Earlier – Before Show

Saw some of the Vegas arts district this afternoon, which is new to me. I guess when I travel by myself like this, generally speaking, most of what I’m seeing is bands. The structure of this festival is a little more relaxed.

Tonight is the last of it, and that’s sad, but you can feel it’s time. People are starting to talk about plans for getting back to real life, when’s your flight, and that kind of thing. An inevitable part of the cycle. The community built over the course of this weekend will disperse, everyone hopefully a little better for it than they came in. I feel restored in the very specific way that I’ve only ever found an experience like this can provide.

But, what’s been billed as “Last Call” by fest-curator John Gist returns to the five-band format of Friday night, with Jason Walker’s Badmotorfinger open, playing the Soundgarden album, then Iota, BoneHawk, Duel headlining and Luna Sol (plus guests) closing out late. My trust in the righteousness of what’s coming is complete. I’m ready for it. It’s been a good weekend to be alive.

Once more into the night:

Jason Walker’s Badmotorfinger

Jason Walker, who was singing and started off on guitar but put it down to concentrate on vocals — fair, considering the subject matter — has played with Gene Simmons and Bang Tango and is very clearly one of those uber-talented professional musicians, and his band operated at the same level. This is probably for the best as they groove-tread on what for a lot of people is sacred ground in playing Soundgarden’s seminal 1991 third album, Badmotorfinger. I’ll confess I don’t have the history with the record that many in the crowd clearly did, but Walker gave it due vocal scorch in standing up to one of rock and roll’s most legendary voices, and it was on point and nearly as ’90s as Godzillionaire the other night, so immediately there’s a tie-in, a flow to the night. This was a cool one-off thing, kind of exclusive thing for the people who are here — something special — and Walker absolutely cintrol-wails as a singer, respectful but not without putting something of himself into it. I’d say I’ll be lucky to have “Outshined” in my head for the next week, but really it’s still “Freelance Fiend.” More on that later.

Iota

I was nervous to see Iota. Not that I didn’t expect it to be good, but 2008’s Tales (discussed here) is a record to which I do have no small measure of sentimental attachment, and last year’s surprise return, Pentasomnia (review here), is no less stunning for the months since its release. This is fortunate, since Iota’s cosmic heavy desert blues is nothing if not lustrous. The guitar tone and vocal croon of Joey Toscano are defining elements, but Andy Patterson’s drums — also production on the albums — and Oz Yasri’s bass lock in that groove on the records. How could I not be looking forward to it? Patterson wasn’t with the band, and they played as a four-piece, with Yasri, Dio Britto on drums and Chris Clement, shared vocal duties in dead-on flow and harmony with Toscano to riveting effect. They raised the monolith at the start, and it was all shove and go and fuck yes, but whatever hearing I lost taking my earplugs out for “The Intruder,” it was worth it. Toscano was talking between songs and said something about how we’re in hard times and we’re scared, but stopped himself and said, no, we’re not scared. Well, I am, so I said so. We’ve met, but he didn’t know it was me or anything. I was out front and the lights were low. I said, “Fuckin’ I am.” A couple laughs. He said, “I hope this soothes, brother,” and they played “The Returner.” It did.

BoneHawk

If Iota took the ’90s of Soundgarden covers and showed the extent to which it is malleable, Michigan’s BoneHawk redirected energy into straight-up heavy rock, some mellower groove, but the real thread between the sets is songwriting. Yeah, genre bands share elements — this is not a revelation, I’m aware — but it’s the way that sharing has been thoughtfully steered that makes the difference here on Planet Desert Rock, where for sure BoneHawk fit right in. For the most part their stuff was comfortably placed — tempo set for vibe; not a complaint — but they did change it up, shift through some push or heavier roll as one would expect. Thinking of bands from other nights like Fire Down Below, The Watchers or even Omega Sun, who are based in large part around straightforward structures and weighted groove — to be sure, the list goes on — BoneHawk gave that side of the proceedings a wink, but they had bluesy aspects too and a bit of strut in reserve when they needed it. They used it well. Guitarist/vocalist Matt Helt — joined in the band by bassist Matt Smith, drummer Nate Cohn and former-but-sitting-in guitarist Chad Houts — told a story between songs about falling down the stairs at the casino where the band are staying and being laid up for the last two days. Didn’t take away from the bounce even a little bit.

Duel

Duel might be Austin’s foremost heavy rock and roll export at this point, and while they were raucous as ever their delivery. “Children of the Fire” always lands with me. It’s a sure bet. The double-guitar bastards o’ riff and charge continue to support last year’s Breakfast With Death (review here), from which they aired “Pyro” before dipping back to 2019’s Valley of Shadows (review here) and daring toward taking a breath with “Black Magic Summer.” Duel have a catalog at this point — Breakfast With Death was their fifth record in nine years; the rush in their music is meta-urgency — and they’ve toured for all of them with the usual plague asterisk, and have developed the ability to go back and forth between different levels of aggression and dynamic more, and time has seen them develop into a richer but no less furious band. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen them, but they have yet to let me down, and honestly it’s getting to be an increasingly high level of expectation on my part. Oh, Duel are playing? Well that’s guaranteed front-to-back riotous heavy, some metal (“Chaos Reigns”), some punk, some boogie, usually done in praise to some arcane entity or blasphemous proposition. So yes, in other words, they were very much the headliner. Remember Mos Generator tearing it up last night? PDRW strikes again.

Luna Sol

Oh shit, Dave Angstrom’s the real deal, y’all. Like one of the best rock and roll performers I’ve ever seen on a stage. I don’t care that I didn’t see Cactus in 1972 because I got to watch Luna Sol nail “Evil” in 2025. Hyperbole? Fuck yeah it is, and nothing less would do. Side note, because in the spirit of Angstrom’s mindmelting shred I’ll go ahead and improv while keeping it conversational: Doug, the bassist, apparently also runs the Denver Bong-a-Thon, which I think might be the coolest factoid I’ve ever heard about a human. I don’t know drummer’s provenance, or his name — I’m somewhere between Zeph and Zeth — but I do know he was class as fuck on that kit in “When You’re High” and the take on Mountain’s “Never in My Life” (for more, see “Cactus” above) and the whole band was fire from start to finish. Blowout classic heavy blues rock. Originals and covers.

The entire time, Angstrom was the consummate entertainer. He told stories that were genuinely funny. He was comfortable talking to the crowd — he called the crowd “his people” and it was sweet and sincere — and so, so, so much fun. I had no idea. Blindsided. I stood up front for most of the set, did take a break to write, but it didn’t work and I needed to be back out so that’s where I went. You have to understand, I wasn’t going into this completely unaware. I’ve covered Luna Sol before. I reviewed Vita Mors, the album they put out last year on Ripple. It was cool. The vocals were a little high in the mix here and there, but certainly worse sins have been committed.

My point is I had no idea that’s who Dave Angstrom was on stage, and no idea about the chemistry of the band or the sheer joy it would be to see them play. Whether I was hypnotized watching Doug and Zep/th jam while the guitar got a well-earned new E string, or Jason Walker coming out for the ‘and Friends’ portion toward the end of the set and the whole band dropping jaws taking on Budgie’s “Breaking All the House Rules,” it was something special because they made it that way.

For the very end, Angstrom opened it up to a jam on — wait for it — Leaf Hound’s ultra-catchy, ultra-classic strutter “Freelance Fiend.” And giving Doug a break on bass for it was the very Adam Sage of Sonolith, who locked in and played around that bassline that I’ve been listening to him practice at his house where I’ve been staying for the last couple days much to my utter delight at having that groove in my head. I was happy for my new friend, happy to see him play, and it was right at the finish where the narrative threads aligned one last time and the music and community around the music coalesced. Those two things, as I have now been fortunate enough to experience, are what really ties all of Planet Desert Rock Weekend together. They are the core of it, along with passion.

Thank you for reading.

—

This was beautiful. I have the best friends.

I am so incredibly grateful. Thank you. I said “I love you” a lot tonight. I meant it every time. Let’s keep saying it. Please.

Thank you to John Gist. Thank you to Jocelyn and Adam Sage (and the weimeraners). Thank you Wendy. Thank you Cate Wright. Thanks Scott Spiers, Leanne Ridgeway, Behrang Alavi and the Samavayo cats, Todd & Corinne Severin, Ryan Garney, Mario & Tim from Borracho, Sean and Andrea, Manu, Treetops Tony (he’s tall) and Phoenix Phil who was gonna send me some Stone Witch to check out but I already looked them up and I’ll close out a week with them at some point, and everyone I spoke to along the way.

I had old friends at this festival. And I made new ones. And I already hope I can come back.

I fly home tomorrow early afternoon. Work to do beforehand, plus packing, so crashout needs to happen. Thanks again for reading and by the time this goes live you’ll hopefully find more pics after the jump.

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