Nico Vega

One Liner:  Riff-heavy rock and roll featuring the funny dude from Ant-Man

Wikipedia Genre:  Alternative rock

Home: L.A.

Poster Position: 20
Weekend One Only.
Saturday at 1:25.

Miller Lite Stage.

Thoughts:  Weird name for a full on band.  It apparently comes from the band's original drummer's mother's maiden name.  Which, isn't really all that cool?  Makes it sound like this is going to be a dude singing in Spanish.  Instead, this is pretty legit rock and roll - kind of a lesser White Stripes vibe with a power lady singer cranking over the top.  The best part, to me, is when the guitars get some fat riffage going on, like in "Living Underground," about half way through, which just grabbed me out of my work and made me come write this sentence.

I am also just going to pause here to note that I wrote the above paragraph while listening to them and before I figured out who their famous member is.

The lead singer, Aja Volkman, grew up in Eugene, Oregon writing songs before moving to L.A. to start making music on her own.  After a show in 2005, Mike Pena (who is a relatively famous actor in things like Ant Man and Crash and Jack Ryan) approached her to see if she would agree to sing for a band.  The band was named after his mother.  But shortly thereafter, he left the band to focus on acting (being that Crash had just won Best Picture, that would make sense!) and his family.  They hired a new drummer and kept at it.  They fell apart in 2020, but in 2023 Pena rejoined the band and they announced new music.  Will be odd with two drummers, but whatever.  FAMOUS PERSON ALERT!

2009's Nico Vega is pretty rad - I am enjoying it right now - but did not get all that many streams for anything.  Top track is the pop-punk-y "Gravity" with 1.7 million streams.

The start of that video is intense as hell.  I jumped when fatty McGee punched her in the face.  Their 2013 EP called Fury Oh Fury features their top streamer - "Beast" - with 15 million streams.

Hear that White Stripes-ian guitar under her wailing vocals?  Righteous.  That chorus bit will be imminently sing-a-long-able with those woah-ooo-aahh-oooohs.  And their second-most streamed is a Cher cover that appears to be from a soundtrack for a Bonnie and Clyde remake.  You might remember it from Kill Bill's opening sequence - not their version, but this song.  "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)"  8.5 million streams.

The first half has a definite different feel than the rest of their catalog, but then the riffage kicks in and they're back.  I've offered more music from them than normal for sure, but I am enjoying this.  One more - the new 2024 single called "$5".  Released March 22 and 80k streams so far.

Looks like Mike is on bass now.  Which is probably just fine, as that drummer jams.  Mike just needs to keep it basic and show his face a lot.  Also, I think I'd want more than $5 to let you go.  But yeah, still pretty solid.  Weekend Two only though?!?!  Say it ain't so!