Vinyl spins with Michael Grimm; new CEO taking over Downtown Grand

Mona Shield Payne

The Kats Report Bureau checked in with Michael Grimm on Friday night at Vinyl at the Hard Rock Hotel. He’s beginning a residency at the 600-seat rock club that lasts through the end of August. The nights are 8:30 Fridays through Sundays, plus 6:30 Saturdays.

The 2010 champion of “America’s Got Talent,” Grimm is remains a dichotomy, onstage and off. He is blessed with rare, penetrating vocal qualities and a real knack for delivering classic rock and R&B songs. He’s also a terrific songwriter, as his new release “Grimm” reminds. Grimm feels the music and makes you feel it, too, but between songs he puckishly apologizes for his perceived (by him) lack of stage presence.

“I’m sorry,” he says, more than once, “but I’m not good with words.” But such moments only pull the audience closer, as Grimm is forever the guy you want to succeed, at whatever level.

Grimm’s show is further boosted by the presence of his wife, Lucie, who is becoming more of a presence in Grimm’s career as a stage performer and also in helping to book his shows. He has given her credit for lining up this gig at Vinyl, and Lucie hits the stage in the show in two dance sequences. The most tantalizing is during Grimm’s cover of “You Can Leave Your Hat On,” in which she performs an abbreviated striptease.

“I am forgetting what I’m singing,” Grimm laughed while watching Lucie groove across the stage in Friday’s performance. “I didn’t expect this.” But expect some stripped-down, live music from Grimm and his three-piece backing unit. The man, the album and even the band are just called “Grimm,” and it’s simple enough.

• Let’s perform something of an abrupt chord change here.

A favorite Kats Report outpost, Downtown Grand, is shuffling its management team. Stepping in as the hotel’s new chief executive officer is Jim Simms, a former Bally’s and Paris Las Vegas exec who moves in from Miami Valley Gaming in Ohio to run the hotel’s day-to-day operations. Simms’ appointment was announced May 21 in a companywide memo sent by Seth Schorr, who had served as the CEO of Downtown Grand since the hotel opened in October 2013 until last week.

Schorr is reportedly now in the role as chairman of Fifth Street Gaming, the company that owns Downtown Grand. Simms’ hiring was disclosed internally to the hotel staffers after a six-month search, though no public announcement has been made. He is in the process of moving out from Ohio.

Simms was previously president and GM of Wheeling Island Hotel-Casino-Racetrack in West Virginia, leading the effort to turn that property into a full casino. He was also VP of marketing for Wheeling Island resort, and held positions as a senior marketing exec at Majestic Star in northern Indiana, Cactus Pete’s in Jackpot, Bally’s and Paris Las Vegas, and Casino Rama in Toronto.

Something to be said about Downtown Grand: They will valet-park your bicycle (true). And, when Mom visits Vegas, one of her favorite hotels is Downtown Grand. She’s seen them all, too. It’s clean and easy to navigate, and she likes hoofing around Fremont Street. I think she won a bunch of money at craps there once, too …

• May closed with a flurry of live rock in VegasVille, the focal point of course the Rock in Rio USA events May 8-9 and May 15-16. Some of the best performances during this remarkable four-week stretch were veritable graybeards pulled right off the Maxell 90 metal tape playing on my 1985 Sony Walkman: Metallica (Rock in Rio), Journey (the Joint), the Eagles (MGM Grand) and Robert Plant (Brooklyn Bowl).

Journey’s show raised the delicious prospect of that band playing Rock in Rio someday (Neal Schon, for one, would welcome that prospect). The Eagles’ performance, termed “History of the Eagles,” was at once a live documentary and a rock concert. The early segment of the show was a live-narrated retelling of the band’s beginnings, helped along by such video effects as a map of the U.S. charting Don Henley’s trip from Detroit to L.A. That sort of visual dynamic would work well in any Vegas venue worthy of staging an Eagles show.

As it happens, for the past year or so, the Eagles have been tossed around as a possibility to perform a series of shows at the Joint, similar to what Journey just finished. That would be possible, and the HRH officials would love to book the Eagles, except the band remains one of the biggest touring draws in the world (“The Long Road Out of Eden” tour from 2008-11 is the eighth-highest-grossing tour of this decade). The Eagles are still out of range, financially, but not at all artistically. Of course, getting the active members to agree to a Vegas run is anything but a certainty.

• It hasn’t taken long for the B.Y.E. (the Bernie Yuman Effect) to take hold in Matt Goss’ residency at Gossy Room at Caesars. We say B.Y.E. to Goss’ former schedule, the two-night-per-week routine he’s played since opening in the room in spring 2010. The new Goss-a-licous residency is for performances Tuesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, beginning June 23. This is because of what the news release announcing the residency calls “unparalleled demand” to see Goss in action. The video for “Lovely Las Vegas,” of course, has played a significant role in the success of this show … I say most humbly (hashtag-casinoaction).

Tickets for Matty-Matty-Matt remain $50, $80 and $120 (for the post-show meet-and-greet). Goss is also seriously talking of moving to Las Vegas, cutting off the commute he has been making from El Lay. It’d be fun to have him around, play some darts, lean over a craps table, run the circuit of shows and really feel that Lovely Las Vegas vibe.

• A real happening is happening at one of our other favorite Vegas haunts, T Spot at Tuscany Resorts. Sometimes I am asked, “Mike, what is the deal with you and the Tuscany?” I pop into that hotel so frequently because of the high level of entertainment. Wednesday night column faves Kenny Davidsen (he of the bow tie) and Jerry Jones (he of the fantastic scat acumen) are hosting a show titled “Deep Cuts and B-Sides III” at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday.

To be played in its entirety is “Abbey Road,” an album recorded by The Beatles, which is a British outfit from the 1960s. Expect something special during “Octopus’s Garden,” if proper costuming can be arranged. But the night will be otherwise filled with odd tunes that we might remember, or not, sung or otherwise performed by such artists as Clint Holmes, Kelly Clinton-Holmes, Kristen Hertzenberg, Martin Kaye, Anne Martinez, Mark Shunock, Jamie Hosmer, Naomi Mauro, Jon Celentano, Sandra Huntsman and many more (an entity known only as “The Johnny” might also join the chorus at some point). This show is no admission, and is likely to last until around June 6 …

• One moment you are enjoying an ale and wings, the next you are being taken on a rock-and-roll ride by the guitarist from Twisted Sister.

That happened Friday night at the Pub at Monte Carlo, when Twisted Sister’s Eddie Ojeda strode to the stage to jam with Peter Love and his band. Ojeda’s daughter, Michelle, also sang with the band. ZZ Top’s “Tush” and Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition” were the selections. Twisted Sister has been in town for tonight’s “Metal Meltdown” lineup at the Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel.

• As they say in Italy, and Indy, there is always time for some Andretti.

We can satisfactorily report that the above-mentioned Schon was treated to some spins around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with Mario Andretti as part of a birthday present from his doting wife, Michaele. This all took place May 23. Beforehand, the two exchanged gifts, with Schon presenting Andretti (the 1969 Indy 500 champ) a PRS NS-14 guitar topped with a personal note. Andretti presented Schon with an authentic racing suit.

Schon said the ride was “the most exhilarating experience I’ve had,” and he has had a few. Coming up for the guitar great, on June 23, is the release of his solo album, “Vortex,” the middle name bestowed upon him by his friend and mentor Carlos Santana. As they say onstage, and on the track, rock on.

Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at Twitter.com/JohnnyKats. Also, follow “Kats With the Dish” at Twitter.com/KatsWiththeDish.