RIP Roky Erickson

Reports: Roky Erickson, Texas psychedelic music legend, has died 
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Very sad - a legend and he was still electrifying on stage.

recommended gigs

Friday May 31 - The Delta Bombers, the All Togethers, Shanda and the Howlers at Islands Bar and Lounge
Friday May 31 - the Hypnotiques at Tiki di Amore
Friday May 31 - the New Waves at the Golden Tiki
Friday May 31 - the Unwieldies at the Hardway 8 in Henderson

Saturday June 1 - Trevor and the Swingin' Johnsons at Tiki di Amore
Saturday June 1 - Johnny Zig and the Force at GOAT
Saturday June 1 - Le DomiNiki with the Hideaway and Damaris Jams at the E-String
Saturday June 1 - Franks'n'Deans at Hardway 8 in Henderson

Sunday June 2 - the Hypnotiques at the Golden Tiki
Sunday June 2 - Johnny Zig and the Force at the Double Down for the Burly Q Revue
Sunday June 2 - Negative Nancys, Stagnetti's Cock, Stereo Assault at Evel Pie

Monday June 3 - Thee Swank Bastards at the Golden Tiki

Wednesday June 5 - Franks'n'Deans Weenie Roast at the Double Down with guest The Ramone
Wednesday June 5 - American Aquarium and Rhyolite Sound at the Brooklyn Bowl
Wednesday June 5 - Girl Haggard at Saddle'n'Spurs

Friday June 7 - Cromm Fallon and the P200 with Pet Tigers at the Bunkhouse
Friday June 7 - Thee Swank Bastards at Tiki di Amore
Friday June 7 - Agent 86, 3D6, Stagnetti's Cock, Sickness in Motion at the Double Down

Saturday June 8 - the Unwieldies at Dillinger

Sunday June 9 - Kid Congo and the Pink Money Birds, Slim Cessna's Auto Club and The Psyatics and Ted Rader's Magic Family at Backstage Bar and Billiards

Wednesday June 12 - Johnny Zig and the Force at the Double Down

Thursday June 13 - TV Party Tonight at the Double Down with live music from the Sheiks of Neptune and a showing of the movie Spaceballs

Friday June 14 - the Psyatics with Thee Swank Bastards and Scotty Dub and the Jellyfish at the Double Down

Saturday June 15 - the Implosions, Lambs to Lions, Sheiks of Neptune, the Time Crashers at the Center for Science and Wonder
Saturday June 15 - Johnny Zig and the Force at the Goldmine Tavern
Saturday June 15 - Water Landing, Not a Robot, Ossum Possum at the Huntridge Tavern

Sunday June 16 - Las Vegas Blues Society Jam at Saddle'n'Spurs

Friday June 21 - Thee Swank Bastards at Tiki di Amore

Saturday June 22 - Bob Log III with the Swamp Gospel at the Bunkhouse

Friday June 28 - John Mayall at Sunset Station

Sunday July 7 - the Hypnotiques at the Golden Tiki
Sunday July 7 - the Burly-Q-Revue with Johnny Zig and the Force at the Double Down

Tuesday July 9 - Johnny Zig and the Force at the Sand Dollar

Friday July 12 - the Darts and the Dollyrots at Evel Pie

Saturday July 20 - the Psyatics at the Double Down

Tuesday August 6 - all-female surf from Canada, the Surfrajettes, the Hula Girls and the Hypnotiques at the Bunkhouse

Friday August 16 - the Psyatics at the Double Down

Sunday August 18 - George Clinton and Parliment Funkadelic at the Brooklyn Bowl

Saturday Sept 21 - Johnny Hootrock with the Vooduo at the Double Down

Tuesday Nov 5 - Redd Kross with the Melvins and Shitkid at the Bunkhouse

What have I forgotten? Lemme know

RIP Leon Redbone

Singer Leon Redbone Dies at 69

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Sad to hear this - he was always a character and my band, the Gentlemen of Four Outs, covers one of his songs.

Desperate Visions - the Films of John Waters and the Kuchar Brothers by Jack Stevenson

I just happened upon this book at a thrift store and, being a John Waters fan (and who isn't), I picked it up without really knowing what it was. I assumed that it was an overview of Waters' movies - as the title would suggest - but it turns out to be a compilation of interviews with Waters, Divine, Mink Stole and others who worked with Waters. Unfortunately, the interviewer is not particularly great and tends to try to steer things in lurid ways, sometimes in an almost embarrassing fashion. There are some good insights here'n'there, but for me, it does not read easily and does not really engross you or pull you in. In fact, I keep putting it down and reading other books, but I made a point to finish it now!

The second half of the book revolves around the Kuchar Brothers, twins who have worked together and separately on underground films since the late 50's and who were an early influence on Waters and were contemporaries of Kenneth Anger and Warhol's filmmaking. Previous to this, I knew literally nothing about them and their films are so obscure that I can't find much more than an occasional trailer on You Tube and, in fact, many that are talked about in their interviews are simply school projects, although there are some that are revered in certain circles despite their unusual and sometime pornographic nature.

The book is interesting, but not being a film buff, if did not truly captivate me. Also the fact that it compiles several interviews means that stories are repeated more than once, which caused me to skip bits here'n'there. Overall, the tome is good, not great.

Punk Rock Bowling Monday May 27, 2019

This day was the one that we really wanted to get to as the line up was pretty darn packed with classic combos that we wanted to check out. We couldn't deal with being there the entire day - we're too old for that - but wanted to get there with plenty of time to see the Undertones, so saw a good portion of the day.

The first band to appear once we arrived was Shame, who have been getting a lot of good press lately with references to everything from Brit-Pop to the Fall and their live show was a bit all over the place (as those disparate influences would suggest), but they were a good start to the day with a energetic stage show, especially the hyper bassist!

I was a bit hesitant about the Undertones since Feargal is no longer with them, but the rest of the original members are all accounted for with a great new singer who kinda emulated Feargal without aping him, sounded amazing and was a fun, wacky front person. There was no way to fault the set list - although they didn't do "Male Model", which we used to cover in The Excessories - which was jam packed with their multiple hits. The crowd was with them the entire time, singing along and pogoing and moshing through it all. The band was spot-on musically and harmonically - super pleasant surprise!

I guess we popped over to see what was going on with Teenage Bottle Rockets on the small stage but it was a little too crazed over there, so back to the main area for another one of the reasons we were there, the Stranglers. Again, it's a little sad that the whole band isn't with them - no Hugh or Jet Black, in their case - but JJ and Dave Greenfield are joined by a solid drummer and a guitarist/singer who again had a proper delivery without trying to copy Hugh. JJ's bass tone is ferociously vicious, as it should be, and Dave peeled off his unique keyboard runs effortlessly - at times even while drinking a beer simultaneously! I lost track of the band after their third album and a couple of their later songs that were included in the set didn't do anything for me, but most of tunes were from the first three records with greats like "Hanging Around", "Nice and Sleazy", "Tank" and "No More Heroes", and plenty of others. These guys and the Undertones were worth the ticket price on their own!

We haven't seen the Hives since they first hit with "Hate to Say I Told You So" and I wasn't completely knocked out by them back then, but I thought they did an excellent job this time out. Right from the outset they were high energy with great stage presence and the singer was rock star cocky and funnily obnoxious - which some people took offense to, but he was so obviously joking that I couldn't understand how you couldn't laugh with him. I'm not overly familiar with their repertoire but they threw in "Hate to Say.." in the middle of the set, which, of course, everyone went nuts for, but they continued to slay for the rest of the set. Before they finished we moved over to the second stage to try to get a spot for the Dead Boys and while the big screens over there showed the Hives, they didn't broadcast the music, which was unfortunate. I would definitely see them again after this showing! Oh, and I loved the fact that the band were all dressed nattily in white and their roadies were all dressed in black ninja outfits!

The Dead Boys now consist of simply Cheetah Chrome and Johnny Blitz, but include our old pal Ricky Rat (Trash Brats) along with a couple of other new comers and we haven't seen what they were up to in this incarnation so absolutely wanted to check it out. The new singer does kinda over-emulate Stiv a little, but still does a good job and the set list was mostly from their two classic records, but it seemed like Blitz didn't have a good monitor mix or something as he seemed to be slightly off from the rest of the band the entire time, which made their time on stage a little ramshackle, as Melanie put it. But, it was jammed for them, as well, and they still got a fantastic response.

The fest concluded with the Specials, and as I was never and still am not a ska fan, they have never done anything for me, but the crowd, especially the numerous pot-smokers, loved them and were with them the entire time. I found it hard to believe that they didn't do "Ghost Town" but no one else seemed bothered by this and recognized everything else that they did. A pleasant, mellow end to the festival.

I have to say that the event area was well organized and comfortable with lots of food options (although we didn't try anything) and bars everywhere, lots of room for vendors and band merch, plenty of sitting areas and lots of toilets - always a good plus! For a big event, this was mighty comfortable!

Punk Rock Bowling Friday May 24 and Sunday May 26, 2019

I'm not a big fan of "festivals" in general and outdoor shows in Las Vegas in particular, but there were a couple of nights of Punk Rock Bowling that I really wanted to check out and so we made the effort and were rewarded appropriately.

For Friday night, the club show at the Bunkhouse included our old pal Fred's band, Fangs on Fur. I hadn't heard them before, but they were a great, theatrical outfit with tons of style and a cool, effect-laden, Siouxie-ish type of early punk rock. Lead singer F Girl was an especially animated front person, but everyone looked super and guitarist F Boy (Fred) had his own sound that was layered over the drivin' bass'n'drum rhythm section. Terrific band and I hope that they return to Vegas on their own at some point.

The big outdoor stage then had Flipper and I am embarrassed to say that I didn't really watch them as I socialized with friends inside, but fans loved them. Maybe I can get someone else to do a real review of them?

The oddly named Egrets on Ergot (mayhap a reference that is lost on me?) was an interesting, tribal combo with a bit of early Savage Republic (the singer pounded on a trash can for a bit and also played some nicely noisy saxophone). Definitely intriguing and I would check them out again.

Headliners Killing Joke took the outside stage with 4 original members and a new keyboardist joining them for their own take on tribal, industrial, post-punk chaos. The singer, attired in a mechanic's jumpsuit and corpse make up, aped a bit of Ozzy's mannerisms, which was unexpected for me, but the sound was solid and the Killing Joke fans were floored. Again, maybe I can get someone who is more of a fan to give a more detailed report, but it was a strong end for the night. I did miss the extra percussive drums from some of the early records, but a minor quibble.

We skipped the festival shows on Saturday and Sunday - there were some great bands on the bills, but we just couldn't do all weekend, but when we heard that the Heiz would be playing an early show at the Double Down (after playing the festival earlier that day), we had to get out for that, as well. This Japanese trio is a terrific combination of 50's rock'n'roll, Ramones-styled punk (they cover/steal several of their songs) and power pop and have a highly energetic and hilarious stage show.

An instrumental take on "Summertime Blues" was their "sound check" before they blasted into a number of tunes from their various records - a cover of "Heartbreak Hotel", their own "Too Much Rock'n'Roll Business", the goofy "Starving", a take on "Sabre Dance" and several tunes from their latest release (which I picked up, so more on that later). As they have been out here a number of times so they now have a song called "Back In Vegas", they did their own version of "Keep A-Knockin'" and they closed the night with "Rock'n'Roll Radio".

The club was jam-packed with fans singin' along and screamin'n'shoutin'n'dancin' and carrying on - all in a happy-go-lucky way. A great time and we were really happy that they played at a reasonable hour and we were able to get home and get some rest for the next day.