The Bloody Villains, Psyatics, Cold Blue Rebels - Cheyenne Saloon, Saturday July 21, 2012

The Cheyenne Saloon is a cool, decent-sized venue, with a real stage, lights and sound system, that is actually near to our house in the northwest, but it normally specializes is metal bands, so is not a normal haunt for us. But this night was much different than their usual fare, with a couple of the best new bands in Vegas and a crazy touring band to sweeten the deal.



 The night started at the wildly early hour of 8:00 so we missed the first band, but got there in time to see the mighty Bloody Villains. I have written about these cats before and they are on of the only (if not the only) high-energy punk'n'roll band in the vein of the Hellacopters playing in Vegas today. Everyone is a solid player and singer/lead guitarist Verdusco is a blur of motion while singing and playing and the rest of the cats (2nd guitarist Nano, bassist Chris and drummer Scott) all pose appropriately while all looking stylishly r'n'r in converse, black jeans and rockin' t-shirts. Real songs and real rock'n'roll - another band ya gotta see!

Our pals the Psyatics were up next and they never fail to inspire with their highly original 3-piece garage rock'n'roll. Singer/bassist Rob really knows how to write a truly original tune and you would never know that this is his first band playing bass! Nor would you guess that the noise-fueled guitarist Jack is actually a classical violinist in his "other life"! Drummer Jimmy keep everything together and is one of the more interesting players on the scene. This was only their 4th or 5th show, but their sound is already really happening.

I was not familiar with the Cold Blue Rebels before but once I discovered that fellow LA rockers Joe Normal (re: Joe Hutchinson) was in the band, I had to check them out. Joe played in the purple-haired Zeroes - the group that moved from Jersey and became part of the Sunset Strip scene in the 80's, apparently unaware of the fantastic punk band the Zeros that were already local heroes. After that group, Joe and his brother Jimmy formed the terrific power-pop band, the Hutchinsons, but I kinda lost track of him for a while after that. This combo is a completely different trip - a horror/psychobilly group made up of Joe, fellow Zeroes bassist Danny Dangerous, singer Mickey Finn from Jetboy and drummer Spaz Draztik from the Glamour Punks. So, with years of playing behind them, they knew how to put on a wild show and their zombie make-up and total style gave them an edge right from the start. While they are definitely a psychobilly outfit, they have some actual songs and got the audience going the whole time! Fun stuff!

Hopefully, the Cheyenne will put on more cool shows like this and hopefully some of the downtown denizens with come out to the outskirts of town to support the venue when they do!