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 Bareback
Adult Show @ Harrah's
Fri-Wed: 10:30pm
Sun 7:30 & 10:30pm
$49.95 plus tax & fees
Country music has never been hotter than in
"Bareback", the new high-energy adult revue from Greg Thompson
Productions. This rowdy, wild and
sultry show is sure to have both men and women dancing in their seats.
Beautiful, scantily clad cowgirls and handsome, strapping cowboys
electrify the audience with racy renditions of new country music's
most popular hits, including Big & Rich's "Jalapeno" and "Comin' To
Your City", Toby Keith's "Who's Your Daddy", Cowboy Troy's "Crick in
My Neck", Hank Williams Jr's "That's How We Do It In Dixie" and
Gretchen Wilson's "Redneck Woman". Ladies will love "The Wild
Bunch", a group of 4 hunky Cowboys who get up close and personal!
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By Mike Weatherford
Courtesy Review Journal
Pictures from Harrah's
Las Vegas entertainment used to lag
way behind on trends, but you have to give "Bareback" credit for being
out in front on this topless-country thing.
To some, it was probably as
inevitable as any show with the name "Bareback" ending up with a
cowboy and his buckarette (James Vaughan and Terese Chafé) doing the
wild thing on a mechanical bull.
To others, it might be a surprise
that Harrah's opted to have "Skintight" -- a generic topless revue for
anyone who wanted to see almost-naked people -- morph into more of a
niche title for people who want to see almost-naked people in cowboy
hats.
If you don't actually follow
country music, you might still be mired in election-year yakkety yak
about "red state values" and how country music still reflects some
degree of wholesomeness. That was before a movement spearheaded by Big
& Rich realized suburban cruisers-and-boozers don't hold, say, Eminem
and Kenny Chesney as far apart as radio formats do.
They've now figured out how to
market something as country music without it really sounding much like
country music. And you can strip to it.
The true surprise might be that the
genre is fully formed enough to support an entire Las Vegas revue. Big
& Rich have gotta be kickin' themselves that they didn't think of this
first. The taped song list is heavy on the new stuff from their
musical stable, with a little strategic help from older "outlaw"
anthems such as "Born to Boogie" by Hank Williams Jr. and "Trashy
Women," first done by Jerry Jeff Walker.
Producer Greg Thompson and
choreographer Mistinguett work this niche with more gusto and variety
than in "Erocktica," the companion show at the Rio that also
narrow-casts its music, into pool cue-smashing barroom rock.
The difference might be that
"Bareback" is more evenly weighted between the singers, five in all,
and the quintet of female dancers held over from "Skintight." It takes
a full 10 minutes for anyone to drop their top on the barroom set, and
the way the strip-a-roo is choreographed to Gretchen Wilson's "Here
for the Party" and Big & Rich's "Jalapeño" darn near makes sense.
The vocal balance swings from
Nellie Norris, who was brought in from Branson, Mo., for a certain
type of authenticity, to the quartet of male singers that includes
"Skintight" frontman Darryl Ross. And one of them, Vaughan, is as game
to hop up on the bartop and show some skin as any of the female
dancers.
Many of the songs seem
custom-written for a show like this: Cowboy Troy's "Crick in My Neck"
and Joe Nichols' "Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off," featuring a
wobbly dance routine by Jennifer Radler. While "Bareback" didn't win
the race to be the first topless country show -- that honor goes to
"Buck Wild" -- its narrow agenda and musical focus give it a cohesion
lacking in the Sahara revue's traditional variety format.
This show does slip into
generic-Vegas silliness with a Shania Twain medley that allows for the
obligatory Thompson production de-shirting of a guy from the audience.
But the bit is actually redeemed when comedian John Padon strolls up
to heckle the guy, instead of waiting for the stage to clear in a
traditional segue to his stand-up set.
Padon figures he's the closest
thing Las Vegas has to a modern-day burlesque comic, and he's
perfected the art of hammering the crowd with a quick, raunchy barrage
that sneaks in some topical references, such as how "you conservatives
in the audience" ought to rethink opposition to gay marriage. If the
goal is to stop homosexuals from having sex, he reckons, what better
way to stop having sex than to get married?
I was afraid this show would try to
throw in some maudlin country standards by some square dude like Randy
Travis, or wrap itself in the flag to atone for its lack of shame.
Fortunately, Ross' rendition of "Georgia on My Mind" and that
melodramatic Garth Brooks "Rodeo" song are as close as it comes to any
such downer.
And since "Rodeo" leads to the
mechanical bull co-ride, you can safely say "Bareback" is cheerfully
free of any false dignity.
Photo Gallery
The Wild Bunch with Big & Rich
   
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