The Psyatics, The Laissez Fairs, Kilfeather at the Double Down, Friday Oct 29, 2021

I always dig having something to do on Halloween weekend and this DD show was a great way to start off the weekend - even if it did kick my butt so that I couldn't do anything else!

Opening this evening was Kilfeather, an offshoot of Strange Mistress, who the Psyatics played with a couple of years back at the DD. I totally dug their brand of 70's hard rock/stoner rock/riff rock with fine musicianship (dug the hard-hitting drummer) and topical tunes like "Don't Touch Your Face"! Fitting in with the 70's-styled r'n'r was a cover of Led Zep's "Immigrant Song", which Strange Mistress covered, as well! Super fun stuff - I picked up their CD, so more on that when I have some time.

Next up was local psych-mongers, the Laissez Fairs, featuring John Fallon of the Steppes on guitar and vocals, Joe Lawless also on guitar and vox, John's rockin' son Cromm on bass, and musician-about-town Aaron Archer on drums and vocals. The sound is very much psych-pop with a healthy dose of Mod thrown in and Joe's ringing Rickenbacker git complements John's Epiphone Casino leads backed by Cromm's fuzz bass (his bass sounded particularly good this night) and Aaron's snappy, poundin' drums (the Psyatics' Ron Hudy's kit sounded great!). I hadn't seen them in literally years and they sounded damn good, despite the iffy DD PA system. They even managed to get some of the jaded DD crowd moshing for them, whether they liked it or not!

Unfortunately, as usual. I have no photos of the Psyatics, but we had a good time with a lengthy set of tunes from the various CDs along with some band, spankin' new numbers that we barely knew, but managed to rock thru them regardless. The crowd was a bit sparse by our set time, but we made the best of it and did a fairly strong performance, if I do say so myself!

As always, thanks to the Double Down for being one of the coolest clubs in town and for hosting yet another night of original, Las Vegas-based rock'n'roll!