Images: Hot Water Music, Dave Hause, The Flatliners November 13, 2014 at Fremont Country Club (Vegas Music Summit)

Hot Water Music is going to turn 21 next year. Let that sink in for a moment. The fiery Gainesville band is, i’m sure, responsible for more than their fair share of nights of drunken debauchery – and now kids born at the same time the band started are about to be old enough to partake. The announcement that the band’s latest tour would be hitting Vegas, marking their first (non co-) headlining show in our town since the late 90s, was enough to get me to produce sounds only dogs can hear – and when I saw the support? Oh boy. This was the first of two shows I attended this night, as part of the Vegas Music Summit, a neat little event that combines late night shows with seminars from music industry folks like Warped tour founder Kevin Lyman.

Canada’s Flatliners were the first band of the night, returning to Vegas after a two year absence. With a limited set time, they barreled through as many jams as possible, though frontman Chris Cresswell did take the time to ask how many of us were at the Aruba gig, and also said that, after being told by one of Fremont Street’s resident wacky bible thumpers that “you only live once,” they’d try to fit a few requests in. The Flatliners have a really dedicated Vegas fanbase, with large groups of bearded punks I haven’t seen since the last Flats show pressed up against the barrier to shout along to “Tail Feathers,” “Caskets Full” and “Monumental.” The band seemed stoked by the response and looked like they were having a blast. These guys are a joy to see live, and I already can’t wait for the next time they roll through town.

Bridging the gap between the rowdiness of The Flatliners and cathartic intensity of Hot Water was singer/songwriter Dave Hause. Hause shares a label with Hot Water Music (Rise) and cut his teeth as a solo performer on Hot Water co-frontman Chuck Ragan’s Revival Tour, but prior to that, he shared a label with The Flatliners (Fat) as frontman for pop punk group The Loved Ones. (Side note: in a perfect world, the Loved Ones would be on LP #5 and be bigger than Gaslight). I’m a huge fan of his rootsy style and having missed his last, very sparsely attended Vegas show, I made sure I was pressed up against the barrier ready to sing along.

This was a huge change in pace from the energy of The Flatliners, and the crowd seemed pretty perplexed when Hause took the stage with just his brother Tim in tow on keys and second guitar. He kicked off the set with one of his catchiest tunes “Autism Vaccine Blues,” and thankfully, many of the confused looks in the crowd turned to grins, due to a combination of Dave’s soulful voice and charismatic personality. After leading us in singing happy birthday to his newly 21 year old brother, Dave lead us in an equally loud “boo,” as Tim left much of their gear behind at the previous night’s venue (luckily HWM was able to step up and lend them gear for the night). The highlight of Dave’s set, though, was closer “Resolutions,” which had the whole crowd clapping, though many had trouble keeping the beat (too much alcohol, perhaps?).

Finally it was time for  the long awaiting headlining set by Hot Water Music, and everyone in the room began presses forward towards the barrier. Though Hot Water Music hasn’t headlined Vegas in over a decade, they’ve kept up a presence, steadily growing their fanbase with frontman Chuck Ragan playing close to 30 solo shows here and the full band taking part in two Punk Rock Bowlings and an opening spot for Rise Against. That’s all greatly appreciated, but I came out to this headlining show for deep cuts – and I was not disappointed.

How about “Us and Chuck” for the opening song? Ragan introduced it as the first song the band ever wrote together (it appears on their Push for Coin cassette from 1995) and it was pretty cool to see the mix of older and slightly less older fans (it was 21+, after all) wrap arms around each other and drunkenly slur “When I’m backed against the wall, I won’t stop until I fall” with the band. Songs from the band’s post-hardcore, Fugazi-influenced early days  like “Us and Chuck” or “Freightliner,” a seldom played (at festivals, anyway) track from the band’s debut full length Fuel for the Hate Game, are great because they really show off what great musicians the guys are, particularly the rhythm section of Jason Black on bass and George Rebelo on drums.

But I came into Hot Water later in their career, discovering the band through their appearance on Punk-O-Rama  6 in the early 2000s, so songs from that era are the ones that got me singing until my voice was gone (honestly, how do Ragan and co-frontman Chris Wollard manage to sing with such vigor and gruffness every night and not suffer from permanent laryngitis?). “In the Gray” from Epitaph debut A Flight and a Crash had many fans leaping over each other and pumping fists, even if it’s a more midtempo number, and of course Caution’s “Wayfarer” had people a little too old and way too drunk attempting to crowd surf up to the mic to sing those epic “whoa oh ohs.” Hause returned to the stage to take on lead vocal duties for “Trusty Chords” and The Flatliners’ Cresswell was back out once more for a cover of Bouncing Souls’ “True Believers.”

The band ended their set by taking it back to their No Idea Records days with two of my favorite songs of all time “Turnstile” and “It’s Hard to Know.” The songs might almost be old enough to actually attend this show, but it’s amazing how fresh they sound. It’s a testament to both the quality of HWM’s music and the influence they’ve had on the modern punk scene.

-Emily Matview

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