Las Vegas Mixtape v25: Eagles Ascend at Sphere, Trop Implosion Party, and More

Track #2: Tropicana Implosion Viewing Party @OYO Hotel and Casino

The Tropicana Las Vegas is dead and gone. So many memories were imploded on October 9 and simply disappeared into the ether—ones that are destined to haunt Las Vegas Blvd, at least for a little while, until it’s forgotten by most people that the hotel was ever there.

And there I was, last month, at 2:30am in the morning with friends in a hotel room on the 17th floor of the OYO Hotel and Casino, adjacent to the Tropicana property. It was the first hotel implosion viewing party I’ve ever attended.

At the invitation of singer-songwriter-guitar-slinger Roni Lee, I arrived at 11pm. Everyone enjoyed drinks, snacks, and streaming music, while sharing Tropicana memories and waiting for the hotel’s two hollowed out towers to come tumbling down. The Big Event began with a drone show and fireworks, the smoke from which somewhat clouded the spectacle of the implosions that followed. The noise from the two big bangs was, depending on your viewpoint, thrilling, or unsettling, like the horrible sound of wartime.

I raised my glass—and my chocolate and peanut butter doughnut from Pinkbox—to the Tropicana and its Rat Pack era history. But I honestly didn’t feel great about its demise in a world that’s forever changing. It’s said that “progress is progress,” and how you’ve got to roll with the changes—even if that means the planned construction of a new stadium for an out-of-state baseball team (sorry, I’m not a sports enthusiast).

Leaving the OYO one hour after the implosion, it was hard to breathe outside with ominous smoke everywhere. I caught an Uber from a nearby gas station at 3:30am and thought about how the OYO itself might one day be in line for an implosion. This, too, is Vegas baby, as it is said.