Clydesdale, Eddy Bear and the Cubs, Kim Lenz and special guest BIg Sandy at Triple B, August 7, 2015

It can be hard getting out on a Friday night after a long week at work but this line-up at Backstage Bar & Billiards got us  hitting the caffeine and hitting the road.

Got to Triple B as Clydesdale was starting things off. Their brand of alt-country is highly original and can be difficult to describe, but Paige has a terrific voice, which the songs highlight, drummer Courtney (who also plays with the Swank Bastards at times) keeps things swingin' as bassist Jason and lead guitarist Andrew sweeten the sounds. A good amount of variety in their set and the early crowd (one of the best I've seen at this venue) were enthusiastic in their approval.

One of my local faves, Las Vegas's best honky-tonkin' combo, Eddie Bear and the Cubs, followed, with snappy new outfits (dig the fringe!) with singers Erik and Larry in red and the rest of the cats in black. Great image and the sounds were even better, with a bunch of new material, including some originals, like "Lost and Found", "Got You on My Mind" and "You Won't Let Me Love You" (at least, I think those were all originals). Anyone who has ever read this blog knows that I am a huge fan of Wade's lead guitar playing and this evening Larry added a lot on his git-boxes as well - several songs had fine harmony guitar lines and Larry added cool, reverbed licks behind Wade throughout. Everyone was in fine form this evening and they got the crowd two-stepping throughout.

(Per Erik: "To clarify, the originals are: You Won't Let Me Love You, I Think Too Much When I Drink Too Much, and Too Late For Love.")

The set ended with rockabilly legend Big Sandy joining these gentlemen on stage (sorry I didn't get any better photos) for "Hip Shakin' Mama" and he looked and sounded terrific. I haven't seen Robert (Sandy) probably since the Fly Right Trio days and he is still just as good as he was then!

Triple B owner Big Daddy Carlos then joined the action for a rousing, reckless, wacky take on the Cramps' version of "Tear It Up" that got everyone's cell phone out to record the mayhem!

I was not familiar with red-headed, rockabilly bombshell Kim Lenz before this evening, but she led a trio of young men through some wild rockabilly numbers, with a hot, Wanda Jackson-esque voice and some cool acoustic guitar. Her stand-up bassist was wild'n'rowdy, the drummer snappy'n'swingin' and 19 year old lead guitarist filled out some sweet lines with fantastic tone on his vintage Melody Maker. Kim performed a number that she co-wrote with Big Sandy and then brought him up to do a duet on "Lovers of Rock" before letting him do one of his Fly Right Trio songs with her band backing him up. All truly superb! Kim cam back with a few more before leaving the crowd beggin' for more.

I'm sorry to say that the week caught up with us and we left before catching James Intveld, who we haven't seen since his rockabilly days in LA. But, still, a fun evening of solid performances all night long. Let's have more of these!