Images: Face To Face (acoustic), Bobby Meader, Jed Francese July 20, 2012 at the Cheyenne Saloon

Last time Face to Face came to Vegas it was in support of their solid comeback album Laugh Now, Laugh Later. The band filled up the House of Blues with people circle pitting to the new songs and screaming along with hits like “Disconnected” and “Debt.” Last month’s show at the Cheyenne Saloon, which was actually just frontman Trever Keith solo, was a much different experience.

Keith promised to acoustically play the band’s most divisive album, 1999’s Ignorance Is Bliss in its entirety. The album was a big departure for Face to Face, moving their sound away from skatepunk and towards a more rock style that resulted in lost momentum for the band. But like Weezer’s Pinkerton and many albums before it, Ignorance… has since gained quite a large cult following and this tour gave fans a rare opportunity to hear these songs live.

Despite the show’s promise of hearing the entire album, Keith unfortunately couldn’t reproduce the whole thing by himself so a few songs were swapped out for more initially well-received cuts. Keith’s voice sounded as good as ever belting out song from his band’s catalogue, though it was strange hearing him without the usual distorted guitars that make up his band’s sound. But for fans of Ignorance is Bliss, hearing just a few of those songs live was a treat and hopefully Keith and crew will carry some of them over into their full band sets in the future.

-Aaron Mattern | https://www.flickr.com/photos/akmofoto/