Las Vegas Weekly

• Tweet
• 
• Print
• 

“We’re Same Sex Mary, and we just practiced the other night.” That’s how lead singer James Howard Adams started off Saturday night’s final set at the Royal House. The crowd had been ebbing and flowing all night, but as Adams’ bluesy guitar kicked in, a few more folks trickled into the dark living room at the property’s west end to see the Boulder City band. Same Sex Mary, which has doubled in size since its humble two-piece origins, played a cover of Bo Diddley’s “You Can’t Judge a Book by the Cover,” putting its spin on folky, bluesy rock ’n’ roll—think of it as a faster, more raucous Eric Burdon and the Animals.

The top billing for the free Royal show actually went to female-fronted rockers Lemuria, who hail from Buffalo, New York. Performing in Vegas for the first time, the band played songs off its two albums, 2008’s Get Better and January’s Pebble. Lemuria’s sound—Sheena Ozzella’s sweet-but-powerful pipes atop grungy guitars—teetered between the indie-rock of Sebadoh and a louder version of ’90s lo-fi outfit Cub.

Local group Asterionella, also fronted by a female vocalist (Kelley Karas) got the night started with an alt-rock Silversun Pickups-y vibe a number of bands seem to be chasing these days.