Good news! I’m going to Las Vegas.

Yes, it’s going to be 113 degrees there, but the room is comped, so I’ll take it. Who even goes outside in Vegas? All the good stuff is inside, like the blackjack and the poker and the sports betting. Also, arts and culture, I guess.

But why is it good news for you? Because whenever I go anywhere, I write a column with five music artists from that city, and Vegas is shockingly good. There was a run there in the early ’00s when, apparently, every band was from Vegas! I didn’t realize it at the time, but it’s true.

Need proof?

Five Finger Death Punch — “Bad Company”

For quite a while, I thought Five Finger Death Punch was a cover band, because the two songs I’d heard were covers of “House of the Rising Sun” and Bad Company’s “Bad Company” from Bad Company. They’re not, but I still like the covers the most.

That, incidentally, is one of my favorite pieces of music trivia. I’ve checked unsettlingly extensively and “Bad Company” is the only song I can find where the song, the album, and the band all have the same name. Sure, Seether covered “Seether” but it was a single, and Machine Head didn’t cover Bush’s “Machinehead” at all, let alone on Deep Purple’s classic album Machine Head. But for that one glorious song, the stars aligned.

This isn’t that version. But the 5FDP version is really good, too.

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Imagine Dragons — “Radioactive”

I had forgotten what absolute madness this video is until I watched it just now.

It takes place in what, from the inside, appears to be a Mexican cockfight, but based on the establishing shots is held in an abandoned barn on the outskirts of a woodland town. It’s run by Lou Diamond Phillips from “Stand and Deliver,” “Young Guns” and “La Bamba.” Oh, and it’s not roosters fighting. It’s Muppets.

The biggest, baddest Muppet is shredding a bunch of stuffed animals in the fights, which is slightly distressing because the stuffed animals are in cages, apparently sentient, and don’t want to be there. When they lose, Lou Diamond Phillips opens a trap door in the arena to drop the stuffing on Imagine Dragons, who are being held in the Muppet fight barn’s dungeon.

Did I forget to mention that? The band is in a dungeon beneath the barn.

Anyway, in walks Alexandra Daddario, the actress whose name I recognize but was in a bunch of stuff I didn’t see. She has a pink stuffed bear that nearly loses before revealing it has magic powers, knocking out the King Muppet and vaporizing two guards with its eye lasers. After his champion loses, Alexandra takes the dungeon key from Lou Diamond Phillips and frees the band.

Whoever came up with the premise takes too many drugs. Or not enough. But definitely not the right amount.

As of this writing, the video has 1.46 billion views. With a B.

The Killers — “Mr. Brightside”

See what I mean about these all being from a certain period of time? So far the songs have been from 2010, 2003 and 2012. That is a nine-year span but it was nine years when music was all fairly similar and, apparently, all came from the same city.

Nothing exemplifies that sound like Imagine Dragons. There are variations, for sure, but the vibe is the same, right? There are holistic similarities. They have the same color aura. And yes, I did go to UC Santa Cruz, why do you ask?

Anyway, I like this song, so if you’re gonna sound like something, this isn’t a terrible choice.

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Ne-Yo — “So Sick”

It’s not shocking that Ne-Yo is from Vegas, because Vegas is a diverse place with about a million people.

What’s shocking is that this song came out in 2006, right in that time period where there was a Vegas Sound, and it doesn’t sound like he’s imagining dragons. Was that even allowed? It’s like if I found out there was a great dance music DJ who came out of Seattle in the early ’90s, it’s just not what you think of in that time and place.

That said, Ne-Yo’s name is after Neo from “The Matrix,” one of my all-time favorite movies. A producer once said he sees music like Neo sees code. If he stuck with that, he’s OK by me.

Panic! At the Disco — “I Write Sins Not Tragedies”

Finally, a song from—you guessed it—2006. I legitimately couldn’t find any bands that formed in Vegas or musicians who were born or raised in Vegas from the 20th century. I’m sure they exist, somewhere.

I know it’s emo and that’s their whole vibe, but this combination of band name and song title is, for my money, the most pretentious. First off there’s a punctuation mark in the name. And not even at the end! It’s right there in the middle, turning the phrase “panic at the disco” (a perfectly suitable name) into a command delivered by William Shatner. “Panic! At the Disco.” Terrible.

Second: The title’s pretentiousness speaks for itself, but according to Wikipedia, it’s a reference to a line in Douglas Coupland’s 1992 novel, “Shampoo Planet.” Come on. The words don’t even appear in the song. We get it, you read books.

Other song titles include “The Only Difference Between Martyrdom and Suicide Is Press Coverage,” “London Beckoned Songs About Money Written by Machines,” “Lying Is the Most Fun a Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off” and “There’s a Good Reason These Tables Are Numbered Honey, You Just Haven’t Thought of It Yet.”

The whole band is that guy in the community college intro to philosophy class that girls won’t make eye contact with because he’ll spend an hour talking to them against their will about some 18th century novel he just skimmed over but thinks makes him sound smart. The song’s good, though.

Follow publisher Daniel J. Willis and tweet column ideas to him at @BayAreaData on Twitter or @bayareadata.press on BlueSky.