Images: Rayner, Eliza Battle, Guts January 9, 2016 at the Hard Rock Cafe on Paradise

If you didn’t go to Rayner’s album release show on Jan. 9, you totally missed out. You had the chance to see three stellar local bands FOR FREE, and you threw it away. Talk about a missed opportunity.

In all non-guilt-tripping seriousness, though, I think everyone in attendance would agree that it was a great night. Well, maybe not the people who actually came to the Hard Rock Café to eat.

Guts started off the night with the kind of music that I typically think of when I hear the term “pop punk”—speaking as someone born in the mid-late 90s, this would be bands like those on the Fueled By Ramen record label. While comparatively new pop punk bands tend to make me cringe, I found myself nodding along to Guts. Their harsher form of pop punk reminded me of the progressive hardcore band Apex of Apathy, which dominated what I call “the Eagle Aerie Hall scene” a few years ago. Guts seemed to be a bit younger than the other bands performing that night, which would explain why the crowd during their set also seemed to be a bit younger.

Then Eliza Battle, a self-proclaimed “punk Americana” band that has quickly found popularity in Las Vegas, played what their Facebook page said would be their last show for a while. They were a little too country for my tastes, but the audience loved them. This was surely largely in part to their passionate stage presence, especially that of co-vocalist Tina Dawn. The rest of the band was nothing to scoff at, either—and coming from someone who hates country, that’s a huge compliment.

Of course, Rayner finished off the show with songs from their new album, In Circles. If I’m going to be honest, Rayner drew a much larger crowd than I was expecting. Tables and chairs had to be moved to make way for the people crowding into the Hard Rock. I’d been listening to In Circles for the past few days, and was obviously not the only one, as I saw multiple other people singing along. It was definitely a cool experience to see that audience members knew the lyrics to brand-new songs. They played the reworked versions of “Title Cards” and “Very, Dreadfully Nervous,” and for the first time ever played “Forward Sinking” live. As expected, the end of their set drew cries of “encore!” and “one more song!” Rayner obliged with the reworked version of “Reflections,” which spurred a small but rowdy pit.

As I said before: if you missed out on this show, you made a huge mistake. Luckily, you can make up for it by seeing Rayner play at Punk Rock Bowling in May.

-Julien Boulton

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