Images: From Indian Lakes, The American Scene, Naive Thieves, Apex of Apathy March 8, 2014 at the Southern Nevada Sports Centre

Unfortunately, work kept me from half a show again, so I missed local openers Tonight We Fight, Characters and part of Apex Of Apathy. From what I was able to catch, Apex seemed like they had an insanely great time. You don’t always see crowd participation during local sets but Apex had it. A line of eager faces took up the front row to dance along to what the band had to offer. A good friend to many, and to the band, Macario Gutierrez of Twin Cities came up to the microphone during their instrumental song and gave it a new life. It is definitely safe to say that the band got an energy going that lasted throughout the whole night

Next to take the stage was Riverside’s Naive Thieves. They were the only band I had yet to see live, so I was interested in seeing how their performance would stand up to their recordings. I was excited to hear that lead singer Cameron Thorne’s voice, and their instrumentals were all that I had expected based off of the music available on Bandcamp. The band was able to catch everyone’s attention, and although Thorne had complained about a recent sickness, no one seemed to notice, and heads bobbed across the crowd. After their set, I heard countless people praising them and talking about going home to check out their new music, so luckily for them, Naive Thieves’s new record Vámonos comes out April 29.

Next up was the band I was most excited to see, The American Scene. The last time they’d been through town was at Eagle Aerie Hall last March to open a big show for labelmates The Story So Far, and it was one of the most insane shows I’ve ever attended. Ever since then, I’ve listened to them constantly. The American Scene is way underrated and only a few people in the crowd were singing along, which was disappointing. I hope they get the recognition they deserve and come back soon!

The crowd was eager as Yosemite Valley, California’s From Indian Lakes took the stage. The last time I saw them was in a tiny venue that got crazy, so I didn’t know what to expect this time, especially with a real stage in the mix. It quickly became clear that the show would top the last one when they began with “Anything.” Kids erupted in crowd surfing and singing along to every word that came out of frontman Joey Vannucchi’s mouth. They continued strong with “We Are Sick” and “Paintings,” eventually leading into some acoustic tracks. FIL is always a pleasure to see, and I can’t wait for their next trip through Vegas.

-Hunter Wallace | https://www.flickr.com/photos/hunter_wallace/