LAS VEGAS--MTV has always gone big for its annual Video Music Awards, but by bringing this year's event to Las Vegas for the first time ever, it's gone gargantuan.

Eve at the Palms Resort Casino's Rain Nightclub.

Ancillary parties are littered throughout this absurdly glitzy city, but most of the weekend's real action is at the Palms Resort Casino, the Maloof family's two-tower behemoth. It's off the Strip, but it's the center of the universe for our celebrity-obsessed culture this weekend.

The festivities kicked off last night with the Escape to the VMAs party at the Palms' Rain Nightclub, which features, as you might've guessed, water heading in all sorts of directions throughout the club. With celebs including Big Boi, Gnarls Barkley's Cee-Lo, Desperate Housewives star Josh Henderson, and rappers Rich Boy and Yung Berg on hand, the club was amped for the first of what would be a seemingly endless array of parties.

Eve was the headliner, and although she kept it brief, it was an exciting set and a reminder that the rapper-actress has been around the block a few times prior to her current smash hit, "Tambourine."

Clad in a skimpy beige bubble dress and accompanied by a DJ and a quartet of elastic dancers, Eve kicked off the set with "Who's That Girl" before jumping into her biggest hit to date, "Let Me Blow Ya Mind" without the help of her partner on the track, Gwen Stefani.

Clearly thrilled to be onstage one night before being able to take off the alcohol-monitoring ankle bracelet she's been forced to wear because of her DUI arrest in April, Eve then blasted into "Give It to You," her Sean Paul collaboration and the second single from her new album, Here I Am, which hits stores October 16.

Eve finished off the night with "Tambourine," the Swizz Beatz-produced burner that is up for a Video Music Award on Sunday night for best choreography.

Check back tomorrow for more from Vegas.