The Peculiar Pretzelmen at the Golden Tiki - Mar 6,2016

The Peculiar Pretzelmen are a Los Angeles based duo, that will at times add other members for special projects, but generally tours as the two-piece, for obvious economic reasons. This evening they appeared at Las Vegas' latest tiki joint, the Golden Tiki, on their small stage by the back of the room. Evolving from Soda and His Million Piece Band, their sound is a mix of Soda/Tom Waits/Dylan/whatever-else-they-can-think-of. Very cool and very unique.

A late-ish start - a little after 10:00pm - on a Sunday night meant not a whole lot of people were in attendance, and the fact that the bar stopped them during a pregnant pause in one of their numbers to inform them that they had to stop for a half hour so that filming could take place for a reality TV show (shades of the Pioneer Saloon!) meant that some people had to leave before seeing a full set. But the PP were professional and good-natured about it all and still put on a great show.

I only manged to stay through the two-part first set, which included numbers like "Mr. Rabbit", "Rabbit Foot Blues", "Pobrecito" (the songs that was interrupted - they picked up exactly where they left off when they returned to the stage), the traditional "Tom Dooley", and several others that I was not familiar with, including the opener that was reminiscent of "Desolation Row" and the set closer where Deacon mimiced the banjo riffs on his percussion kit.

Although the space is fairly small, the feeling is not quite as intimate as the two times they have played at the Huntridge Tavern. Still, this folk/noise combo never fails to entertain with their high-quality tunes, home-made string instruments (film canister banjo and ukulele - sorta/kinda) and car-parts percussion. They plan to be back to Vegas over the summer so plan on seeing them! They have a number of CDs available (I picked up two more this time out) so buy some souvenirs of the show, as well!