Vegas rock band relaunches after 20-year hiatus

Two Man Riot is a descriptive name for a band. The title also accurately describes Franky Perez and Stacey Gearing, in another lifetime.

The guys who formed Two Man Riot nearly 20 years ago were hell-raisers, Vegas renegades who put together a blistering two-man rock band that burned out from its own energy. The enduring results was their self-titled album, released after a two-week recording session in L.A. in 2005.

Perez sang and played drums on the unvarnished release, with Gearing on baritone guitar. The two evoked autobiographical themes of friendship, addiction, anger and rebelliousness.

“Two Man Riot” gained something of a cult following, in the days when even The White Stripes were just starting to take hold with the same two-person format. But the band lasted only long enough to make that one album.

The friends split. Over the next decade-plus, both Perez and Gearing would fall prey to addiction and embrace recovery. And in an unlikely spin of events, Perez contacted his old friend and asked if he wanted to dust off the album, and return Two Man Riot to the stage.

They are doing just that, performing at 9 p.m. Saturday at Sand Dollar Downtown at the Plaza (no cover for this one, kids, which is sort of ridiculous). Gearing’s brother, Sean, has been folded into the new band and plays rhythm guitar.

‘Riot’ revisited

The entire “Two Man Riot” album will be exhumed at the Sand Dollar, along with new material the two have created since reuniting. The remastered “Two Man Riot” release is available Saturday on all steaming services.

As Vegas rock fans have known for years, Perez has become a go-to vocalist and musician for several big-name artists and bands. The Las Vegas native has performed with Slash, Billy F. Gibbons (including at the Sand Dollar Downtown’s opening show in May 2022), the supergroup Deadland Ritual (with Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler, Billy Idol guitarist Steve Stevens, and ex-Guns N’ Roses/Velvet Revolver drummer Matt Sorum) and Camp Freddy (along with Donovan Leitch, Sorum, Dave Navarro and Chris Chaney).

For nearly a decade, Perez has also fronted the Finnish rock-cello band Apocalyptica (further reinforcing his performance dexterity), and furnished cuts to the FX series “Sons of Anarchy.” He’s also furnished homes, as owner of Liquidation Nation, a furniture store on West Oquendo Road near South Decatur Boulevard (Perez often talks excitedly of coffee makers and hassocks and such).

And if you dig deeper, Perez was gaining traction as a live performer and generating radio play with his debut album, “Poor Man’s Son,” having signed with Atlantic Records in 2002 and opening for such established stars as Lynyrd Skynyrd and Maroon 5.

Perez seemed destined to follow the same path to superstardom as the Killers, whose were developing at that very time. It didn’t turn out that way.

Post-‘crumble’

The industry took a turn for Perez, and many major-label artists, with the advent of Napster and free-streaming services.

“I just watched the entire industry crumble,” Perez says in a chat at a high-top table inside Sand Dollar Lounge, with his buddy Gearing at his side.

Perez soured on the shift in music business and distribution. He and his confidant would rebel, and cut an album that was the antithesis of corporate rock.

“This was was about the music and our friendship,” Perez says. “So we locked ourselves in my garage studio, and we wrote this album in two weeks. Then we went to L.A. and recorded it in three days.”

The album’s raw edge reflected the artists’ lifestyles.

”We both were not very healthy at the time,” Perez says. “But we recorded this incredible album that we were so proud of.”

If you expect “Two Man Riot” was a vehicle to launch the pair to a long recording career … wrong.

“Literally, the day we got back, it was over,” Perez says. “Band, done.”

Gearing interjects, “It was a magical moment, and an exhausting turning point. We got back and we basically went different directions.”

Gearing’s direction was, as he says, “Dark.”

“I was in darkness, and I just got carried into a different world, so my musical path after that was mostly dark music,” Gearing says. “I got into electronic music and got linked up with some really underground people here. I was really confined, I was isolated, honestly, and really lost for a period of time.”

Soon after splitting with Perez, Gearing played guitar and bass on hip-hop act The Chapter’s “Us Vs. Them” and “The Prewreck” albums. He contributed a track on the 2008 alt-rock compilation, “Extreme Women In The Dark Future.”

Into the light

Perez and Gearing reconnected five years ago. By then, Perez had five years of sobriety and invited Gearing to a Two Man Riot reunion performance at Backstreet Bar & Billiards on Fremont East.

Great idea. But not great timing.

“I pulled up to the show, and … It wasn’t good. It was a bad situation,” Gearing says. “It was awful. We played the show, but I was in bad shape.”

By the end of the ragged performance, there didn’t seem a future for Two Man Riot.

“He actually played,” Perez says, “but he wasn’t healthy enough to continue.”

It took two months for Gearing to collect himself, and turn back to Perez to take an honest effort at recovery. He contacted his old friend in December 2018.

“I woke up one day, and I was done, I wanted to change,” says Gearing, who apart from his music interests is a photographer for KLAS Channel 8. “That’s when I called him. I’ve never looked back since that day.”

The Riot is the thing

Perez has made Two Man Riot his primary music interest since Gearing returned to his life. The two have plans for another album, and to continue writing and creating into 2024 and beyond.

The duo share a bond that couldn’t be snapped, even in their years apart. Perez has felt it even as he’s performed with some of the greatest artists in the world.

“Musicians talk about their counterpart. Who is that person for me?” Perez says. “Mick has Keith. Page has Plant. I’m not putting us in that realm, but it’s the dynamic. I’ve played with guys I love and cherish. But there was something about our connection from the get-go, on a personal level, that really works. This guy, is my guy.”

John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. His “PodKats!” podcast can be found at reviewjournal.com/podcasts. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on Twitter, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.