It’s a good time to revisit Bruno Mars’ Las Vegas residency. An evening at Dolby Live can now be followed with an after-party at Mars’ Bellagio lounge The Pinky Ring by Bruno Mars, which began serving fashionably attired guests in February. Mars has been working on a new album, creating fresh sounds in the studio. And as of press time, there are no Las Vegas dates scheduled beyond Labor Day.
A new album will undoubtedly be complemented by a mega world tour, which could keep Mars away from Dolby Live and The Pinky Ring for an extended period. He’s played select dates this year in Bangkok, St. Louis and Singapore, where he filled National Stadium on three early April dates. Prior to that he performed a seven-show residency in Japan at Tokyo Dome.
Mars and his band The Hooligans will be warmed up but refreshed when they get back to Vegas. Expect to begin hearing reports about the final stages of Mars’ next album this summer before he heads to the Southern Hemisphere for a slew of shows in Brazil. That’s when the next chapter in Mars’ artistic history begins.
The last chapter ended climactically on Feb. 10 with the opening of The Pinky Ring, a Saturday night affair that occurred the evening of Lunar New Year. Guests included E! News host Jason Kennedy, CBS Mornings’ Gayle King, Dolby Live resident Lady Gaga, T-Pain and actress Karrueche Tran.
Mars got behind a pair of congas and played percussion with The Hooligans, which served as The Pinky Ring’s house band for the next two weeks. They were joined onstage by Babyface, Lucky Daye, Janelle Monáe and Victoria Monét at points during the show. The setlist that rang in the Year of the Dragon featured “That’s What I Like,” “Treasure,” The Jackson 5’s “Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)” and Bob Marley’s “Is This Love.”
Mars likely became familiar with the latter two songs growing up in Hawaii during the first chapter of his life. His musical parents let born-performer Peter Gene Hernandez appear onstage by the time he was a toddler. The future Bruno Mars worked up an Elvis Presley tribute that landed him a role in 1992 comedy film Honeymoon in Vegas starring Nicolas Cage.
Now Cage is one of Las Vegas’ most famous residents and Mars has one of its most renowned residencies. Mars’ path to stardom was inevitable after the adulation he experienced as Little Elvis. Vegas was part of his destiny, as was the upcoming tour that could keep him away from the Strip for a while.
It’s more probable than possible that Mars will appear, if not perform, at after-parties in The Pinky Ring, and definite that the scene will be off the hook during the June and August shows. Whether Mars previews new material remains to be seen, but the only way to find out, other than attending his two-night opening of Los Angeles Clippers’ new headquarters, The Intuit Dome, in August, is to make a reservation in Vegas.
Park MGM. 9 p.m. June 7-8, 12 & 14-15, starting at $225 plus tax and fee. ticketmaster.com
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