Jesika Von Rabbit and Goldie Vegas and the Playboys at Dustland Friday 6-5-26

 

I always try to catch up with my old pal Lee whenever he hits town and since I missed JVR's set here at Dustland last time they were out (due to this being an outdoor venue and it was a freezing cold winter night), we made it a point to get out this time.

Opening the night was Goldie and the Playboys with guitarist Scott, who we met ages ago playing with the great garage combo, Thee Faded Pictures. For this set they concentrated on cover songs, from Joan Jett and the Runaways to Nirvana to Zeppelin and lots more. Hopefully, they will grow into more originals, but it was a good warm up for the night.

Jesika Von Rabbit (Jesika ex-of Joshua Tree's Gram Rabbit) has a pretty unique sound - a mix of dance, psychedelia, garage and rock'n'roll with a good amount of noise mixed in. This time out they had a live drummer - looking back, I see that this ever-evolving combo did have a live drummer one other time that they were out here - who triggered the backing tracks and did an excellent job of playing along with the tracks while adding terrific dynamics. Lee plays bass live (and adds guitar and whatever else is needed to the backing tracks) and had a super sound this evening, really driving the tunes with a variety of tones, from clean to super dirty'n'gritty, which complimented the songs and gave them some rockin' noise. Jesika herself has a fine voice and adds keyboards to the existing tracks when not dancing, jumpin', doing high kicks and lots more, while also interacting with their dancer/backing singer/costumed adventurer! 

We thought that this was the best set that we've seen, with great songs'n'performance - the band was tight and the action was always fun'n'entertaining. The First Friday crowd seemed to really dig them a lot as well! Fun times!