Las Vegas Weekly

Winter’s last licks

Las Vegans head to the hills for Area 107.9’s annual rock escapade

Otherwise opened for Saving Abel at the 2009 Chill on the Hill in Brian Head, Utah.

Photo: Bill Davidson

Nope, I really can’t say I’ve ever skied into a concert before. Or worn ski boots to a concert, for that matter. But this is a weekend of firsts. It’s the first year Area 107.9-FM’s annual Chill on the Hill concert has come to Brian Head, Utah; the first year—after two at Big Bear—that it is open to the public; and the first time I’ve ever really gotten to hang out with a local Las Vegas band. Hometown heroes Otherwise are booked to perform live at 2:30 p.m., opening for national act on the rise Saving Abel, and Saving Abel’s own touring opener, Taddy Porter.

But oops! Saving Abel is running way late (something about MapQuest sending them to some far-flung incorrect destination or another), and Taddy Porter simply is not here. So, furthering its heroics, Otherwise will give a solid hour-long show to the hordes of teens, tweens and Miller Lite-chugging Vegas fans; Abel will simply have to save itself. “We adapt and overcome,” says Otherwise drummer Dave McMahan, unusually Zen and not fazed in the slightest.

Checking in yesterday at the base of Brian Head Resort’s Navajo Lodge, I asked if anyone from Otherwise was around to interview. “They’re horrible,” said a guy wearing a camo coat and wry smile, which gave Dave away. And with that, I was quickly adopted by the band.

“Were gonna gingerly tube now,” Dave said, his posse of about 20 journeying over to the sledding hill; he already had one busted ankle going into this performance. The 27 winners of the radio call-in contest and their guests continued to trickle in after a rough arrival (their bus broke down at the crucial final hairpin turn), though the majority of the crowd (some 2,000 or so) were expected to come in for the concert the day-of.

At 2:35 Saturday, all five members of Otherwise take the stage: Dave, lead vocalist Adrian Patrick, bassist Flavio Ivan, guitarist Jason Juadines and lead guitarist (and Adrian’s younger brother) Ryan Patrick. In the groomed snow in front of them, teens huddle wrapped in stadium blankets and boarding gear. The rest of us take in the show from the Igloo, which is tricked out like a green room with free food and cheap beer.

I’ve not seen many local bands perform—I could probably count them on one hand. But for how mellow and down-to-earth Adrian is, always concerned about the band, which he calls “his family,” onstage he’s a fury of expression and emotion; they all are. “The air up here’s a little thin, like our blood,” Adrian says. “So we apologize if we don’t break anything like we usually do.” I turn to someone who is mouthing the words along with them, “Is he kidding?”

With plenty of encouraging, positive messages for the young audience, the guys sing, “Find your own reasons to begin.” That’s when the moshing starts. “If my body goes, will my mind remain for you?” they sing out to a friend who recently passed away. Introducing the last song, Adrian says, “This one goes out to my bandmates and to all of you out there chasing your dreams. Don’t ever stop chasing your fucking dreams!”

Then word comes that Saving Abel has arrived. There’s time for me to interview them while they shower if I’m willing to leave Otherwise. No, I can’t do that. I can’t leave the home team.

After Dave throws out his drumsticks and Ryan throws his pick, the band retires to the Igloo for much beer and much praise. Two lucky fans will win brand new guitars signed by all the members; others queue up to have ski gear, parkas and hoodies signed, too.

Just minutes before the show, I told Adrian that I was nervous for them, even though they were not. “I’m invested now,” I said, sort of like their weekend biographer, Almost Famous-style. “Oh yeah, like Penny Lane!” he said, getting the reference. “No!” I quipped back, hitting him playfully. “I’m not your groupie!” But I did buy him a double Jägermeister shot just before he took the stage. Not that there was ever a chance of it, but had the show somehow gone down in flames, I guess I’d have had to ski out of the concert as well.