Whether it’s bullets, buffets or bustiers, Las Vegas is known to many as Sin City. But under the seamy surface lies outstanding live entertainment, some of which has notable Japan connections.

Legendary rock group Cheap Trick has come a long way from their beginnings in Rockford, Illinois. Their first tour of Japan in the spring of 1978 spawned their top-selling live album At Budokan, which catapulted them to global superstardom. Thirty-two years on, CT arrived at Paris Las Vegas last September for a two-week residence offering their spin on another classic, the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

In their Sgt. Pepper Live show, first performed in 2007 to commemorate the fortieth anniversary of the Fab Four’s groundbreaking LP, CT both paid their respects to the world’s most beloved band and pressed their own sonic stamp on it. Backed by the Sgt. Pepper Orchestra and a cadre of musicians and singers (including sound direction by original album engineer Geoff Emerick), CT achieved the remarkable feat of performing an album that John Lennon once said would be impossible to pull off live. Singer Robin Zander, whose voice has lost none of its power to time, handled the Lennon and Paul McCartney leads with ease, while bassist Tom Petersson turned in a rare spot at the mic for George Harrison’s “Within You Without You” featuring an Indian ensemble. Guitarist Rick Nielsen was his usual dynamo self, flinging picks to the crowd while serving as emcee between numbers. His son Daxx (subbing for original CT skinsman Bun E. Carlos) ably kept the beat behind the old pros.

The second half of the show upped the ante with CT doing spirited readings of some of their biggest hits like “Dream Police,” “Surrender” and “I Want You to Want Me.” Even jaded fans hoping for a rarity got their wish via “World’s Greatest Lover,” a haunting ballad from the band’s 1980 All Shook Up album. Kicked off by the senior Nielsen on grand piano and vocals, the tune took full advantage of the Sgt. Pepper Orchestra, since the original version was tracked in similar fashion by esteemed Beatles producer George Martin. “All You Need is Love” closed the show, with everyone in the theater singing along as a gush of paper hearts showered the crowd.

Years before becoming the host of America’s preeminent talk show, New Rochelle native Jay Leno starred with Japanese American actor Noriyuki “Pat” Morita in the 1989 motion picture comedy Collision Course. Infamous for saying he lives off his stand-up income in lieu of his Tonight Show salary, the silver-haired funnyman earned it for most of his show at the Mirage.

Even without the presence of TV cameras or a guest on his couch, Leno is still a joke machine to the core, whipsawing through a cycle of topics in as little as a minute. He also trotted out his “something for everybody” fence sitting poltical humor, launching gentle (if dated) jabs at former presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton with equal measure. A notorious gearhead, Leno mined his obsession with automobiles for much of his personal life humor. Whether discussing the Toyota recalls (“The dummies didn’t come back to work”), his disdain for Smart cars (“I drove one of those and kept seeing this wall…turns out it was the curb”), or Japan’s portable car toilets—which by itself almost needs no punchline—he was firmly in the driver’s seat.

Leno finished strong with a diatribe about cats versus men (“Why is it that all the things women love about cats, they hate about men?”), saying that he feels “like some kind of pervert” when he’s out at night probing the bushes “looking for my wife’s stupid cat.” Edgy? No. But the folks could relate. For all his fame, the comedian still expressed discomfort with stardom and the Hollywood game, spinning a tale of how his own mother once turned down her son’s gift of a VCR because she felt he couldn’t possibly afford it. The subject of aging concluded the show, with the 60-year-old Leno wondering how he could screw up his leg in a motorcycle accident in the ’80s and return to work the next day, while turning his head and yawning a month ago nearly proved lethal.

In our next Vegas installment: Theatre!

Cheap Trick is on tour now, and Sgt. Pepper Live is available on CD and DVD. Visit the band online at www.cheaptrick.com and http://sgtpepperlive.com. Visit Jay Leno at www.nbc.com/the-tonight-show and www.jaylenosgarage.com.

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