Casino Scene: Partying tempered but hard rocking steady for Hinder

Courtesy Caesars Entertainment

Hinder performs Saturday at the 6th Annual Jingle Jam at Harrah’s Tunica Casino’s Tunica Event Center.

Since coming on the scene a decade ago, the Oklahoma rock group Hinder, which performs at Saturday's 6th Annual Jingle Jam hosted by radio station Q 107.5/96.1 at Harrah's Tunica Casino's Tunica Event Center, has cultivated an image of rock-and-roll excess.

Hinder tracks like "Get Stoned" from their 2005 debut Extreme Behavior and "Use Me" from 2008's Take It to the Limit -- as well as the accompanying music videos -- have deliberately portrayed a band enthralled by wild women and wild times. In 2007, lead singer Austin Winkler was even pulled over in Jonesboro, Ark., for suspicion of DUI while returning from his own engagement party.

But Hinder's latest and third CD, All American Nightmare, released a year ago this week, finds the band beginning to reconsider the hard partying. On the single "What Ya Gonna Do" Winkler asks, "What you gonna do when the whiskey ain't workin' no more/Life don't feel like before."

So does this song signal a new, mature Hinder that is cleaned up and slowed down?

"It's about us realizing that we probably should," says drummer Cody Hanson, along with Winkler the principal songwriter in the band. "At some point in our lives we'll probably have to so we don't die. We've tried a couple of times to pull it back a little, and in some ways we have. We're all married now, and so some of those aspects have been toned down. But the whole drinking and partying thing is just in us. It's something we have to do."

If the band, which also includes guitarists Joe Garvey and Mark King and bassist Mike Rodden, is softening up lyrically, musically All American Nightmare finds them rocking as hard as ever.

"With this one we knew we kind of needed to change things up a little bit, so we completely changed up the entire process," says Hanson. "We wanted to get a little bit heavier and a little bit darker on the rock side, which I think we accomplished that."

Working for the first time with outside writers, most notably Nashville brothers Brett and Brad Warren, the band came up with a staggering 70 songs. With the help of producer Kevin Churko (Ozzy Osbourne, Shania Twain), they were able to whittle them down to the dozen heard on the deluxe edition of All American Nightmare.

"All the songs had to work well together and the album had to make sense and have a common sound and theme. So once we picked the first single, 'All American Nightmare,' it all came together," says Hanson, adding that the band plans to revisit the castoffs early next year when it begin working on its fourth album.

Showtime is 8 p.m. Also performing are Simple Plan, James Durbin, The Cab. Tickets: $10; available at the box office and through Ticketmaster. For more information, call (800) 946-4946 or visit harrahstunica.com.

Sexy Santa

Playboy Playmate Holly Madison will host the third annual Sexy Santa Party at Horseshoe Casino's PUSH, The Nightclub Saturday.

The platinum-tressed sex symbol is well known as one of Playboy founder Hugh Heffner's three girlfriends during the run of the popular reality TV series "The Girls Next Door." Currently Madison can be seen in her own E! cable channel show, "Holly's World."

Also scheduled to perform at the Sexy Santa Party is DJ Swagg.

Attendees must be 21 or older. A strict dress code -- collared shirts for men, outfits not "considered overly revealing" for women, and no tennis shoes -- will be strictly enforced.

Doors open at 10 p.m. Admission: $10 until 11 p.m., $20 after 11 p.m. VIP reservations available at (662) 363-4510 and online at http://bit.ly/PushVIP . For more information, call (800) 303-7463, ext. 54510.

Funny fella

Actor and comedian Lil' JJ concludes his run at Harrah's Tunica Casino Funny Bone comedy club this weekend.

The Little Rock native, whose real name is James Charles Lewis, Jr., first came to fame at the age of 13 when he won BET's "Coming To the Stage" comedy competition. That led to roles in film like "Beauty Shop" and "Yours, Mine, and Ours," as well as television shows such as Nickelodeon's "Just Jordan" (in which he starred), "The Secret Life of the American Teenager," and "Are We There Yet?"

Showtimes are 8 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. Friday and 9:30 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are $10-$18 and are available by phone at (662) 357-4242 and online at funnybonetunica.com.

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