The Germs – The Vermin – Assemble The Skyline – at Wasted Space at The Hard Rock Hotel – Las Vegas, NV

First of all I would like to thank Laury Cleary and the entire staff at Wasted Space. Their hospitality was incredible!  The first band that played was Assemble The Skyline. They are a 4 piece band from Los Angeles. Talking with them before the show they said basically that playing with The Germs was very cool, but the audiences were pretty much wanting to see The Germs.

When they started their set,  I found them as a pretty cool Rock And Roll Band. with songs like "Thrill Me"  "Every Piece of You" "Losing Sleep" and "Overdose". It was obvious the crowd was not really into them as much as I was. Everybody wanted The Germs.

The 2nd Band to hit the stage was a local Las Vegas band called "The Vermin". They were a Hardcore trio that just kicked ASS!! with songs like Girl Says No, Son Of A Gun, Dead Friends, Copulate ScumBag  and their finale Las Vegas.

They were really warming the crowd up for the Germs, although they kept referring to the first band as the Jonas Brothers, that got old. Then he made a reference to Darby Crash saying  "Darby Died before most of you were born". All in all they smoked out a nice 40 minute or so set. I would recommend these guys they put on a good show.

There was one other band before The Germs would hit the stage a little after midnight. Honestly I don't remember their name. So I call them the 3rd Band. They had a female drummer, 1 guitar, 1 bass and a female lead singer who in my opinion was a cross between Courtney Love and Darby Crash. She started the set drenching her hair with beer and flinging it all over the audience. She kept jumping into the crowd, pulling up her dress. The highlight of their set was when the singer and guitar player seemed to get into a fight and she hauled off and punched him square in the jaw. That was pretty cool. She crawled all over the stage jumping in the crowed, to me they sounded like a bunch of nonsense... but that is this reporters opinion.

The Germs hit the stage a little after midnight. From the moment they started it was non stop Rock And Fucking Roll !!!!!  They played everything you would want to hear,  from My Tunnel, Richie Daggers Crime, No God, Manimal, Caught in My Eye, I think the only one they didn't play was Shut Down and people kept yelling it out  play Shutdown.

Pat played like there was no tomorrow, Outstanding.  And Don my god he smoked his drum kit, non stop he was incredible. He even introduced his daughter to the crowd. very cool. Lorna's bass playing was awesome !!  she can still destroy on the bass.

As for Shane West  of course there is no replacement for Darby, but Shane is Incredible, climbing all over the place, up on monitors, on top of the soundman's booth. Very energetic. The crowd was so into The Germs it was very cool.  The only drag about the show is that it was a 21 and over.

The band is so very cool,  when they came in for soundcheck, I was talking with them and they let me take photos with them. The nicest people you would want to meet. I was standing in front of the stage and by the bruises on my back the crowd was totally into the show as a cool SLAM PIT got going, sorry I am old school and I still call it a Slam Pit not a Mosh pit.
 
I highly recommend everybody to go see The Germs if you have the chance.  They still KICK ASS !!!


 

Bob Mandoki
Big Wheel Music Scene Reporter

 

More photos of the show can be seen HERE

 
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