A&E
music
BAR 702 gets Rescued, loses old nAme
Dusty Sunshine: Courtney Carroll, Heidi Guinn, Megan Marie Wingerter, Chani Riiell Leavitt and Summer Soll.
The Sunshine Also Rises
All-woman Vegas band is generating some heat on the music scene. Can it propel them all the way to Canada?
May 9-15, 2013
By Kurt Rice
VEGAS SEVEN
88
Heidi guinn, A guitarist for Vegasbased indie band Dusty Sunshine, arranges this gang of colorful, handmade clay fridge magnets on the coffee table. A bowl of spaghetti with a fork, a bright sunfower with leaves, a green cowboy boot with a tiny spur, and most with the band’s name in little rolled clay letters. Far from truck-stop trinkets, these were unique works of art. “It takes me about fve hours to make each one of these and I’ve never seen any other band do anything like them,” she says, beaming. “They go for $5 each, and they always sell out.” Add in the cost of materials and Guinn is at it for less than a buck an hour. The magnets embody the group’s exuberant, endearingly loony do-it-yourself ethos, but that ethos has pushed the now all-woman ensemble (bassist Jason Aragon left in April, due to time constraints, and will be replaced by Aly Unna) from formation in 2010 to a band with two CDs, a well-received Southwestern U.S. tour and a steadily growing Vegas fan base. Their sound is clearly infuenced by a broad spectrum of Western music, but defning the product is no easy task. Guinn says they “started off, very briefy, doing doowop stuff, but then we quickly fell into our current sound.” Their in-
strumentation comes straight from to lose some of its appeal. Plus, you’re the villages of Celtic Appalachia: almost guaranteed to piss off a friend mandolin, violin, guitar, autoharp, or relative if you push too hard.” but their complex, strong harmoInstead, they came up with somenies, each of the fve carrying differ- thing akin to a small-town carnient parts, bring the clear ring of a val that will not only raise travel Southern gospel revival tent, albeit money, but also showcase other with lyrics inspired by everything local bands in a unique way. “There from the darkness of Sylvia Plath to will be a kissing booth, barbecue, their own struggles with faith. face-painting, bands playing, a huge “Coming up with the basic raffe—it will be crazy!” Guinn says. structure of a song is fairly easy,” “We’re even having a date auction.” violinist Megan Wingerter says. “It Wingerter and Leavitt, who are gets tough when we’re putting to- offering themselves up for the aucgether five different vocal parts.” tion, clarify: “We get to pick where But the result is richly layered and the date will happen.” has the added benefit of needing “There are so few bands [that] have little or no artificial amplificamade it out of Vegas,” Soll says. “Vegas tion or production. “If we had is in sort of a blind spot. It’s all about to apply a genre, I guess we’d go getting the word out—not only to outwith Americana,” says keys player of-towners, but also to those in our Chani Riiell Leavitt. own city.” Having scored an invitaDusty Sunshine will be tHe dusty sunsHine tion to play at NXNE 2013, touring as they go, which Benefit sHow And a weeklong mega-festival will help keep them cARnivAl in Toronto, they realized it topped off with gas and was an opportunity to get burgers all the way to Towith a Crowd of some publicity, not only ronto. But what happens Small Adventures, for themselves but also for after they get back? Red Eye Radio Las Vegas’ music scene. “Obviously we’d love to and 2 Tenderoni They also realized that make it big,” Wingerter at Beauty Bar, getting there was prohibisays. “Regardless, we still 8 p.m. May 11, tively expensive. love what we are doing. 517 Fremont St., “We thought about doing We have enough songs to TheBeautyBar. a Kickstarter campaign,“ put out another CD, and com. guitarist Sommer Soll says. we’ll keep on playing as “But Kickstarter is starting long as it works.”
Mark your TV-watching calendar: On July 7, BAR 702 (3355 Spring Mountain Rd.)—the local live-music venue formerly known as the Sand Dollar Lounge—will appear on Spike reality series Bar Rescue. The show involves industry experts observing a struggling bar in action, then offering strategies and overhauls. Eight months ago, then-Sand Dollar co-owner Lisa Guerena submitted an application online. Out of 250 Vegas bars, hers made the final cut after a series of interviews, casting calls and meet-and-greets with producers. “I’m a little nervous about how they’ll portray us,” Guerena says. “But we’re excited to be handed a new bar with national exposure.” Everything on the inside is new—carpet, tables and chairs, glassware, food and drink menus and, more importantly for this column, the sound system. Indeed, the season premiere, which wrapped in February, spotlights local blues acts Dr. Harpo & 2 the Moon and John Earl’s Boogieman Band. The only uneasy moment for Guerena was taking down the brand-new Sand Dollar sign and replacing it with the show’s mandated BAR 702 signage. “I didn’t choose to change the name to piss anyone off,” Guerena says. “I busted my butt to get that name back, but we’re going to be aired on a national television show with more than 3 million viewers for the season premiere, and 1 million viewers per rerun. We can’t afford to lose that shot.” For more info on BAR 702, call 485-5401 or visit BAR702LasVegas.com. Cool shows this week? The retro-thrash revival is still gaining momentum courtesy of Canada’s Cauldron. The Toronto power trio’s ’80s-influenced sound is tons of fun, especially on the band’s most recent disc, last year’s Tomorrow’s Lost. Speed-racing songs such as “Nitebreaker” are the purest distillation of shredguitar solos, screechy yet melodic singing and partying-off-the-rails drumming. Cauldron boils over at 9 p.m. May 9 at Cheyenne Saloon. Gruesomely masked nu-metallers Mushroomhead sprout up at Bunkhouse Saloon at 8 p.m. May 11. This Cleveland-born crew seems to be a favorite of people who repeatedly view the Saw film franchise on Blu-Ray, but don’t hold that against the band. Its most recent album is 2010’s Beautiful Stories for Ugly Children, which has some kick-ass tunes on it. Also on the bill: IDSFA, Years Echo, False Cause, Vile Child, Someday Broken, Lydia Can’t Breathe, Ionia and Corvus. Finally, here’s something you really can’t afford to miss: Dutch crust-punk band Radio Bikini cranks up the Dive Bar (formerly known as Favorites) at 9 p.m. May 16. So if you’re curious to see how Holland dishes up hardcore, here’s your chance. Joining this rare import will be L.A. streetpunkers Hiding Inside Victims. Bring earplugs. Your Vegas band releasing a CD soon? Email Jarret_Keene@Yahoo.com.