Rich's R'n'R Rants & Raves: Giuda, Lower Class Brats, Menstrual Tramps, Cromm Fallon and the P200 at the Usual Place, Tuesday 7-22-25

My lovely wife learned of Giuda years ago but for various reasons we missed them the last couple of times they came to town, so we made a point of making it to this one!

The Usual Place is a comfortable venue, slightly more upscale than our local dive bars with a real stage, good sound system and lighting and even seating! Interestingly enough, they can also adjust the size of the space for larger shows or keep it reasonably intimate for gigs like this one.

Opening the night was one of our local faves, Cromm Fallon and the P200. Cromm has had various incarnations for this combo and tonight it was a stripped down 3 piece, with Cromm on bass and lead vocals, natch. The band mixed 60's garage/mod sounds with early 70's punk'n'power pop, as in their cover of the Beat's "Walkin' Out On Love". Talented musicians and totally stylish - definitely one of Vegas' finest!

(Cromm photo above by Melanie Coffee)

Following them was the all-femme trio, the Menstrual Tramps, who, unfortunately, were a bit too hard core-oriented for me. The were solid and the drummer especially was dynamic, but just not my style.

(MT photo above by Melanie Coffee)

The surprise of the night was certainly the Lower Class Brats. Neither of us were familiar with them beforehand and expected them to be more hard-core-ish but we were pleasantly surprised with their punk'n'roll sound. They have some Clockwork Orange themed lyrical elements, such as their song "Ultra Violence", but the sound was more like early Misfits - simple but rockin' in a 70's-punk kinda way with plenty of "Whoa-ohs" and "Heys". The singer was stylish and entertaining and knew how to move on stage and the threesome backing him were super solid and tore up the stage the entire show. They kinda sped up as the set went along but never got out of control and never lost sight of the song and the beat. Really impressive!

(LCB photo above by Melanie Coffee)

Giuda is Italy's stompin' modern-day answer to the likes of Gary Glitter, Slade and AC/DC, although they don't don the apparel - simple t-shirts'n'jeans for everyone, but they still have a great stage presence and a rockin', 2-guitar sound. Unfortunately, after a rousing intro number, the bass amp blew, which ruined the momentum for a minute, but they bounced back and rocked non-stop for close to an hour! They definitely had the Gary Glitter/Slade stomp down (in some song they even cop Slade's "stamp your hands and clap your feet") but with a bit of a punkier edge and, as I said, with a touch of AC/DC swagger thrown in for good measure. More chant-along songs - plenty of simple melodies with less harmonies than shout-along sections, but that's not a criticism at all! At one point they even reminded me a bit of Sweet without the four part harmonies! They got a decent sized crowd for a Tuesday in Vegas and had them riled up the entire set! Good times!