Category: Music

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NEON REVERB HISTORY 101

The first run of the Neon Reverb Festival was in Sept. 2008, with 40 bands playing a pub-crawl-style event. By its second run, just six months later, the festival had grown to 95 bands, including national touring acts, playing parallel 5-band showcases in 8 venues. Neon Reverb contined to shine a bright light on the potential of Downtown Las Vegas, each Sept. and March, over the next four years. As a totally volunteer, DIY effort by members of the local community, the festival expanded over the years to include an independent film screening, a comedy showcase, a visual arts exhibit, a theater partnership, and storytelling and poetry showcases. Sponsorship support eventually allowed us to book even higher caliber, world-renowned acts starting in 2010 and include an all-ages headliner showcase on an outdoor stage in 2011. Later collaborations resulted in a Spotify Tour Bus showcase in 2012 and a Slovenly Records showcase in 2013.

Back by popular demand, Neon Reverb came out of a three-year hiatus in March 2016 for an eleventh run with our most impressive lineup to date. Our twelfth run in March 2017 was an even bigger event, again earning wide-spread critical praise along with the deep appreciation of local and regional music lovers. Now we’re looking forward to March 2018!

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WAVVES, NO AGE HEADLINE NEON REVERB’S 2018 FESTIVAL LINEUP

Neon Reverb’s 10th-anniversary edition will feature a lineup topped by two well-known indie-rock names: Wavves and No Age.

San Diego garage-pop quartet Wavves, which last played Las Vegas in 2013 (headlining the Cosmopolitan’s Boulevard Pool), released its sixth album You’re Welcome last May.

LA noise-rock duo No Age, which last performed here in 2009 (opening for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs at the Pearl inside the Palms), released fourth LP Snares Like a Haircut—its first in five years—last month.

Those bands will be among about 50 participating in the Downtown music festival, scheduled for March 8-11 at the Bunkhouse Saloon, Beauty Bar, Backstage Bar & Billiards, Artifice and Cornish Pasty.

Festival passes, priced at $60, are on sale now at neonreverb.com. Tickets for individual shows will be available later for $15 apiece.

Neon Reverb has unveiled the majority of its touring acts. Along with Wavves and No Age, The Blasters, Mt. Joy, U.S. Girls, La Luz, Spindrift, Jesika Von Rabbit, Sego, Part Time, Girl Ray, Tight Fright, Burning Palms, Monsterwatch, Mega Ran, None Like Joshua and Isaac Rother and the Phantoms have been confirmed.

The festival’s local lineup, along with a few more touring acts, will be announced soon, according to Reverb organizers.

“I feel really good about the lineup, especially since we got Wavves on the roster,” says festival co-founder James Woodbridge, who will once again run the event alongside Jason Aragon, Ronald Corso and Mike Henry. “I’ve wanted Wavves to play Neon Reverb since 2010, when [third album] King of the Beach came out, and then they got too big and too expensive. But they decided they wanted to route to South by Southwest this year, which made it possible for us to get them.”

For its 13th edition since 2008, Neon Reverb will revive a tradition from its early years, inviting outside promoters to help book some of the festival’s showcases. Brian Saliba (Smash Magazine/Bogus Productions), Patrick “Pulsar” Trout (Beauty Bar), Ryan Pardey (Bunkhouse), Tsvetalina Stefanova (Bad Moon Booking), Brian Moy (Dirty Rock and Roll Dance Party) and Steven Matview (Punks in Vegas) have all signed on to help, with Matview spearheading an all-ages gig planned for Cornish Pasty.

“In some ways it’s like a return to Reverb past,” Woodbridge says. “With everything that happened in the fall, after the [Route 91 Harvest] shooting, there was this showing of the real community that exists here. A lot of us knew it was there, but maybe the outside world didn’t. That made me think that the community should be celebrated, since it has always been one of the most important facets of Neon Reverb.”

Overall, Woodbridge says, Neon Reverb’s core mission remains unchanged. “It has always been about connecting the local music community with the rest of the world and with each other. It’s interesting to reflect that it’s been going on for 10 years, but we’d like to keep going and grow it into it a larger vehicle. Hopefully we’ll be able to make that happen.”

Taken from:
-Spencer Patterson
Las Vegas Weekly, Fri, Feb 16, 2018 (2:22 p.m.)

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The Drums, Le Butcherettes, Temples Top Neon Reverb’s 2017 Festival Lineup

Having returned from hiatus with a widely praised 2016 edition, Neon Reverb will look to keep energy high for its upcoming 12th edition. And the Downtown festival, scheduled to return March 9-12, appears to have the musical pieces in place to make that happen.

Heading up Neon Reverb’s 2017 touring lineup will be a trio of popular indie acts: synthy Brooklynites The Drums, who have sold out their past two Las Vegas gigs; Mexico-based garage-punks Le Butcherettes, led by the charismatic Teri Gender Bender; and English psych-pop outfit Temples, set to release a new album a few days before the fest.

“I think the top line is every bit as strong as last year’s,” says talent buyer Mike Henry, who helps organize and run Reverb, along with scene mainstays Jason Aragon, Ronald Corso, Thirry Harlin, Graham Kahr and James Woodbridge. “There’s no [2016 poster-topper] Ty Segall, but I think all three of this year’s headliners are equal in draw.”

Other 2017 notables include Bash & Pop, fronted by The Replacements’ Tommy Stinson; LA’s Chicano Batman, set to return to Coachella in April; veteran hip-hop DJ Peanut Butter Wolf; fast-rising New York rockers LVL UP; and the remainder of the Temples-topped touring Desert Daze Caravan—Night Beats, Deap Vally, Froth and JJUUJJUU.

Also confirmed: Jay Som, Sego, Calliope Musicals, Wheelchair Sports Camp, MNDSGN, Prism Tats, Soft White Sixties, SadGirl, The Shacks, Residual Kid, Palm, Death Hymn #9, Death Valley Girls, Richard Grewar and DJ Jonathan Toubin’s Soul Clap. Local participants are expected to be announced February 2.

This year’s shows will take place in some of Fremont East’s anchoring venues—the Bunkhouse Saloon (which will feature an outdoor stage for the fest), Backstage Bar & Billiards and Beauty Bar—along with two Arts District spots: Velveteen Rabbit and a to-be-revealed warehouse space. Reverb’s overall scope will be slimmed down some, in an effort “not to stretch the audience too far,” Henry says. “There’s a bit of a reduction in the number of acts, but the shows should all be more packed, so I think you’ll see a magnification of the overall experience.”

Festival passes—good for admission to all events on all four nights—are on sale now for $60 at neonreverb.com. Tickets to individual shows will be available closer to March.

Note: The Weekly is Neon Reverb’s exclusive media partner.

This story was written by Spencer Patterson and first appeared in the Las Vegas Weekly.