03.30.09 · 3:56 PM
The boys are back in town: NKOTB heading to Las Vegas
They may not be kids anymore, but the grown-up and reunited sensation that is still known as the New Kids on the Block is heading back to Vegas. The group, which shot to fame in 1988 with their hit, “Hangin’ Tough,” announced plans for a summer show in Vegas earlier today. While the former boy band super group is all grown up (members currently range in age from 36 to 40-years-old), Donnie Wahlberg, Danny Wood, Joey McIntyre, Jordan Knight and ... Read more...
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Facebook03.30.09 · 2:13 PM
Oh, the extremity of it all
It seems strangely appropriate that upon entering the gates at Desert Breeze Skate Park for Extreme Thing ’09, my flip-flop clad foot was promptly run over by a skateboard. Though the security guards were doing their best to prevent kids from bringing their boards to the event, plenty slipped through and groups of skateboarders were seen along every fence, showing off their best tricks and running over the feet of innocent bystanders. Of course, banning skateboards at a music and ... Read more...
03.29.09 · 5:22 PM
After a long drought, Metallica to play Las Vegas
“How about we come back to Las Vegas every three months?” Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich asked during the band’s last local show in Las Vegas at the Thomas & Mack Center. That was five years ago. Here’s to good intentions. The foursome that helped define the metal genre hasn’t been skipping Vegas to spite us. The World Magnetic Tour, which launched this past October in support of Grammy-winning album Death Magnetic, is the band’s first full tour of North America ... Read more...
03.27.09 · 11:01 PM
Monster Circus, Gilby Clarke and Vegas as hair-metal mecca
Gilby Clarke played tonight to a sparse but robust crowd at Sunset Station’s Club Madrid, delivering a 90-minute set that mixed his own compositions with a number of classic-rock covers. The guy who’s best known for a three-year stint in Guns N’ Roses in the early ‘90s, and whose most high-profile recent project is the reality series Rock Star: Supernova, held the attention of the eclectic crowd, and managed to get it on its feet by the cover-filled encore. Clarke ... Read more...
03.27.09 · 5:33 PM
Now, that’s extreme: Bad Religion meets BMX at Extreme Thing ‘09
The winds should be calm and the mercury rising this weekend just in time to spend the entire day Saturday outside living life to the extreme. During Extreme Thing ’09 at Desert Breeze Skate Park you can drink extreme beverages, listen to extreme music and watch extreme sports. Go ahead, add an “extreme” to whatever activities you partake in during the multi-faceted all ages event, which offers a variety of events sure to pique everyone’s interests. Don’t just snap photos, ... Read more...
03.27.09 · 8:48 AM
Monotonix: Now that’s putting on a show
It’s a safe bet no one present at the Bunkhouse Thursday night will ever forget what they witnessed, no matter how much they might have had to drink. Israeli trio Montonix eclipsed the wild havoc raised during last year’s same-venue tour stop (my top-ranked concert from 2007, no less)—taking their performance onto the Bunkhouse bar, outside onto 11th Street and, quite literally, into the faces of the small but spunky crowd in attendance. “This is the coolest show I’ve ever ... Read more...
03.19.09 · 3:41 PM
Local music scene loses one of its own
The Las Vegas local music scene is more than just musicians. There are the fans, sound and lighting techs, graphic designers, promoters and numerous others who work or volunteer in the scene. For many, the local music community resembles a second family. On March 13, we lost one of our own when 28-year old Wade Aldy passed away in his sleep. Kendall Wade Aldy may best be know in Vegas for his work promoting and supporting local music via his ... Read more...
03.19.09 · 2:19 PM
The Day After… kicks off SXSW
Epic music festival South by Southwest (SXSW) kicked off its four-day run last night in Austin, Texas with a performance from a group near and dear to Las Vegas’ heart: The Day After… The local alt rock band played March 18 at Wave in a SXSW showcase, and Weekly was lucky enough to score some footage from the threesome’s performance. So here it is, you’re little taste of Las Vegas in Texas. Read more about local musicians appearing at the ... Read more...
03.17.09 · 7:41 PM
Vegas heads southeast for South by Southwest
You are feeling that music festival afterglow. You just spent a weekend lounging in grimy, dimly lit bars letting raw music wash over you until 3 a.m. while gradually raising your blood alcohol content and you finally have had your fill. For now. Neon Reverb is over, but you can keep that feeling alive. All you need is a car, lots of gas, a 12 pack of Red Bull and the ability to take a handful of days off of ... Read more...
03.16.09 · 4:26 PM
Death by Japanther: Neon Reverb closes with endorphins raging
Six completely out-of-context and potentially misinterpreted topics that New York dirt rockers Japanther addressed during their festival-closing set at Beauty Bar: 1. Las Vegas – “You guys live in a city founded by a bunch of sick gangsters, that’s hardcore.” 2. The Apocalypse – “This is 2009 and we’re alive … but when 2012 comes around, who knows … the end may be (here.) 3. Hip Hop – “Everyone knows hip hop is dead.” 4. Hip hop … again - ... Read more...
03.16.09 · 2:36 PM
Doodle me tender
Things I was thinking (but didn’t say) during The Doodler’s set at Neon Reverb: 1. Man, I really want some chorizo. 2. Main Doodler Jeff Madlambayan, while less acrobatic than in his main role with Pan Del Sal, still looks like he could bust into rhythmic spasms of dancing at any minute. 3. The bass in the Doodler’s set was so low, my UnionBay jeans –already made with the fortitude of a wet napkin – were shaking wildy around my ... Read more...
03.16.09 · 1 PM
Grandma likes her hip hop fresh
Seventeen year-old Dylan Silva may be Anticon artist Doseone’s biggest fan, next to his grandma, that is. Poised outside of the Beauty Bar fence Sunday night on the final night of Neon Reverb, Silva and his grandmother, 63-year-old Donna, were straight up getting down to a rhythmically intense set by Nor Cal’s Themselves, fronted by Doseone. “I’ve been in love with Doseone and Jel for years,” Silva said. “My grandma is here with me. She loves these guys, too, man.” ... Read more...
03.16.09 · 12:26 PM
Rum-pa-pum-pum … pum … pum … pum …
“I’m tired,” Courtney Carroll tells me late Sunday night at the Beauty Bar, as Japanther is preparing to play Neon Reverb’s very last set. A lot of us are exhausted, having survived made the festival’s four-straight-late-nights meat-grinder, but Carroll has more reason than any to require sleep. She’s just finished the fourth of four Neon Reverb performances that saw her drum for four different Vegas bands. To recap: Kid Meets Cougar Thursday at Beauty Bar; The Clydesdale Friday at the ... Read more...
03.16.09 · 12:12 PM
Neon Reverb stage banter
“It’s nice to know someone may be getting Chlamydia during our set tonight.” –The Clydesdale’s Paige Overton on the pole-dancing women inside the Las Vegas Country Saloon on Friday night. “This song is dedicated to free speech, because it would be awkward up here without it.” –Pan de Sal’s Jeff Madlambayan Thursday night at Beauty Bar. “They rap like grandmas and that’s why they stay inside million-dollar homes,” Themselves’ Doseone, on mainstream rappers, Sunday night at Beauty Bar. Read more...
03.15.09 · 8:23 PM
How do we love Romanteek vocalist Ruby Valentine’s voice? Let us count the ways
We love her voice to the depth and breadth and height Her soulful snarl did reach whilst headlining Saturday night From the ends of Washington to the Beauty Bar We love it even more than Bea Arthur’s For when did Maude make us want to dance? Valentine’s golden cloak and turquoise pants Were yet less subtle than her twang Bette Davis ought complain She’s been out-discoed, out-jazzed, just plain out-sexed Let’s don our boots, let’s stomp, shriek and snort We ... Read more...
03.15.09 · 6:05 PM
So-Cal after bedtime
Well after last call in their hometown, San Diego-based bands Crash Encore and Transfer took over the Bunkhouse last night for back-to-back sets. As the clock ticked towards 3 a.m., Transfer kept the thinned crowd dancing with a live sound that rocked with harder edges than their recorded material thanks largely to the violently energetic drumming of Mike Cooper. After wrapping up their set at 2:45 a.m., the band began breaking down before shouts of “one more!” kept Neon Reverb’s ... Read more...
03.15.09 · 3:54 PM
Who’s the (ska) boss?
Where were all the ska fans on Saturday night? With six horn-based groups on the ticket at Club Aruba, I expected every zoot-suit wearing, skank-dancing ska fan to be on the dance floor, yet the crowd steadily dwindled as the bands got better. Locals The Remedies started off the night with a so-so, standard set that nevertheless got the small crowd dancing. A few more fans crept a little closer to the stage for fellow Las Vegans The Boss City ... Read more...
03.15.09 · 1:39 PM
Baptism by Dusty
“This is my first drink of the night,” Dustin Apodaca said with a smile last night at the Bunkhouse raising a half glass of something brown as he unloaded equipment into the bar before the band’s headlining set in the third slot of the evening. Whether he meant that as a good thing or bad, I couldn’t tell, but the lack of booze didn’t matter much. Orange Country, Calif.-based Dusty Rhodes and the River Band rocked and warbled through a ... Read more...
03.15.09 · 12:43 PM
Long time, no see
They haven’t played together in five months (since October 23, for those keeping score at home), and, judging from the swelling crowd’s reaction to an eight-song set, the ladies of Love Pentagon had been sorely missed. As Saturday’s penultimate Beauty Bar set proved, neither the darkly danceable, synthed-out psychedelic pop nor the arresting visual aspect of their show has waned in the interim. The Top 5 eyeball-pleasers: 5. The superhero costumes are long gone (forever destroyed by zombie blood, explained ... Read more...
03.15.09 · 12:38 PM
Fact or fiction?
Merle Jagger frontman Mark Christian’s claim that his regular drummer had been jailed and that the band was playing with a stand-in on the skins certainly sounded plausible, but given the LA country band’s outlaw brand, it could very well have been a fairy tale. Read more...
03.15.09 · 12:33 PM
Ride ‘em, cowgirl
As the Yeller Bellies ripped through a set of old-school country-folk on Saturday, Las Vegan Gerry Kubiak had herself an idea. She’d seen plenty of other girls riding the Country Saloon’s famed mechanical bull that night, so she thought, “Why not me?” “It looked exciting!” she announced. “I said, ‘I’m gonna do it because of my … birthday.’” With a boost from a nearby waitress, Kubiak climbed atop the automated steed and gave a shaky thumbs-up to the crowd. Some ... Read more...
03.15.09 · 12:29 PM
Signs of the times
Random signage of the Neon Reverb weekend: —“Shamrockabilly” – Seen on placard sitting below the feet of Craic House drummer/vocalist Danny Oberbeck, as the Claremont, Calif.-based-trio played a set at Las Vegas Country Saloon on Saturday. The term perfectly describes this group’s Irish brand of old-time Americana, which culminated with Oberbeck playing the National Anthem on a kazoo. —“Fight against the CPU in this single player mode.” – Seen on projection screen inside Beauty Bar as the resident DJ struggled ... Read more...
03.15.09 · 12:26 PM
Sex, sex and rock ‘n’ roll
You can’t help but stare at Felony Melony: her mohawk painted with pink and purple stars, her large bright eyes and wide red-lipsticked smile, her hot pink miniskirt and the tops of her plump breasts emerging from her torn black punk rock T-shirt. As the perky lead singer of The Objex performs provocative songs “PDA,” “Eat This” and “Get Some,” Melony leans forward and shakes her boobs, jumps off the stage and bounces around through her audience, then bends over ... Read more...
03.15.09 · 12:23 PM
Saying hi to the Beauty Bar’s backyard
The last time Say Hi (then Say Hi to Your Mom) played the Beauty Bar, frontman Eric Elbogen felt a bit uncomfortable in his surroundings. For that 2006 show, The Seattle band played inside the venue, with the crowd squeezed up next to the performers. “There was no proper stage, and I remember being really excited but also really nervous about that,” Elbogen told me in the days leading up to this weekend’s return to town. “When everybody crowds right ... Read more...
03.15.09 · 11:55 AM
Early benching
The Bleachers’ Saturday night set ended with Jimi Hendrix’s “All Along the Watchtower.” And no, the Vegas trio didn’t work up a cover version for Neon Reverb. Confused, so were The Bleachers, the crowd and even co-organizer James Woodbridge when the Beauty Bar’s soundman cut the night’s opening performance off abruptly—and, seemingly without warning—after just 30 minutes, at 10:40 p.m. Apparently concerned over the creeping lateness of the fest’s first two nights (Thursday at Beauty Bar being an especially egregious ... Read more...
03.15.09 · 11:37 AM
What might have been
Walking from the Country Saloon to Beauty Bar and passing one never-opened venue (The Hive, complete with fading “coming soon” advertisements covering its windows) and one recently shuttered venue (Jillian’s) on the way, I couldn’t help but dream about how user-friendly Neon Reverb might be had those four East Fremont sites—located within a block of one another—served as this year’s musical hub. Club Aruba and the Bunkhouse are neat places to see a show, but getting in the car to ... Read more...
03.15.09 · 11:29 AM
Small crowd, but hardly a calamity
“I haven’t been in this place yet,” I confess to Quint Olsen upon greeting the local bandleader inside the newish Las Vegas Country Saloon Saturday night. “From the looks of it, most folks haven’t,” Olsen deadpans, glancing around the all-but-empty Fremont Street bar and sometime live venue. Olsen’s Vegas quartet, Quint & The Cowpunk Calamity, drew the unenviable task of kicking off Neon Reverb Night 3’s five-band LVCS bill, which means tonight’s set will be—as he instructs his bandmates moments ... Read more...
03.14.09 · 12:14 PM
Everything is groovy
Beards, exotic instruments and other face-melting observations from the Aruba during the second night of Neon Reverb. —Has OKWORD gone the way of Joaquin Phoenix? Entering the Aruba Hotel on Friday night, the local rapper was seen sporting a large, shaggy beard. “It works,” he says. —The lead singer of American Gil and the Major Dudes sounds like Captain Beefheart, looks like John Candy, and wears a giant black suit covered with white, embroidered stars. The audience, needless to say, ... Read more...
03.14.09 · 12:10 PM
Tasty Aruban pop culture
Pre-Las Vegas Club pop culture tidbits from the Aruba Ballroom and Thunderbird Lounge venue complex: 1) The Aruba Hotel vending machines boast an impressive array of obscure snacks, from Snickers Cruncher to Mountain Dew Code Red to Sour Skittles to GrandMa’s Vanilla Mini Cookies. 2) Lobby lingerers watch intently as Seth “Shifty Shellshock” Binzer has a heart-to-heart conversation with George Clinton on VH1’s Sober House. Read more...
03.14.09 · 11:56 AM
Double feature
”I hope I didn’t fuck it up.” This from Peter Valentino, co-owner of the Neon Venus Art Theatre and one quarter of the Latin synth band Neon Venus, after he accidentally booked a children’s play at the same time as Mother McKenzie’s bonus show. In the end, things turned out fine. Wyatt McKenzie’s band played a solid set of alt-country tunes (at one point supplemented by vocals from Dreaming of Lions’ Chris Leland) and audience members seemed satisfied. If only ... Read more...
03.14.09 · 11:54 AM
Dressing for success
Best Dressed: Daniel James of Leopold and His Fiction. James sported tight multi-colored stripped pants, cream-colored cowboy boots and a most unusual hat, complete with pheasant feathers. He explained, “I got it all in San Fransisco,” and pulled off the look in true indie fashion. Worst Dressed: The guys in The Mapes have a penchant for lucha libre masks and foam cowboy hats. These are probably best left for frat house hazing, but hey, it’s their signature style and compliments ... Read more...
03.14.09 · 11:49 AM
A change did them good
Quiz: Senator Obama is to President Obama as … A. Ministry of Love’s previous, harder incarnation is to its new streamlined-rock sound B. The Epoxies’ duct-taped synth-spaz is to the impossibly professional (and good-looking) Roxy Epoxy and the Rebound’s propulsive New Wave C. Tsunami Bomb’s punk pony Agent M is to The Action Design’s more experimental-leaning Agent M D. theSTART’s Geffen Records-era Shakedown electro-pop is to Metropolis Records-era Ciao, Baby electro-industrial Answer: All of the above, as evidenced by Beauty ... Read more...
03.14.09 · 11:34 AM
Rock ‘n’ roll all night
It’s nearly 1 a.m. and Black Patterns are setting up, almost insuring a 3 a.m. start time for Spindrift. Yeah, that’s pretty late, but the L.A. Shoegazers wouldn’t have it any other way. Their last show at the Bunkhouse went for more than two hours, eventually ending sometime around 3 or 4 a.m. So clearly some things never change, especially considering that hardly anyone here at the Bunkhouse is drunk yet, myself included… Read more...
03.14.09 · 11:33 AM
Adrift at 3:30 a.m.
It’s not often one can get out of a show at 3:30 a.m., get in the car and make it to another in time to see a fair portion of the set. Spindrift provided that rare opportunity early Saturday, closing an eventful Neon Reverb second night with a Bunkhouse performance that ended around 4. The rockers had tons of energy in reserve, tearing through psychedelic garage tunes that had featured more than a hint of Spaghetti-Western twang. A few diehards ... Read more...
03.14.09 · 11:30 AM
Oh, what a fight
The bald guy who was earlier harassing The Ku came back to check out some of local shoegazers Click Bang!. Unfortunately for him and the band, this time the guy, who we will call Tom, let his booze fueled friendliness turn into rage. After throwing roughly $10 in ones at the feet of singer Evan Donoghue, Tom upped the ante and began to mess with the band’s gear while they were playing. The solution: Tom gets kicked out by Bunkhouse ... Read more...
03.14.09 · 11:26 AM
Akron/Family: So worth waiting for
Disaster struck 10 minutes into Akron/Family’s headlining set Friday night (okay, technically Saturday morning) at Club Aruba, when bassist Miles Seaton lost power to his electric bass. Sadly, it happened just as the East Coast trio seemed to kick into gear with a long tribal jam that drew the crowd into the action. Worse yet, as, at one point, seven individuals crowded near Seaton’s bass amp (on loan for the night from openers Leopold and His Fiction), it soon became ... Read more...
03.14.09 · 11:13 AM
Neil Young is not in the house
While the mood might have been sedate at the Bunkhouse following two excellent but downeriffic sets by ex-panda Louise LeHir and duo The Ku, a large bald guy I suspect may be an off-duty metro cop sure seemed to be having a great time. “Awesome!” the man screamed as The Ku’s Lucas F. Johnson plugged away on his acoustic with a fancy antique lamp in the background. “Hey,” the guy screams, “Do you do any Neil Young songs!?” Johnson doesn’t ... Read more...
03.14.09 · 11:06 AM
Welcome to Vegas! Have a Casino!
Perhaps in honor of The Action Design frontwoman Agent M gracing Beauty Bar’s outdoor stage with her presence, a circling blimp scrolled the message, “Buffet Discounts for the M Resort…Entertainment Nightly.” Or, you know, perhaps not. Read more...
03.14.09 · 10:55 AM
That’s a nice piece of meat
Is it just me, or does the entirety of Fremont street smell like the juiciest hamburger ever made? …. Yea, I know that smell could also be the famous $1,000,000 stench that the city tried unsuccessfully to get rid of, but it doesn’t bother me. I walk into the Las Vegas Country Saloon, a surreal place where faux country girls dance on tables as pervy tourists stare and take pictures of them with their legs agape. The bands are warming ... Read more...
03.14.09 · 10:46 AM
Leopold: A (truthful) tall tale
And the award for Band That Needs to Come Come Back to Town, And Soon goes to … Leopold and His Fiction. The San Francisco trio won some new admirers on Friday night, filling up the intimate Club Aruba with a raging set of gritty blues-rock that left a buzzing crowd wanting more. Much more. Though Neon Reverb co-organizer Thirry Harlin wasn’t there to witness it (he was working the Bunkhouse), he probably wasn’t surprised to hear about Leopold’s new ... Read more...
03.14.09 · 10:26 AM
LV Club*: Accordion madness
Quick: When was the last time you caught a band with two of its members simultaneously playing accordion (your answer may not involve polka music)? Right, never. Same here, until night two of Neon Reverb at Club Aruba. The latest incarnation of Joe Kendall’s ever-mutating Las Vegas Club* featured two-sixths of his lineup wielding squeezeboxes on its opening number. One, Joe’s brother Matt, was playing the instrument live for the first time ever. Though the group’s set was relatively short—just ... Read more...
03.14.09 · 2:43 AM
The Clydesdale vs. the mechanical bull
The sparse crowd at Las Vegas Country Saloon was at least as invested in the antics of various drunken revelers riding the club’s mechanical bull as it was in local alt-country act The Clydesdale’s Neon Reverb set, but that didn’t stop the band from delivering a typically stellar performance. Genius drummer Courtney Carroll (performing with four different acts during the festival) anchored a thoroughly entertaining hour from the foursome, who only appeared distracted by all the bull-riding once. Right before ... Read more...
03.13.09 · 3:14 PM
Musical chairs musicians
Halloween Town frontman Ryan Pardey has reorganized his “group of revolving musicians” as he is preparing to release Halloween Town’s next album. Pardey explained, “The Shys from San Clemente, Calif. are my live band and Louis XIV from San Diego are my recording band for my new CD along with Mark Stoermer, the bassist for The Killers.” Pardey sang several Halloween Town songs with The Shys backing him then made a dramatic exit, leaving the stage and walking out the ... Read more...
03.13.09 · 2:47 PM
Neon Reverb update: Glass Heroes cancel, Neon Venus set time changed
Phoenix punk vets Glass Heroes, the scheduled headliners for tonight’s Thunderbird Lounge show, have withdrawn from the festival, Neon Reverb co-organizer James Woodbridge tells the Weekly. According to Woodbridge, the band canceled after learning its drummer—and his gear—wouldn’t be arriving in Las Vegas in time for tonight’s performance. Woodbridge says Glass Heroes’ slot will not be filled, leaving locals The Quitters, The Dirty Panties, The Mapes and The Objex to anchor the fest’s punk showcase. Also, due to a scheduling ... Read more...
03.13.09 · 1:09 PM
One more song
Following the indie sounds and stylings of A Crowd of Small Adventures and Hungry Cloud, The Lazystars brought a high-energy vibe and more highly styled veneer to the Bunkhouse. The foursome looked like they’d walked out of a Buffalo Exchange catalog, all skinny jeans, leather jackets and rough-cut hair dos. Evidently I didn’t get the memo that all the girls were supposed to wear belted knit dresses with leggings and slouchy boots. Not that it mattered. One man in the ... Read more...
03.13.09 · 12:46 PM
Candy for rock
There’s nothing like the humid mugginess created by a lack of a/c to prove you’re in a makeshift all-ages music venue. At 8:15 p.m., between sets by No Bragging Rights and Ministry of Love during the Neon Reverb festival, 18 year-old Jamie McQuade was trying to raise money for a new venue. At a table covered in candy (of both the consumable kind and the plastic pony-bead bracelet variety), she explained all donations go to fund a new music venue ... Read more...
03.13.09 · 9:53 AM
Moses approves
While watching Neon Reverb kick off at the Bunkhouse last night, my gaze couldn’t help but return time and again to the mounted deer head watching over the stage. Animals that are “awww, cute” in life seem to take on a sort glass-eyed wisdom in taxidermied death — a holiness, like Ghandi. Or the “Mona Lisa.” So, let’s call the dead, holy, stage-idol deer head Moses. Yes, while living Moses would have run screaming, or at least, galloping, from the ... Read more...
03.13.09 · 9:29 AM
They were lopsided … the turnouts, that is
Just after midnight on the first night of Neon Reverb and one venue contained two very different scenes within. In the Aruba Hotel’s Club Aruba, seven-piece jam-funk outfit Moksha, led by the sultry siren song of Angela Kerfoot, drew a large, jubilant, dance-happy crowd as engaged by the music as they were the closed-circuit video footage projected at stage rear, pair of rainbow-hued ceiling-fanlike apparatus swirling overhead, live abstract painting and the evolving work of a body painter on a ... Read more...
03.13.09 · 4:57 AM
No sleeping on this YACHT
The one time I went sailing, I remember feeling sick. So my dad gave me some motion sickness pills and I fell asleep. For years, I was pissed that I never really got to see the sunset on the Pacific, but it sure beat puking off the side of a boat. What any of this has to do with PDX dance superheroes/maritime enthusiasts YACHT—and in their impressively acrobatic closing show on Neon Reverb’s opening night at the Beauty Bar—is irrelevant, ... Read more...
03.13.09 · 4:50 AM
Aaron meets Cougar: A scare, with a happy ending
Mark being attacked/lead into a jig by a hyperactive cougar at a indie noise band’s show off of the list of things I need to do before I die … Oh, and Kid Meets Cougar, with its fun and proggy avant-dance sensibilities, may be my new favorite band in Las Vegas. Read more...
03.13.09 · 4:46 AM
Sound decision: Afghan Raiders give Beauty Bar’s new PA the ultimate test
The Beauty Bar recently unleashed its high-powered new backyard PA, in time for the Afghan Raiders Thursday night Neon Reverb set, thankfully. The fast-rising Vegas electro duo sounded superb coming through the new system—20,000 watts, compared to the old setup’s 10,000, according to soundman-turned-GM-turned-soundman-for-the-night Joe Garcia—generating a crisp, clean musical stratum, particularly along the low end. The delirious crowd feeding off the twosome’s nonstop energy might or might not have noticed the sound improvement, but Beauty Bar audiences will no ... Read more...
03.13.09 · 4:29 AM
What I learned from Pan de Sal
Five lessons, courtesy of Jeff, Judi and Sheila… 1. Thanks to thousands of joints, math-processing brains on constant Kraftwerk loops and boxy yet huggable bodies, robots always dance better than humans. 2. Singer Jeff Madlambayan’s black pedal pushers make him aerodynamic and able to do gravity (and logic) defying dance moves. 3. Videos of Obama dancing have totally lost their cool factor … if they had any to begin with. 4. Undies are optional, especially when talking about geopolitical affairs. ... Read more...
03.13.09 · 4:20 AM
Cirrus vs. Stratus: Contrasting (Hungry) Clouds
Hungry Cloud song that sounds better delivered by Mike Weller’s new six-piece band: “So Will I,” which feels far weightier in its new incarnation. Hungry Cloud song that makes me yearn for Mike Weller’s coffee-house solo days: “(Oh Oh) I Feel Much Better Now,” which seems to have lost some of its emotional directness amid the clamor of instruments. Read more...
03.13.09 · 4:02 AM
Biding my time
Things I did while waiting for the Beauty Bar to open up late on night one of Neon Reverb… 1. Watch translucent pink goo that might be brain matter leak from my ears due to the inconsistent and loudly volumed Latin DJs spinning Reggaeton in the main bar. 2. Enjoy the look of a random homeless guy as he walks in, checks out the hipsters, covers his ears and proceeds to ask patrons for change. 3. Try to guess what ... Read more...
03.13.09 · 3:49 AM
A different kinda Crowd: Corso steps in for first ACoSA performance
Popular Las Vegas band A Crowd of Small Adventures played its first ever show with someone other than Joe Wright playing the bass on Thursday. How’s that for pressure, new member Ronald Corso? “It’s our first show together, so probably not as tight as it will be, but I think it went pretty well,” Corso assessed after a six-song set that kicked off Neon Reverb’s opening-night Bunkhouse slate. Corso, the producer behind National Southwestern Electronic—the local imprint responsible for recordings ... Read more...
03.13.09 · 1:19 AM
Just fork over your life savings
Overheard outside the A Crowd of Small Adventures show at Bunkhouse: doorwoman Jessica Hutchins tells two stunned revelers, “That’ll be eight million dollars! Or ten. Whatever.” Nervous laughter follows. Read more...
03.13.09 · 1:16 AM
Reverb has begun …
The Downtown Cocktail Room, five minutes prior to Neon Reverb’s opening reception, is like a quiet Victorian salon. A handful of regulars sip drinks and play a card game called Apples to Apples, which is based on verbal comparisons. The Petals arrive, complete with new drummer Christopher Reitmaier (also of Las Vegas Club and Mother McKenzie), and breath much needed air into the space. Despite zero microphones, the duo – here a trio – seems strong and focused in the ... Read more...
03.10.09 · 7:29 PM
Friday Night Live tunes up at the Hard Rock Pool
Palm trees, glistening water, flowing beverages and rocking live music. If all that sounds like the perfect start to a summer weekend, that’s because for two years running the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino’s Friday Night Live concert series has come close to being just that. All that’s missing are free cones of stracciatella gelato and complimentary sunscreen applications by the cast of Zumanity. Starting May 1, Friday Night Live will bring a wide range of musical acts to the ... Read more...
03.6.09 · 3:17 PM
Clap your hands say flamenco
Flamenco, the fiery art native to Spain that channels pain, love and exaltation through highly rhythmic guitar, wailing vocals and percussive dance, is flying into Las Vegas. This Sunday Spanish songstress Salvadora Galan will bring the art form she grew up with to the Winchester Cultural Center for an afternoon performance that will run the gamut from traditional ballads with lyrics by Federico García Lorca to modern incarnations of flamenco. Galan now lives in El Paso, Texas, but the experienced ... Read more...
03.6.09 · 12 PM
Live rock and boobs! Lap dances on the menu at Vegas’ newest music venue
What do bare boobs and local band Lydia Vance have in common? You’ll find both tonight at The Rock Room at Penthouse Club’s opening night. Indeed, Penthouse Club is the most recent addition to the local music venue pool, and its in-house rock club, The Rock Room, will be opening tonight (March 6th) at 10 p.m. with a show from Lydia Vance, The Stript and 7th Son. The space dubbed The Rock Room has always existed, but, until recently, wasn’t ... Read more...
03.3.09 · 10 AM
New album from Slow to Surface, listen now!
Slow to Surface’s MySpace reads: “We are a band. We play music and it’s good.” Slow to Surface, who have been plying their eardrum-pleasing trade around town for nine years, will officially release their first full-length album This Is The Reason We Do This tomorrow night at Wasted Space. You can listen to it in its entirety here before heading to their show, which promises to deliver since the band is known for its overpowering stage presence. “We continually try ... Read more...
03.2.09 · 3:52 PM
More Mraz
Jason Mraz is a man in demand. The reggae-flavored folk-rock sensation is already scheduled to open for Dave Matthews at not one, but two sold out shows at MGM Grand, but still, his fans want more. Today, Mraz obliged. The sweet-singing, guitar-strumming, bare-footed vegetarian has agreed to add a third show to his Las Vegas itinerary, on May 9 at the Palms. The 31-year-old rising star will take to the stage at the Pearl at midnight, just a few short ... Read more...
03.1.09 · 12:50 AM
Celebrating harmony with Little Big Town
The best moment of Little Big Town’s show at Sam’s Town Live tonight came at the end of the sad acoustic ballad “Lost,” written about the death of singer Kimberly Schlapman’s husband; putting down their microphones, the four band members, harmonizing beautifully as always, tagged the song with an a cappella bit of Coldplay’s “Fix You,” adding a heartwrenching and clearly very personal coda to an already moving performance. In the intimate setting, it wasn’t hard to hear them without ... Read more...
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Friday
2013-05-24
The Strip
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Friday
2013-05-24
Activities-Pool Parties
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Friday
2013-05-24
Comedy
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Saturday
2013-05-25
The Orleans
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Saturday
2013-05-25
The Strip
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Saturday
2013-05-25
The Strip
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Tuesday
2013-05-28
Concert
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Tuesday
2013-05-28
Paris
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Tuesday
2013-05-28
Drink Specials
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Wednesday
2013-05-29
Museum (ongoing)
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Wednesday
2013-05-29
The Strip
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Wednesday
2013-05-29
UNLV
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SMS Alerts
Featured Cocktail
May 15, 2013
by
Sabrina Chapman
The Golden Pillar: An architectural cocktail built for XS
This Sunday, XS nightclub celebrates the grand reopening of its after-dark pool party, Night Swim. Along with the bash comes a new offering of signature cocktails served by the pitcher, ...
Read more...