On a weekend when the Golden Knights opened their NHL playoffs at T-Mobile Arena, and Wrestlemania combatants were tossed around at Allegiant Stadium, a Vegas native threw it down in a musical circus.
Franky Perez and the All Nighters played the Midway at Circus Circus on Friday night. The slick, powerful performance leads to Perez’s appearance Wednesday on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
Perez is sitting in with the Cletones, Kimmel’s house band, for the full broadcast. This is a straight-up Las Vegas event. Kimmel is from Vegas, the band was founded by the late Vegas sax great Cleto Escobedo III, and still features his father, Cleto Escobedo Jr., also a sax man.
Friday’s Midway show was the release party for Perez’s new, Latin-flavored album, “Dámelo.” The show marked the first time a band has ever headlined the venue, which opened in 1968 and has presented free, open-to-the-public circus acts ever since.
To understate, this carnival-style performance space was departure from the band’s Thursday night shows at Ivan Kane’s Forty Deuce at The Shoppes at Mandalay Bay.
Perez, at age 50, has known the Midway inside-out for most of his life. He seized the opportunity show some love to a place he’s loved since he was a kid. The front man was flanked by his black-clad backing band, and dancers in day-glow showgirl costumes. He summoned the Midway’s Flying Poemas family trapeze act. The crew soared high above the band’s cover of “Proud Mary” and guitarist Christian Brady’s ripping take on “Eruption.”
Meantime, Brady’s wife, backing singer Cassie Stone Brady, was dressed as a ringmaster.
Perez took on the show with childlike zeal. He nostalgically recalled the days when he was age 8, waiting with his family for the circus to commence. He took in the performances and got the bug to be an entertainer.
“I like progress,” he told the audience, which filled the bleachers and wrung the stage for a 360-degree performance. “But I love history.”
Perez even brought his 4-year-old, scene-stealing daughter, Izzy, out to sing and dance. He put his mother, Felicia, on the phone, a classic “Ma Bell” model from the ’70s. Felicia was also on a current-model iPhone FaceTime chat.
“She’s crying!” Perez said as he showed his mother the scene.
The familiar Midway sign glowed from behind, as did the Goblet Ball game (toss a pingpong ball into a goblet and “win some crap!” as Steve Martin would say). To Perez’s right was the iconic, rotating Horse-A-Round bar, now a candy shop.
The bar lives in literary history as the spot Hunter S. Thompson wrote of his circus-like hallucination in “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” (the casino was known as “Bazooko Circus” in the 1998 film adaptation, scenes filmed at the old Boardwalk Casino as Circus Circus wanted nothing to do with the movie).
Of cours it’s easy to ding Circus Circus (influencers get a rise out of it), seemingly trapped in time as fancy resorts bloom in its neighborhood. But the place worked ideally for the Perez production. The grandstand likely set a resort record for total weight support, shaking for much of the performance.
Over 80 minutes, Perez unleashed the new singles “Leche for the Bebé,” which features hip-hop icon Sen Dog of Cypress Hill; and “Mad World,” which presents Las Vegas as “a beautiful woman you can leave, but you always come back,” as Perez says.
The performance and new album is a pivot point for Perez, who is enforcing the term “genre-bending” to describe his new music. The term is fast becoming a cliche, but is appropriate. We’ve known Perez as a rocker since the early 2000s. But this big-band variation, alternating originals and rollicking covers, displays his full range of stage skills.
Perez plays guitar, harmonica, piano, timbale and congas in his All Nighters shows. He’s even embraced the groove function.
The showman is up for return. Maybe make this a quarterly production in the land of tokens.
“This was What’s amazing is that they’ve maintained this place. It has been the same since I can remember, and it’s still pristine,” Perez says. “I think people have forgotten about it, and need to be reminded that this is here. I’m gonna want to do this again and again.”
Cool Hang Alert
Frankie Moreno was in the crowd for Friday’s show. He’s also at Myron’s at 7 p.m. Tuesday, this in performance, just him and the piano. Far more than enough musicianship. Go to thesmithcenter.com for intel.
John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. Contact him at [email protected]. Follow @johnnykats on X, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.
The roster for Franky Perez and the All Nighters at the Midway at Circus Circus, Friday, April 17, 2026:
Franky Perez: Vocals, guitar, percussion, harmonica
Christian Brady: Guitar
Michael “Doc” Ellis: Bass
Mario Dawson: Drums
Chiqui Garcia: Cuban percussion
Cassie Stone Brady: Background vocals
Kevin Mullinax: Trombone
Sergio Adame: Trumpet
Mark Tragesser: Saxophone
Oscar Alejandro: Keys
Tina Cookson: Dancer
Brandy Leviner: Dancer
Yaisel Mariño: Dancer
Izzy: Tiny dancer