Rise Against, Rancid & Billy Talent @ The New Joint

So the New Joint has a much larger feel when you are on the floor than in a VIP Booth (as per Santana). Mind you it is tons bigger than the old Joint (much to my dislike), but this is what I am working with so I will go with it.

After queueing all the way through the casino to the parking lot, we got in to see the last 3 songs of Billy Talent. They seemed ok, and had plenty of people up front interested. This may be too big a venue for their style of performance.

It has been a couple of years since I first saw Rancid at the House Of Blues in Vegas. That time they blew the PA halfway through a rockin' show and it ended fading slowly. Not so tonight. A good, solid set with some of the new album and plenty of old stuff. All the songs I wanted to hear were spread out through the set (Ruby Soho, Time Bomb, Fall Back Down, Olympia, WA etc) and the graphics / pictures on the screens on and surrounding the stage added to the performance. An hour only whet the appetite, I really need to see Rancid headline their own show (in a smaller venue) soon. Props also for dedicating a song to Lux Interior.

Rancid was my reason to go tonight, as the only Rise Against song I really knew was their cover of Nervous Breakdown from the Dogtown & The Z Boys movie a few years back (because I'm old and can't keep up with the kids today), though I had downloaded a bunch from iTunes the week before and listened to them enough to recognize a few songs. Regardless, I thought Rise Against was good - mainly because their drummer is awesome - but a little too much synchronized skipping between the guitar and bass players, and a lot of rock n roll face from the guitar players. Again I stand in the minority as the masses spent a good hour and a half going berserk.

The Crap Facts:
This is my 286th concert.
This is my 2nd concert at The New Joint.
This is my 85th concert in Las Vegas.

This is my 85th concert in Nevada.

This is my 94th concert in the USA.

Billy Talent are the 356th band I've seen.
Billy Talent are the 100th different band I've seen in Las Vegas.
This is my 2nd Rancid concert.
Rise Against are the 357th band I've seen.