Pretty Boy Floyd, D’Molls, American Jetset – Rock and Roll Sets the Night on Fire at Vamp’d!

Pretty Boy Floyd, D’Molls, and American Jetset played Count’s Vamp’d on Friday, June 7, 2024.

Danny “The Count” and Korie Koker continue to book the best acts in the land to play Vamp’d, the premier rock house in Sin City! On Friday, June 7, audiences were treated to a triple threat with not one, not two, but three killer bands.

Opening the evening was the one group of the three of whom I wasn’t familiar, American Jetset. The group certainly draws heavily from glam and sleaze rock heroes of yesteryear like Ratt, Warrant, and Faster Pussycat, but certainly puts a more modern edge on things. The band’s vocalist and guitarist, Ian Kaine MacGregor, even has a vocal style reminiscent of Faster Pussycat’s Taime Downe, which I do mean in the best of ways. Coming out the gate with all guns blazing, they quickly won over the crowd, with many of whom like me in attendance likely being unfamiliar with the band’s work. I do love when a band draws on classic influences and puts their own modern spin on it all, and American Jetset did it effortlessly. I’ll certainly be adding some of their work to my collection in the near future!

Second on the bill was D’Molls. Like American Jetset, I’d never seen D’Molls live, though I had been aware of the band’s work. The Chicago-based band released their self-titled debut in 1988, featuring the minor hit “D’Stroll.” In their heyday, the group even featured ex-Diamond Rexx guitarist SS Priest. Though the band disbanded in the early 1990s after the release of their second album, the band reformed around 2018, although vocalist/guitarist Desi Rexx is the sole remaining classic member.

I will admit that I like all the D’Molls music I’ve heard (which is admittedly fairly little), and I wasn’t totally sure what to expect coming to their gig. My familiarity is mainly limited to the song “D’Stroll” which gets a decent amount of airplay on Sirius XM’s Hair Nation satellite radio channel, as well as a hits CD I own. But despite the relative lack of familiarity, I was quickly won over by the band members, in particular frontman Desi Rexx. The group has a certain charisma that certainly won me over not long into the set.

The set unsurprisingly consisted of many tracks from that classic 1980 self-titled debut, but the group threw in plenty of other surprises as well, letting each man on the stage shine. A cover of the Tommy James and the Shondells’ classic “Crimson and Clover” was included, featuring Rexx humorously trying to recreate the distorted vocal interlude from the original recording by rubbing his finger against his lip repeatedly; moments like this are a big part of the reason I love live music. Things winded down and the group wrapped things off with their biggest hit, satisfying an enthusiastic crow of rockers.

Closing out the evening was, of course, Pretty Boy Floyd. Formed by vocalist Steve Summers and rocking the Sunset Strip back in their heyday, the bands 1989 debut LEATHER BOYZ WITH ELECTRIC TOYS remains one of the true classics of the genre. Many additional recordings and compilations have surfaced over the years, including a KISS tribute album! Like D’Molls, PBF retains one classic member; its founding frontman.

Pretty Boy Floyd is the only band I saw on this evening that I had seen in the past; they’d most recently played Vamp’d a little over a year ago. The musicians Mr. Summers has assembled for the current version of PBF are all top-notch professionals, as became evident from the killer renditions of these tunes they served up. A camera crew was in front of the stage as well for the first four tracks as well, recording content for Buzz TV.

I’ve seen many bands over the years that intermittently get in the audience’s faces and/or encourage crowd participation, but Steve Summers is that guy who takes this to a whole different level. Multiple times during the show, he came into the crowd, utilizing the space between the stage and crowd, high fiving and fist bumping everyone in sight, getting the room full of rockers pumped. You can tell this guy loves what he does, and it shines through in every performance.

Unsurprisingly, their performance was heavy on cuts from that legendary debut record, including its title cut, “Wild Angels,” “48 Hours,” “I Wanna Be With You,” and “Rock and Roll (Is Gonna Set the Night on Fire).” The group even called some of the D’Molls guys back up to the stage for the finale, which was a cover of KISS’ classic anthem “Rock and Roll All Night.” Steve and company were happy to sign autographs and take pictures with fans following the gig as well.

This was a great night of rock and roll featuring classic and new talent alike. Any fan of live hard rock owes it to themselves to check these bands out in a live setting!