One prime factor in making the Fremont Street Experience an experience is live music. And thanks to Rock of Vegas, FSE's summer concert series, music fans can expect to find themselves returning multiple times during the warm weekend nights. The first Rock of Vegas was launched in 2009, and the summer soundtracks to Glitter Gulch were never the same. This year, the spectrum of top-notch rock and pop stars ranges from season opener Joan Jett & The Blackhearts to Smash Mouth on the Third Street Stage, not to mention Cherry Poppin’ Daddies and Melissa Etheridge on the First Street Stage.

Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Jett, who starts things off May 28, bust onto the ’70s Sunset Strip scene with The Runaways and distinguished herself with one of the best rock anthems of the following decade when “I Love Rock ’n’ Roll” hit No. 1 for seven weeks in the spring of 1982. She continued to have hits throughout the ’80s—“Bad Reputation,” “Do You Wanna Touch Me,” “Crimson and Clover” and “I Hate Myself For Loving You”—before becoming godmother to the riot grrrl movement of the ’90s.

3 Doors Down hits the Third Street Stage on June 11. The chart-topping band saw two albums hit No. 1 after the success of its debut single “Kryptonite” in 2000, with third album Seventeen Days summiting the Top 200 in 2005 and their self-titled fourth album repeating that success in 2008. The swing revival was the thing in the ’90s, with Cherry Poppin’ Daddies (July 2) climbing to the top of the heap with “Zoot Suit Riot” and staying there as peers fell by the wayside. The Doors have been a presence on Fremont since “Strange Days” was added to the Viva Vision canopy shows, but guitarist Robby Krieger will play his compositions—Krieger wrote “Light My Fire”—in person at First Street’s Stage July 23.

Adult-oriented alt-rock act Vertical Horizon comes after Krieger on the First Street Stage with an Aug. 6 appearance, followed by impassioned powerhouse singer-songwriter Melissa Etheridge on Aug. 20 and Smash Mouth of “Walkin’ on the Sun” fame on Sept. 3. EDM fans may want to stick around after the live music shows, as Tiesto—A Town Called Paradise plays at midnight seven days a week on the overhead VivaVision screen.