Brian Moy never set out to become a Las Vegas concert promoter. He just wanted to throw a cool birthday party.
The Portland, Oregon, native moved here in 2010, and as a rock fan, he naturally gravitated to Downtown’s Bunkhouse Saloon. “It was my first-, second- and third- favorite place,” Moy says.
In 2016, Moy reached out to his friend Ryan Pardey, then the Bunkhouse’s entertainment director, about hosting a show there for his birthday—but not just any show. This would be a fully packaged event, a “Dirty Rock & Roll Dance Party,” as he described it.
Moy tapped spaghetti western psych act Spindrift to headline, and on the day of the party, “I had four bands, three DJs, a sponsor and a tattoo raffle. And this was just basically for my birthday for fun,” he remembers.
Moy enjoyed his rager, the show drew well, … and then the calls began flooding in.
“Spindrift reached out to me and said, ‘We loved the show. We’d like to do something else later in the year,’” he remembers. “Then another band from LA reached out and said, ‘So, we heard that you’re the guy in Las Vegas to talk to about psychedelic rock bands.”
Before he knew it, Moy was also booking gigs under the Dirty Rock & Roll Dance Party banner. Early on, most parties were held at the Bunkhouse. “If it wasn’t available, I almost didn’t want to do the show. That’s how much I loved it there,” he says.
Jose Torres, who played Moy’s birthday party with his garage band Leather Lungs, still marvels at those early days watching Dirty R&R blow up. “Bands were hitting him up all the time that would normally never come here, usually cool bands from LA, West Coast bands,” says Torres, who plays bass with The Acid Sisters these days. “I’m glad he’s around and he’s still sticking with it.”
But after the Bunkhouse shuttered in early 2020, Dirty R&R branched out to other spots like the Usual Place, Artifice, Red Dwarf and Cornish Pasty, delivering diverse bills built around psychedelic music and a blissful vibe.
“Music to me is more than just background. It’s an escape,” Moy says. “And when you go to a live concert versus just listening to it, I want it to be an occasion.”
Moy has gone on to curate some of Las Vegas’ most interesting indie shows in recent years. In December, he brought Brazilian psych legends Os Mutantes to perform an intimate, last-minute set at the Usual Place after he saw them perform in Portland. Other recent Dirty R&R acts have included LA garage-rockers Meatbodies, Mexico City dream-pop trio Mint Field and rising LA shoegaze outfit Møaa.
“I don’t want to do shows that I would not want to be at myself,” Moy says. “People go to my shows because I essentially do psychedelic, garage, underground, out-of-the-mainstream rock ’n’ roll. They have the expectation that it’s going to be like that.”
Last year, the promoter staged more than 40 Dirty R&R shows, between his full-time job as a real estate agent and a side gig as the touring manager for local darkwave outfit Luxury Furniture Store. And Moy says he only has two options now: Give it all up or go even bigger—and he’s opting for the latter.
Frankie and the Witch Fingers
A month into the new year, he says, he’s “15 shows deep” into his planning. He has partnered with longtime Vegas promoter Pulsar Presents on his next show, a January 27 gig featuring LA garage-psych faves Frankie and the Witch Fingers, along with Seattle noise-punks Monsterwatch and the live debut of Xxyyzz, the electronic project from Torres and fellow Las Vegan Ted Rader (The Mad Caps, The Magic Family).
And there’s plenty more to come, including returning heavy metal series Maximum Doom (next installment: March 10 at Downtown’s Cornish Pasty), and an April 23 show with New Zealand noise-rockers Bailter Space, perhaps best known for their ’90s releases on iconic indie labels Flying Nun and Matador. Moy seems intent on presenting concertgoers with their next favorite band, again and again.
“The dude has really good music taste,” Torres says. “Most of the time, I’ll know which bands he’s booking because we have similar tastes and genres, but there’ll be certain shows where I’ll just go in not having a clue what to expect.”
And though reaching for more obscure sounds can be a financial gamble, “It’s a risk I’m willing to take,” Moy says, “because I want to bring great stuff to Las Vegas.”
January 27 Frankie and the Witch Fingers with Monsterwatch, Xxyyzz, DJ Jacob Savage, 8 p.m., $15-$20, Artifice, eventbrite.com.
February 6 The Hickoids with The Psyatics, 9 p.m., free, Sand Dollar Downtown, eventbrite.com.
March 10 Maximum Doom ft. Fever Dog, Acid Sentence, Plague Doctor, 9 p.m., free, Cornish Pasty (Downtown).
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