The Barbershop Cuts & Cocktails celebrates its grand opening with a bang in the luxurious resort, The Cosmopolitan in the heart of the Las Vegas strip.
Clique Hospitality’s Andy Masi and partners Ryan Labbe and Jason Craig introduced a whole new modern concept to getting a haircut. Gentlemen, this is your go to spot for a classic cut, beard trim or straight razor shave. If the edgy, sophisticated and sexy feel of the experiential barbershop doesn’t make you just want to kick back and relax, then the complimentary selection of fine-aged whiskeys and beer just might! You’re in good hands with master barber Jose Sosa and his nationally renowned grooming team who understands that one’s appearance is a direct statement of who you are and how you feel about yourself. Many high profile guests and celebrities came out to support The Barbershop’s debut including Trace Cyrus, Gilles Marini, Ballers’ Carl McDowell, Samuel Larsen and many more!
However, while guests enjoyed their services, behind the door of a seemingly regular janitor’s closet is a whole nightlife bustling in true prohibition era form. In the evening, The Barbershop Cuts & Cocktails transforms into a swanky speakeasy bar. Guests can expect weekly programing, DJ sets and an extensive whiskey selection, offering modern takes on vintage favorites. To kick off the festivities, lead singer Gavin Rossdale and the iconic rock band Bush performed their top songs in the intimate setting and gave us a sneak peak of their news songs that they’ll be performing during their Summer tour. Excited attendees sang along to hit songs “Glycerine” and “Machinehead” and felt complete nostalgia as the band covered songs from Pink Floyd and Van Morrison. In addition, on Saturday, March 16th The Barbershop’s house band, The 442s, comprised of guitarist Ben Carey with singers Justin Carder and Shawn Eiferman, bassist Eric Runquistand, and drummer Chris Lukes, all well respected musicians who spent years touring with their respective bands of Lifehouse, Vertical Horizon and Savage Garden made their big debut. Attendees of the exclusive grand opening celebration and industry VIPs such as Jeff Beacher, Larry Rudolph and others indulged in the signature cocktails comprised of Angel’s Envy whiskey at their VIP tables.
Through all the excitement The Knockturnal was able to sit down for an exclusive interview with songwriter, musician, actor, and lead singer of Bush, Gavin Rossdale. Check out what Rossdale had to say about hair tips, performing in Vegas and surprises during the show!
The Knockturnal: What brings you to Vegas to support the grand opening of The Barbershop Cuts & Cocktails?
Gavin Rossdale: It’s a great opportunity to come to Vegas, have a really good time and I like all these weird shows. I like doing stripped down shows, it’s a fun excuse to do that. The challenge is going to be keeping the audience engaged. It’s Vegas, people are getting wasted, having so much fun!
The Knockturnal: Since you have performed in Vegas before, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve experienced?
Gavin Rossdale: In these settings, when you do these stripped down shows people just want to chat, they’re chatting, chatting, chatting. I don’t really care, I just want to sing and get out there and have a great time and just enjoy myself.
The Knockturnal: You’ve had an impressive career, how do you reinvent yourself?
Gavin Rossdale: I think the trick is to try to be good at what you do, and then when the light shines on you, like a carousel, it’s beautiful and then it goes a little quiet in between. You just keep doing what you do, then it comes back on you. A career is just a series of comebacks.
The Knockturnal: Why do you think that Vegas needs a concept like The Barbershop’s Cuts & Cocktails?
Gavin Rossdale: I think that you got to always have your hair looking good. Cocktails are always a great idea in Vegas so they have live music and a bar, that’s fine by me.
The Knockturnal: You always have fantastic hair! What are your tips for the men out there that need help?
Gavin Rossdale: Black & White. It’s the grease that I use, it’s real good. Traditional, old school.
The Knockturnal: You have a special setlist tonight, what can your fans expect? Any surprises?
Gavin Rossdale: A bit of Pink Floyd, bit of Van Morrison, super surprises! Actually tonight we saved a lot for The Barbershop. We rehearsed yesterday, we don’t normally do that. It’s the first time ever that we’re going to do an acoustic version of “MachineHead.” We’re doing “Glycerine,” which is a big song of ours with a different instrument, a piano. We had a piano and a keyboardist in the studio yesterday, Cory and I was like, “let’s do Glycerine” and he was like, “I have this idea.” So our bass player is playing guitar and I’m singing to his acoustic guitar.
The Knockturnal: Is there anyone that you would like to collab with in the future?
Gavin Rossdale: Well I love Rihanna, she’d be amazing. But there’s this girl, Ex:Re who’s from a band called Daughter, she has an amazing record. I’m currently in love with the record, I literally can’t stop playing it all day long, it’s really embarrassing. Even my kids who came with me today are like, “why’d you like the record so much?” It’s so dark and weird, that’s why, now shut up and eat your greens!
The Knockturnal: Your kids are with you in Vegas, are they going to watch you perform?
Gavin Rossdale: No they’re not allowed here because you can only get your haircut, get a cocktail and see a band if you’re over 21. But my 10 year old is here escorting me, he wants to be apart of it. He left dessert for this, so we gotta take him back to dessert right after this.
The Knockturnal: Are there any rituals you guys have before going on stage?
Gavin Rossdale: Well we always hug and do sort of the hand thing, and we say what the event is and what’s special for us. We come up with a word that will encapsulate the night so tonight might be like, “cut it!” or like, “shape it!”
The Knockturnal: Would you ever try to pull off a mustache?
Gavin Rossdale: I was in South America, we just came back from tour so I didn’t shave for a couple of weeks, but it drives me nuts! The shaving the face, it’s itchy, it’s crazy. I had it on for a while and I wanted to see what my kids would think so I took a picture of it before I shaved it and I showed my little boy, he’s 10 years old and I send him a picture saying “here’s how I looked like before” and he sees it one morning and he goes, “old.”
