Crüe singer Neil goes ‘Old Vegas’

It's come to this. Vince Neil -- singer of glam metal band Mötley Crüe, who's been off booze after leading a life of wanton debauchery and other awesomeness -- stood onstage at the Monte Carlo on Sunday night, in a fine jacket, and sang ... "Fly Me to the Moon."

Why, God, why?

Because he was the surprise guest at Zowie Bowie's media opening performance there. Zowie Bowie is all about "Old Vegas," inspired by the Scintas and Steve & Eydie and such. Zowie wears big shiny rings. Vince was right there with him. Bizarre.

Zowie is a stage name for Chris Phillips (not related to David Bowie). He performs with his wife, Marley Taylor.

The duo have been bouncing around Vegas lounges for a few years, and now they have this new gig.

So (naturally?) Vince Neil showed up in a shiny shirt and a gray suit to sing along? Huh.

Vince sounded as you'd expect Vince Neil to sound singing "Fly Me to the Moon." No one got hurt.

My advice to Zowie Bowie: Their 14-piece band, conductor and two backup singers are great. The visual style, with those old-school 1970s lights, are pretty good.

I'd cut song lengths in half and double the number of songs. I'd talk less onstage. If I were Marley, I'd wear far more revealing outfits. I'd fix the spotlights and dancers, though it was funny when dancers spun out of sync with candles on their heads.

It was crazy to see Zowie Bowie invite TV entertainment reporter Alicia Jacobs onstage so Marley could sing to her dog, which Alicia typically brought along.

For those of us in the media, that wasn't surprising -- just as it wasn't surprising to hear Greenspun entertainment reporter Robin Leach do the prerecorded introduction for Zowie Bowie. 'Twas fun to look at Robin Leach in the crowd as Robin Leach listened to Robin Leach.

I don't mean to pick on Zowie Bowie as part of a larger point, not at all, but the timing of their show coincides with this thought of mine:

In the first half of this decade, Las Vegas moguls made bold and interesting choices: the super cool Velvet Lounge (long gone), "super ultra" lounges, a naked Cirque show, the $100 million Colosseum, celebrity chefs, a puppet stage show on the Strip, fantastical Gatsby parties and so on.

In the second half of this decade, we've gotten CityCenter (the boring facades of which look unforgivably like Houston in the 1980s), deaths from CityCenter, worse service because staffs are smaller and stressed, and obvious and easy choices, such as ending the quite-good "Spamalot" to make room for ill-fated Danny Gans, or adding more same-same clubs, or thoughtlessly going back in time, like the upcoming Elvis-Cirque show and Matt Goss' Old Vegas show at the Palms.

And now Zowie Bowie.

"Look out! Old Vegas is back!" Zowie announced.

There ought to be room for old Vegas in new Vegas. But the "Old Vegas" choices that execs made, the choices I'm pining for, were made seven years ago, not 37 years ago.

SCENE & HERD

TV comedy actress Sofia Vergara, one of the top five hottest women I've ever chatted up (and super nice), danced with local producer Joey Battig at Wynn's club Blush, which turns 2 years old tonight. Their table of 10 included Mike Tyson, Magic Johnson and Kim Kardashian till after 3 a.m. Saturday. ... Anthrax's Scott Ian and wife Pearl Aday ate with a porn star at Rare 120 on Sunday. ... DJ Paul Oakenfold ate the truffel-oil popcorn while watching "Zumanity" on Saturday night. Another "Zumanity" viewer: San Antonio Spurs' Tim Duncan with what we're told was "a very attractive female." ... And the reunited Vanessa Minnillo and Nick Lachey continued their Vegas outings away from the hotel room by eating cheesesteak dumplings while he watched the Cowboys-Giants game at First Food & Bar at Palazzo.

Contact Doug Elfman at 702-383-0391 or e-mail him at delfman@review journal.com. He blogs at reviewjournal. com/elfman.