Images: Strung Out, The Swellers, Such Gold, The Sheds September 27, 2012 at Vinyl Las Vegas

It’s always exciting to see a show at a new venue. Especially in a town like Vegas where, no matter how promising, venues tend to come and go like tourists. Vinyl at the Hard Rock Hotel is the latest spot to surface and personally, I’m really excited about it. A dark room features a cool little stage, a quiet bar, and plenty of floor space for anyone seeking to hit the pit. Add in the sweet name, speakeasy aesthetic and the fact that it’s off the Strip and easy to get to, and it already feels like a winner. But venues are only as good as the acts that grace their stage, and on September 27th, 2012 Vinyl was home to four of punk rock’s best. Read More »

Images: The Swellers, Last Call, Tuesday After School, Armoride, The Letter You February 16, 2012 at The Knight Hall

Before their Feb. 16th show at The Knight Hall, Tom Monahan sat down with Nick and Jonathan Diener from Flint MI’s The Swellers to talk about how their breakup rumor got started, how Warped Tour is like summer camp and why they’re beginning to reconsider touring with such diverse bands.

So you guys are just coming off of a tour with You Me at Six, right?

Jonathan: Yeah we did about 3 weeks with them. It was our first co-headlining U.S. tour ever, so that was pretty cool. Now we’re doing some hall shows with a bunch of local bands on the way back to Michigan. It’s cool because this is kind of how we started touring, doing shows exactly like this.

Nick: We have a feeling that these shows are going to be so much more fun. Even if we’re playing a sold out show and it’s a whole big event, we just prefer playing in open halls, where it’s like “we’ll bring the PA, you guys just play whenever you want.” It’s just so much more relaxed and nice.

On your tour with You Me at Six, were you guys on club shows for the most part?

Jonathan: Yeah we played like 200-600 capacity rooms. A lot of them sold out. It was really cool. We’re a professional band and we’re professional people, but at the same time, we kind of like a little bit looser vibe. Playing on the floor is always a lot of fun.

Do you guys like playing Vegas?

Jonathan: I like playing here, but Nick and I are the straight edge guys in the band. I enjoy going to the Strip and having fun and walking around. But our other guys want to party until like 5 in the morning, and we end up having to babysit. Luckily we have a tour manager who gets to do that tonight. I’m going to go out and lose some money and have my own little fun time.

Nick: I don’t drink and I don’t love weird naked chicks with diseases. So a lot about Vegas makes me feel weird. But I do kind of like the vibe. It’s like Disneyland for grownups. The shows have always been pretty cool. I like playing here a lot.

I saw you guys play here with Polar Bear Club a while back. It was that weird situation where Crime in Stereo was on the tour, but it was really unclear if they were playing the Vegas date. They played, but it turned out they weren’t getting paid for the show.

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Images: Never Shout Never, A Rocket to the Moon, Fake Probelms, Carter Hulsey October 2, 2011 at the House of Blues