The Silhouettes, The Psyatics and Thee Swank Bastards at the Double Down Saloon, Friday Feb 4, 2022

The Psyatics try to get to the Double Down once a month or so, and this time out we were able to add on our pals Thee Swank Bastards and, all the way from the UK, the Silhouettes!

 I've ranted'n'raved about Vegas' top notch surf/instro combo, Thee Swank Bastards, innumerable times here but for those not in the know, they are led by guitar master (certainly one of the best in town) Jesse Del Quadro, with a revolving cast of characters forming the rhythm section, giving each show a bit of a different feel and occasionally throwing curve balls to everyone involved, band'n'audience alike! While all of the different players bring their own talents and personalities, tonight's line up is one of the strongest, with seasoned pro Mark Bartschi smacking the skins (he gets a great sound of of his kit!) and Jason Aragon's flying fingers handling the bass chores. Jesse and Jason lock in on some fiery, rollickin' licks, while Mark keeps things steadily rockin' behind them. Most of the tunes are classic surf numbers done their own, eclectic way, but they are not above doing a medley of Black Sabbath or, as when dancer Ivana Blaze sat in on bass, numbers like the Ramones "The KKK Took My Baby Away"! Besides giving plenty of eye appeal, Ivana also acts as MC and at one point while Jesse was wandering the room (he does not stay on the stage for more than a few seconds at a time) and playing behind his head, Ivana arranged two chairs for him to stand on and he moved around on them and did the splits while Ivana posed between his legs! Fun times for sure!

Of course, I couldn't get any photos of the Psyatics playing, but here's a posed shot from John Armstrong - thanks John! Our set was our usual noisy, chaotic craziness with numbers from several of the albums as well as a couple new cuts that will appear on the next record, whenever that may be! Jack terrorized the audience while creating walls of noise from his Gretsch, new drummer on the block Ron locked in with Rob for a swirling rhythm section as Rob snarled'n'crooned on top of it all, and I did my best to keep up and add whatever i could to the mix! Good times, good crowd, good rockin'. We've got a bunch of gigs at various unusual places coming up so keep an eye on our page for the latest news!

All the way from the UK, with the help of local super-fan Nikki Ruffling, The Silhouettes treated the late night crew to a set of their own interpretations of 60's surf instrumental sounds. All are highly skilled players and got a great sound on borrowed equipment (thanks to the other guys in the Psyatics) as they ran through a plethora of originals with titles like "Fire Pit", "Spectre of the Gun", "Murdersville" and "Touch of Evil", to give you an idea of their themes - some to appear on their next record - along with covers like a reverbed take on Jody Reynolds "Fire of Love", "A Town Without Pity" and even Blue Oyster Cult's "Don't Fear the Reaper", which made the Psyatics Ron jump up and grab his cowbell to join in! High quality stuff from these cats so check 'em out if they come near you (they're doing a couple shows in SoCal that I know of) and look for their records! (I got a 45 from them, so more on that as soon as I have a minute to give it a listen!)

As always, a huge thanks to the Double Down and their excellent crew for hosting the night, again, thanks to Nikki for bringing out the Silhouettes (literally - she drove to SoCal to pick them up and bring them to Vegas and then brought them back! What a trooper!), and to everyone who came out!