Xmas Toy Drive with the Psyatics, Crimson Riot, Twilight Atomiks and the Soldiers of Destruction at the Double Down, Fri, Dec 3, 2021

Although I'm an old curmudgeon, I'm also a sucker for a worthy cause, especially during the holidays, and Atomic Mayhem (featuring Haanson Myer) put together this toy drive and was good enough to invite the Psyatics to play to help things out, as much as we could.

The night started out quite early - well before I made it to the club, in fact - with the relatively new combo (made up of Vegas stalwarts), the Twilight Atomiks, a punky/rockabilly combo that brought in a packed house at the ungawdly hour (for the DD) of 10:00 and and gave them a rockin' good time. I just caught the end of their set as I was loading in and trying to find a place to park in the Friday night insanity that is this neighborhood. But, a great opening and I must say, they probably had the biggest crowd of the evening.

Super tight, harmony driven, energetic, three-piece punk pop from Crimson Riot were up next with great vocals and stinging guitar from another Vegas regular, Roxy Gun, and a rockin' rhythm section. Fun tunes and a bouncin' performance made their set another winner!

Can't say much about our own set, other than we did our best for the kids, man! A mix of old'n'new songs (in fact, one song so new that Rob forgot it so we nixed it from the set!) and the usual Psyatics chaos (I even managed to interfere with Cactus trying to bounce someone out of the club!). Thanks to everyone who hung out for us and gave us plenty of energy to feed off of. 

The lovely Nicole Muse then gave one of her unique performances in between bands to the delight of everyone in the house. She never fails to entertain - see her the next time Franks'n'Deans performs!

Closing the night was Vegas' own metalically Oi/Hardcore combo, the Soldiers of Destruction, featuring the DD's own bouncer/all-around-good-guy, Dave Thompson on bass. Another strong, tight performance that got the remaining crowd off their feet and ravin'!

Great job by everyone involved in putting this on and I'm sure that it was a wild success judging by the overflowing table of toys and the cash contributed!

(Twilight Atomiks and Psyatics photos by none of then the woman-about-town, Nurse Nikki!)