Wednesday night at the Luxor used to mean Pleasuredome.
RA opened inside the pyramid in 1997 and quickly became one of the clubs that helped define Las Vegas nightlife before the era of the massive Strip megaclub. It was dark, theatrical, futuristic, and unmistakably tied to Luxor, with fog, lasers, towering Egyptian imagery, packed dance floors, go-go dancers, and house music carrying the room deep into the night.
RA was also ahead of its time. Nationally known DJs became regular bookings, electronic music had a real home on the Strip, and Pleasuredome developed into a Wednesday-night institution for locals.
But part of what made RA special was the culture around it.
By the mid-2000s, it had become a natural gathering place for the people who actually worked in Las Vegas entertainment. Exotique, produced specifically for RA, brought another layer of performance and spectacle into the club. And after the final curtain at Luxor, it was completely normal to see performers from FANTASY hanging out at RA alongside casino employees, locals, nightlife people, and guests.
The line between the people creating the Vegas experience and the people coming to experience it could get wonderfully blurry.
RA closed in 2006, but for the people who worked, performed, danced, and stayed out far too late there, it remains a very specific chapter of Luxor and Las Vegas nightlife that is difficult to recreate.
