Vinyl Room opening in former Foundation Room at Mandalay Bay

Vinyl is all about the feel. It is music you can touch that touches you.

“People like to hold albums, and they like to look at album covers, more so than they would a CD,” Live Nation Las Vegas President Kurt Melien says. “And I think people love the sound. It’s an audiophile thing. People love that original sound that comes from a record player, so there is a big nostalgia piece to this venue.”

This venue is the The Vinyl Room, the sky-high, hi-fi club on Mandalay Bay’s 63rd floor. The club opens Aug. 8 and will be open from 3 p.m. until “The End,” titled (we feel) for The Beatles’ penultimate track on “Abbey Road.”

The Vinyl Room takes over the Foundation Room, the hot spot that ran with intermittent splendor from March 1999 through last August.

The Vinyl Room is open to membership beginning at $2,000. But it is also open to the general public with reservations available now at OpenTable. The members-only venue is the 33 Members Room. The 78 Lounge and 45 Lounge — named for record sizes — are open to the general public.

“We expect half and half, members and nonmembers, to come here,” Melien says. “I think we’ll also have a split between tourists and locals.”

Melien is asked of the possibility of the Aces and Raiders cross-promoting and teaming on events.

“Definitely,” he said. “I can see them being very involved in this space.”

The Vinyl Room is a complete overhaul of the Foundation Room, but it still boasts its grand view of the Strip and the Las Vegas Valley. The sight lines are even more impressive today than in the Foundation Room days.

We now have a top-down look at all three of Las Vegas’ major sports venues: The Athletics’ ballpark to the east, visible from an expanded outdoor terrace, with Allegiant Stadium and T-Mobile Arena to the west.

The west-facing view is new, with the curtains opened instead of closed as they were at the Foundation Room.

The Vinyl Room’s interior signature effect is its vast vinyl collection, 4,760 vintage albums, primarily rock, pop, blues and R&B. That seems a remarkably high number until you realize it could be triple that. Every album in this place seems a classic. “Dressed to Kill” by Kiss is hung next to “Rebel Yell” by Billy Idol and “There Must Be a Better World Somewhere” by B.B. King. All of those releases are signed by the artists.

Around the room you are face-to-face with memories, Journey’s “Escape,” Motley Crue’s “Too Fast for Love,” Nirvana’s “Bleach” and Barbra Streisand’s “Superman” share the same wall. “Mother’s Milk” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers is set alongside Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon,” in what becomes a venue-wide battle of earworm classics.

Vinyl-as-art pervades the entire space. Three giant cubes made of albums hang high above the entrance. Turntables, reel-to-reel machines and big-dial radios from the 1970s are placed throughout the room.

Dozens of Las Vegas concert posters created in wheatpaste by Memphis artist (and music enthusiast) Colleen Couch are displayed on a back wall. Relive Paul McCartney at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in 2005, or the Aerosmith “Deuces Are Wild” residency at Dolby Live.

The DJ stand is just in front of that exhibit. Cushioned chairs, high-top tables and stools, couches and cocktail tables with actual album grooves are placed around the room.

The music is vinyl-friendly, played on real vinyl by a rotation of DJs who get the vibe.

Cocktails are themed for classic rock anthems: Golden Years is the rum-based signature cocktail inspired by the classic David Bowie track; the vodka-based House of the Rising Sun is inspired by the Animals hit. A zero-proof Superfly (the Curtis Mayfield hit from ’72) eliminates the raku gin from the concoction.

Mixologist Sean Kenyon evoked his inspiration by slipping on a pair of headphones plugged into a turntable and letting the music spirit him away.

The menu, designed/curated/created by chef Ryan DeRieux, is highlighted by wagyu beef skewers and sushi “tots” (sticky rice with yellowfin tuna poke, sriracha, aioli, eel sauce green onions and caviar), a fine complement to The Doors’ “Waiting for the Sun.”

The venue is not alone among heightened — in design or location — clubs in Las Vegas offering membership. Zero Bond at Wynn Las Vegas, The Poodle Room at Fontainebleau, Allē Lounge on 66 at Resorts World Las Vegas, Circa’s Legacy Club and the Doberman Drawing Room in the Arts District lead the hot list of such destinations.

But Vinyl Room is dropping the needle on nostalgia in its revival. The scratch and pop you hear might be from Harry Chapin’s “Heads & Tails,” which was the first album Melien ever owned.

“There’s a lot of competition, of course,” the exec says. “But Mandalay Bay does big business, and this is the main nightlife venue. I think we’re going to have big crowds, a diverse clientele and a lot of fun in here.”

John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on X, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.