Rich's R'n'R Rants & Raves: The Peculiar Pretzelmen, The Unwieldies, the Devil's Duo at the Dive Bar, Wednesday, Oct 26, 2022

So when our pals, the Peculiar Pretzelmen, told us they were touring and were interested in coming to Vegas, of course we did all we could to get them here! Since they specifically asked for a place with a real stage'n'PA System (as opposed to some of the super fun, but not super sonically outfitted shows that we've done together in the past in town), I hit up Nate at the Dive Bar, who had ironically just upgraded their system. Since Nate'n'Angie are musically open minded and have a wide variety of acts at the Dive, I thought that they would go for this one and thankfully, they did!

The Devil's Duo opened the night, as we do, with our acoustic guitar/banjolele renditions of murder ballads, old Americana and random Tom Waits/Velvet Underground/Nick Cave covers, as well as brand new tunes we just learned that we pilfered from the Gentlemen of Four Outs songlist - "Even the Devil Gets Right Some Day" and "Somebody Buy Me a Drink". Since it was a few days before Halloween, we donned some spooky makeup to get into the season.

Of course, I've ranted'n'raved about the Unwieldies untold times on this blog, and they never fail to impress with their take on alt-country/Americana acoustic tunes. Rob'n'Dani got into the samhain spirit by dressing as Jaws and the Captain! Jack'n'Richard declined to join in, but their violin'n'dobro certainly added musical layers to their tunes of love'n'loss. Always a good time with great original songs and wacky covers like "Billy Jean"!

Of course, the Pretzelemen always put on a fantastic show, with walls of sound emanating from these two gentlemen and their wide array of musical tricks. Deacon's drum kit has more bicycle'n'auto parts than it has drums, and he has weird little other additions off to the side that added to the cacophony via an old school speaker horn mounted in the middle of the stage. Kevin plays a wide variety of homemade/altered instruments and recently acquired a new mandocello - to replace the 1948 hollow body that he used to bring out. His pedal board is as much a part of the performance as anything else and there are echoes'n'waves of sounds bombarding the audience throughout the night. Their style is certainly Tom Waits-ian, but their songs are highly original, as well, and they continue to grow and evolve within their self-proclaimed boundaries.

Great to see the band play live again and nice to be able to spend a little time hanging out with the guys, as well. Picked up some new t-shirts, as well as their latest CD, so more on that later!