Bright Light City

Bags: packed. Tickets, money, passport: check. 09:00 flight to Las Vegas: confirmed. Fat wads of cash, beautiful women, 24-hour rum bars and total neon excesses all within imminent grasp, yet there is important work still to be done. The soundtrack must be compiled.

There is going to Las Vegas, and then there is doing Las Vegas in style. Anyone of similar mentality, of multiple persuasions and A.D.D. zig-zagging passions, with too much Hunter Thompson on the brain and too many viewings of Swingers, will understand this notion. A trip should go with the flow, however an Atmosphere should still be created - as imperative as betting on black and always doubling-down on 11.

Track 1, Side 1: 'Viva Las Vegas' - Elvis Presley. Just because. It's where everything started. Throw on some Tom Jones and some Rolling Stones, straight off the Fear & Loathing soundtrack. No sympathy for the devil, after all. A spot of Grand Funk, some real funk, Sly Stone, Three Dog Night and some Dylan. 'Awww, mama, can this really be the end.....'

But this is the modern-day equivalent, still aiming to be "a gross, physical salute to the possibilities of life," but with much more bass. Volume, clarity, bass.....and an iPod docking station in the suite. It is no longer Frank Sinatra's town, Rat Pack territory. But nor will I accept that Celine Dion and Donny Osmond are running the show. So which way to turn - what would Horatio Alger do?

Drop some Ol' Dirty Bastard. Track 1, Side 2: 'Shimmy Shimmy Ya', followed up closely with Kanye's '808s', some UNKLE-remixed Ian Brown, Mark Ronson, some Dap Kings or Soul Investigators. And save The Avalanches for the morning, an alarm clock of samples to force the wounded and the weary into the scarcely-seen daylight hours. The patio section of the Flamingo, of course, to drink Singapore Slings with gatorade on the side.

A classic affirmation of everything right and true and decent. In £25 suits, eating 39-cent hotdogs, approaching 21-year old Bunnies. Leering and Foaming in Las Vegas, a Gonzo attempt for this foul year of Our Lord, 2009. Just a few more Freaks trying to find the Freak Kingdom.