Las Vegas Weekly

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For three years, the First Friday party at the Bunkhouse has been called Common Ground, but Uncommon Ground might have been more fitting. Where else in Las Vegas could you find live painting, poetry, hip-hop, punk rock and pop swirled together under one roof?

On November 5, Common Ground gathers its heaviest hitters—local bands The Skooners, One Pin Short and Holding on to Sound; hip-hop crew Outside Looking In; poet AmirRikkah; and live painters Mike and Dasha Biggs and Scott Wood—for a combination third anniversary/farewell bash. “This started as a First Friday afterparty,” says John Kiehlbauch of the event-organizing Macro-Fi collective, “and then we stopped going to First Friday and discovering new artists and new bands. We’ve been recycling the same people, so it seemed like time to stop.”

And time to look back. “When we started, we were super happy to get 100 people,” Kiehlbauch says. “Now we typically get 200-250 without even fliering. But I think our biggest accomplishment has been helping promote local bands. In three years we’ve had more than 20 CD-release parties as part of Common Ground, nine in the past year alone.” Pretty uncommon stuff.