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.