Queen of house

"Last week, I was working at Wet Republic and a girl that I had never met came up to me," says Zee Zandi, the MGM pool party's VIP host and electronic music talent booker. "And she's like, 'Are you the queen of house?' I was like, 'Yeah, I am.'"

It may not be an officially held position, one left as a hereditary entitlement to successive generations of ladies in the club kingdom who dig house music and do something about it. But it is true that Zandi, in her capacity as the promoter and programmer of electronica at Wet Republic, Studio 54 and Tabu, and for Body English's Wednesday night "Godskitchen" party, occupies a place on the throne unique unto her -- although, frankly, she's less a queen than an ambassador.

Virtually alone as a woman in the gentlemen's club that is the Vegas nightlife scene, instead of lording over the DJs she books and the parties she throws, Zandi builds bridges that not only create constituencies of like-minded clubbers, but links them together in environments almost wholly their own. It's doubtlessly why that girl at Wet Republic came up to her to say thank-you in person, and it's why jocks who've played at the chlorinated oasis always want to stay there permanently.

"[House music] creates a really good energy in that pool. Every DJ that's played there has asked me for a residency, including Kaskade," says Zandi.

How does she do it? By thinking of the music first. This often translates into scheduling DJs who aren't what Hollywood execs would label "bankable stars." And it's rather extraordinary she's getting away with tapping jocks such as Martijn ten Velden and David Waxman, as she did at Body English Aug. 20, in Vegas's notoriously risk-averse club scene, which is often just as skittish about unknown and unproven talent as the movie studio biz.

Says Zandi, "The headliners that have the name, of course, they're going to have a bit more draw. But I think it's really important to book these other artists, because some of them are amazing."

So, it must be pretty great she and her partner-in-electronica at Angel Management Group (formerly Angel Music Group), Sol Shaffer, are given such freedom by their bosses, right? "Well, what does help is when everybody is in Ibiza," she says. Although she laughs, you know she's only half-joking, as flying under the boss's radar while still keeping the boss happy is the skeleton key to success in all industries -- and Zandi is nothing if not successful, having survived longer than many of the venues where she previously worked.

She came to town from Seattle about 14 years ago on vacation with a friend and saw that, unlike her birthplace, there were no Starbucks or espresso bars. So, much as she's recognized that there's a dearth in the club market for star-bright electronic DJs as well as those whose names don't sting the eyes with their shine, she opened a coffee shop on the Strip. It just so happens her little business was located near the now-defunct Utopia, the still-talked about home to house that later became Empire Ballroom, another electronica-friendly venue that's gone for good.

But spatial proximity isn't her only connection to Utopia; indeed, she got her start on planet electronica there, before moving on to promotions giant Spundae, where she worked as the VIP rep for Vegas. More electronic-centric gigs followed at the free-standing Ice, another club that's fallen victim to "progress," and later at Jet, one of the few casino clubs that has championed Zandi's genre of choice almost from Jump Street -- which is largely due to her efforts.

It was at the Light Group-owned venue she was introduced to the booking life, flying in major talent for the smaller house room and also for the L.E.D. panel-spangled main room. "I think Jet helped take me to the next level, because it was the first time that I actually personally ... booked artists like Sharam [of duo Deep Dish] and [John] Digweed, and, you know, people like that."

The rest isn't history -- it's now. While the summer has been a bit slow in terms of her activities at MGM outside of Wet Republic, limited as they are primarily to her monthly fashion-meets-electronica party called "House of Style" at Tabu, she's helped corral enough major players -- from Roger Sanchez Aug. 29 at Tabu and Paul van Dyk Aug. 31 at 54 -- to fill out six months at most Strip-side clubs.

And who better to be at the reins than Zandi, the queen who finds in electronica more than a living, but a sonic reservoir of happiness?

"I just think house music is very, very positive. When you look across the room and you see everybody smiling and their hands are up in the air, it's because of the music." And, of course, because of her.