Jeff Young Group and Special Guests Invade the Backstage Bar!

Jeff Young Group played Backstage Bar and Billiards Friday, July 18, 2025, with support acts At Odds!, Paradise Vultures, Byron Nemeth, and Cowgirls From Hell. The show was put on by Christopher Engel’s Rockin’ Red Promotions.

In the late 1980s, guitarist Jeff Young was thrust into the spotlight when he played guitar on Megadeth’s seminal 1988 album, SO FAR, SO GOOD… SO WHAT!. While he only appeared on one album by the band, it was the one that spawned one of Deth’s most memorable songs, “In My Darkest Hour.”

Mr. Young has kept busy over the years, including uniting with former Megadeth members David Ellefson and Chris Poland for Kings of Thrash, a band that paid tribute to those glorious heavy metal days. And his musical exploits haven’t stopped there! I was certainly curious to see Young take to the stage again, and in recent months, he made the announcement he’d be performing downtown at the Backstage Bar and Billiards with the Jeff Young Group!

With the recent closure of Count’s Vamp’d, my favorite rock/metal venue, I’ve certainly had to look around town for other spots that put on rock and metal shows. I tend to avoid downtown Las Vegas, and as such, this was my first time in the Backstage Bar. Being a downtown spot, reaching it can be a hassle (I ultimately settled for parking at the Golden Nugget and eating dinner to get my parking validated, then walking down by way of the Fremont Street Experience). The room looks great, and it’s a small and intimate environment great for catching a rock show. Unfortunately, the venue allows smoking, which was the one detriment throughout the evening, and something that will prevent this from ever being a place I regularly visit. That said, I wouldn’t have a problem coming back here for occasional once-in-a-blue-moon gigs.

Before I get into the actual band performances, there is one caveat I do need to address. While all of the musicians performing here were great, there were simply too many bands, and too late of a start time to accommodate this many. The doors to BBB opened at 7:00 PM, with the first band taking the stage at 8:00 PM, an hour later. Because of the number of the bands, the show didn’t end until nearly 1:15 AM! Even our headliner for the evening, Jeff Young, wasn’t on stage until around midnight! One thing I will give credit here for – the times between sets were fairly short, which was helped by Rockin’ Red’s Christopher Engel doing raffles for prizes that included gift certificates, show tickets, and T-shirts for the artists performing.

Kicking off the evening was At Odds!. Other than Jeff Young, the evening’s headliner, none of the acts on this evening were ones I’d ever seen before. Right from the moment they took the stage, these guys won me over with a raw, energetic punky sound that was quite refreshing. For sheer energy, these guys get top marks. They even rotated members out a few times during the show, with everyone bringing their A-game. While the set was largely consistent of originals, they threw in covers of songs by Face to Face and Bad Religion for good measure. Here’s hoping I get to catch these guys again in the coming months!

Up second was Paradise Vultures. These guys score points for completely defying the conventions of how many people you need to have a rock band. As a general rule, you need at least three people: A guitarist, a bassist, a drummer, and at least one of them to sing. Paradise Vultures gives the finger to conventions, literally only consisting of a drummer and a bassist/vocalist, with the latter individual playing his bass like a lead guitar and filling the room with his sound. I love when a band thinks outside the box, and this set was one of the pleasant surprises of the evening.

The third act of the evening with guitarist Byron Nemeth. While I’ve known Mr. Nemeth from around the music scene for a few years now, this was my first time hearing him do a live show. Better late than never, right? While the first two acts of the night I’d place more in the punk/alternative domain, Lord Byron definitely hearkens back to the glory days of 70s classic rock guitar heroes. Backed by a talented band of musicians, Nemeth delivered a killer set reminiscent of classic rock’s glory days. While mostly original tunes made up the setlist, a cover of David Bowie’s “Moonage Daydream” was thrown in for good measure. I’m always looking to see what this guy is up to… let’s hope he hits the stage again soon!

The fourth band playing was Cowgirls From Hell, an all-female Pantera tribute band. Another major surprise of this evening came in the form of these beautiful young ladies, who were every bit as hard and heavy as the real band. Their vocalist definitely left an impact, able to surprisingly well pay homage to Phil Anselmo’s singing style. They had a great chemistry with one another and clearly love playing together. It was especially surprising and delightful to see them dig into the vault and not simply relegate themselves to playing the hits; there were a surprising amount of deeper cuts! Pantera music is always a good thing, especially on a live stage, and these girls know what they’re doing, both for the more casual fans and the die-hards.

Headlining the evening, of course, was Jeff Young! This was my first time seeing the guitarist perform since the Kings of Thrash show over at The Space three years ago, which was certainly one of my favorite gigs of recent years. Due to scheduling conflicts, drummer Lonny Pasillas wasn’t at the gig as originally advertised, but Mr. Young found a suitable fill-in in the form of his Kings of Thrash bandmate, Fred Aching! Also in the band are bassist Gabriel Connor, and vocalist Kayla Dixon (although Jeff himself sang many of the songs during the set). Around midnight, Young took the stage wielding a guitar that paid homage to the late great Eddie Van Halen.

Given Young’s extensive history that covers several different bands and sounds, I was curious to see what the set would consist of, as I’m sure many people in the room this night were. What we got was an amazing set of tunes, spanning everything from cover tunes to originals. Young assembled an amazing ensemble of musicians to bring these songs to life, with some of the biggest highlights being the moments where Kayla Dixon took the mic. Why had I never heard of this young lady before? She belted these tunes out with passion and a powerful voice, including Megadeth’s “In My Darkest Hour,” a tune originally from 1988’s SO FAR, SO GOOD… SO WHAT!, the lone album from their catalogue on which Young was lead guitarist. Dixon did not sing every single song performed on this evening, but the ones where she took center stage certainly left a lasting impression.

Many Jeff Young Group original tunes were played in the evening, making this a great introduction to many of these tunes for folks in the audience who may only know him for Megadeth, or the Megadeth spin-off band Kings of Thrash. The band was firing on all cylinders from the originals to the cover tunes, including Young cutting loose on a cover of Ozzy Osbourne’s classic 1983 anthem, “Bark at the Moon” (this show happened just a few days before Osbourne’s death), and the grand finale, a cover of Ted Nugent’s 1975 hit, “Stranglehold.” Did I mention they even managed to work in an Aerosmith deep cut? There was never a dull moment, and it’s good to see Mr. Young is still going strong, with a killer band a great assortment of music. No one in this crowd was disappointed.

Other than booking too many bands and the running time going far later than it needed to (let’s start two hours earlier next time or book one fewer band!), this was a fantastic evening with Jeff Young and guests at the Backstage Bar, both local and from out-of-state. There was plenty of diverse talent rocking the stage, and I look forward to seeing these artists in action again soon in Sin City.

PHOTO CREDIT: Live photos by Taylor T. Carlson for ZRockR Magazine – (c) 2025 – All Rights Reserved.