Show In Review: Naked City Collective Closes
This year has brought interesting avenues for entertainment to Vegas. While Raider stadium was being built up, other venues of a different breed began sprouting up like the weeds that conservative, law-abiding society tries to yank out. I speak of course of Naked City Collective, Vegas’s local warehouse venue that stood as an underground oasis for punk and metal bands to perform for nearly a year. But it would seem 2019 is the one and only year we’ll be graced by its presence.
One of a few locations hosted by Las Vegas’s local promotion group ‘Garth Shows’, Naked City Collective was a spot at a prime location for hooligans to visit for a night of loud, unsupervised, unregulated live fucking music! Unfortunately, the “unregulated” aspect of it lasted only so long…because THE MAN in the form of the landlord decided to come down with an iron thumb and called Johnny Law on the NCC. But lets not focus on the city’s douche-baggery of coming down on perfectly good venues and other cunt-fuckery of that nature…no, lets focus on the bands that closed Naked City Collective on Nov 12th.
The final event of NCC consisted of three bands…Vegas locals HAXA and Plague Doctor, and the headliner ORYX base out of Denver, CO. A triple threat night of doom metal. It only seemed fitting that this very night a Moon Ring could be seen in the sky overhead the Vegas valley.
HAXA was the first band to hit the non-existent stage within the spray painted walls of Naked City Collective and they brought with them a 1970’s feel of doom metal that I don’t get to see in Vegas nearly often enough. It was my first time seeing these locals, for good reason in fact, cause their first show was Oct 19th and they’d only been writing music since Nov 2018. But less than a year is all this band needed to string together a set list of songs that would stir headbanging in and around the pit.
After conversing with this band for a bit I began to learn more about who they were. Everyone in this band has different tastes. They come together to make music for themselves and anyone willing to listen. Their influences come from each other and their different styles and takes on music help create something new. This 5-piece band, a 5-headed “Lusus Naturae” if you will, is something you certainly wanna see in 2020 with bands like Crypt Trip and Smokey Mirror. To listen to a few of their demos simply search YouTube for “HAXA BAND” or follow their Instagram @haxa_band.
With all that being said, let’s not forget about the very next band; longtime Vegas death-doom locals Plague Doctor. If you enjoy gritty vocals, lengthy instrumentals, and an overall satisfyingly morbid metal vibe then you owe it to yourself to see this local act in person one day soon. I always enjoying seeing their set. You can listen to their latest 2019 EP “Hopelessly Infected” on YouTube, Spotify and other streaming platforms.
They currently do not have any upcoming gigs for the remainder of 2019/ beginning of 2020. You can keep up to date with the latest and greatest for them via their Facebook Page & Instagram.
Now onto the final band of the final show at Naked City Collective.. A sludge metal act that was the very first band I ever saw at the infamous Dive here in Las Vegas many years ago. They were a duo back then with Tommy Davis on guitar/vocals and Abbey Davis on drums. They have since added bassist Eric Dodgion which dove them into a darker, heavier realm with the release of their EP, Born Into Madness, in 2018. If you weren’t there and you feel the need for merch you can always go online to thier bandcamp for music downloads and merch consisting of tapestries, cassettes, posters, vinyl, and CDs. A band like ORYX which has toured with Electric Wizard, Sleep, Eyehategod, Ufomammut, and Old Man Gloom was the perfect headliner to conclude the ending of NCC.
We bid farewell to this hole in the wall DIY oasis that gave 2019 Vegas underground fans an outlet to experience raw intense music for people of all ages. Like the Garth and Deth Haus before it, we will no doubt see another like it pop up in the future and I for one hope we hang on to that next one a little longer. Cause what the hell else are you gonna do with yourself on a random week night when you’re too broke or young to hit a bar show in town? Garth Shows has you covered.
