Celebration of Gold Top Bob with the Psyatics, Johnny Zig and the Force and Franks and Deans at the Double Down, Wednesday, March 20, 2019

Las Vegas recently had a scare in which we thought - thankfully, erroneously - that local blues icon Godtop Bob had passed away. He did have a serious health scare, but he is back out and rockin' again and so the Double Down - one of his regular haunts and residencies - threw a celebration party for the man.

The night started early with the Psyatics doing a set of Psyatic-ized noisy garage punk'n'roll. It was a little sloppy, but with plenty of fun'n'games'n'escapades ensuing. Ivanna Blaize once again provided some visual delight to counteract our ugly mugs. (Phone photos by me during our set, which is why they are fairly terrible!)

Drum-master Mark Bartschi did double duty this evening and joined Johnny Zig and the Force for their set of rockin' blues with a touch of surf. Two lead guitars, bass'n'drums with a swingin' (and great!) sax player rounding things out and adding to the sound. They brought Goldtop up to join them for several songs including classic renditions of "Stormy Monday", "Sweet Home Chicago" (as "Sweet Home Las Vegas") and "One Way Out". Totally fun stuff and great to see Bob slayin' the strings and the audience paying homage to the gent.

Franks and Deans rounded things out with their set of Rat Pack/oldies done punk rock/ska style with terrific three part harmonies. They did their own twists'n'turns to numbers by Jerry Lee and Buddy Holly along with oldies like "Splish Splash", "Chain Gang", "Mexicali", "Mess Around" and a bizarre take on "What'd I Say" merged with the Dead Kennedys "Holiday in Cambodia". They also brought Goldtop up for a few bluesy tunes and the evening's VJ, Haanson Myer, also made an appearance on harmonica! Of course, their visual addition was in the shapely form of Nicole Muse acting out parts of the songs, disrobing and twirling her hula hoop! Always a good time!

Goldtop Bob was rarin' to go for his own band's set at midnight but being a work night, I had to make the trek home and missed his solo set, but was glad to catch him playing with two other bands this evening. It was heart warming to see so many people come out to support him - MC Jen O Cide also ran a raffle throughout the night that seemed to bring in a number of contributions - and it is always nice to be part of the Vegas scene that will come together to help one of their own! Thank you to Ian, Christy and the Double Down for pulling this all together!