The Littlest Man Band Brought Their “March of Ides Tour” to Red Dwarf in Las Vegas on Friday, March 3rd, 2023

LAS VEGAS, NV – The Littlest Man Band brought their “March of Ides Tour” to Red Dwarf in Las Vegas last Friday with Salt Lake City punk band Wicked Bears joining them for the ride and Vegas-based pop-punk trio Crimson Riot doing the honors of opening the show.

This show was one of the most crowded shows I have seen at Red Dwarf so far, and that’s a huge compliment to not only the touring bands, but also to Crimson Riot for being such a positive supporting band. They have been involved in the Vegas rock scene for years (and visitors to Vegas might know them better as The Roxy Gunn Project which is their cover band alterego).

They kicked the night off with about 8 songs from memory that all had energy and the patrons loved it, but as the crowd is mostly over 30, they did NOT take bass player Chris Reject’s advice to start “the smallest circle pit in the world.” I guess as Shakira would say in this instance, “OLD hips don’t lie.”

That aside, their set was fun, engaging, and if you are a fan of drinking with a band, singer/guitarist Roxy Gunn has her own special toast that the band and crowd will drink to as well.

Their music actually reminded me of the style of music that I played a lot of when I was younger and big into the pop-punk scene. Even the solos that Gunn ripped out seemed so familiar to me that I almost had a body-switching moment.

They are a great band to get a party going. So, if you see them on a bill in town, make sure to hit that show up for a fun time.

Next up was one of my personal favorite new bands out there, the punk band Wicked Bears. They are quirky, have comedic lyrics about melancholy topics, and they are fun as hell to watch live.

Singer/bassist Casey Keele often throws in some dry humor during his between-song banter, and is particularly keen to throw in a weird face to help exaggerate the subject matter of one of the songs.

And, let me just say this about their songs, if you are a fan of incredibly well-crafted lyrics that are only clever in the words but also in keeping a great balance of humor and seriousness (think of “The Daily Show” or “Last Week Tonight” with John Oliver in song form), then you will love this band.

Not all of their songs are about current events or society necessarily. Some of them are just about very specific memories or an absurd thought.

This is a band that I can see becoming a festival favorite in the near future if they get that opportunity.

Lastly, The Littlest Man Band took over the stage, literally! 

For those who don’t know, the Red Dwarf has a stage that is about 15 ft by 15ft (not sure the exact dimensions), but TLMB has 7 members in the band which includes 3 horn players. So, while it is physically impossible to get that many people on one stage, TLMB made it work.

The band is spearheaded by Scott Klopfenstein who many fans will know him as the former trumpet player/backup vocals/sometimes guitarist of the legendary ska band Reel Big Fish, and they have an eclectic and unique presence that puts them right up there with bands like RBF.

Any fan of ska or just a good time will enjoy a show from The Littlest Man Band, and the setlist is filled with songs that you can dance along to even if you don’t know the words or have never heard the song before.

At the end of the set, the crowd pleaded for an encore, and Klopfenstein had mentioned that they didn’t prepare any more songs as a full band. So, he busted out a request to play “Coconut” by Harry Nilsson which, if that song doesn’t seem familiar to you, it’s the song that goes, “You put the lime in the coconut, you drank them both up.”

Wicked Bears guitarist, Nick Fleming had mentioned to me afterwards that it was essentially a callback to him playing the song on his Twitch channel recently.

A charming and intimate way to end a very entertaining night of great music all around.