Take a stool and shot of The People’s Whiskey
Their tunes go best with a beer, that catalyst of highs and cure for lows.
The People’s Whiskey was meant to be heard in a bar, and a bar is where they sit on a recent Tuesday evening.
They’re not drinking now, clustered around a table at the Motor City Cafe, which is empty except for them and a lonely bartender.
But this is the setting where their songs make the most sense, where their blue-collar, honky-tonk- influenced punk rock comes alive.
Today, they’re in good spirits, as they often appear to be — live, the band members always seem to be having the time of their lives when they play, as if it was everyone in the group’s birthday, every gig, with drummer Luis Mendez, in particular, leading the Vegas music scene in smiles.
And yet, you wouldn’t always know this strictly from their tunes alone.
“Despair is where all great drinking songs come from,” guitarist Steve DeZarn notes, and, true to his words, People’s Whiskey was launched partly by heartache.
“I got divorced and started writing a bunch of sad songs,” singer-guitarist Justin Bridges says. “And so I needed a full band to go out there and try and get chicks again,” he adds with a grin.
Still, this isn’t sad bastard music.
“A lot of the writing we do never comes from a positive place, but we never try and bitch about it,” singer-bassist Cody Leavitt says. “We try to be a little tongue in cheek, a little sarcastic.”
And a little varied. The band’s sound is rooted in punk, but there’s also Latin music flourishes and touches of ska, Americana and more.
“The idea is to just take a different kind of approach to any kind of song you want to do,” Bridges says. “Like, ‘OK, today, let’s try and write a reggae song.’ Next time around, we could be doing funk.”
Whatever they do, they tend to do it well. Recently, the group became the latest act to sign with Vegas’ SquidHat Records, and they plan to have a new album, their first full-length, out this summer.
On Saturday, The People’s Whiskey will play the Gold Mine Tavern in their native Henderson, and the band’s hometown figures prominently in their music.
To some, branding the town “Hendertucky” is a slur.
To these dudes, it’s a battle cry.
“Growing up in Henderson, we kind of took pride in it as the antithesis of everyone being like, ‘Henderson, that sucks,’ ” Leavitt says. “So we started embracing it. It’s really a part of our identity, the whole blue-collar, fist- fightin’, drinkin’-in-bars, fallin’-out-with-girls type of elements. All the songs that we sing are just about being in this life.”
Contact reporter Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@reviewjournal.com
or 702-383-0476.
