Bit to Do

For their first visit to Kentucky, the three gents of The Real Nasty made quick friends in Louisville when they played at Uncle Slayton's Wednesday evening - after a quick dinner at Molly Malone's in the Highlands.  The Real Nasty is on tour from Oakland, California in support of their third release, Dirty Dollars.  

For this tour, The Real Nasty brought on a new drummer, Brian Huston with his full kit.  With a new drummer, a new album, and a tour the cues could get a little off, yet the guys communicated well on stage and unless you looked for it, the cues were subtle.  Jacob Groopman (guitar) used his guitar neck to help Brian with the changes while Ryan (bass/vocals) made eye contact to note any changes. 

The hour long set opened with the title single, "Dirty Dollars", that talks about the reasons for playing music, "I don't play for no damn whiskey, Lord knows, I ain't know fool. I don't need your dirty dollars, I am just playing to get to you."  "Dirty Dollars" includes sharp descending scales on the stand up bass with accompanying guitar.  

Dirty Dollars is focused on rock n' roll sounds and with that, the songs are upbeat with prominent guitar in all, yet Ryan's bass is as strong or weak as it needs to be to make the song.  The Real Nasty filled Uncle Slayton's with sounds from all three releases including "No Big Deal" from the 2010 Strangers and Friends, a rock song with a punk music base.  The Real Nasty is versatile, changing from rock to country to blues, jazz, and funk.  The concept may sound weird, but the music sounds great. 

The single "Hey Pretty Baby" gives more of a hard rock sound, but brings an obvious blues influence.  Mid-set, Ryan Lukas switched to his Fender bass for "Heartbreaker Blues", which is heavily influenced with blues and jazz.  The Fender bass remained for "Whiskey Breakfast" that slowed the pace of the music with a funk feel and crisp percussion.  The lyrics were spoken and clear about, "the sweet stink of liquor on my tongue"; a funny song. The Real Nasty closed their set with "Like Yo Body", a harder rock with strong percussion, on point guitar, and Ryan's voice doing it justice.

Ryan, Jacob, and Brian were very animated while on stage and as friendly as could be.  Everyone at Uncle Slayton's were dancing, tapping their foot, and waiting patiently for the after show autographs.  All the info on The Real Nasty including a free listed to Dirty Dollars is available at http://deli.therealnasty.com/dirty-dollars.  

As soon as the tour wraps, the boys are headed back to the studio to release another album, their fourth in as many years under Ninth Street Opus Records.  Both Ryan and Jacob liked the "vibe" in Louisville and are certainly going to stop here on their next tour.