Bauhaus Vegas after-hours nightclub opens downtown

Friday has turned to Saturday, yet it’s still early in the evening at this den of late, late nights, where the party is just getting started.

It’s just past 1 a.m., and blood-red lighting illuminates the room in crimson flashes, pulsating behind a cloudlike formation on the ceiling, where myriad disco balls gleam like stars in a night sky where dawn never comes.

Beneath them, DJ K3ss gets the crowd moving, pumping his fists to a four-on-the-floor beat that booms like the sound barrier being broken over and over again.

Later, Finnish techno lifer Darude — best known for his trance staple “Sandstorm” — will perform, just two weeks after scene greats Gene Farris and Felix da Housecat celebrated the grand opening of Bauhaus Vegas, 115 N. 7th St., a new after-hours/house music nightspot downtown where sleep averse-types can dance until daybreak — or close to it.

The recently opened club is the sister location of Texas’ popular Bauhaus Houston.

“A lot of people did ask me, ‘Why are you franchising into Vegas? There’s so much competition,’” notes Sami Siddiqui, owner of both properties. “But if you’re into the underground house music scene, there is no competition. There’s not a proper, quality after-hours.”

Beginning two years ago, he set out to change that.

‘It’s a lifestyle’

It started as a labor of love from a serial laborer.

“I’ve always been a very workaholic person,” Siddiqui says. “When I was younger, I didn’t have any other activities; I was working all day. My family had gas stations, commercial real estate and was developing and flipping houses. I’ve always been busy, so at the end of the day, I started going to the clubs.”

Before Siddiqui knew it, he’d become a promoter at said clubs, almost by happenstance.

“I’m a very social person, so I started getting friendly with everybody, and some clubs started inviting me for free and paying me to invite my friends,” he says of his entree into the industry. “And from promoter, I thought, ‘Man, I’ve been building gas stations and houses, why don’t we try opening up a club?’

“We opened up a small club in Houston,” he continues, “and it worked out really good. Then we bought a bigger place. Before us, there was no house music scene in Houston.”

Now, Bauhuas Houston has ascended into a house music hotbed, the Southern equivalent of scene megaclubs like Miami’s Club Space and New York City’s recently shuttered Brooklyn Mirage.

And Siddiqui has been fully immersed in the culture ever since.

“The music is amazing. I enjoy it, but to me, it’s not just the music — it’s a lifestyle,” he says. “People in the scene are very friendly. The biggest thing that I experienced was nobody’s racist here — everybody’s all about love, no hate to each other.

“I have Bauhaus, and in five-six years, we never had any major issues,” he continues. “It’s just a completely different vibe. Here, everybody wants to be everybody’s friend and loving and caring. This is the thing that I enjoy the most.”

One thing he doesn’t enjoy so much? Closing before dawn.

‘Something different’

In the Houston club scene, alcohol sales end at 2 a.m. and night owls must flock elsewhere.

Consequently, one of the main reasons that Siddiqui eyed Vegas for a second Bauhaus location was the availability of a 24-hour liquor license, allowing his club stay open far later than its Texas counterpart.

It’s taken a minute to get to this point: Siddiqui began looking for a Vegas spot in 2023, finally finding the downtown property about a year ago (it used to house the multipurpose events venue Place on 7th).

While there’s no shortage of downtown nightclubs these days, Siddiqui envisions Bauhaus as a complement to the scene as opposed to another competitor.

“A club has a lot of competition. There’s a lot of places right around the corner, they do the same thing,” he says. “I want to do something different. When they are done over there, people should come to us.

“All the team is very passionate about this,” he continues. “We do this club from all my heart.”

Contact Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0476. Follow @jasonbracelin76 on Instagram.