Benefit for NOW at the Bunkhouse Thursday Feb 23 with the Swank Bastards, Le Dominiki and Glass Pool

An early night benefit for a good cause with some cool bands brought me down to the Bunkhouse on this Thursday eve. Unfortunately, it was such an early gig that I didn't have time to catch the opening band and got there just in time for Glass Pools (nice Vegas reference). Self-described as electronic dance rock, these three gents (2 guitars and bass/keyboards) and powerful female drummer perform dreamy, danceable, Neon Reverb/Life is Beautiful smooth rock with excellent three part harmony vocals.

Following in this night of very varied music was Le Dominiki, a relatively new combo featuring two NIki's - actually Niki on guitar and lead vocals, Nikki on bass and backing vocals and Jesse (guitarist for the Swank Bastards) on drums. This minimalist three piece is a bit folk-ish/singer/songwriter-ish but with plenty of their own, oddly unique touches. The Niki's have quality vocals and the songs range from mid-tempo to slow'n'groovy (really dug the tom-heavy, Velvet Underground feel on this one) to a "Now I Wanna Be Your Dog" steal, complete with "you ain't nothin' but a dog" lyrics, but with some fine drumming and harmonies. Definitely a band that does not sound like anyone else!

Closing out the live music section of the night (a hip hop artist closed after I left) was Thee Swank Bastards, this time being female-dominant, in fitting of the theme of the night. This was the first time that bassist Denise played without her husband Clay on the drums, but instead with drummer-about-town Courtney keeping the beat. Of course, Jesse, the one constant of the Bastards, was providing the surfy string stylings and fancy dance moves. Lots of great tunes, some obvious covers like "Rumble", some not so obvious (Black Sabbath's "Electric Funeral"), some jazzy (one of them have some super hip alternating bass'n'drums and cool guitar'n'bass climbs) and some pure surf. Always cool fun and Courtney kept the crowd in stitches by running up to Jesse's mic to tell some bad jokes and then running back to her drums to give herself a rimshot!

Cool night for a great cause and nice to see a number of people come out and enjoy the music!