Images: Guilty by Association album release show June 5, 2015 at Backstage Bar and Billiards

I arrived to Backstage Bar and Billiards a bit early for the Guilty By Association Coming Home album release show. I wasn’t alone, though. There were quite a few people at the bar and a few couples playing pool. The Squidhat Records booth had already been set up. Dead Girls and Robots had their art set up on a table, a few racks, and an easel with a mostly blank canvas on it set up for some live painting. Then I noticed members of Sounds of Threat getting on stage.

I had somehow never caught Sounds of Threat until Punk Rock Bowling about two weeks before this show. If you have not seen them before, I’ll tell you this much – you are missing out. Opening up with the song “Mental” was probably the perfect one word description of their set. Lead singer Jesse Young was jumping around the stage with the energy of someone like Jello Biafra or Ian Mackaye. As the set continued he jumped into the crowd to sing directly into people’s faces. He grabbed strangers and friends around their shoulders to sing with him, leaving them either excited to be part of the show or very uncomfortable. They ended their set with the metalish “Devil,” and guitarists Amy Pate and Aaron Prieto’s riffs came through the amps menacingly as bass player Tyler Whitacre stood on the edge of the stage screaming backup vocals at the crowd. Although the crowd was not in full force during the set, Sounds of Threat still played as if there was a packed house.

Next up was a favorite of mine, New Cold War. They began their set with a few good jokes about Guilty by Association being old guys. They played fast songs, some heavier songs and even gave us a slow jam. From the start, bass player Cody Leavitt was bouncing all over the stage and yelling as loudly as he could whether there was a microphone near him or not. John Brown was on the other side of the stage shredding on guitar and singing his heart out. If you have never seen their drummer Luis Mendez (also of The People’s Whiskey, like Cody), he is a show all his own. By the time their set had ended, the larger crowd had finally funneled in and cozied up to the stage.

Battle Born has been around for as long as I can remember in the Las Vegas music scene. Their sound is a mix of punk rock and heavy metal. Lead singer and guitarist Chad shreds like no one I have ever seen in the local scene. Blowing my mind once more was John Brown up for his second set of the night. Battle Born had one of the best crowds thus far, but they were about to be outshined in the crowd department, because Guilty by Association was up next.

While Guilty By Association was setting up, SquidHat Records founder, Allan Carter, came out on stage and told the story of when he first saw Guilty by Association in Portland many years ago, while they were on tour. He then handed out a few free copies of their new record Coming Home to members of the crowd, which erupted as soon as Guilty By Association took to the stage. Multiple friends of theirs jumped up to sing with them, including a very intoxicated young lady who had to be escorted off. Fans sang along to nearly every song – and when the crowd started to dwindle towards the end of the late night, Tyler Whitacre from Sounds of Threat jumped on stage before final song, “American Decay” to give an impassioned plea for people to move away from the bar and the back of the venue and to come up front and enjoy the end of the show. Despite his call to arms not being answered, I think John Brown said it best, “Great show…Great show.”

-Anthony Constantine | https://www.facebook.com/anthonycphotography