The Reeves Brothers and Shanda and the Howlers at 172 at the Rio, Sunday Dec 16, 2018

172 is a new club space in the Rio Hotel and Casino and is currently being booked by none other than Patrick Pulsar Trout, who has worked with a number of other clubs in town, most notably (to me, anyway!), the Bunkhouse and the Beauty Bar. This club is a bit more upscale (it is located in a casino, after all), with a real stage, lights and great PA (the sound was excellent), and with food available, along with the usual drink selections. It has been running for a couple of months now, although this evening it was a bit slow - most likely due to it being a Sunday night.

Opening the show at a reasonable 9:00-ish set time (good for a Sunday) was local old-school R'n'B/blues belters, Shanda and the Howlers. I have ranted'n'raved about this combo innumerable times and they are always stellar. Shanda has the big voice of someone like Big Mama Thornton, with the control to croon when the song requires, as well. Luke's rollin' bass lines keep the songs groovin', Trevor is one of the town's premier guitarists (as is evidenced by the number of different gigs he plays throughout any given month) with great tone and stingin' slide work and new cats Josh and Joe keep the tempo swingin' and the sax wailin', respectively. They started a little earlier than expected (and I got there a little later than I had planned) so I missed a song or two, but they ran through some of their best from their CD's, along with hip covers from the likes of the Sonics, James Brown, Ruth Brown and more. The crowd was sparse, but obviously dug what the Howlers were puttin' down! See them whenever you can!

Also on the bill was my fave local (via Pahrump) old-school country outfit, the Reeves Brothers. The brothers, Matt and Cole, are both superb guitarists (I love watching them play!) and singers and are joined by bassist Kelly and a variety of drummers and, apparently, a new steel guitar player who couldn't make it this evening - looking forward to seeing them with him! Their set was comprised of songs from their CD's as well as honky-tonk'n'blues tunes like "11 Months and 29 Days" and Jerry Reed's "East Bound and Down" along with some songs from an upcoming album. I especially dug "Old Number 7 Blues" (dedicated to Jack Daniels) and their closing medley of "Miserlou"/"What I Say"/"Wipe Out"! Cole is definitely a bit more of a ham than Matt, prowlin' the stage and playing behind his head while Matt calmly pulled out scorchin' riffs on his Mosrite copy guitar. If you dig real country music played by amazing musicians, you gotta see these guys!

I'm looking forward to seeing what else this new venue will bring to Vegas - there are some big shows coming up, so let's hope that they can provide a new outlet for this town.