The Way Outs, Va Voom and the Minges at the Double Down, Saturday August 1, 2026

 

Our friend John Armstrong decided to throw himself a birthday party at the DD (as he has done in years past) and put together this fun show to celebrate.

As we have always dug seeing the Way Outs, we made it a point to get there early and had a chance to say hi to a few people and grab a drink before they started. All talented musicians, they have performed in various musical styles over the years, but this incarnation is a pretty straight forward surf combo. A few standard covers - "Ghost Rider", "Apache", "Out of Limits", etc. - combined with others that I, at least, was not familiar with, but all played with skill'n'fun. The twin lead guitars interacted and used different tones throughout to great effect while the rhythm section - now with Va Voom's Jomar on drums - is as strong as they come. Even with the goofy, crude matching shirts, they put on a fab show and was a great start of the evening.

We took a break outside in between bands and caught up with some friends so we missed the start of Va Voom's set, but caught most of it. Jomar was doing double duty this evening, this time aided by his wife, Kelly, and their Mosrite-cradling guitarist. So, considering there's a Mosrite through a reverbed Fender amp, there is definitely a surf aspect, but also a bit of rockabilly in a manner not that different from Jomar's 90's combo, the Mad Daddies - in fact, they cover one of the Daddies' tunes. 

Closing out the night were the Minges, certainly one of Vegas' up'n'coming co-ed combos with local gal-about-town Messy Jessie on lead vocals and Stagnett's Cock's Joe on 70's-styled guitar, along with another tight rhythm section. Jessie stands out among many of the local punk singers as she can really sing and Joe's ever-changing equipment is always covering a cool 70's hard rock'n'roll/punk sound. The set is packed with their originals, but there's a fun cover of the Stones' "Star Star" that I always dig. Oh yeah, and Jeff Murphy sat in on bass for a tune, as well!

I guess that John should have birthdays more often if he's going to put together fun shows like this one! Glad we were able to make it out!

This Rancid Mill - Kyle Decker

 

I think that a friend recommended this on Facebook and since it takes place in the early 80’s in the LA punk scene that I lived in, I thought I’d give it a chance - and our library carried it!

The story revolves around the death of a Darby Crash- styled character (funnily Decker does mention the resemblance to Crash and his character) that is initially assumed to be a simple overdose but a “punk PI” thinks it might be something more.

The death takes place at the Starwood and he name checks places like Oki-Dogs, gives the characters believable (if a bit corny) punk names and everyone lives in a bit over the top squalor. Of course, there is a lovely young punk girl who had been the singer’s girlfriend who the PI has an eye for since she hired him - she is, naturally, the stereotypical rich-girl-slumming-as-a-punk. The stereotypes abound but maybe that’s for the rubes who know nothing of the scene.

Organized crime gets involved, as well as porn stars, drug dealers (natch) and way more as the investigation gets more complicated instead of less as it progresses. The main character drops into Al's Bar, apparently just to be able to name-check Al's Bar, mentions Bad Religion and Club 88 and even uses Richard Hell’s real name as an alias. Oddly, John Holmes is s reoccurring character - of course, there was some overlap in punk'n'porn, but odd that Decker uses a real-life celebrity, particularly for an unsympathetic character.

In any case, there is a roundabout plot with a senator and his runaway daughter who had hooked up with the dead punk singer and there's lots of violence'n'drugs as everyone tries to figure out who is playing who and the senator is trying to save his career and will go to any extreme to do so and, considering his connections to organized crime, there are plenty of extremes.

The PI takes a few wrong turns - he admits he learned his profession mostly from books'n'movies - and is almost killed more than once, but, with the help of some friends, he discovers the unhappy truth and solves the case, although no one is completely happy with the way things turn out.

I was hoping that I would like this more than I did. Again, maybe I am just being overly particular, but just thought it was ok, really, although fun to virtually revisit some old haunts.