers play to a packed house; for others, the seats are mostly empty. But no matter the headcount, in Sin City, great music was made famous by the Rat Pack, the King of Rock ’n’ Roll, and the King of Pop. What’s it like to experience this long tradition when you live in an area saturated with music? A co... more »llection of original essays, Neon Riffs and Lounge Las Vegas Writers on Music presents readers with the blistered fingers, the broken drumsticks, and the late nights and early mornings of life on and off the stage. In this book, you’ll taste the salty sweat caused by 100 burning bulbs and the sweetness of a backstage bowl of M&Ms (sans the brown ones), an indication of whether the concert promoter actually studied a band’s complicated contract. And you’ll discover the emotional reality of “living for the music” in the heart of a throbbing mass-entertainment center. This is the 13th volume of the annual Las Vegas Writes anthology, in which 13 local authors express what it sounds — and feels — like to embrace the rattle and hum of bright-light city musicality, exploring what it means to enjoy hard rock and soft ballads in a desert-locked entertainment capital where art and commerce clash and struggle to coexist.« less