Noise

Vegas music notes: The battle for LIB, Velvet Chains’ rosy outlook and more

Image
Arrlo performs at the Road to Life Is Beautiful Battle of the Bands July 22 at the Space.
Photo: Steve Marcus

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED

White Noise

“I need you to come a little bit closer for this f*cking one,” White Noise frontman Kaesen Samson urged the packed house July 22 at the Space, his shoulder-length hair dangling wildly after headbanging to the band’s unreleased track “No Room for That.”

The rock trio, one of 15 local finalists vying for six coveted spots on the lineup for next month’s Life Is Beautiful festival, tore through its 15-minute set with gusto and guitar-soaked spectacle. Samson capped off the performance by playing his final solo within the crowd.

The two-day Road to Life Is Beautiful Battle of the Bands saw alt-rock quintet Secos, R&B singer Tanna Marie and melodic rapper Sebastian Reynoso bring similar energy to the stage, and other Vegas acts delivering something entirely different.

Poppy outfit Arrlo, for example, spotlighted barrier-breaking conversation. “There’s a lot of misconceptions about people like me,” said trans lead singer Sunni Suede, “and we want people to think a little deeper than what social media tells them to think.”

Some participants waxed nostalgic. Teenage trio The Dollheads nailed a faithful cover of Nena’s 1983 hit “99 Red Balloons,” while Isolated Ave jammed out a pop-punk mashup of TLC’s “No Scrubs” and George Michael’s “Careless Whisper,” saxophone included.

Ultimately, Decaying Tigers won us over with a unique slice of chiptune electro-pop—complete with dancing GameBoy mascots in the front row.

Local winners, along with nine others from around the world, will be announced later this month and will perform on LIB’s Rising Stars stage September 16-18 Downtown.

MAKING THE CUT

Velvet Chains

Velvet Chains

Change is in the air for Velvet Chains. As the rock band gears up for a six-month residency at the Barbershop speakeasy at the Cosmopolitan, new music and a fresh vision have come into focus.

Velvet Chains founder and bassist Nils Goldschmidt says the band is gravitating away from its ’90s grunge-rock influences toward “more modern, heavier, hard rock. The next releases are going to be more like [our new single] ‘Last Drop,’” he says.

“Last Drop” is Velvet Chains’ first new music since last year’s full-length debut, Icarus, which featured Guns N’ Roses guitarist Richard Fortus. And Goldschmidt sounds determined to make an upcoming sophomore LP even better, explaining that he has added a rhythm guitarist to the band and replaced its singer and drummer with new members.

Band diversity is especially important to the bassist, who fell in love with rock music in his home country of Chile. “South America is rock ’n’ roll country, or up until very recently it was,” he says, adding that the emergence of reggaeton in recent years has caused a cultural shift. “The first band I ever remember listening to was Guns N’ Roses … so they were like superheroes for me growing up.”

The new album is slated for an October release, with the band’s Velvet Revolver-esque single “Back on the Train” set to drop on August 12. Instagram @velvetchainsband

COMINGS AND GOINGS

Wave goodbye to the Vegas disco-pop veterans of GoldBoot. The duo— Logan Lanning and Bobby Lucy—which has played with such high-profile acts as Imagine Dragons, Glass Animals and Metric through the years, recently announced a relocation to Nashville, with an August 19 set at Rockstar Bar billed as its “Last Night in Vegas.” Purchase tickets at seetickets.us/event/Goldboot/493319.

In tour news, rising darkwave group Luxury Furniture Store will perform a series of gigs along the West Coast, starting with the Cheba Hut on South Rainbow on August 19. The sonic shapeshifters, who have been playing cuts from dreamy debut Bedrot at a lot of local shows lately, will take LA, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle and beyond. linktr.ee/Luxuryfurniturestore

And in case you didn’t know, singer-songwriter Aaron Archer now performs regularly at Downtown’s Square Bar. The multi-instrumentalist released throwback-grunge single “Ache Anyway” earlier this year. aaronarcher.bandcamp.com.

ALSO

Ted Sablay

Ted Sablay, touring guitarist for The Killers, performs August 6 at noon at Fergusons Downtown, along with Jesse Pino and Chris Mendoza. Sablay released debut album You’ll Be Back Here Soon, in February. … Kat Kalling’s new bop, “Good Luck,” exposes a womanizing ex. The singer calls it her “villain origin story.” Expect a villainous music video soon. … Dama Vicke will drop new single “Elefante” on August 12 …Trevor and the Joneses, who just released catchy jangle-pop track “Love It!,” play Taverna Costera with Mystic Braves on August 7. … And heads up: Jerk!’s latest punk EP, Welcome to Sleepaway Camp, is killer.

Click HERE to subscribe for free to the Weekly Fix, the digital edition of Las Vegas Weekly! Stay up to date with the latest on Las Vegas concerts, shows, restaurants, bars and more, sent directly to your inbox!

Share
Photo of Amber Sampson

Amber Sampson

Amber Sampson is a Staff Writer for Las Vegas Weekly. She got her start in journalism as an intern at ...

Get more Amber Sampson
Top of Story