Summers in Vegas are HOT, but with evening temperatures blissfully dipping below 100 degrees, the poolside show has gained a lot of traction out here. Artists ranging from Weezer to Counting Crows to, uh, Puff Daddy have donned the swim trunks and risked electrocution all in the name of some fun in the setting sun. I’d actually seen Hawaii’s Pepper play at the Hard Rock Pool before, and I had a blast. So when opportunity knocked to check them out again, and check out Mandalay Beach for the first time, my interest was piqued.
My first exposure to Pepper came via my many Hawaiian friends at University of Oregon in the early 2000s who were big fans, describing the band as “sort of sounding like Sublime.” Of course, they were trying to describe ska, without actually knowing the word “ska.” Like Sublime, Pepper straddles that line between ska and reggae, so they are a perfect fit to play a summer pool show. In general, Pepper are a bit mellower than my musical tastes, but they’re really great live, with the laid back energy mixed with a live-crowd, increased tempos, and a rawer sound definitely pushed them more into my musical sweet spot. I had listened to Pepper’s catalog a bit in preparation for the show and I immediately recognized show opener “FuckAround (All Night).” Albums Kona Town and No Shame dominated most of their hour-long set, along with songs like “No Control,” “Point and Shoot” and “Stormtrooper.” Unfortunately for me as a photographer, the pool goes all the way up to the stage, meaning the only way to get shots is with a telephoto or a boat, and since I had neither, I tried my best with full shots from the back (security wouldn’t allow me to shoot from the stage).
Following Pepper were Huntington Beach’s The Dirty Heads. Like with Pepper, I was forced to shoot from about as far away as humanly possible, but I made the best of it, got my shots and tried to just enjoy the music and the poolside atmosphere. I was pretty unfamiliar with Dirty Heads going in, but I knew their music is a diverse mix of hip-hop, reggae, ska, and alternative, which I’d describe as “311 meets Slightly Stoopid.” They opened with “Hip Hop Misfits” which as the title would suggest was a straight-up hip hop song. The title-track from recent album Sound of Change, veered into much different musical territory, sort of a Sublime meets Muse. Most of the set seemed to be from older albums though, with tracks from Cabin By the Sea and Any Port In a Storm such as “Dance All Night” and “Lay Me Down” receiving the biggest reactions. Despite being decidedly outside of my musical wheelhouse, the band sounded great live and like Pepper, their energy was perfectly suited for the poolside setting.
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