Feb 5: Rockin' Hard Place

Hard Rock is rockin' hard this week. Well, sure, it rocks hard pretty much every week, if you want the truth. But with the Super Bowl frenzy kicking into high gear around here, Seminole Hard Rock is among Greater Fort Lauderdale's party centers for the game. And that got me thinking about the evolution of this entertainment complex. Or I should say, more accurately, that got me thinking about the evolution of my own attitude about Hard Rock. When the Seminole Tribe constructed the first buildings I kind of thought, "Ok, cool. We'll have a nice new gambling destination for locals. Oh yeah, and some tourists too. Probably." And if memory serves, that's sorta the way it went. For a while. But only a short while. Because soon, the Hard Rock complex began to expand.

And as it grew, it attracted more and more of those upscale tourists, as well as the local gambling crowd. Then it started to host better and better concerts until the top names in show biz were arriving, one after another. I'd never seen Tony Bennett live, for instance, until he came to Hard Rock. The tribe made another small purchase somewhere along the way: they bought the entire Hard Rock company. Around this time, I began to see Seminole Hard Rock very differently after another visit. "Wow this place is, like, amazing! When did that happen?"

Not long after this, it seems to me, South Florida's Hard Rock complex really began to take off. As of now, there's a quality 500-room hotel along with 18 nightclubs and a dozen restaurants. That's some serious entertainment, right? I mean, you're not exactly going to run out of things to do around there. The Super Bowl folks seem to know how cool this complex has become - they've scheduled 17 events for the Seminole Hard Rock. These include tonight's 2010 Hall of Fame Players Jamie Foxx Party at Passion Nightclub. The Academy Award-winning actor throws a big bash before each Super Bowl, complete with fellow celebs and a red carpet. This year, Foxx picked Hard Rock for his event. And then famed NFL player Jerry Rice is giving his own wingding on Thursday night at the Hard Rock hotel and casino, with major football stars of the past expected to attend. Par-tay! Remember, these events are just on a single night. So I find that my attitude about Hard Rock continues to evolve, changing to the point where I now recognize that it's giving over-hyped South Beach a run for its star-studded money. Personally, I'm glad to see it. As far as I'm concerned, somebody has needed to teach that fairly snooty crowd down there some kind of lesson for a long time. I don't know for sure, but maybe Jamie Foxx feels the same way.