VEGAS MUSIC ROUNDUP: New Kids’ Premature Determination, Scorpions, Heart, More

Posted on: September 27, 2024, 10:29h. 

Last updated on: October 1, 2024, 08:15h.

Corey Levitan Read More
Expertise: Commercial Gaming, Entertainment, Expert Insight, Las Vegas, Restaurants, Las Vegas Myths.

New Kids on the Block just added eight dates to their previously announced first Las Vegas residency, but further in advance than any act has ever announced Las Vegas dates before.

The last time NKOTB played in Las Vegas was July 10-13, 2014, in Planet Hollywood on their “Block After Dark” tour. (Image: nkotb)

The former boy band announced that its “The Right Stuff” stuff shows at Park MGM’s Dolby Live will now include Feb. 14, 15, 18, 20, 21, 25, 27, and 28.

In 2026!

Tickets for the new dates go on sale 10 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 3, while tickets for the previously announced 16 — from June 20 through Nov. 15, 2025 — go on sale at 10 a.m. today.

All tickets can be purchased here.

Scorpions Anniversary Stings

The realization that next year will mark 60 years since the Scorpions formed hits hard. But the West German hard rockers — best known for their 1984 hit “Rock You Like a Hurricane” and their 1991 hit “Wind of Change” — are rubbing it in their fans’ faces with the title of their third Planet Hollywood residency.

“The Scorpions — Coming Home to Las Vegas 60th Anniversary Residency” will occupy the casino hotel’s PH Live theater on Feb. 27 and March 1, 6, 8, and 11.

Only Rudy Schenker is really coming home, though. He’s the band’s sole remaining original member.

Tickets go on sale Saturday at 10 a.m. PT via Ticketmaster.

Black AI’ed Peas

Black Eyed Peas will have a “new member” made from artificial intelligence by the time they debut their 15-date ”3008 Las Vegas Residency” at Planet Hollywood next February.

Alongside Will.i.am, Apple de Ap, Taboo and J. Rey Soul (who joined following Fergie’s 2018 departure) will be Vida, an AI programmed to simulate human experience. (Its name is Spanish and Portuguese for life.)

Will.i.am told USA Today that, though Vida was not a hologram that the audience can see, she will be “the most interactive pre, during and post-show experience” that will sing with the group and be “patched into every band member, stage hands and the audience, if they want to engage with her.”

Will.i.am said he was inspired to come up with Vida after watching how artfully Taylor Swift integrated cutting-edge technology into her “Eras” tour.

Robbie Vetoes Venetian

British pop star Robbie Williams, formerly of boy band Take That, turned down big money for a residency at Voltaire at the Venetian, according to Britain’s The Sun newspaper, which called the venue’s organizers “absolutely gutted, as the tickets would have sold out immediately.”

Williams is beyond huge in Britain but never cracked the States. In fact, he relocated for several years in the early 2000s to Los Angeles for the anonymity it afforded him — Los Angeles! — saying he wanted to be “Bruce Wayne in America and Batman everywhere else.”  

But Voltaire’s bookers are savvy enough to realize that if a performer is huge enough elsewhere, their fans will fly abroad to see them in Las Vegas. That’s why Kylie Minogue, a superstar at home in Australia but never the US, sold out her most of her Voltaire shows quickly. (Coincidentally, Williams and Minogue collaborated on the 2000 songs “Kids” rom his album “Sing When You’re Winning.”)

New Restarted Heart

Heart has announced a second date for its restarted Royal Flush Tour at Fontainebleau’s BleauLive Theater. March 1 will follow the original Feb. 28 date, which was rescheduled from a Dec. 15 performance postponed due to Ann Wilson’s emergency cancer surgery.  Tickets, $59-$299, are now on sale here.