Greetings, new Jersey, from Ashbury
Spend a week scouring MySpace pages, and you won't come across a stranger concert itinerary than the one listed for Ashbury last week: Mt. Charleston Hotel. Lambda Chi Alpha frat house, Reno. Giants Stadium, East Rutherford, N.J.
It's not a typo ... the Vegas four-piece really will crash the Lamba Chi party on August 29. Seriously, Ashbury—which has typically played local haunts Jillian's and Rock N Java—opened for Bon Jovi at Giants Stadium, a venue with a capacity close to 80,000, on Wednesday night.
"It's hard to believe we're doing something like this," bassist Jeremy Lee, 18, said before boarding a plane for his first-ever New York visit. "It's kind of like Christmas for us."
Lee and his older brother, singer Brian Lee, guitarist Joey Resly and recently signed-on drummer Patrick Martens won the right to support Bon Jovi at the New Jerseyans' home-state return by garnering more online votes than 27 other national contenders in the "Have a Nice Gig" contest. Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora ultimately selected Ashbury from a batch of finalists, rewarding the quartet with Wednesday's support slot and a demo recording contract.
Jeremy Lee sounded more excited than nervous about the opportunity, having already experienced a large-venue setting when Ashbury opened for Bon Jovi at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on March 11 after being crowned champion in the Las Vegas portion of the contest. "It was kind of nerve-racking at first, looking out into a sea of people," Lee said. "But once you start playing, you don't really think about it."
Martens, who joined the band just after its MGM gig, conceded his stomach was fluttering when the Weekly caught up with him in Manhattan the day before the big show. "I'm a little nervous now, and I'm sure I'm gonna be way nervous tomorrow, once I see the stadium," he said. "This is like 50 times bigger than the biggest place I've played. But we've put together some good material, and we're gonna have a blast tomorrow."
Ashbury worked up a new, 45-minute set for the event, rehearsing endlessly since the April 28 announcement that they had won. The band, whose music is described by Jeremy Lee as "the alternative, 94.1 Mix sound, for everyone, ages 14-80," also planned to promote upcoming full-length debut Complacency from the stage, with hopes of attracting label attention. As Lee pointed out, "With 78,000 people in that thing, I'm sure one of them will be important."
Jillian's still one for the ages
Rumors to the contrary, Jillian's has no plans to discontinue all-ages shows downstairs, GM Kenna Warner tells the Weekly. "We might take a short break while we rennovate that room, but we'll probably do that in September and October, which are usually slow months for all-ages shows anyway, with kids going back to school," Warner says. "And after that, all-ages shows will be back better than ever."
According to Warner, the remodeling project will move the stage from its present position beneath the stairs to the larger, longer downstairs space currently home to electronic dartboards and other arcade games. "We want to improve the room to do a wider variety of entertainment onstage," Warner says. "Punk bands like playing under the stairs, but more mainstream bands like rooms that are a little more traditional. With the new setup, crowds won't have to go as deep, it will be easier to see and the sound will be improved."
Jillian's has a handful of all-ages dates remaining on its summer schedule, including the Futureheads on August 4, Yellowcard on August 5 and Bowling for Soup on August 12, all of which will go on as planned.
When the downstairs stage shuts down, shows will move upstairs, to the area adjacent to the bowling alleys. That spot's proximity to the bar will require Jillian's to restrict those nights to 18-and-over crowds. "Our all-ages shows began up there, but the liquor licensing board has gotten more involved Downtown and they're re-emphasizing the rules," Warner says. "The licensing board wants it to be 18-plus upstairs."
That also applies to Thursday night Hi-Life Concert Series, featuring local acts, such as tonight's (July 20) pairing of Goldfish Don't Bounce and the Objex.
Vulcans Rock the Louvre. No, the OTHER Louvre.
The Louvre has come to Las Vegas. Only it isn't an art museum. And it has nothing to do with Paris. Come to think of it, the Louvre isn't much of anything. Yet. The squat building adjacent to the Commerce Street Studios in a less-traveled part of the Arts District is little more than a collection of empty, sparse rooms connected by narrow, winding hallways.
On July 8, however, a small back room in the building became a makeshift music venue with the debut performance of former Flaspar lead singer Keil Corcoran's new band, Vulcans.
A departure from the booty-shaking electro-rock of his prior band, Corcoran's new project is more guitar-heavy and aggressive. The five-piece Vulcans—dual guitarists, a bassist, drummer and Corcoran on vocals and keytar—drew about 50 people to the fenced-in area outside his Louvre space, in which eight monitors displayed low-resolution computer animation featuring Furbee.
Opening acts Love Boat and Ima Fucking Gymnast—both from Southern California's San Fernando Valley—were almost indistinguishable, playing essentially the same type of music: distorted screaming, tinny keyboards, disco-punk drums. During their sets, kids wandered about the industrial neighborhood, loading up on drinks and snacks from a nearby 7-Eleven.
By the time Vulcans started playing its short set, however, the crowd regrouped, gathering close around the room in which the band played, proving just whom the audience came to see.
Vulcans appear again at the Louvre on July 30 at 8 p.m.
THEY TRY AND THEY TRY
Local favorites the Latest Flames may have fizzled, but Grant Larsen isn't giving up his indie-music ambitions. His new band, Girl Reaction, with long-time friend and former Latest Flame J.G. Francis on the drums and Steve "Skeet" Link on bass, is taking it slow with only one show (May 18 at the Bunkhouse) under their belt and a second scheduled, Friday at Divebar.
Borrowing the band's name from the Rolling Stones hit "Satisfaction," Larsen belies his entire lineup is on loan. "We lose Skeet at summer's end," Link is moving to pursue his career in art, "... and J.G. lives in Orange County, so we have some hurdles."
Undaunted by logistics, their first set went off without a hitch. And though they booked on Thursday, Bunkhouse's designated rockabilly night, Larsen says Girl Reaction isn't really a rockabilly or retro outfit, though they do incorporate those elements. "I prefer to say we're playing brand new oldies with a punk rock energy and volume." "Kissin'," the ruckus original they opened with, certainly fit that description and scored them fans their first time out.
With Friday's show billed as Skeet's official farewell to Las Vegas, Larsen is determined to make it work, booking a pair of dates in LA for August and turning a blind eye to escalating gas prices, all in the name of rock 'n' roll.