Vince Neil of Motley Crue (photo courtesy of Erik Kabik/erikkabik.com)

This was not a weekend for subtlety. What weekend in Las Vegas isn’t, you ask? Point taken, but this weekend in particular threatened to blow our faces off — figuratively and literally.

On Feb. 3, veteran hair metal band Motley Crue debuted its new “residency” show at the Joint, and when we say residency, we mean the quartet played one of 12 shows it scheduled through Feb. 19 that may or may not be successful enough to warrant another slew of dates later in the year. Carlos Santana busted the Joint’s residency cherry a few years ago with regularly scheduled shows; Motley Crue have taken a more conservative approach by only announcing the February dates. Which is strange only because of the obvious financial investment the Hard Rock Hotel has made in the show — you’d think this rock ‘n’ roll spectacular would be a recurring event given the bells and whistles.

We’re talking an MC — that’s Jenn O. Cide, who lords over Double Down Saloon’s weekly Punk Rock Bingo (which just celebrated its 10th anniversary last week) — and a troupe of little people performers; a cadre of babes dancing and grinding their way through selected numbers; acrobats writhing on large scarves and chains dangling from the overhead supports; an enormous LED screen with an impressive lighting grid just behind it; a catwalk that acts as a platform onto which a secondary stage can lower from the ceiling; a looping track that allows Tommy Lee and his drum kit to rotate 360 degrees; and countless mechanisms out from which fire, confetti, cryo and pyro blasts. This, to say nothing of the promotional decorations and props inside both the Joint and the Hard Rock’s casino. Imagine the property’s board of directors being briefed on the show’s overhead costs. (A general admission floor ticket will run you $81, a reasonable ticket if you’re from out of town, maybe less so for locals.)

All perfect distractions for those of us generally unmoved by Motley Crue, second only to Guns ‘N Roses among the hard rock bands that rose to prominence in the 1980s. Frankly, there’s no point in carrying on about the quartet’s artistic shortcomings — no one with the hankering to hear songs called “Girls, Girls, Girls” or “Too Fast For Love” is looking for lyrical depth, novel chord progressions or intricate rhythms. Motley Crue’s songwriting adequately complements whatever revelry you’d expect it to score. What counts in a presentation like this is those songs’ live execution, and by and large, the band offers up the goods with enthusiasm and precision. Vince Neil in particular impressively retains his ability to hit the high notes, clipping phrases and phoning it in only during “Dr. Feelgood” and “Kickstart My Heart.” Squalls and sleaze came consistently from Mick Mars’ guitar, rarely disappointing. And Lee accentuating the 4/4 disco swing in “Same Ol’ Situation” was a nice touch.

The night’s two most noteworthy moments couldn’t have contradicted each other more. Motley Crue’s first acoustic segment in its 30 years of performing wasn’t as contrived as it looked on paper, while an absolutely fiery “Shout at the Devil,“ one of the band’s best songs, fully consumed the audience. A show like this, in a town like this, needs exactly the latter’s spectacle. Yes, it was over the top — and without it, I’d have been as underwhelmed as I was during Santana’s show at the same venue. Context is important, and as such, so is bombast. Motley Crue serves up a proper Vegas rock escapade.

In fact, that sensory-overload show reminds us of the one Dutch producer/DJ Tiesto played once a month at the same venue last year. For 2012, the hugely popular electronic music figure moves over to XS, which has been hungrily signing international DJs since Wynn/Encore hired local nightlife maven Zee Zandi away from Angel Management Group, which produced the Joint residency. (She tells us there will be as many as 22 exclusive DJ partnerships at the Wynn/Encore nightclubs by the end of the year. Between them and Marquee at Cosmopolitan, that’s roughly a third of the top 100-ranked jocks in the world.) Even though Tiesto performed at the megaclub in early January, his sold-out Feb. 4 appearance marks the first in the new residency, and to emphasize this, club brass invited VIPs and celebrities to flank the dude. Luckily, the distractions came quick and relentlessly.

Tiesto at XS (photo courtesy of Erik Kabik/erikkabik.com)

The visual effects are somewhat smaller and fewer this year, due to venue logistics. But the strength of this show over the Joint one is intimacy, even in a space as expansive as XS. Early in the show, clubbers smashed themselves against the barricade, and you’d want to be anywhere but. But after some time had past, space had opened up on the dance floor, allowing one to get closer to the man who normally plays the world’s biggest stages. Which means the cryo and confetti blasts feel that much more intense, and the screens that surround the DJ and dance space force a more immersive experience. It was more communal, as well, and I had no problem with this. Tiesto fans may be ardent and, well, just shy of crazy, but they’re super nice. This contrasted other Strip dance floor experiences, which brought us in contact with rough, drunken, space-breaching clubbers that showed less decorum than a mosh pit. Not here, not tonight.

As for the tunes, I would imagine the playlist would have bored a city with a more sophisticated soundtrack. But hearing MGMT, Empire of the Sun and Gotye in an otherwise mainstream Vegas club was reason enough to step onto the dance floor. Tiesto even played Australian house and Kitsune veteran act Pnau, which should be huge here by now. And speaking of all things being relative, thank goodness Tiesto has lowered the MDMA quotient of the tracks he now plays. He made a noticeable move away from trance anthemry and toward remixed indie/modern rock and electro house a few years ago, after a stint in Los Angeles. While some trance still snuck in, and some of the electro pop offerings felt like microwaved leftovers, Tiesto separated himself to some extent from his contemporaries, and did so without the shameless top 40 pandering of, say, David Guetta.

Like Motley Crue’s show, Tiesto’s new Vegas set is an appropriate one for the most popular nightclub in Las Vegas. It begs further discussion about the musical landscape of the Strip, and the need for better alternatives — namely when it comes to authentic house music, which you’ll only hear downtown — but in a nightlife market pushing headliner talent more toward the mainstream (cough, Calvin Harris, Wolfgang Gartner), it’s nice to hear Tiesto venturing in the opposite direction.