The Dive Bar…4110 South Maryland Parkway is the best dive bar in Nevada, if not the world! Conveniently located in a strip mall on the corner of Flamingo and Maryland Parkway, is the  epitome of a perfect dive bar. The huge sign out front makes it perfectly clear, in bold letters it  reads DIVE BAR! 

Walking in the place you get instant rush of the perfect bar, dark, cold and with decor including  a full stand up bar guitar on the wall, guitars, skull and cross flags and the posters you’d  expect in a dive bar. The bar is located on the left with an Elvis lamp and past band sticker  everywhere, and to the right is a stage big enough for Led Zeppelin.  

The bathrooms are clean and what you’d might expect from a more expensive casino. The bar  is scattered with video poker machines and the loud jukebox screams The Sex Pistols just loud  enough to be enjoyable. The place is cold, which is a great surprise considering the 100 degree  weather outside and the bar stools and table tops are comfortable.  

Smoking, drinking, dancing, gambling are all par for the course in the heaven of a hidden gem  dive bar. The best I’ve ever seen, and that’s saying a lot since my band, The Buzzz.. has toured  the world! 

Seeking the owner/manager, I’m lucky enough to meet Angie, a tattooed, sandy blonde beauty  with the body of a Goddess. Her bf/husband/beau/partner, Nate is sitting on a bar stool next to  her. A big bearded handsome guy with, what the Beatles would sing from the Abbey Road  album “He’s got to be good looking cause he’s so hard to see.”  

BZ: “I’m looking to write a club review, I write for Lost Anarchy Magazine. I love your bar, can I  interview you and write a club review,..if you have ten minutes? 

Angie/AG: I’ve got about ten minutes I can spare, will that be enough time? BZ: So, how long has this dive bar been in business? 

AG: For over twenty years at this same location! Don’t you need a pen and paper to conduct  this interview? 

BZ: No! I’ve been doing this for years and I have an excellent memory! Can you name some of  the bands that have performed on your stage? 

AG: Of course I can, hundreds of rock/punk bands, too many to mention, Fear, Voxx, Lucifer,  Noise Complaint, Turbo Lover, Das Clowns, GOB Patrol, Three Bad Jacks, Liquid Red, Crash  Karma, Unhinged, Bong, Circuit Benders,…the list goes on and on!  

BZ: Nick Mars, of Motley Crue has a dive bar in Florida named Dr. Feelgood’s, is it true you  were going to name this club Diver Down after Van Halen’s second album, but you shortened  it? 

AG: No, it has always been named The Dive Bar. 

BZ: What is this place best known for? 

AG: Except for the loud rock and roll, I’d say, the $4 16 ounce PBR and the best pizza in town,  We have an Italian restaurant right through that back door! Not to mention smokin’ drinkin’  gamblin’ dancin’ and basically a great dark dive bar.

BZ: The Buzzz… has played here three times now, do you remember any of the songs in the  set?  

NT (Nate): I like “Party at the Dive Bar,” and of course “Pizza and Beer!” 

BZ: Ha! The perfect segway.. You, or should we say, your establishment, has the best pizza in  town! I should know, I’m a self professed pizza expert having worked at Domino’s for years.  Your Italian restaurant menu is fantastic! And the prices are more than reasonable. 

NT: I’m glad you like it. We have tasty chicken wings, great hamburgers and a complete menu,  plus we’re open late!  

BZ: Your decor is fantastic. Is there a story behind that piano? 

NT: Liberace played the piano and it is rumored the ghost of Elvis haunts the place.  BZ: Is this the home of any celebrities you can name, besides the ghost of Elvis? 

NT: Ron Jeremy hosted a Christmas event for years, Sebastian Bach hangs out here and Mark  Wahlberg has been seen gambling, plus Kid Rock has been known to visit when he’s in town,  or so the rumor goes. 

BZ: What are your best nights? 

NT: That depends on the booking, but as is typical with most drinking/gambling establishments  the weekends pack the place. But, since this is Las Vegas, and millions of tourists visit here  every week, the week nights can be epic, even on a Tuesday night.  

BZ: Is this place open 24/7? 

NT: That was the original idea, but we close sometimes, depending upon the circumstances. 

BZ: I can’t get over your ice cold beer specials or your pizzas. A 16 inch one topping pizza for  pick up for $16.99? That amazing! 

NT: I’d call it a loss leader of sorts, not a lot of people pick up the pizza and leave with it. Once  a customer orders the pizza, they tend to stay, smoking and gambling. Repeat business is the  golden goose of retail establishments.  

BZ: Is cigar smoking allowed? 

NT: Fuck yeah! We have an excellent ventilation system. And, it’s still a little bit of the wild west,  none of that California rules and state closing of bars at 1:30 bullshit! 

BZ: I’ve been to/played other dive bars in this town, but this is my favorite. Any trade secrets? 

AG: They’re called trade secrets for a reason! They’re secret! But, the key is to attract and keep  sexy ladies. Once the the ladies discover this place, the guys will follow. Keep the bathrooms,  immaculate, give them great service and make sure the bands play dance music. 

BZ: OK, thanks for your time. Is there any other things you want my readers (mostly from LA) to  know about your dive bar?

AG: We’ve got the best AC units of any club, we book the best bands, and we have the best  Pizza and Beer. You’ll have a late night experience that will bring you back for more! 

BZ: You threw in that Pizza and Beer plug just to make me happy, didn’t you? AG: Maybe, maybe not! 

Las Vegas, the top travel destination in the world! Sure, millions of people visit the strip, the  casinos and Fremont Street, but if you want a real experience you’ll never forget, with nice  bartenders, rockin’ live music, great food and a sexy crowd, don’t visit Las Vegas without a  stop at The Dive Bar, the perfect combination of original rock bands, cover bands with a  sprinkle of tribute bands. You want hard drinks, a fun time and of course, Pizza and Beer? The  Dive Bar is your kind of club.

Now that fall is quickly approaching, it is time to dive into the topic of this year’s summer heavy metal festivals that happened…or not. One very missed festival that the US was putting on for years until the pandemic forced its rath on to it, is Psychofest, Las Vegas. This was 4 days of rolling out of the hotel bed, taking the elevator downstairs to the casino where there were four or five stages of metal to explore, including the pool stage. Dubbed the “luxury” festival because it is mostly indoors away from the brutal August heat, moshpits in pools were allowed, and you’re basically living in the festival with a shower and bed instead of a tent and some mud.

Sadly, festivals of this caliber, specifically in the US, are not without their problems. For one, after four days of smoke filled Casino dry air, your vocals turn to a shriveled up, scratchy throated old man level. Psychofest did have a great mix of metal genres from black metal to stoner metal, along with alternative sounds such as psychedelic rock and hip hop, to name a few. Normally, festivals with schizophrenic lineups have problems with fights or just difficulty avoiding the lame bands swimming in between the good bands. Psychofest was all love, and metalheads taking over an entire casino for a weekend was a comical adventure for the normies. Tragically and official to this year, Psychofest is no more. There are many factors as to why, but it definitely has to do with it not being cost effective anymore. This, in turn, is due to the greedy mongers that are taking huge fees for literally everything, and now are replacing these types of fests with the new money grab trend of throwing one day cram fests with over 40 bands from your favorite decade spread across too many stages in heat stroke inspiring weather. The exorbitant fees of getting European bands over here, among other issues, have destroyed the small but mighty fun festivals so that all metalheads can no longer have fun at well put on festivals in the US.

Now, let’s discuss another decent festival that is also in the US that, in this particular year, was a shitshow with how it was run. Maryland Deathfest is always a great lineup of extreme metal from the US and all over the world. This year, the original lineup featured England’s gothic doom band My Dying Bride. Then, due to some unforeseen circumstances with the band, they couldn’t make it happen. The lineup still had some greats, including Aura Noir, Primordial, Archgoat, Bloodbath, etc. The problem here was that you had to pay ridiculous prices to see all bands at all of the stages, even for one day. You could buy a day pass that only gives a person access to 2 of the 5 stages and a cool local bar, Angel’s Rock Bar, that sits within the festival grounds. Then, on top of that nonsense, you have to cross a large street intersection to get to two of the 5 stages. This involves drunk metalheads playing in traffic, annoying the locals, locals annoying metalheads, and nonsensical suffering at the outdoor stages because they were not allowed to take any beverages, including water from one side of the street to the other. Of course, the bands were one after another from one side of the street to the other, not to mention all the overlaps. So, either slam it, stay dehydrated, or miss a band were the only real options.

The location is part of the problem, despite it being cool back in the day to be close to the harbor and right in the heart of the city of Baltimore. Now, Baltimore is, unfortunately, a shithole in most areas, and the backdrop of this area is a dilapidated, half wrecking ball destructed building that could ironically be a great backdrop for a death metal album cover. As someone who doesn’t follow rules blindly, I opted to ask the festival security organizers why we had to do this. At the end of the day, city liquor laws or not, they got at least 3 times the money on booze than they would have if we could carry our drinks around the fest like modern civilized adults. Even at Psychofest, in the city where you can drink on the streets and in an Uber legally, they kept toying with telling the festival attendees that they couldn’t bring their liquids from one venue to the next which we’re all inside the same goddamn casino!

Like the open-minded and forgiving person I am, I’ve already planned to go to MDF next year. This time, all venues are included, and the price, at least for a 4 day American festival, is acceptable. The lineup being “too damn good” gets me every time. That’s why sheeple flock to these “While We Were Young,” “Sick New World,” and friends’ one day slam cram festivals to, by default, make rich, greedy, all gendered business people successful at the expense of the bands and fans. They get good lineups and cash in on the old acts that, some of which, are on their last legs. They overcharge for everything and don’t ever think about what would make fans more comfortable during the grueling experience of running around in high heat for 20 min sets, and with not enough water or shade available. They know the older fans probably can afford the insane VIP prices that are the only way to almost enjoy the experience without 50 plus year olds dropping dead like flies.

So, having experienced this festival treatment for years, I’ve branched out to at least one European festival per year lately. It has changed my life for the better. In Europe, the festival grounds are usually much more appropriate and accommodating to the needs of the fest attendees. Everything is spaced out well, not too far apart, and in a tranquil location. Then, there is the fact that the organizers think about the peoples’ comfort and well-being, which in turn draws more crowds and more peace in general. This year was my 2nd time at my favorite festival Steelfest, in Finland, which is primarily all black metal for 3 days. It’s 2 stages that you can walk to and from in less than 3 minutes, plus no bands overlap set times. There are also large picnic benches conveniently placed at both the indoor and outdoor stages to sit, rest, and socialize. There are plenty of bartenders, bathrooms, food, cool merch, shade, and amazing bands to calmly entertain yourself with. If there were any downside to this absolutely peaceful festival, it would be that they tend to run out of most hard liquor the last 2 or 3 hours of the last day of the festival. This probably is because everyone has more fun than anticipated, and drinks are normally priced for Finland rates. They don’t charge too much for the festival itself either. It’s run so well that one day I brought a zip lock bag of supplements into the fest by accident, and security wondered if I was selling drugs. I explained, and he held on to that bag all day and gave it back as I left late that evening. In America I’d probably be escorted out in handcuffs with my vitamins confiscated as if it were crack.

Consideration for others, quality of life, and treating others how you wish to be treated is the real key to success at these festivals. More happy metalheads can also lead to more money and more pleasantries for everyone involved. Just because America has some idiotic laws that are pure biased and subjective, it doesn’t mean that festival organizations can’t think about the human basic needs to make everyone experience something 100% positive. Live music is the best therapy, and it would be nice to enjoy a 4 day binge of it without the bullshit and chaos. Get it together, USA, and I’ll see you in the pit!!!