The excellent buildup of “Angels on the Moon,” starts with the piano/guitar combination of Scott Jason and Drew Cribley, respectively, and builds into the soaring chorus, “Don’t tell me if I’m dieing, cause I don’t want to know… Don’t wake me if I’m dreaming, of angels on the moon.” The songs were mostly of that nature, with a penchant for the over-dramatic and cinematic.

While most of the songs were mid-tempo ballads, there were some more upbeat numbers such as “Twilight,” which felt like a much better fit for the Art Bar crowd. Actually the only real problem I could find with Thriving Ivory’s performance (aside from the technical difficulties at the beginning of the set) was the fact they belong at a more straight-forward music venue, rather than a punk-rock dive-bar. Otherwise, for an unsigned rock band, I was surprised at the tightness of their overall performance. I’ve found myself listening to their CD quite a few times in the days following the show, and would not be shocked to hear that they end up landing a solid opening tour gig with a band like the aforementioned Keane or The Fray.

The rest of the show ranged from the equally excellent, to the disappointingly awful. The odd thing is that the bands weren’t all booked together, and were victim of double-booking (something that does tend to happen quite often at these bar-type shows). The Thriving Ivory “show” also included The Hanks from Los Angeles and Dirty Sweet from San Diego. Later in the evening were two other bands which I’d rather not go into, as they were so ridiculously bad I found myself mocking them in their little faux-mosh pit (well really the very last one wasn’t that bad, but not really good either).

The Hanks, the opening act of the evening, were unfortunately nothing special. Their emo-vocals really were not a good fit for the crowd at the Art Bar, and the generic punk-rock music wasn’t really very appropriate either. Most hipsters wouldn’t want to admit that they probably listened to a lot of pop-punk when they were younger, so bringing that sound back to them isn’t really the best idea. Luckily, Dirty Sweet, who played after Thriving Ivory, was a really good garage rock band. The two adjectives in the band’s name are perfect words for describing their music. The guitar riffs in songs like “Baby Come Home,” are perfect driving classic hard-rock.

It’s too bad I stuck around for those last two bands, because, aside from the average showing of opening act The Hanks, both Thriving Ivory and Dirty Sweet put on a great show. I’d definitely recommend checking out either of these two bands on their next trek through Las Vegas, as neither seemed to be the kind of group that’s going to be stopping anytime soon.