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!