Amplified: 10 under-the-radar concerts not to miss this month in Las Vegas
Vegas Amplified is a monthly feature highlighting must-see concerts in smaller local venues.
It’s maybe the best song ever about crashing a 6-year-old’s birthday party and smashing some cake in the kid’s face.
And, frankly, we never thought we’d get a chance to hear the shout-along classic “Food Fight!” live onstage in Las Vegas — or anywhere else for that matter.
That changes soon, though, when reunited Nashville indie rock fireballs Be Your Own Pet play their first local show on Sept. 16 at Backstage Bar & Billiards.
That they’re performing at all these days is a bit of a shocker.
The band hit the scene as young upstarts two decades ago — live-wire frontwoman Jemina Pearl was just 16 when she started the group in 2003 — quickly earning acclaim for their riotous gigs, penchant for punk rock earworms and Pearl’s cannonball-with-a-microphone stage presence.
They burned brightly and then burned out, breaking up not long after the release of their 2008 sophomore album, “Get Awkward,” which featured the aforementioned anthem to airborne hot dogs.
Fourteen years later, Jack White lured them out of retirement by recruiting Be Your Own Pet as openers on his 2021 “Supply Chain Issues Tour.” (White co-owns Third Man Records with Pearl’s husband, Ben Swank.)
They’d subsequently drop a new album, 2023’s “Mommy,” in which Pearl confronts the transition from punk rocker to mortgage-paying parent (“How’d I get all these responsibilities? / So many people and they all depend on me / Why I gotta be the one left in charge?” she sings on “Goodtime!”).
And now they’re back on the road in support of the record. See ’em now — you’ll probably never get another chance around these parts.
Other shows to catch this month:
Soft Echo, Sept. 5, Dustland
They’re about to hit the road, opening for fellow Las Vegans The Killers on a string of East Coast dates. But before they do, rising indie rockers Soft Echo — whose sound is enveloping and ruminative at once and whose lineup features alums of such notable local acts as Big Talk, Magna-Fi and The Rhyolite Sound — celebrate their new single “Cerulean Blue” with a hometown release show.
Jessica Audiffred, Sept. 12, Substance
It felt like it was raining anvils during dubstep battering ram Jessica Audiffred’s set at Electric Daisy Carnival in May, such was the rhythmic wallop that the self-anointed “Queen of Bass” delivered. Here’s your chance to see her in much more up-close-and-personal confines, even if it means risking a sprained vertebra or two.
John Digweed, Sept 12, Disco P.
He started DJing when he was 15, and now house legend John Digweed is 58. The electronic dance music lifer’s influence on the scene is hard to overstate, including his work with longtime collaborator Sasha. Their groundbreaking 1994 mix CD “Renaissance: The Mix Collection” was one of the first of its kind and remains among the best, most influential dance music albums ever. The last time he was in town, he played EDC. Don’t miss him here at one of the only club shows he’s ever booked in Vegas.
Anamanaguchi, Sept. 14, The Portal at Area15
Though they first made a name for themselves the old-fashioned way — by becoming early practitioners of chiptune, a style of music created largely on old-school video game gear, and notching a hit with a virtual pop star singing in Japanese — Anamanaguchi have since taken a turn toward more intricately wrought indie rock on their new record “Anyway,” though the 8-bit melodies remain.
Tropa Magica, Sept. 19, Backstage Bar & Billiards
Brothers David and Rene Pacheco grew up attending backyard quinceañeras and punk shows in their native Los Angeles, so they formed a band that combines the sounds of both, resulting in Tropa Magica’s distinctive, Spanish-sung blend of vintage cumbia and guitar-driven garage rock. Their live gigs are a tropical dance party waiting to happen.
Cash Cobain, Sept. 20, The Portal
“I wanna please your mind, your spine, your spirit, your body, too,” singer-rapper-producer Cash Cobain mumble-coos on “Baddest in the Room” from his acclaimed album “Play Cash Cobain,” his Auto-Tuned words delivered in a laid-back fog. You’ve heard his anesthetizing vocals on guest spots with Justin Bieber, J. Cole, Ice Spice, Don Toliver, Nav and plenty more. Now hear him on his own when he hits town in support of his aforementioned solo debut.
Prayers, Sept. 27, Swan Dive
“Chologoth” doubles as the name of the latest full-length from Mexican American electro doomsayer Prayers (Leafar Seyer) and a new genre designation that he created. It’s a succinct encapsulation of Prayers’ dark, danceable aesthetic, a kind of bilingual, body-moving gloom that’s equally indebted to Brit synth pop favorites Pet Shop Boys and deathrock pioneers Christian Death.
High Vis, Sept. 30, Swan Dive
They once categorized their alternately bleak and bracing caterwaul as “post-industrial Britain misery punk.” But nowadays, London’s High Vis somehow manages to split the difference between Fugazi’s heady yet invigorated post-punk and the anthemic rush of early U2.
High on Fire, Sept. 30, The Usual Place
The power of the riff compels High on Fire frontman Matt Pike, whose guitar is always in full-on steamroller mode, his playing simultaneously hypnotic and boulder-heavy. The band’s latest album, “Cometh the Storm,” lives up to its title with equally throaty, crushing and mythical stoner metal in place of lightning bolts — though to be fair, it does boast a track named “Lightning Beard.”
Contact Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0476. Follow @jasonbracelin76 on Instagram.
