The revered punk and candlepins festival Punk Rock Bowling celebrated its twenty-fifth birthday this year at the Downtown Las Vegas Event Center, featuring Cock Sparrer, Peter Hook and the Light (New Order/Joy Division), and Social Distortion.
The event this year was branded as the twenty-fifth anniversary. That’s a little bit of a stretch, but close enough, I guess. It has been a music festival proper for at least fifteen years, and has changed and expanded in many ways, including pool parties, club shows, the bowling tournament, of course, and, in 2025, a poker tournament. We got to see Youth Brigade perform this year, and that was special for the anniversary as the Stewart brothers are festival founders. The Damned also made an appearance in 2025 – they were reportedly at the very first gathering in 1999 before the event was an actual music festival, so there is a notable callback. As usual, there was a fun, festive atmosphere at PRB, twenty-five years or not.
You can’t not say something about the thermometer when you are in the desert and it isn’t winter. Woe is me, I returned to Las Vegas to stew in the blazing heat for three days in May again this year. I know it is childish to complain about it because I didn’t have to go – it is not like I didn’t know it was going to be hot. I have to say, though, every time, even though you know it is coming, the heat is like a lava hammer to the face. It wears you down each day as the hours pass, and across the weekend it accumulates. The good news is that all the while, there is a great soundtrack to your demise.
This year, forty-two bands played during the festival, plus a couple dozen more were deployed to club shows before, during, and after the main event. That is a lot to take in. For the most part, as expected, they were punk or ska bands. There were a couple of wild cards along the way as well, like Amigo The Devil and Power Trip, just to keep you on your toes.
Punk Rock Bowling takes place on the Memorial Day weekend, running from Saturday to Monday, which is a little weird, given that most festivals start on Thursday or Friday. The more important point is the three-day duration, a much more comfortable situation than four, certainly. Each day, there were fourteen bands, seven each on the two stages. No set times overlapped, so every attendee could see and hear the full set of every band. I like this characteristic most about PRB, and other festivals like Punk In The Park that also preserve the ideal. Larger affairs with one hundred fifty bands across five or six stages present more than you could hear, forcing you to miss out on music at the very festival you are attending. I have always thought that was bizarre. At Punk Rock Bowling, it is not an issue.
Attendance was very uneven across the three days of the festival in 2025. The biggest crowd was on Saturday, by far, with the crowds being visibly smaller on the other two days. I guess that means there were more Cock Sparrer fans in Las Vegas over the weekend than followers of Social Distortion or Peter Hook. The lineup overall was weaker than last year, if you asked me, but of course, that kind of remark really depends on which bands the speaker likes, and everyone would have a different opinion. All the bands were great, but I did miss some of my favorites that I had hoped would be on the bill. That’s true of every festival.
This year, I stayed at The Golden Nugget, which is literally across the street from the Downtown Las Vegas Event Center. It is the smartest move for going to this festival, I must say – it is so easy to come and go, and you are one block from Freemont Street, if that’s your thing. The Golden Nugget might be a tick up from average for downtown hotels, which are generally dingier and less polished than those on the strip. I have been spending a lot more time in downtown Las Vegas since the pandemic, and I have come to prefer it to the flashier alternative on Las Vegas Boulevard. For one thing, there is so much more variety at an easy walking distance – no need for a car. It is also a little bit less expensive, although long gone are the days of truly cheap rooms, food, and booze. Anymore, I don’t even look at casinos and hotels on the strip when I think about going to Las Vegas. Another plus for Punk Rock Bowling.
So, on Saturday, all I had to do was walk across the street and head one block to the festival entrance at 3rd Street and Carson Avenue. There was a goodly wait at the box office in the blazing sun for the usual confusion over press credentials, and that was a brutal start to the festival, but you only have to do it once. I didn’t notice any major slowdown on fans getting in, and that was fortunate for all concerned.
Inside the Downtown Las Vegas Event Center, there is an installed permanent stage that serves as the main stage, and the second stage was set up again this year at the intersection of 3rd Street and Bridger Avenue. Even with the crowd, it is no more than a two-minute walk between stages, so you can easily catch all the action. There were two VIP areas that were quite nice, with shade and coolers. The real service to fans, though, was the large shaded GA area – an enormous marquee with water-cooled fans. There were even large, air-conditioned bathrooms in GA, something I have not seen at any other music festival. The weather was a bit cooler this year, staying in the nineties, whereas last year it was triple digits every day. Even in such moderated conditions, you appreciate the shaded marquee and AC bathrooms as the afternoon wears on. I usually ducked into the shaded areas between sets because there was no press tent or accommodations at all for the media. On the first day, some of the press could get into a couple of exclusive areas, but that was whittled down on day two and closed off entirely on day three.
The big event was Cock Sparrer closing day one, and I was frankly stunned at just how many fans of the band showed up. The place was packed, and the crowd sang along to many songs. They are seminal in the punk scene, starting out in London in 1972, and I was absolutely delighted to see them perform. They sounded great and were much appreciated by the fans.
There was a pleasant flurry of old school bands on the first day, including the previously alluded to Youth Brigade, along with the Cockney Rejects (with Jeff Geggus shadow boxing the entire time), and the A Clockwork Orange-inspired The Addicts. PRB is very good about respecting the roots of punk. My favorite undercard players were Shitfire, a rambunctious band from Kentucky, and Lambrini Girls, a UK band that gave a great show and had a lot to say from the stage as well. Saturday was also Power Trip day. I love this band, and they had quite a few fans in the crowd, although metal is not the primary aural intoxicant for the majority of attendees. It was a good day, and a good start.
I woke up on Sunday with a blazing headache that I attributed to dehydration – I don’t drink alcohol or take drugs when I am working a festival. I do drink coffee and smoke cigarettes, though, and it might have been the latter that was chiseling my brain on god’s day, because I only smoke when I am at music festivals, and so it is initially a shock to my system. Las Vegas is a very tobacco-friendly place, which is another thing I like about it.
The big draw on Sunday early in the day was Codefendants. I had never seen them before, and so I discovered for the first time what a compelling spectacle they can create on stage. They are a new band started by the towering figures of no less than Fat Mike, Ceschi, and Sam King. The buzz was loud and sustained. There was also a lot of energy with Laura Jane Grace (Against Me!) & The Mississippi Medicals, a band I hadn’t heard of before, who held the crowd in their hands. I was most excited to see The Interrupters, because they are so much fun, filled as they are with the genuine spirit of entertainment and goodwill. They were fantastic. The day was closed out by Peter Hook & The Light, a band that did not want any media attention.
Monday seemed subdued. The heat had taken a lot out of me by the final day, and I am disappointed to admit that I got to the festival grounds a couple hours after the gates opened, which is quite unusual for as I typically rattle the barricades with the other early risers. Not this time.
There were four stand-out acts on Monday from my point of view. The Bridge City Sinners were one, and they were among the more flamboyant of the acts to take the main stage. Their music is a kind of rip-snorting roots/folk approach that resembles the Squirrel Nut Zippers in a way, but is harsher and more derelict. They played a club show as well, and since I missed out on that, I was especially happy to see them at the festival. The Damned returned as the only original player from the first PRB to make an appearance, and they were slick and smooth as always. FLAG stepped in to remind us of how important Black Flag continues to be to punk and hardcore. There is a long and complex history between Black Flag and FLAG, which I am not going to go into, except to say the FLAG was playing a kind of reunion show of its own at PRB.
Closing the second stage was Amigo the Devil, a Dark Folk / murder-folk singer. He appeared solo at this festival, which is the way I am used to seeing him. He stepped out on stage with a banjo and acknowledged right away how odd it was for him to be at a punk festival, then he gave an amazing performance. He is going to be performing at Muddy Roots in August in Cookeville, Tennessee, a festival that is more in his natural habitat. I am passively considering going down there just to see him again. The final notes of the festival went to Social Distortion, another band that shunned the press and so I will respect their wishes by not saying more.
(Editor’s note: please donate to Amigo the Devil’s GoFundMe here.)
One of the biggest takeaways from the event this year is how political it was. Punks are anti-establishment and always political. This year, it was turned up to ten-plus. Palestine came up a lot, and of course, the seething hatred of Trump was palpable continuously. Vocal dissent was not welcomed, but if you keep your opinions to yourself, you can listen to the music and get along. I am on the left myself, so I was with the crowd and the bands. I can say that my experiences at metal festivals in the south have often been uncomfortable when the shouting and chanting move toward the right, and I start to feel like maybe I shouldn’t be in the middle of tens of thousands of people who seem to have a strong opinion different from mine. PRB is not that big, but there were a few thousand people in attendance. More importantly, though, the crowd in Las Vegas was not at all hostile. You would have to be out there to raise their ire. There was one report of a guy wearing an offensive t-shirt who was moved along; I didn’t see that happen myself. Overall, the festival and the people who attended it were friendly, kind, and welcoming.
I left Las Vegas at one o’clock in the morning less than three hours after the music stopped at Punk Rock Bowling. I had to get to Indianapolis for the waning Baroness Red & Blue Tour the following day, then on to Chicago for Casket Robbery the next day. It was quite a stretch. I am glad I went to PRB this year, even if it was a bit of a let down compared to earlier years, because this was really the last year I could go, so the alternative was to miss out altogether. I had a great time, music-wise. You have to bucket-list Punk Rock Bowling if you have never been, or better yet, put in your regular festival rotation. It is an experience like no other.
Get info on PRB 2026 here:
https://punkrockbowling.com/
WORDS AND PHOTOS BY WAYNE EDWARDS
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