Elements Band Launch - The Aftermath

Date: Friday 8th August 2008

Location: Pier 1
Price: $200 advance

So at the 99th hour last night, I got a vaps, made a call and ended up with two tickets to Elements Band Launch.

With costume presentation set to being at 11:00pm (according to the ticket), the hubby and I left home at 10:00pm. There was little and or no traffic, and we got there just before 11:00pm.

Making our way into the venue there was a projection screen that said costume showtime was actually 11:45pm.

I was expecting to see a"fully transformed venue" complete with spinning dice and roulette tables etc, but it was only the stage area that had been transformed with replicas of Caesar's Palace and Belaggio casinos.

I took up position at the front of the stage at 11:45 and waited. The presentation began at approximately 12:10am and we were greeted with three ladies in orange monokinis. I'm not sure if they were part of the presentation or actual costumes, as these are not in the brochure.

Showgirls

I am changing from the usual critique of costume by costume and instead I am going to break down the band launch into The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

The Good

Bellagio

The overall presentation was good.
The stage decor was nicely done.
I liked how they brought on the models from the different areas down the steps and onto the main stage.
I liked how they models all danced their costumes, even though some of them were out of time, it was better than the overly serious models of previous launches.
The music they used to models was soca..A+
The free drinks was bess :)

The Bad
The bad were the models who came onto the stage and rushed past in a blur so that we could not take proper pics of the costumes. They needed to be a lot more coordinated than they were in terms of time spent to the front of the stage.
Let us not even talk about the damn smoke, that opened the presentation, but I think I figured out why they need all that smoke.
The overly social crowd. I doh know when last I went to a party with such a nice mix of good music and see SO much people just standing up talking and smoking.

Imagine I went to an open air party and come out smelling like I was in an enclosed club.

The Ugly

Mirage

The costumes.
There is no nice way to say it.
After all the anticipation, the media launches, the pre-launches, I think everyone was expecting BIG things from Elements and they failed to deliver.
I think the reason the models rushed past in their costumes so quickly was because they didn't want the patrons to see exactly how ugly those costumes were.
That was also the reason for all the smoke.

With the exception of Jubilee, Cabaret and Belaggio, Elements needs to go back to the drawing board.
Passable costumes for me: Roulette, Queen of Hearts, Caesars Palace and possibly Sahara Frontline.

Caesars Palace

Dealers

Treasure Island

Sahara

As for Mirage...scrap completely and do over.
Those male costumes are also some of the worst I have seen in a long time.
The frontline costumes consisted of mainly boas added to the backline costumes, and I wait with bated breath to see the prices of the frontline as well as the other costumes.

I think Elements spent more money on their stage than on those costumes.
There is a lot more that I could say about the costumes, but you can take a look for yourself by checking out my unedited photos on Facebook.

Elements 1
Elements 2
Elements 3

I left the launch just after 2:30am while the music was still jamming and the patrons were not.
Overall I give Elements Band Launch 4.5 beads out of 10.
Wheel and come again Elements.