Your guide to Las Rageous in downtown Las Vegas — PLAYLIST
Face it, you’re probably going to get distracted by a wandering freak-show performer at some point.
And yet, there are bands aplenty that you’re not going to want to miss when the Las Rageous fest debuts downtown this weekend.
This is the dilemma the two-day buffet of hard rock and heavy metal poses.
Per usual, we’re here to help.
With 18 bands performing on two stages, ranging from grunge-metal mainstays Godsmack to a bevy of up-and-coming Vegas ragers such as Nations, We Gave It Hell, Code Red Riot and A Friend A Foe, in addition to the aforementioned carnival acts, you’re going to need a game plan to rock-the-swear-word-out with maximum efficiency.
With this in mind, here’s a handy guide to a few of the groups you gotta see:
Band: Eagles of Death Metal
What they sound like: A pair of painfully tight leather pants that can sing — and hit on your girlfriend.
Why you need to check ’em out: Because you like fun. And smiling. And songs about lockin’ lips with the devil voiced by a dude who looks like a debauched Ned Flanders.
Band: Coheed and Cambria
What they sound like: Nerds!
Why you need to check ’em out: Well, if you dig comic books, these dudes are a towering stack of them come to life. The band’s high-concept prog-punk is definitely an acquired taste, but then again, so is beer. Mmmmm, beer.
Band: Avenged Sevenfold
What they sound like: An at-times too-obvious mix of their heroes, namely Metallica and Guns N’ Roses. If they ever wore shirts with sleeves, their influences would be pinned directly to ’em.
Why you need to check ’em out: Yeah, these dudes may be guilty of mimicking their favorite bands a bit too obviously in places, like Rich Little with a few more neck tattoos, but the flip side of all this is that they also aim to put on just as huge a production as those iconic acts when they hit the stage — and they tend to succeed, with more fire and stuff blowing up than the director’s cut of “Apocalypse Now.”
Band: Mastodon
What they sound like: A band with enough chops to bang out an album-length ode to “Moby Dick” without making you laugh and a desert-dry sense of humor capable of, well, making you laugh.
Why you need to check ’em out: They’re plenty proggy but also boast enough melodic savvy to still be able to go over with that buddy of yours who has no idea who Alex Lifeson is (side note, be more discriminating in choosing friends moving forward). Also, their new record, “Emperor of Sand,” kicks plenty of those titular rock particles into the eyes of just about any other band on rock radio these days.
Band: Anthrax
What they sound like: A bunch of older dudes who can still rock way harder than you.
Why you need to check ’em out: Sure, these thrash lifers may have to lug around a U-Haul full of Just for Men behind their tour bus nowadays, but if the gray hairs in their goatees may be a sign of their age, their albums aren’t. Anthrax’s latest record, the fountain of youth-baptized “Worship Music,” is indeed worth genuflecting before.
Band: Killswitch Engage
What they sound like: Metal dudes with feelings! Who knew that headbangers — or men in general, really — even had those things?
Why you need to check ’em out: Well, in addition to singer Jesse Leach’s alternately melodic and Satan-yakking-up-a-chicken bone vocals, there’s guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz, who makes some of the most ridiculously rubbery rock face seen since Ace Ventura hit the stage with Cannibal Corpse back in the day.
Band: Escape the Fate
What they sound like: Local boys done good
Why you need to check ’em out: These Vegas hard rockers have taken more lumps than the bespectacled, slow-footed kid always did in dodgeball. They’ve weathered numerous lineup changes, drug issues with ex-bandmates, label switches and more. And yet, they’ve managed to persevere and still land high-profile gigs like this one. Maybe their fate isn’t worth eluding after all.
Contact Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0476. Follow @JasonBracelin on Twitter.
