IV and the Strange Band, Whiskey Breath, Nuclear Undead, The Devil's Duo at the Dive Bar, Thursday Feb 3, 2022

After having loads of fun at our debut a couple of weeks ago, the Devil's Duo were itching to get out again and when the Dive Bar was kind enough to offer us a spot on this hip'n'eclectic bill, we jumped at it. 

Obviously, we were not able to take any pix of ourselves and haven't seen anyone post any so far (if you have any, please post them on our page! Thanks!), but we again had a good time opening up the night on this Thursday eve. The Dive Bar's sound man was easy to work with and was able to get us dialed in with a great sound on stage so that we could really hear ourselves, which makes all the difference, especially in our vocals. Our acoustic guitar/banjolele-based set of old country, blues, Bessie Smith, etc, was well received and we got some great feedback from plenty of folks. Thank you to the Dive Bar for having us and hope we can do it again!

The Nuclear Undead were kind of the odd band out of the night, but I definitely don't mind a little diversity when the group is as good as these deviants. The masked mutants ran through a powerful set of catchy yet heavy instrumental music - not unlike our LA pals, the Black Widows - with horror movie sound bytes filling in the spaces between numbers. Crazy'n'unique instro songs - yes, actual songs - a good, yet simple stage look, and some fun audience interaction made it a great set! These excellent musicians also play in plenty of other projects in LV when they are not undergoing radiation treatment, so look for this and their other outfits whenever you can!

Whiskey Breath currently is one young man, Brandon, and his acoustic guitar, doing his own outlaw country/folk/ whatever songs, often about drinking (hence the name), such as "Jim Beam is my Home Boy", and relationships (and drinking), setting things on fire (and drinking) and even a very non-pc tale of domestic abuse, that is still a damn memorable number! He's cleaned up his old mountain man look and seems to be raring to continue gigging, so look for him around! He was so into this gig that by the end of the set he had broken three strings on the one guitar he had with him!

IV and the Strange band is fronted by none other than Hank Williams great-grandson, although he is not overly promoting that relation and his sound really has little relevance to that (amazingly talented) man. He's working to make a name for himself and with a terrific band, he seems well on his way.

The Strange Band is made up of four super nice guys - stand up and electric bass, downtuned, super heavy Telecaster guitar, flamboyant, excellent, charismatic drummer, incredible banjo player and IV leading the way with cool songs, a vibrato'd voice and a unique picking style on a unique electrified acoustic guitar. The banjo player was kind of a mind blowing player, but he did get a little buried in the heavy melee that made up most of the songs, but he was present and the rest of the musicians were top notch, as well, and really worked together to present IV's songs. Difficult to properly explain their sound, as it is such a conglomeration of different styles - certainly some old school country, but with plenty of heavy rock, a touch of bluegrass, a bit of folk, and whatever else they wanna throw in! It all works, though, and made up one of the better sets of electrifying rock'n'roll that I've seen in a while. The crowd loved them from start to finish and they even got an encore - a rarity at the end of a Thursday night - which IV did by himself. 

Their album isn't out until June, but I picked up a single (more on that when I have a minute) so we'll see how they translate to record, but in the meantime, I would highly recommend checking these cats out. I had a terrific time and they couldn't have been nicer or more supportive. 

Thank you once again to Nate and Angie of the Dive Bar, along with all of these great bands and everyone who came out!