Flag, The Damned, Bridge City Sinners, Angel Du$t, and The Rifleman String Band on the Main Stage Monday at Punk Rock Bowling 2025.
Keith Morris of Flag - All photos courtesy of Paul Holstein
One of the highlights of Punk Rock Bowling this year was hanging in the In-Spite Magazine Spa Tower Suite at The Golden Nugget. The room was two stories with a spiral staircase, overlooking Fremont Street, and it was quite a party at times. Dick Slaughter was bringing bands over to interview, and I walked in Sunday during The Rifleman String Band sitting at the bar and answering questions. I talked to them for a while, but I'll leave it to Dick to publish the full interview. After meeting them, I was especially excited to catch their set on the Main Stage on Monday morning and arrived there promptly following The Briefs/ Modern Action pool party. In fact, I arrived during the sound check (they remembered me and waved as I walked up) and got to take a few posed photos. As expected, their set was great, and it set the stage for an incredible Main Stage lineup that included Angel Du$t, The Bridge City Sinners, The Damned, and Flag. I didn't stay for Social Distortion, but the rest of the staff at In-Spite Magazine were there and will have the full report. As I was leaving the stage after The Riflemen set, I ran into the legendary Nubs, and she was kind enough to pose for a photo.
The Rifleman String Band - All photos courtesy of Paul Holstein
Angel Du$t - All photos courtesy of Paul Holstein
AngelDu$t and Bridge City Sinners both put on amazing shows. Las Vegas is the ultimate location for a festival like this, with perfect weather and easy access to everything (it was just a 10-minute excursion from the festival back to my hotel room at The Golden Nugget in between sets). As much as I love the punk rock bands that were booked this year, I was looking forward to a few hardcore bands as well. None more than AngelDu$t. They blazed through a 15-song set that included a great semi-cover of the 1966 hit song "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone."
Libby Lux of Bridge City Sinners - All photos courtesy of Paul Holstein
I was not familiar with The Bridge City Sinners before this show, and they slowed it down a bit. Their set was 9 songs that opened with "Crazy," where singer Libby Lux played her trademark banjo while other members played a second banjo, stand-up bass, and violin (no drums). Before the song "Kreacher," Libby passed out a few pairs of rat ears to the audience (with takers agreeing to scurry around in the pit like a rat). By the time they got to "Break The Chain" at the end of their set, I was left wanting more and vowed to track down some of their releases as soon as I was back home. The Damned and Flag were next, and I was especially excited to see Flag.
Captain Sensible of The Damned - All photos courtesy of Paul Holstein
The Damned did a 12-song set that started with "Love Song" and ended with "Neat, Neat, Neat", "New Rose" and "Smash It Up". Dave Vanian, Captain Sensible and Rat Scabies are all household names (with Paul Gray on bass and Monty Oxymoron on keyboards), and were celebrating a legendary 50 years together.
Dez Cadena of Flag - All photos courtesy of Paul Holstein
For those not familiar with Flag, they are one of two currently touring versions of Black Flag. My previous reviews were of "Black Flag," led by founding member Greg Ginn (with Mike Vallely on vocals). This iteration, however, was Keith Morris (vocals), Bill Stevenson (drums), Dez Cadena (vocals, rhythm guitar), and Stephen Egerton (lead guitar). Keith Morris, of course, played in both The Circle Jerks and Off! after Black Flag but was a founding member of Black Flag when he was only 21 (along with Greg Ginn). This was a huge 20+ song set that saw Keith and Dez swapping vocals.Keith started with a 15-song stretch that included "Police Story," "Depression," "No Values," and "Gimme Gimme Gimme" and ended with "Rise Above."Then Dez took over for 5 songs that ended with the classic "Six Pack."Keith then did "Nervous Breakdown," and finally they shared vocals for "Louie Louie." It was amazing, and the crowd was going wild the entire time.This was without a doubt a highlight of this year's Punk Rock Bowling.I was having so much fun that I didn't even notice that just a few feet away the crowd had identified a man with an SS T-shirt and forcibly removed him from the festival. But that's a whole other story in itself.
