Thursday, September 26, 2019

recommended gigs

Thursday Sept 26 - Dirty RnR Dance Party presents a special solo/duo night with member of the Swagger and lots of local luminaries at the Huntridge Tavern
Thursday Sept 26 - Dinner Music for the Gods at the Bunkhouse

Friday Sept 27 - Cromm Fallon P200, the Swagger, Mojave Sun, Cole Maxwell at the Double Down
Friday Sept 27 - The Unwieldies at Hardway 8
Friday Sept 27 - Trevor and the Swingin' Johnsons at Tiki di Amore

Saturday Sept 28 - the Psyatics, Water Landing, Big Like Texas, Dead Dolls at the Double Down

Sunday Sept 29 - the Goddam Gallows at the Dive Bar

Monday Sept 30 - Thee Swank Bastards at the Golden Tiki

Wednesday Oct 2 - Franks'n'Deans Weenie Roast with Gob Patrol at the Double Down

Friday Oct 4 - LV Blues Society Jam at the Sand Dollar
Friday Oct 4 - 68 at Backstage Bar and Billiards
Friday Oct 4 - the Venomous PInks, the Negative Nancys and the Implosions at Evel Pie

Saturday Oct 5 - CH3, Dirk Vermin and the Hostile Talent, Soldiers of Destruction, Kings of the Wild Frontier at the Double Down
Saturday Oct 5 - Johnny Zig and the Force at GOAT

Sunday Oct 6 - The Hypnotiques at the Golden Tiki

Wednesday October 9 - Johnny Zig and the Force at the Double Down

Saturday Oct 12 - The New Waves Charity-Oke at the Mint
Saturday Oct 12 - Ween tribute/ benefit for Heather Hyte at the Bunkhouse

Thursday Oct 17 - the Swamp Gospel with the Peculiar Pretzelmen

Friday Oct 18 - US Bombs at the Dive Bar
Friday Oct 18 - Monster Zero at the Golden Tiki

Wednesday Oct 23 - Mephiskapheles, Franks'n'Deans, SD and the Jellyfish at Evel Pie

Thursday Oct 24 - The Messer Chups at Backstage Bar and Billiards
Thursday Oct 24 - the Rhyolite Sound record release show at the Bunkhouse with Rob Leines and Elijah Ocean

Friday Oct 25 - Monster Zero at the Double Down

Saturday Oct 26 - GWAR with Sacred Reich, Toxic Holocaust and Against the Grain at the Fremont Country Club
Saturday Oct 26 - Negative Nancys, Los Carajos, Scotty Dub and the Jellyfish at the Double Down

Sunday Oct 27 - Michael Graves at the Dive Bar

Thursday Oct 31 - Woven Hand with the Unwieldies at the Bunkhouse

Friday Nov 1 - the Psyatics at the Double Down

Sunday Nov 3 - the Hypnotiques at the Golden Tiki

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

Friday Nov 8 - the Sheiks of Neptune, the Implosions, Undercover Monsters and the Pluralses at the Double Down

Saturday Nov 9 - the Psyatics at Tecopa Hot Springs
Saturday Nov 9 - Peace Corp (featuring VJ Atomic Haanson) at the Double Down

Friday Nov 15 - the Psyatics at the Double Down

Saturday Nov 16 - The Swamp Gospel at the Double Down

Friday Nov 22 - the Heiz with The Swamp Gospel and Fuckface at Evel Pie

Saturday Nov 23 - The Heiz at the Mint

Sunday Nov 24 - the Heiz at the Sand Dollar

Tuesday Nov 26 - The Psyatics and the Heiz at the Huntridge

Wednesday Nov 27 - the Heiz at the Rusty Spur

Friday Nov 29 - The Heiz at the Double Down

Saturday Nov 30 - The Heiz at the Double Down

Saturday Dec 7 - Agent Orange with The Psyatics , the Sheiks of Neptune and the Jagoffs at the Dive Bar

Saturday Dec 14 - The Swamp Gospel with the All Togethers at the Huntridge

Thursday Jan 2 - Tommy and the Commies, the Cavemen, Thee Saturday Knights and the Van der Rohe at the Bunkhouse

Saturday Jan 18 - the Swamp Gospel at the Double Down

What have I forgotten? Lemme know

Friday, September 20, 2019

The Psyatics, Am Samstag, Avo at the Double Down, Thursday Sept 19, 2019


Thursday nights can be tough for everyone, including touring bands, so when a couple of Swiss bands decided to drop by the Double Down, the club asked the Psyatics to add some local flavor and help out the night.


We started reasonably early (for the DD) and ran through our set of noisy garage/punk/whatever-it-is-that-we -do. There were a couple of relatively new tunes, including our cover of the Scientists "When Fate Deals Its Mortal Blow". I tried out my new wireless system (thanks for the tip Jesse!) that allowed me to buy a drink while playing "Bourbon Sway" and I almost trashed myself and my Strat by tripping over someone, but we all survived. In any case, it was a super fun set and we appreciate everyone that came out early on a Thursday to support.





(Psyatics photos by Nikki Ruffling)

The trio Am Samstag (On Saturday) came up next, using Rob's bass amp and Mark's drums, with the guitar running through the PA. They were heavily grunge influenced with a female guitarist/vocalist and a highly animated, barefooted bassist and a stompin' drummer. I got the impression that at least some of the songs were somewhat political, although it was difficult to make out all of the words, but they did have one called "Burn, Notre Dame, Burn" about people donating to the restoration of the cathedral rather than any of the other worthy causes, and they closed with a cover of the Dead Kennedys "California Uber Allies"!




Touring with Am Samstag is fellow Swiss band, Avo (no idea what, if anything, that means), a 5 piece who also have some grunge tendencies but were also a bit more metallic rock, I suppose, with a crazily spastic lead singer. Definitely some 90's flashbacks going on here, as well. Having worked that day, I was getting wiped out before they finished their set, so I snuck out, but it was a wackily different way to spend a Thursday night!




Thursday, September 19, 2019

RIP Larry Wallis



Larry Wallis, formerly of Motorhead, dies at age 70 
---
He also had a solo career (love "Police Car" from Live Stiffs), he was in the Pink Fairies and more.
Sad news...

recommended gigs

Thursday Sept 19 - the Psyatics at the Double Down

Friday Sept 20 - Thee Swank Bastards at Tiki di Amore
Friday Sept 20 - the Dead Dolls at the Rusty Spur

Saturday Sept 21 - Johnny Hootrock with the Vooduo and Soldiers of Destruction at the Double Down

Sunday Sept 22 - one man band Jacob Skeen with the Dead End and Bloodbelly Blues at the Double Down

Monday Sept 23 - Thee Swank Bastards at the Golden Tiki

Wednesday Sept 25 - Thee Swank Bastards at the Double Down

Thursday Sept 26 - Dirty RnR Dance Party presents a special solo/duo night with member of the Swagger and lots of local luminaries at the Huntridge Tavern
Thursday Sept 26 - Dinner Music for the Gods at the Bunkhouse

Friday Sept 27 - Cromm Fallon P200, the Swagger, Mojave Sun, Cole Maxwell at the Double Down
Friday Sept 27 - The Unwieldies at Hardway 8
Friday Sept 27 - Trevor and the Swingin' Johnsons at Tiki di Amore

Saturday Sept 28 - the Psyatics, Water Landing, Big Like Texas, Dead Dolls at the Double Down

Sunday Sept 29 - the Goddam Gallows at the Dive Bar

Monday Sept 30 - Thee Swank Bastards at the Golden Tiki

Friday Oct 4 - LV Blues Society Jam at the Sand Dollar
Friday Oct 4 - 68 at Backstage Bar and Billiards
Friday Oct 4 - the Venomous PInks, the Negative Nancys and the Implosions at Evel Pie
Friday Oct 4 - Thee Swank Bastards at Tiki di Amore

Saturday Oct 5 - CH3, Dirk Vermin and the Hostile Talent, Soldiers of Destruction, Kings of the Wild Frontier at the Double Down

Sunday Oct 6 - The Hypnotiques at the Golden Tiki

Wednesday October 9 - Johnny Zig and the Force at the Double Down

Saturday Oct 12 - The New Waves Charity-Oke at the Mint
Saturday Oct 12 - Ween tribute/ benefit for Heather Hyte at the Bunkhouse

Thursday Oct 17 - the Swamp Gospel with the Peculiar Pretzelmen

Friday Oct 18 - US Bombs at the Dive Bar
Friday Oct 18 - Monster Zero at the Golden Tiki

Wednesday Oct 23 - Mephiskapheles, Franks'n'Deans, SD and the Jellyfish at Evel Pie

Thursday Oct 24 - The Messer Chups at Backstage Bar and Billiards
Thursday Oct 24 - the Rhyolite Sound record release show at the Bunkhouse with Rob Leines and Elijah Ocean

Friday Oct 25 - Monster Zero at the Double Down
Friday Oct 25 - Thee Swank Bastards at Tiki di Amore

Saturday Oct 26 - GWAR with Sacred Reich, Toxic Holocaust and Against the Grain at the Fremont Country Club
Saturday Oct 26 - Negative Nancys, Los Carajos, Scotty Dub and the Jellyfish at the Double Down

Sunday Oct 27 - Michael Graves at the Dive Bar

Thursday Oct 31 - Woven Hand with the Unwieldies at the Bunkhouse

Friday Nov 1 - the Psyatics at the Double Down

Sunday Nov 3 - the Hypnotiques at the Golden Tiki

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

Friday Nov 8 - the Sheiks of Neptune, the Implosions, Undercover Monsters and the Pluralses at the Double Down
Friday Nov 8 - Thee Swank Bastards at Tiki di Amore

Saturday Nov 9 - the Psyatics at Tecopa Hot Springs
Saturday Nov 9 - Peace Corp (featuring VJ Atomic Haanson) at the Double Down

Friday Nov 15 - the Psyatics at the Double Down

Saturday Nov 16 - The Swamp Gospel at the Double Down

Friday Nov 22 - the Heiz with The Swamp Gospel and Fuckface at Evel Pie

Saturday Nov 23 - The Heiz at the Mint

Sunday Nov 24 - the Heiz at the Sand Dollar

Tuesday Nov 26 - The Psyatics and the Heiz at the Huntridge

Wednesday Nov 27 - the Heiz at the Rusty Spur

Friday Nov 29 - The Heiz at the Double Down
Friday Nov 29 - Thee Swank Bastards at Tiki di Amore

Saturday Nov 30 - The Heiz at the Double Down

Saturday Dec 7 - Agent Orange with The Psyatics , the Sheiks of Neptune and the Jagoffs at the Dive Bar

Saturday Dec 14 - The Swamp Gospel with the All Togethers at the Huntridge

Thursday Jan 2 - Tommy and the Commies, the Cavemen, Thee Saturday Knights and the Van der Rohe at the Bunkhouse

Saturday Jan 18 - the Swamp Gospel at the Double Down

What have I forgotten? Lemme know

Sunday, September 15, 2019

RIP Ric Ocasek


Ric Ocasek, Lead Singer of The Cars, Dead in New York at 75 
---
This is really sad - I really enjoyed the first couple of Cars records when they came out. Once again, gone way too early.

And, apparently, he was only 70, according to this other article.

The Implosions CD release party with the Sheiks of Neptune and Franks and Deans at the Mint, Saturday September 14, 2019


I actually do not remember what this space (next to the classic Golden Steer on Sahara) was before it was turned into the Mint - the facade a recreation of the famous old-school casino - but it is now a bar separated into two rooms - one for the bar proper and the other a showroom with a small stage/drum riser with couches'n'tables surrounding the outside walls. Not a bad sized space, but unfortunately, the PA that they have is not really up to the task of handling live acts. Hopefully they will rectify that as it's not a bad place to see groups. (Although they should also lower  the lights to give it more of a night club feel, in my opinion.)



In any case, the wacky Sheiks of Neptune opened up the evening with their bizarre brand of energetically infused, intricate punk metal (sorta/kinda) mixed with surf, exotica, new wave and whatever else that pops into their twisted minds. All instruments - 2 guitars, violin, bass and drums - are constantly interacting'n'interlocking in an almost Zappa-esque level while the singer stalks the audience relentlessly - which is why he is still recovering from a broken foot! They do have a tendency towards loud volumes (I know that I have had that issue before, myself, as any bandmates will remind me) and the acoustics of this room meant that even the un-mic'd drums were insanely thundering, so the vocals were completely inaudible - as I said, the Mint needs to invest in a real PA system. But, nonetheless, their fanbase was out in force and they got people up'n'dancin' and singin' along with their eccentric themed tunes. If you dig science fiction, fezes and costumed cut-ups blasting away in a frenzy of riffs, then be sure to get out to see the Sheiks!






The stars of the night, celebrating the release of their debut CD, the Implosions came on to run through the entire record and while their volume was nowhere near the Sheiks, there were still issues with the PA - singer Adrienne was audible, but just barely, unfortunately, as she has a fine voice that moves from croons to screams pretty effortlessly. But, she made a point of being a showy frontwoman for the evening (and updated version of a Vegas "showgirl"?!) while the group did an excellent performance of the album. While the record is highly enjoyable, as is the norm, the live show adds an extra element and the songs have more of an edge and overall, sounded terrific!









Franks and Deans are the purveyors of punk rock updates/mashups of Rat Pack (and related) material with super tight playing (all are fine musicians) and fairly amazing vocal harmonies. Ironically, as I consider their harmonies one of their stand-out features, they just released an album of surf instrumentals, utilizing their same concept - mashing up classic surf tunes with punk rock numbers, or simply doing Dead Kennedys songs (for instance) in a surf style. But, they did concentrate on their vocals interpretations of numbers like "Splish Splash", "New York, New York" and the like, while dancer Nicole Muse adds a pleasant visual aspect to the show.






This was a truly fun evening at another new venue - I hope that the Mint and the Thunderbird can continue to bring in high quality shows like these as Vegas can use more new live venues. (And yes, I know that I need to bite the bullet and start bringing my regular camera to gigs as my phone camera does not cut it in places like these.)

The Imperial Dogs - Unchained Maladies - Live 74/75

The Imperial Dogs are, of course, Don Waller's LA based 70's band that originally wrote "(This Ain't the) Summer of Love" that Blue Oyster Cult re-arranged and covered on their breakthrough hit album Agents of Fortune. The Dogs were short lived, as pre-punk LA was not ready for anything this recklessly insane, but Australia's Dog Meat Records compiled some live (at Gazarris - later to be home of the 80's hair metal scene - where they were banned after this debut appearance) and practice tracks for this pink-vinyl release.

Heavily influenced by the Stooges (especially), the MC5, the Velvets and great garage combos of the 60's, they open with a ferocious take on "'Til The End of the Day" and then follow with Iggy/garage neo-classics like "Midnite Dog", "Contradictions" (a particularly garagey tune introduced by Don with "we're just a bunch of of middle class kids trying to come on like some homosexual junkies"), a minor-key junkie drama, "Needle and Spoon", and side one closes with the original, "This Ain't The Summer Of Love", done relatively slow'n'sleazy'n'downright scary, here more like something off of Raw Power, with a couple of double-time, rave-up sections, than the cleaner, pop-metal (but still great) BOC version.

Side two has them running through their set songs as a practice for a gig at Rodney's English Disco, with Detroit-influenced numbers like the trash-anthem "The Bad and the Beautiful" (that supposedly Iggy wanted to cover but he ran off to Berlin with Bowie instead), "13 Sons of Satan" (which, ironically, sounds very much like an early BOC song), "Amphetamine Superman" is frantically fueled ("I Got A Right"-styled), "Rock'n'Roll Overdose" is another bit of Detroit riff-laden high energy and they conclude with fast, dynamic, 70's r'n'r singalong run-through of Lou Reed's "I'm Waiting For My Man".

As I said, it was no surprise that this freaky combo scared the crap outta bookers and onlookers alike in the pre-punk days of '74, but for fans of high energy Detroit combos, these cats were certainly LA's answer to the Stooges. It's a shame that they never got into a "real" recording studio, as these tracks are pretty raw, but really not all that bad considering they were recorded on a cassette player! Definitely worth it - great stuff!

The Illusion - If It's So

Welcome to another installment of "I really should go through my 3000+ vinyl record collection more often". After listening to Iron Butterfly the other day, I perused my "I" section and I frankly could not remember what this 1970 release sound like. Man, this Long Island combo was a scorcher! Yes, there are some psychedelic bits, especially on side 2 (not that that's a bad thing), but overall, it is a mixed of garage, hard rock and blues with smokin' riff rockers, tons of incredibly heavy power chords, great vocals and some powerful - not aimless - jams. Lots of originality, but I do hear lifts from the likes of Mountain and ZZ Top in the heavier numbers and maybe some hints of Hendrix and general San Francisco vibes here'n'there.

I found my original vinyl at Rhino Records back in the day (according the the price sticker on it) but this has been reissued - I'd say it's well worth searching out. Great hard rock/psych combo!

Saturday, September 14, 2019

Thee Swank Bastards and the Unwieldies at the Thunderbird Lounge, Friday September 13, 2019


I've been to the Thunderbird Saloon a few times over the years but it has been numerous moons since the last time I got there and they have recently been making some changes - rearranging the interior, updating the decor and bringing on the Huntridge Tavern's Kate Alexander to manage the place (while still working with the HT). It looks like they are planning on having a variety of live shows as well as karaoke, and with cheap drinks and food available, along with a real stage and PA, this has the potential to be a hip new place.

I made it out this  eve to check out our friends Thee Swank Bastards and the Unwieldies for Kate's birthday and a pre-Halloween party (not sure what made them do that a month and 1/2 early, but costumes are never a bad idea!). The Bastards were up first, tonight's edition with the Heximers - Clay on drums and Denise on bass - backing up Jesse's flyin' fingers on his surf guitar. Wanderin' Jesse also debuted a new wireless system, freeing him up to go wherever he wanted throughout the club. Their set is primarily made up of surf classics mixed with a few originals and a reverbed Black Sabbath medley! Jesse is a terrific guitarist, with plenty of speedy, tasteful licks throughout and Denise is truly coming into her own on the bass and is groovin'n'movin' throughout the club while Clay keep the swingin' beat behind them all. Always a fun time!

 







 Of course, I have ranted'n'raved about our pals, the Unwieldies, innumerable times, as they are one of the city's premier acoustic acts. Of course, with 5 acoustic instruments, most going through the PA, it can take a little time to get things set up, but once the Un's got goin', the sound'n'mix was quite good. Tonight we were treated to the full line-up with Dani'n'Rob leading the gang on vocals, guitar and bass, along with Richard on dobro, Jack on violin and new cat whose name escapes me on drums and banjo - sometimes simultaneously! They rely primarily on their terrific originals from their albums, but also do some nicely arranged covers like the Pine Hill Haints "Never Gonna Die", Elvis Costello's "Veronica" and Michael Jackson's "Billy Jean"! There were even some new songs tonight because they just cannot stop themselves from writing!

   

 

Sorry for quality of the photos - I guess I didn't get close enough for my flash to make any difference, but the stage does have plenty of lighting for your average peepers.

In any case, a super fun night from a new venue that I hope will keep bringing in cool, quality acts like this evening.