Define Tacky

Last week at long last, rumors were confirmed when Hard Rock International debuted plans and renderings resulting from its recent $1B purchase of the Mirage Resort & Casino from MGM. Along with a complete re-branding of the entire campus, Hard Rock plans to erect a $400M Stratocaster-esque guitar tower counting among its attributes 36 floors, 1000 rooms and suites, 1164 new slot machines (to add to the 2300 already in active use) and 161 additional table games. Six high-intensity beams shoot skyward 20,000 feet to simulate the reach of the building’s strings. Construction is expected to begin in 18 months with the ribbon cutting ceremony tentatively scheduled for 2025, pending the Nevada Gaming Control Board’s expected rubber stamp. Here’s the thing though. Notice something interesting about the placement of the new tower? Its location set off furious uproar last week when Hard Rock also announced its brazen intention to (monetize and) completely bulldoze the Mirage’s famed volcano and with it, its nightly popular — and free — shows. The first attraction of its type when it opened to universal acclaim in 1989, the Mirage volcano paved the way for Bellagio’s much-adored fountains which began lighting smiles nine years later. So sadness in Vegas of late for the slow-moving passing of a legend into memory. As is typical, what happens in Vegas is replaced in Vegas.