Signing boom changed the face of Vegas scene
It was a dam burst of talent, and the Vegas music scene broke right along with it. When chronicling the biggest developments in the local music ranks over the years, obviously The Killers’ breakout success beginning in the early 2000s tops the list.
But in the immediate aftermath of their ascension, there was arguably an even more transformative movement that altered the local scene. With Panic! at the Disco, one of the most prominent faces of this new wave of Vegas bands that emerged a little over a decade ago, playing town Saturday, it’s worth revisiting just how impactful this era was.
Think about it: In the span of a little over a year, mostly pop-punk and emo-oriented bands such as Escape The Fate, You In Series, The Higher, The Cab and Panic! all got signed, while other acts such as Lydia Vance and Red Light School District scored development deals.
“So many bands got picked up in a short amount of time,” says current Mercy Music and former Lydia Vance frontman Brendan Scholz, recalling how bustling the scene was back then. “We were doing shows, and we were bummed out if there was only 100 or 200 people there.”
It wasn’t just these bands’ success at landing deals that was a game changer for the Vegas music scene, though; it was how they did it. Taking advantage of then-emerging social media, these young bands built their following on a DIY, grassroots level, booking their own shows at nontraditional, all-ages venues such as Rock N Java (a coffee shop), The Alley (which was housed in the back of a music store) and Jillian’s (a restaurant and arcade).
“There was the mentality of, ‘If other people aren’t going to do this for us, we’re going to do it for ourselves,’ ” says Beauty