Kick Out the Jams: Pretty Girls Make Graves at Jillian's, March 13

The average Sunday night's worth of live music in Las Vegas normally would not be worth a trip downtown and the limitless energy it takes to wade through hundreds of mustachioed middle-aged white men wearing NASCAR-patterned sweatpants. But the continually impressive booking crew at Jillian's inside Neonopolis managed to make all the trouble an afterthought by bringing in an interesting indie rock tour featuring three unique and impressive bands. While the venue's technical aspects could use some fine tuning--band members had to frequently request vocals or guitars be turned up, and even then some instrumentation was still lost in the mix--there's little else to complain about when it comes to the all-ages rock scene at Jillian's.

An audience of a couple hundred came and went throughout the show, which kicked off with the avant-noise of Kill Me Tomorrow, who failed to garner much response despite a quirky, fun set of beat-up electropunk. The kids were too busy trying to figure out drummer/vocalist Zack Wentz to really get into the band's damaged sound. The more mellow music of Dios Malos was a lot more accessible, although the Hawthorne, Calif. quintet seemed to kick up the tempo beyond the steady drone-rock they've been accused of producing.

When Seattle's Pretty Girls Make Graves took to what passes for a stage in Jillian's (only a few minutes late, too. Let's see you keep a schedule like this, Huntridge), lead singer Andrea Zollo seemed to feel out of place. Could it have been the nearby bowling alleys? Once the band kicked into its Sonic Youthsy post-punk, all the little mini-Zollos cheered her on and sang along. The powerful, angular bass lines of Derek Fudesco easily drowned out Zollo's elfin coos, but things smoothed themselves out as the set moved along quickly.

The most impressive thing about the show was that it made it to a finicky music town like Vegas in the first place. Let this particular Sunday night be a lesson to all you down-on-the-local-scenesters: the good stuff is here. We just have to find it, even if it means a trip down Fremont.--Brock Radke