Images: Last Call, Living With Lions, Narrowed, Calmosa December 3, 2013 at The Knight Hall

“Thank you, we’ve been Last Call!”

While I want to stress that the guys in local pop punk band Last Call are not throwing in the towel just yet, these bittersweet final lines spoken by vocalist Austin Jeffers, and the fact that the band members have been throwing around the word “break” for a while, does make it feel like this show marked the end of an era for Last Call – and the beginning of a new one for the bands that have formed in their wake.

I’ve long lamented the Vegas music scene’s difficulty in cultivating and supporting mid-level bands. You can go from playing the Castle or the Beauty Bar to selling out the Joint (ala The Killers and Imagine Dragons). When Last Call was signed to the now-defunct Mightier Than Sword Records, they seemed poised to be that great mid-level band (as Caravels is also seemed poised for now). But something keeps getting in the way. Mightier Than Sword fell apart, leaving Last Call to have to unexpectedly pay for the entire production cost of Dog Years, a few big tours they were hoping to get on fell through, and the band just generally hasn’t been able to catch a break.

So I was definitely disappointed by the sparse-even-for-a-Tuesday-night crowd as Last Call came out to play Dog Years in its entirety on December 3, and that’s a shame for a show boasting this good of a lineup. But even though the crowd was small, it came to life when the band kicked off with “Generation Gap,” everyone in attendance shouting out the chorus of “We’re all liars and hypocrites” with such a fevered passion that surely everyone woke up the next day unable to speak from the strain. The excitement only grew when they moved on to first single “Bones,” with guitarist Ryan Stokke and bassist Kyle Peterson leaping across the room while, again, the crowd shouted back every word.

I’ve seen plenty of frontmen grow uncomfortable in front of a growing crowd, spending their time dodging throngs of fans vying for a spot to sing along. Austin Jeffers, however, seems to relish in it.  I’ve gotten very used to seeing him without an instrument in hand, enjoying the freedom to gesticulate wildly into the crowd, but for this show, Jeffers was bound to his guitar, sharing 6 string duties with Ryan Stokke. Even with an ax in hand, Jeffers pushed headstrong into frantic fans, with members of Calmosa and Narrowed among the locals perched right up front singing along to every word, even to the never before played live “Live Like Roark” (one of my favorites from the album). The biggest singalong was what is arguably the band’s signature song, “Glassel St.,” which led to a lost microphone, but luckily the volume of the fans and the voice of co-vocalist and drummer Adam Blasco carried the tunes to completion. After Last Call wrapped up the Dog Years portion of the night, they sped through a selection from their EPs 12:57 and Stay on the Outside including fast-paced “Keyholes” and anthemic “It’s Like This Place Isn’t Even Real.” And I’m not gonna lie, the line “This place wasn’t built for me” seemed even more prophetic than usual.

Way back in my first ever post about Last Call, I compared the band’s rough and raucous style of pop punk to that of Vancouver’s Living With Lions. Last Call toured with the band earlier in the year and were nice enough to bring them home to Vegas, with Living With Lions making a one off appearance here before starting their tour with The Flatliners. LWL play that gruff form of pop punk that lets them bounce around a bit between fanbases, touring with bands ranging from A Wilhelm Scream to Chunk! No Captain Chunk!. Unfortunately for me I wasn’t able to give their set my full attention, as by this point I was setting up for a video project that Last Call and I will be unveiling shortly. I’ve waited a long time to see these guys live, so luckily I finished up with enough time to catch the last two songs, and I was happy to see I wasn’t the only person in the crowd singing along.

Even if the rumors are true that Last Call is going to be on the backburner for a little while, it’s nice to see that their legacy will continue with two of our best newer local bands. I first met Calmosa vocalist Rob Kemerson at Last Call’s Stay on the Outside release show, so it seemed fitting that his band would be opening this show at the same venue. Since that show, Kemerson played guitar in the short-lived Wear Your Heart before starting Calmosa, and it’s been great seeing him develop as a performer during that time. The band draws influences from equal parts Alkaline Trio and The Wonder Years, and it’s a pleasure seeing them play live because the whole band always looks like they’re having a complete blast.

While Calmosa still wears their influences on their sleeves but are coming along nicely, Narrowed is one of those rare cases of a band who pretty much came right out of the gate with their identity fully formed. Playing a tight set with their own rapidly growing fanbase up front shouting along to tracks like “Swing” and “Tossed to the Wayside.” I like that Narrowed have a very deliberate pacing in their sound, not afraid to take things a little slower in moody intros and bridges that switch mid stream into fast screams and posi jumps. In a lot of ways they remind me of a much more aggressive version of Signals Midwest, and I could easily see them ending up on label like Tiny Engines or Topshelf before too long.

With Narrowed and Calmosa (among others) carrying the torch these days, I know the Vegas pop punk scene still has a bright future, but I’m not counting Last Call out just yet. Even though they only played a handful of local shows this year, and there’s been no talk of new recorded material, I’m keeping my hopes up that we haven’t heard the last of them.

-Emily Matview

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