Messer Chups, the Shakewells, the Violet Mindfield at the Swan Dive Sunday 5-31-26

 

Apparently, a number of bands have been taking advantage of the pleasant springtime weather and are making their appearances in the Vegas area. Nice to see the town happening again!

I've been looking forward to this one, as it certainly appealed to my 60's-inspired soul. Opening the evening was the Violet Mindfield, who I was not familiar with but Danny from the Shakewells was very complimentary of them and so we made sure to get in early to check them out!

These cats (and kitten) took me back to my 80's garage days with their excellent visual style along with their Remains-ish (or, for a more 80's reference, the Vipers) garage-pop. The guitarist/singer had great tone (with plenty of old-school effects), the keyboardist/harmonica player added fine embellishments and the rhythm section locked in and drove the tunes, despite the drum kit self-imploding after every couple of songs! Great set of originals and a finale of the old stand-by, "Gloria", although, despite it being ubiquitous back in the day, who has covered this recently? Truly one of the best new bands I've seen in a long time!

We've been fans of our friends the Shakewells since we first saw them blasting out their own brand of garage rock'n'roll and they never fail to please. We were sad to hear of the departure of keyboardist Kate, but the band is still powerful as ever - and actually, if anything, more punky now without the keys to smooth things out a bit. Great originals from their record along with rockin' new numbers and a wild cover of "Night of the Sadist". I understand that they are considering adding keys again, so if you're interested, let them know, but that's not going to stop them from plying their garage-rockin' trade in the meantime!

Everyone is a monster here - Turbo and Ruckus have been stalwarts of the scene for as long as anyone can remember and are an incredible rhythm section, while Danny sings'n'shouts with a fine voice and the guitar wails with various tones, from clean and spooky to nasty noize, as appropriate to the tunes. 

Definitely the best straight-ahead garage rock'n'roll band in town!

The Russian-born Messer Chups have been taking their own brand of instrumental (and sometimes vocal) surf-rock on the road for a number of years now and just seems to be getting more'n'more popular - they packed the house for this show with screamin' fans!

Of course, the lovely Zombierella is the stunning visual focus of the show, even though no one is particularly wild on stage, relying instead on showing off their instrumental prowess. The songs and performances are super strong, although a bit more action on stage wouldn't hurt - although they don't seem to need my advice! 

Absolutely worth seeing, just don't expect craziness, just talent on display!

Big thanks to Ralph and Beau Monde Productions, along with the new Swan Dive Bar for a fun, rockin' night!

recommended gigs

      

Friday 5-29-26 - Suburban Resistance with Sloppy Seconds and Channel 3 and 1/2 Ast at the Dive Bar

Friday 5-29-26 - Tiger and Dove with Fuzz Solow and While Yer Down There at Red Dwarf

Friday 5-29-26 - Triple Splits, Wyatt and the Ashes, Sooflay, Skatepark Anthem at the Double Down

Saturday 5-30-26 - Stagnetti's Cock, Cherri and the Sours, Pitch After Dark, Goldie Vegas at the Double Down

Sunday 5-31-26 - Generic Surf Band at Red Dwarf's Sunday Brunch

Sunday 5-31-26 - the Messer Chups, the Shakewells, Violet Minefield at the Swan Dive

Friday 6-5-26 - Suburban Resistance with Celebrity Stalker at Red Dwarf

Friday 6-5-26 - Jessika Von Rabbit at Dustland 

Thursday 6-11-26 -Punk’n’Country with Bear Supply and Unoriginal Unfits at Red Dwarf 

Friday 6-12-26 - Femaliens, Broke in Vegas, Skatepark Anthem at Red Dwarf

Wednesday 8-5-26 - the Woggles, the Crotches, the Implosions, Cromm Fallon and the P200 at the Usual Place

Sunday 8-9-26 - Hedwig at the House of Blues

Wednesday 8-26-26 - IV and the Strange Band at the Bizarre Bar

Sunday 9-6-26 - Screeching Weasel, Dickies, Queers, Jack Trippers at House of Blues LV

Sunday 9-13-26 - Exploited, Soldiers of Destruction, Suburban Resistance at Backstage Bar and Billiards

Friday 11-13-26 - Plague Vendor at the Usual Place 

The Darts, Service, The Implosions at the Usual Place Wednesday May 27, 2026

 

Brian Moy's Dirty Rock'n'Roll Dance Party returned for one night (although he does already have another hip garage gig book for a couple of months from now) so that he could present the Darts - and Vegas was happy to come out and support!

Opening the night was Vegas' premier Vegas-themed garage band, our pals, the Implosions. Obviously, I've ranted'n'raved about this garage-y/Cramps-ian combo over the years of their illustrious career and this evening they were in top form. Dave's guitar sounded great, the married rhythm section locked in while Adrienne shook'n'shimmied and crooned'n'careened'n'howled. Their "Cash Out" number brought a good portion of the audience onto the stage to shake their goods along with mini-Implosions-tambourines as the other tunes from their records varied from punky-garage-rockin' to spooky-dynamic-laden sizzles. Always a fun time!

The oddly-named Service followed with a weird'n'wild set as one might expect from a band featuring an ex-member of Jon Spencer's Blues Implosion (I'm assuming the bassist, as his style would have fit with them), although they didn't sound anything like that group, nor anything else that I could put into words. Strange'n'noisy, with a highly animated, androgynous lead singer, I can't begin to describe their sound, but they were entertaining and they ended with Nicole from the Darts joining them for a couple of songs, adding to the mayhem!

Of course, the highlight of the night was the headliners, the relentless all-female garage combo, the Darts. Led by the non-stop frontperson/singer/organist Nicole and aided by long-time (off'n'on) fantastic drummer Rikki Stixx, they now include a (relatively) new bassist Lindsay Scarey and guitarist Rebecca Davidson, who have actually been in the band for quite a while now, but I don't believe that they have been back to Vegas with this line-up. 

In any case, their set consisted of the patented Darts-styled, organ-fueled, high-energy garage rock'n'roll originals and one unusual cover (it'll come to me - my lovely wife reminded me that it was Lou Reed's "Vicious"). They have written a new dance song, so had the singers of the two openers on stage to demonstrate the moves for the crowd! Groovy garage from start-to-finish and the Wednesday night crowd (good turnout!) loved every minute! 

Big thanks to Brian for bringing them out and the the Usual Place for hosting the night! A great time was had by all!

The Girl on the Train - Paula Hawkins

 

This is another one that, while interesting, I didn't really care for all that much. Part of it is the writing style but I think that mostly it was because none of the characters were good people, to the point where you couldn't really care too much about any of them. Of course, part of the tale was the fact that they could overcome their weaknesses and survive, but some were sad, some pathetic, some mean, some evil, some clueless - none that you really wanted to root for.

The plot is based on what the "girl" (woman, really, but the author is female, so I guess I shouldn't nitpick) sees while passing her old home on the train. Unfortunately, she is a confirmed alcoholic known for having blackouts so no one really believes or listens to her when she claims to have information pertaining to a disappearance that turns into a murder investigation. She tries to put herself into several relationships - including her ex-husband's with his new wife and child - as she attempts to discover what happened, particularly when she realizes that she was in the vicinity when the abduction happened - she just happened to be blackout drunk at the time.

Whether drunk or sober, she pulls some ridiculous stunts that does not endear herself to any of the players, particularly the police who finds her involvement to be distracting at best, illegal at worst. But, despite it all, and despite being objectively pathetic throughout most of the story, she does unravel the truth at the end.

As with any mystery, there are plenty of twists'n'turns and some nicely unexpected bits, but something just didn't resonate with me. Not terrible, by any means, but not something that  really pulled me in.

Circle Jerks, Gorilla Biscuits, 7 Seconds at Brooklyn Bowl Sunday May 24, 2026

 

There was no Punk Rock Bowling Festival this year but a lot of places stepped up to fill the void, although this was the only gig that we made it out to for various reasons. Obviously, both Melanie and I have been fans of the Jerks since their early days, but only had a passing familiarity with 7 Seconds (we played with Kevin Seconds decades ago in NoCal) and knew nothing about Gorilla Biscuits, but got there early to see everyone.

7 Seconds opened with their brand of poppy, sing-along punk with a positive message - very simple backing with a strong drummer who really drove the songs. Not a lot of stage presence overall but catchy, super short pop tunes with plenty of parts for the crowd to join them - which they happily did! They closed with a cover of "99 Red Balloons", which seemed an odd choice to me, but apparently, they are known for it and everyone loved it!

Gorilla Biscuits had a straight edge/vegan message and plenty of on-stage energy but musically kinda almost punk-prog  - entertaining but not my cup of tea although once again the crowd certainly knew almost everything they did, so I was in the minority. (Looks like I didn't get any good photos of them - not that any of my phone photos turned out that great.)

Of course I saw the Circle Jerks back when they started - in fact I swear I saw Keith with Black Flag although I can’t prove that these days - and they were always a wild ride with the band blasting at super sonic speed while Keith ran around the stage, only occasionally singing into the microphone. Of course, these days he’s almost 71 and has had back problems so he is a lot more stationary although no less passionate. He claimed to have laryngitis but he sounded great to us, nonetheless. Greg still has a super guitar tone - SG through a Marshall - and “new” bassist Zander Schloss (ex-Weirdos) was excellent and powerful while the drummer impressed everyone as he flailed with the same style and energy as Lucky back in the day.

Definitely a greatest hits set - practically everything you could ask for - with lots of monologues from Keith in between numbers and the band almost got into a fist fight with a couple of guys up front who apparently didn’t understand the band’s politics. (They got ejected). While not as manic as the old days - which no one should expect - they still sounded excellent and were more than worthwhile! 

Green Book (movie)

 

I stumbled upon this 2018 film randomly cuz I dug the preview that Netflix showed me of the main characters in a 1960's juke joint. That is a short scene in the movie, but a good one, and it got my attention enough to give the flick a try.

While this film is based on a true story, apparently there is plenty of controversy dug to the fact that the film clings to stereotypes - kinda ironic as it is a film about race in the 60's and how an educated, gay, wealthy Black man and a working class white become friends.

The classically trained Dr. Don Shirley hires a rough'n'tumble Italian to drive him on a tour of the Deep South in the early 60's, where they knew there would be trouble of some kind and needed someone who could handle themselves and the trouble. 

Tony educates Don in modern Black music and takes care of problems that arise as Don shows Tony other worlds, from high brow concerts to gay hookups and blatant racism that Tony was somewhat guilty of himself. 

While I'm told this is anything but historically accurate for many reasons - as most bio-pics are - as a story, it is well done, with some humorous bits contrasting with the horrible racism. I enjoyed the musical segments, even as the style is not my usual thing, other than the afore-mentioned juke joint scene, which is fun'n'funny.

A cool watch, for certain!