The Weekend in One Line
Labor Day weekend is when Las Vegas stops pretending it has an off-season. Look at Saturday and count: a stadium bill taking 65,000 people out of circulation, a Sphere residency, two separate comedy headliners, a country band and an eighties rock act, nearly all of them going up inside the same hour. You are not going to see everything. The schedule is going to make that call for you, and the only real question is whether you make it first. Here it is night by night through the holiday Monday, plus two daytime options that treat early September in the desert with the respect it has earned.
Friday, September 4
Nikki Glaser and David Spade share The Colosseum at Caesars Palace on Friday and Saturday at 8:00 p.m., and the pairing is smarter than it first looks. Glaser is the most dangerous roast comic working right now, Spade has been perfecting the same unbothered deadpan since the early nineties, and putting them in the same 90-minute show means neither has to carry the room alone. Recommended for ages 6 and up, though take that as the venue's number rather than a promise about the material. More sharp-tongued options in our unfiltered comedy guide.
Nikki Glaser and David Spade | Fri & Sat, 8:00 p.m. | 90 minutes
Old Dominion bring Hits Vegas to PH Live at Planet Hollywood on Friday and Saturday at 8:00 p.m. The title is not modesty, and it is not really wrong either: this is a band that has spent a decade quietly stacking up number ones while flashier acts came and went, and 90 minutes is exactly long enough to play them without padding. Every patron needs a ticket regardless of age, which matters if you were planning to bring a small child along for the ride.
Old Dominion | Fri & Sat, 8:00 p.m. | 90 minutes
Air Supply take the International Theater at Westgate at 7:00 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, the earliest curtain of the weekend by a full hour, marking forty-five years of the Australian duo doing the one thing they have always done exceptionally well. There is no irony in the room and there does not need to be. It is also the only Friday show that finishes early enough to leave the rest of your evening genuinely open.
Air Supply | Fri & Sat, 7:00 p.m.
Billy Idol plays the BleauLive Theater inside Fontainebleau on Friday and Saturday at 8:00 p.m., leather and sneer fully intact. BleauLive is one of the newest and smallest theaters on the Strip, which is the entire argument for going: he spent the eighties filling arenas, and this room puts you far closer than that history suggests you should be. We covered the residency properly in our Billy Idol guide.
Billy Idol | Fri & Sat, 8:00 p.m.
Carin Leon opens a three-night run at Sphere on Friday at 8:00 p.m. Regional Mexican music in the most technically ambitious room ever built is a genuinely new idea, and his particular blend of banda, norteno and country instincts is well suited to a venue that rewards atmosphere over pyrotechnics. He plays Friday, Saturday and Sunday, which makes him the most forgiving booking of the weekend. More in our Carin Leon at Sphere guide and our fall at Sphere season preview.
Carin Leon at Sphere | Fri, Sat & Sun, 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, September 5
Usher and Chris Brown bring The R&B Tour to Allegiant Stadium at 7:00 p.m., and unlike the stadium nights this city has hosted all summer, this one comes back: they play Saturday and Sunday both. Two catalogs this deep on one stage is an unusual amount of value for a single ticket, and the enclosed dome means the September heat stops being your problem the moment you walk in. This is the pick if you are only doing one big thing all weekend. We went deeper in our Usher and Chris Brown preview.
Usher and Chris Brown | Sat & Sun, 7:00 p.m. | Allegiant Stadium
Jay Leno is the most useful booking of the entire weekend, and it has nothing to do with the material. He plays the MGM Grand Theater once, Saturday only, at 9:00 p.m., which is an hour or more after every other curtain in town has gone up. That makes his 90 minutes the one thing you can add to an already full evening rather than choose instead of it. Ages 16 and up, with under-18s accompanied by an adult. More single-night comedy in our September comedy roundup.
Jay Leno | Sat only, 9:00 p.m. | 90 minutes | 16+
Hasan Minhaj and Ronny Chieng co-headline the Encore Theater at Wynn at 8:00 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, under a title that tells you the tone before the lights go down. Two former Daily Show correspondents with genuinely different registers, Minhaj all narrative build and Chieng all controlled fury, splitting 90 minutes between them. Ages 12 and up, and the Sunday date is the easier one to get to.
Hasan Minhaj and Ronny Chieng | Sat & Sun, 8:00 p.m. | 90 minutes | 12+
And all five Friday shows play again on Saturday, which is how a single night ends up holding eight things worth doing. Nikki Glaser and David Spade, Old Dominion, Air Supply, Billy Idol and Carin Leon are all back. If any of those was your real target, take it Friday and leave Saturday to the stadium.
Sunday, September 6
Sunday of a three-day weekend is normally where a Vegas calendar falls apart. Not this one. Usher and Chris Brown play their second stadium night, Carin Leon closes his Sphere run, and Hasan Minhaj and Ronny Chieng take Encore again, all at more or less the same times as Saturday. With Monday off for most of the country, this is the night to actually use rather than write off, and the crowds are marginally kinder than the day before.
Monday, September 7
Monday is the sleeper night of the four, and the reason is simple arithmetic. Four good shows, four different start times, and a fraction of Saturday's crowd in front of them. If you have the holiday off, this is the night you can actually move around the Strip and get into rooms that were impossible two days earlier.
Wayne Newton plays Up Close and Personal at the X Burlesque Theater inside the Flamingo at 7:00 p.m., Monday only. He first walked onto a Las Vegas stage at fifteen and has been doing this here for more than fifty years, which is longer than most of the resorts on the Strip have existed. Nobody has a better claim to the room, and ages 5 and up are welcome, so it travels with a family.
Wayne Newton | Mon only, 7:00 p.m. | Flamingo | 5+
Eddie Griffin takes the Saxe Theater at Miracle Mile Shops at 8:30 p.m., also Monday only, for 75 minutes with thirty years of stage time behind them. Two details worth knowing before you book: it is strictly 18 and up, and it is a phone-free show, so devices go away for the duration rather than into your lap. That is increasingly how the better stand-up rooms operate, and the material is sharper for it.
Eddie Griffin | Mon only, 8:30 p.m. | 75 minutes | 18+
MJ Live is at Harrah's Showroom on Monday, and it is the one here built for everybody. A full King of Pop tribute with the band, the choreography and the costume changes, open to ages 5 and up when accompanied by an adult. Worth knowing before you go: it is a no-backpack, no-recording room, so travel light and leave the phone in your pocket.
MJ Live | Mon | Harrah's Showroom | 5+
And Wastin' Away: The Poolside Jimmy Buffett Show runs about 65 minutes at 6:30 p.m. at the Siren Poolside at Alexis Park, playing Sunday and Monday both. Frozen drinks, island hits, a sunset handling the lighting design at no extra charge. Line the evening up and it actually works: Wastin' Away at 6:30, Wayne Newton at 7:00, Eddie Griffin at 8:30. Staggered instead of stacked, which is exactly what Saturday refuses to give you.
Wastin' Away | Sun & Mon, 6:30 p.m. | about 65 minutes
What to Do Before the Sun Goes Down
The calendar says September and the thermometer disagrees, so the best daytime plan is to get above it. The Wind Dancer by Maverick Helicopters is a three and a half to four hour trip with roughly two hours of it actually in the air, crossing Hoover Dam, Lake Mead, the Colorado River and the Grand Canyon before coming back over Downtown and the Strip. Snacks are included and a photo ID is required at check-in, which catches people out more often than it should.
Wind Dancer by Maverick Helicopters | 3.5 to 4 hours | about 2 hours in the air | photo ID required
The indoor answer sits about ten minutes off the Strip. Machine Guns Vegas is a range built to look like a lounge rather than a basement, which is a stranger and more Las Vegas idea than it sounds, and it runs around two hours from arrival to finish. Ages 18 and up only, no exceptions, and reservations are suggested strongly enough that turning up on a holiday weekend without one is optimistic.
Machine Guns Vegas | about 10 minutes off the Strip | about 2 hours | 18+
Planning Notes
Three things to settle before you book. Saturday is a genuine traffic jam of curtains, with everything except Jay Leno going up between 7:00 and 8:00 p.m., so build that night around one anchor and accept the rest as lost. Leno at 9:00 p.m. is the exception and the only stackable show of the weekend, which is worth more than his billing suggests. And 65,000 people leave Allegiant Stadium at once on both Saturday and Sunday, so sort the ride home before the encore rather than standing in the road afterwards discovering what surge pricing does to a holiday weekend. If you have the Monday, it is the opposite problem: four shows, four different start times, and room to breathe between them. Check the booking section below for current availability across everything here.
