Rich's R'n'R Rants & Raves: Powersolo, the Van der Rohe, Black Rhino at the Bunkhouse, Thursday Mar 7, 2019

I'm sure I first discovered PowerSolo due to someone (I cannot remember who now) posting the truly wacky, dementedly Dylan-esque video for their equally wacky song "Boom Babba Do Ba Dabba". It is an inspired piece of insanity and I loved its minimalist surrealism. Kim Kix is still at the helm of PowerSolo, but the band has evolved with new members Zack (drums) and Peasoup (! second guitar) and are currently storming America!

This evening's festivities were opened by a local combo called Black Rhino - slightly out of place for the evening as they are more of a Soundgarden-ish combo. Quite talented and quite good at what they're doing, with fine, tight playing and vocal harmonies with a commercial sound, but that really couldn't be said for the other bands of the night (and that's not a bad thing)!

The Van der Rohe is Vegas' home-grown garage group, with Cromm Fallon (guitar) and Will Lazarraga (vocals) - both who have several other combos in town - leading a revolving rhythm section line up. This evening they even had a tambourine player who played Farfisa organ on one tune, which, unfortunately, was shut down by Cromm - apparently something wasn't working right although it sounded fine out front. Otherwise, they went through the tunes from their self-titled EP with plenty of energy and reverb, fuzz'n'tremelo and pulled out a few new numbers, as well. Always a fun time!

I really had no idea what to expect from PowerSolo, as the YouTube videos I glimpsed all seemed pretty wildly different, but here they were a simple 2-guitar-and-drums line-up with a fantastically primitive sound. Monks-like drums (Zack is a monster, even tho he looked like he was dressed for a 80's fitness video) with both guitars running through various effects (though never over-doing it) and riffing against each other, but always keeping the rhythm rockin'. They started the previously mentioned "Boom Babba" but aborted it (odd to see two bands in a row do that) but there were songs about Elvis' 68 Comeback Suit, NASCAR and Seattle Basketball (seemingly the only words to a frantic punk-fueled number) that were filled with dynamics and interesting changes. While they were not quite as visually wild as I might have thought (Kim seemed somewhat distracted or tired, even though he still put on a great show), they were still highly entertaining, even if not manic. In any case, it was all tons of fun and I picked up the three CDs they had with them (more about those as I have time) and I encourage everyone to see them on this tour for a truly different experience!