I’ve never known Fremont Street without its “Experience.” The canopy has shaded three blocks of Fremont for nearly ten years, and I’ve lived here less than five.

“Oh, it was different before,” old-timers have told me. “Grittier, dustier. We miss it.”

I can’t miss what I’ve never known, but I can easily imagine grittier and dustier. For one thing, Fremont Street is still gritty and dusty if you move out from under the canopy. And even with a high-tech umbrella, there’s still an edge to downtown Las Vegas that’s been successfully smoothed off the Strip. It’s almost like the difference been Disneyland and Anaheim. One is fantasyland. The other is real life. One is breasts like melons, teeth like pearls, and scents courtesy of Chanel. The other is—well—real life. Sags, gaps, and the occasional whiff of raw sewage.

Don’t get me wrong. I like downtown. And I’ve always enjoyed the Fremont Street light shows, which is why I headed there Monday night. Not only would $17 million worth of high-tech upgrades to the canopy be demonstrated for the first time, Tim Poster and Tom Breitling would be on hand. Las Vegas natives who stuck a dot-com mother lode, Tim & Tom are the golden boys of the Golden Nugget, the casino they purchased with their Web-gained millions.

Is it coincidental that Steve Wynn began his casino-king reign with the Golden Nugget, too? Will Tim & Tom follow in his footsteps and move down the Strip leaving ever-larger developments in their wake? Whoa. Way too soon to say. So far, all we can do is watch “The Casino,” the Fox reality show that follows Tim & Tom’s new careers as casino bosses. On Monday, that didn’t require staying home and being a couch potato. Fremont Street’s new canopy can do TV.

Press releases claim that the new canopy’s capabilities are equivalent to high-definition television. Trust me, though. It’s not HD when you’re standing right underneath it. In addition, television shows look best on flat screens with a width a couple times greater than the height. The Fremont Street canopy is three blocks long and two lanes wide, which means the TV images have to be repeated seven times to fill it up. And watch out for those close-ups. That curve does scary things to foreheads.

Here’s the good news. The two new shows created just for the canopy are fun to watch. They retain the kitsch of their predecessors but benefit from greatly improved graphics. “Area 51” features an invasion of traditional green space aliens, and “The Drop” is an undersea adventure. More new shows are scheduled to join the lineup soon.

The premiere of “The Casino” and the new improved Fremont Street canopy drew a crowd of hundreds Monday night. VIPS got to wear special badges and attend Tim Poster & Tom Breitling’s party at the Golden Nugget. It should have been the biggest event in Vegas, but once again, downtown was trumped by the Strip.

Review-Journal page one headlines the next morning told the story: “$7.9 Billion Deal Reached.” While all those VIPs were enjoying Tim & Tom’s hospitality, MGM Mirage and Mandalay Resort Group were forging a deal that will create the largest gaming company in the world. The Fremont Street celebration did get a headline and a nice big photo, but it was in the business section.

But, really, the Fremont Street Experience and the Strip aren’t competing with each other, any more than Anaheim is competing with Disneyland. Even with a couple of golden boys and a groovy new canopy, Fremont Street’s a little grittier, a little dustier. It’s still a little bit closer to real life.