Las Vegas Weekly

The Rumble was a jungle

Jaguar Loves gets some lovin’ from crowd at the Rumble’s February installment.

Photo: Laura Davis

If you were too tired/hung-over from the Super Bowl to make it out to the Rumble on Sunday night in the Thunderbird Lounge at the Aruba, you may have saved your eardrums from the decibels, but your hipster quotient certainly dropped a few notches.

With a lineup screaming dance party extravaganza, every Downtown socialite around seemed to be drawn out of the usual Fremont Street haunts resulting in one of the most successful crowds the Rumble has pulled since its Vegas inauguration in October.

Pan De Sal warmed up the crowd by opening the three-band showcase with its usual contagiously friendly stage presence and black-and-white-striped ensemble.

When Jaguar Love took over the stage the energy in the room turned up a notch. As frontman Johnny Whitney released his wildcat screech into the mic, the crowd engulfed the stage, making the line between musicians and audience indistinguishable.

Photo: Laura Davis

Jaguar Love at Sunday night's Rumble.

The electro-pop duo were enjoying themselves so much that they were prompted to thank Las Vegas for what they called their best show in the city yet — which may not have been too hard to accomplish considering the last performance here had been described by guitarist Cody Votolato as “kinda a weird show.”

The audience reciprocated the love — on the multiple occasions Whitney dropped some of his equipment into the crowd, those in the front row automatically bent down to help search — resulting in the night’s unofficial theme as said by Whitney upon finding one piece of equipment on the ground thanks to a makeshift neon searchlight: “The power of glowsticks!”

Kid Meets Cougar kept the night going on a high note, leaving the room ready to Rumble to the very end.

For those that didn’t make it out, there’s always next month’s round to redeem your cool points.