Boozy dream now a hard rock reality

The idea for the place first came up over a game of cards, so, of course, it had to end up in Vegas.

Poker buddies and hard rock guitar heroes Scott Ian and Jerry Cantrell, of Anthrax and Alice in Chains respectively, were playing a few hands at Cantrell's L.A. pad a few years back when they began kicking around the idea of opening a bar.

"I started going over to his house on Wednesday nights to play cards," Ian recalls, "and it kind of grew out of that, and then me inviting Jerry out to poker events and just us hanging out and talking, 'Well, what if we had our own place?' "

That "what if" has become a reality, with Ian and Cantrell opening a new rock-oriented nightclub, Dead Man's Hand, in the Playground complex dominated by Crazy Horse III on Russell Road. It's a cozy joint that holds about 200, with red leather booths, black walls soon to be decorated with framed rock portraits and a decent-sized stage occupying one end of the room.

There's not a lot of nightspots that really cater to the hard rock crowd in Vegas, and Ian wants Dead Man's Hand to fill that niche.

"It would be cool to have a nice place to go where you can hear good music and it's not going to rape your wallet at the end of the night. Not everybody wants to listen to the same DJ mashups that every club in Vegas is playing."

To this end, Ian will be guest DJing at the place every Friday night in December and he promises to come with more metal than a carpet bombing.

"When I'm there, we'll be the only place in town playing the music that I'm gonna be playin' -- like it or not," he laughs. "It's gonna be all hard rock. You're not gonna hear mashups of AC/DC and Lil Wayne."

Live bands also will be in the mix. Veteran ska funk rockers Fishbone already have played the place, and System of a Down drummer John Dolmayan will be jamming there Friday night. Ian says he's used his music industry connection to bolster the club's sound equipment.

"A bunch of the gear companies that we're involved with have donated the backline," he says. "We're going to have the best backline in town, so bands don't even need to show up with their stuff, because we're going to have better gear than they have."

Hearing him speak, Ian's enthusiasm for the new venture is palpable. He sounds like a kid on Christmas morning, ready to show off his shiny new toy.

"I never took the attitude with this that I was just going to sign the deal, show up my contractual amount of times during the year and wait for a check to roll in every three months," he says. "I couldn't do that, it's just not who I am. I really want to be involved with this."

Contact reporter Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0476.