Las Vegas Weekly

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A name like the Rumble can suggest a knock-you-down tour de force of musical mayhem set to an opening by legendary boxing/wrestling announcer Michael Buffer, or it can hint at a slow, guttural growl that builds until it overwhelms. In respect to Vegas’ new “mobile, monthly party” called the Rumble, it seems the latter may be the case. While the first installment in October brought an embarrassingly dismal crowd, the sophomore attempt showed much more promise.

Held Sunday at the Aruba, this month’s Rumble brought San Diego-based Apes of Wrath to perform along with local bands Minor Suns and The Skooners. The show followed the same set-up as the inaugural edition, which paired local acts The Mad Caps and A Crowd of Small Adventures with LA-based Fitz & The Tantrums at Aruba’s smaller Thunderbird Lounge, instead of the more spacious Aruba Lounge.

Having only one of the downtown hotel’s venues open this month surely helped keep crowd numbers up for the opening acts by forcing all attendees to either stay in the venue space (or else mill around outside where it’s chilly). Yay, captive audiences! Meanwhile, the headlining Skooners never need to do much persuading to hold their audiences’ attention, and their dedicated fan base turned out, as usual.

It’s far too soon to tell whether the Rumble will be the network hub for emerging regional artists in Las Vegas that it has been in other cities, but with some small changes (and some more Skooners), it seems the reoccurring show has at least a fighting chance.