TV Smith, the Draculas, Fan Club, Nico Bones - Backstage Bar and Billiards - Sunday 5-25-25

I can't even remember the last time that my lovely wife, Melanie, and I were able to go out together and we almost didn't make this one due to illness, but we napped, rallied and rocked.

PRB tends to not hold a lot of interest for me as I don't care for crowds or later punk rock bands, but there are the occasional club shows with classic combos that make it worth seeing. Neither of us got to see the Adverts back in the day and while this lineup is simply singer TV Smith with a backing band, we had heard good things and wanted to see it - not to mention wanting to check out the Draculas since we are fans of the Riverboat Gamblers.

Opening the night to a then-sparse crowd was LA's Nico Bones, who wears their Dolls/Thunders influences on their sleeves - to the point of opening with an abbreviated "Pipeline" (Thunders version) as well as covering "Chatterbox" later in the set. I'm a sucker for this kind of Dragons-styled rock'n'roll/ glam-punk and NB did it with style and rockin' chops. I would definitely check 'em out again if they come back - fun stuff!

Fan Club followed - I assume they named themselves after the Damned song - with a set of super fast punk rock with a frontman who tried his best to emulate Darby Crash but did not have the nihilistic anarchy of that character. The band was solid but while they worked hard, it just didn't connect with me, although part of that could have been the so-so sound of the night. 

Melanie really wanted to check out the Draculas since she is a huge Riverboat Gamblers fan but while the Dracs do play a similar style of poppy punk'n'roll, the songs for me were not as strong as the Gamblers. The singer kept chanting "Draculas!" in between songs and the band all wore tracksuits, and while the former was amusing, the latter really was lost on me. They got a good crowd response, though, so, again, they would probably be more fun in a venue with better sound.

BBB filled up as the night went along - presumably from people slowly coming over from the festival portion of PRB - and was pretty nicely packed for TV Smith (even though we had heard that the gig hadn't sold out, it was still a good showing). TV is no youngster, but he had style (gotta love "Make Adverts Great Again" stenciled on the back of his shirt) and while the band didn't have the Adverts' visual style (too bad Gaye isn't interested in playing still), they were all strong players and the guitarist especially stood out with some ferocious noize.

From the opening of "No Time To Be 21" though "Safety in Numbers", "New Church", the absolute classic "Gary Gilmore's Eyes", "Bored Teenagers", "One Chord Wonders" to the encore of "Cast of Thousands" (along with a few I didn't recognize) the band and TV pretty much blazed and did the originals proud. TV still has his voice and is an animated frontman and kept the crowd captivated throughout.

It's incredible to me that punk rock is 50 years old now. Too many of the legendary groups (in any formation) are either already gone or won't be around much longer. I wonder how long PRB can continue to provide nights like these? In any case, see TV if you get the chance!