In just a few days, hipsters will fill the streets of Downtown Las Vegas for the third annual Life is Beautiful Festival, to see acts like Stevie Wonder, Run the Jewels, Chance the Rapper, Weezer and Death Cab for Cutie, among others.
While the lineup mainly consist of larger indie bands whose music could perfectly soundtrack a Mercedes commercial, there is a side to the festival this year that is more more exciting. The local showcase on Friday will allow you to see bands who are still grinding it out for exposure, and individuals who have made immense sacrifices to be where they are today.
Brian Cantrell of Bee Master and Brendan Scholz of Bee Master and Mercy Music gave me a few minutes of their time to talk about Life is Beautiful and their thoughts about the current state of the Vegas music scene.
Brendan, I know Mercy Music is your full time job, how has that been? Is a day job a big issue when trying to push a band/record?
Brendan: I do cover work when I can get it, but…I’m not smart, this is what I do. Job wise, yeah that is the biggest issue for anybody in a band that’s really trying to push a record.
Brian: It’s just because the dream of someone simply discovering you is dead. There’s no indie label that would give you the time of day if you’re not on tour three or four months out of the year.
Brendan: It turns into whether or not you’re viable. If you’re not, then no one’s gonna give a fuck, if you don’t hit the road.
How many solo tours did Mercy Music do before becoming a full band?
Brendan: I did like three solo tours and then it was a little too much to be alone all the time. I’m not into that, and I also hate playing by myself. So, having a band is really important to me for multiple reasons. Having two other dudes that are willing to commit and believe in something that you’re championing, it’s not easy. I mean, Jarred [Cooper – bass] and I have been playing together forever, but my old band – they didn’t wanna tour, and he was in that band. That’s what started me leaving by myself, because I just wanted to go. Then he reevaluated his situation and now he’s the bass player of Mercy Music.
Brian, has Bee Master been on tour yet?
Brian: No we haven’t. Pretty much everyone is tied to their day jobs. We are hoping to build a regional following with a series of weekend warrior type shows in nearby cities, to get around this.
Are you getting the same treatment as any artist on the main bill?
Brian: [Brendan] probably is. Bee Master is getting festival passes, but I’m not sure what the entire artist treatment is.
Brendan: Yeah, [the local showcase] was just confirmed a week ago.
Brian: They just hit up our booking agent, so she sent me a text and asked if we would be interested. I was like, “Oh fuck, Mike [Montoya – Bass] and Tessa are getting married that weekend.” Surprisingly, we were able to get everything scheduled without any conflicts.
Did Mercy Music have the opposite experience, because you guys are on the main bill, which I’m sure was finalized months ago?
Brendan: I was surprised. Ryen McPherson, who did the Indecline stuff, they did the announcement video. They were premiering something at the Inspire Theatre. This was in like, May. It was something else he was working on that used a Mercy Music song, and he asked me to come to the premier. So, I go and he plays the thing, and then after that he plays the announcement video which wasn’t out yet. That’s when I found out, and it fucking rocked. I was like almost tearful. Yeah, since last year I’ve been trying to make it happen, and I’ve been really annoying about it.
Are you guys glad that, even if it was last-minute, Life is Beautiful did decide to embrace the local scene, or do you feel like it was more of a pandering move?
Brendan: Yeah, I definitely am glad. I mean, I don’t think that’s the reasoning – I just think it was a nice thing to do.
Brian: There’s one thing to be said about Mike Henry [Downtown Project, former Bunkhouse talent buyer], and that is that he has faith in the local talent. He’s a fucking awesome person.
Brendan: He goes to bat when he doesn’t have to.
Brian: Yeah, he gives more than he has to sometimes. If you noticed how the Bunkhouse shows were going, he was giving people some cool ass shit. Like, I’m sure that he fought for some bands to get on shows when maybe there wasn’t supposed to be an opener.
Brendan: Definitely for Mercy Music on Bob Mould, that was all Mike Henry. That was fucking rad.
Brian: There was so much negativity going around about that place for a while, but many good things were happening there.
Brendan: It had so much more potential. Even from a band’s perspective, we finally had a place that sounded decent, that actually respected the bands and paid them a decent wage. Everyone just wants to see the negative, like, “yeah guess what, it didn’t stay open, fuck them.” It’s like, “fuck you, because now there’s another place we can’t play.” It’s bad for everybody. It’s just ignorance.
Brian: People want to hate on Downtown Project so hard, I don’t have any speculation on DTP as a whole, but I think that they had something really great going with Bunkhouse. It didn’t last that long, and that’s what happens in this city. There’s so many great things, but people don’t appreciate when it’s there. Then they are bummed when it’s gone. I’m often asked, “where’s your favorite place to play?” Well, it’s not there anymore. I can’t have a favorite place to play because it’s going to be stripped out from under me like every other place in this town.
Brendan: We talked about that after practice last night.
Brian: Dude, we used to make venues when we were kids.
Brendan: We did, we fucking made sonic drive-thrus.
Brian: We’d bring PA’s and be like, “oh this cafe, they have a max capacity of 30 people, let’s squeeze a 100 in here, fuck it.”
I went to so many shows at The Bunkhouse and had a great time because it had an amazing vibe. Now, those shows moved over to Sayers Club at SLS, which has the totally opposite vibe.
Brian: It’s even more corporate too. Here’s the thing, [Downtown Project] were the bad guys for a second, because they took Bunkhouse which was kind of a staple. The way that it was before, it was fucking awesome; it was a community. Like, you knew you could go there at any hour of the night and you knew people there. There would always be a show going on. And they took that away from us, and everyone’s like, “well, fuck Downtown Project and blah, blah, blah!” They were so mad. When it opened up everyone was skeptical at first. Then I saw some shows there, and got to play there, and saw that what they were doing was so cool. Somehow people still want to hate on it. The only thing that’s a shame is that they took it away again. Like, they’ve taken the same staple venue from us twice.
In Vegas, since it’s a nightclub city, if a venue doesn’t pour in lots of money in their first months, they think it’s a complete failure and tear it down. They never give it enough time to gain a reputation.
Brian: That’s why house shows are doing so well right now. The bar scene is so hard. The bars that are trying to stay open aren’t so good to the bands, because they’re trying to survive. It’s this big catch-22. Everyone wants to hate on the places that are super corporate, but sometimes they are actually making a sincere effort to help out the community. Sometimes people try to do a good thing for the community and it doesn’t work and it’s really disappointing.
Brendan: I just try and stay on the road as much as I possibly can, honestly. Because there’s only so much you can do here, and in my case I’ve been doing it a really long time. You know, there’s only so many times you can be in the Weekly. Satisfied wouldn’t be the word, but I’m complacent, maybe? Which isn’t a good thing.
Brian: I don’t think there’s complacency, man, you’re still working towards it.
Brendan: No, I just mean I’d rather stay on the road as much as I can.
Brian: I feel like it’s so easy to hate on the place where you grew up. Especially here, there’s a lot of stuff that sucks here.
Brendan: But there’s stuff that’s rad here too.
Brian: Yeah, there’s stuff that happens here that can’t happen anywhere else. Even the scene here, a lot of people want to hate on it, but everyone supports each other. We have such a weird, small, eclectic scene. Like, a bunch of bands doing different shit, and they all go to each other’s shows.
So what’s the thing that keeps you guys excited and interested about what’s currently going on in Vegas as far as local music goes?
Brendan: I’m gonna go back to the friendship, as I was saying, the unity’s never felt stronger. Which is a nice thing.
Brian: Yeah, it’s a scene of community, and it’s real.
Brendan: Especially Punks in Vegas. They don’t eclipse anybody either, like its equal opportunity.
Brian: You’re seeing people who are passionate about what they’re doing. It feels like people in this city are trying harder than they’ve tried before. I think that people are trying to get on the road, they’re trying to get in the studio. There’s affordable recording now like Naked City Audio, or like Ronald [11th Street Records] who will record you if he believes in you. People are getting more ambitious.
What we have to do though is fix our shows. I think that if everyone said, “you know what, I don’t wanna play on a show that has more than three bands and that doesn’t start when it says it’s supposed to.” Or, “I don’t want to play in a place that’s shitty, that makes the crowd unhappy.” People who normally go to shows will stick through it because they like it. They like that culture and they’ll deal with the bullshit, but people from my work…let’s say I’m like,
–Hey guys, come see us play.–
–Well, what time do you play?–
–I don’t know, because they didn’t tell us because it’s a disorganized piece of shit mess.–
–Oh okay, I’m not going.–
The problem is, there’s not much crossover between the average person in Las Vegas and the person who knows somebody specifically in a band that’s their friend. And even the friends, you can’t call on them more than once a month. So what you have is the other bands because, of course, we’re gonna support each other because we give a shit, and that’s what keeps us here, that’s it.
Thanks for taking the time to talk to me, guys! Mercy Music plays Life is Beautiful 9/26 on the Huntridge Stage at 3 p.m. Bee Master play LiB’s local showcase in Container Park at 4:30 p.m. on 9/25. Tickets for Life is Beautiful can be purchased from their website.
-Alan Madrigal
Bee Master photos by Tyler Newton. Mercy Music photos by Aaron Mattern.
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