Thousands of people dressed up as Santa Claus, Mrs. Claus, elves, reindeer, penguins, and even Christmas trees decorated with ornaments and lights turned out Saturday, Dec. 10, 2016 for the annual Reno Santa Pub Crawl. Even though it was raining off and on most of the night and pretty cold outside people still turned out. The event seems to get bigger every year, no matter the weather.
The Reno Santa Pub Crawl is the largest Santa pub crawl in the country. As always, it is first and foremost a local charity fundraiser. All proceeds are given to local schools, perhaps because educated kids make better elves.
One of the many stops on the Reno Santa Pub Crawl route was The Rockbar Theater, the venue’s first Santa pub crawl since opening earlier this year. The theater was packed the whole night as five bands rocked the stage, including the Rockbar House Band.
The Rockbar was also lucky to have one of the four hidden reindeer along the crawl route. Crawl participants had to find the reindeer, take a photo with the reindeer, and send it to event officials to be eligible to win prizes.
Scroll down past the photo gallery to read more about the bands that played Rockbar’s Reno Santa Pub Crawl show. Photos by John Tuckness.
The Show
Local rockers Anchors for Airplanes (AFA) headlined Rockbar’s Reno Santa Pub Crawl show. Other bands on the bill included local bands Third Edge and Different Seasons and Sacramento’s Beauty Is Betrayal.
AFA rocked the stage for over an hour and the set list went like this: “House Of Sin”, “As You Wish”, “No Retreat”, “After The Fall”, “Dressed For War”, “Again”, “Life Of A Murder”, “It’s Over Now”, and “The Wicked Mile”.
Current members include Brandon Bianco (lead vocals), Cody Walker (guitar), Wade Tranberg (guitar), Travis Ambrose (bass) and John Wooten (drums).
As they always do, AFA tore it up. The guys really know what their fans expect at their shows and they deliver. Be sure to check out the band’s new CD “Afterglow”, available at their shows or on their website.
Beauty Is Betrayal (BIB) is no stranger to the Reno music scene. BIB got around 45 minutes to rock the house and the set list looked like this: “Point Me Home”, “Nemesis”, “I Am. I Am”, “Holy Water”, “Abel’s Ark”, and “Dark Horse” (Katy Perry Cover).
BIB band members include Bri Cowgil (vocals), Ryan Frost (lead guitar), Kenny Seunarine (rhythm guitar), Katie Hunt (bass) and Sam Daniels (drums). This band has a lot of energy and knows how to rock a stage. They put on a very impressive performance, to say the least.
Reno locals Third Edge took the number two slot and played around 40 minutes. The band’s set list went like this: “Live Or Let Die”, “Supernatural”, “Tribal Rituals”, “Don’t Look Back”, “At The Heart”, “Time Flies By”, “Fret Dirt”, and “T.I.M.E.”.
Band Members include, Steve Harala (lead vocals, guitar), Thaddeus John (bass, backing vocals) and Todd Oldridge (drums). These guys are a true rock band, they knocked the socks off everyone there, including myself. They definitely left the fans wanting more.
Starting the night off was a fairly new Reno band, Different Seasons. The trio put on a well-rehearsed and impressive set that really got the show rolling and the fans ready to rock the whole night. They had just over thirty minutes to showcase their music, and what I saw was a young band that knows what they need and the chops to go as far as they can in the music industry.
Different Seasons’ set list went like this: “Zephyr”, “Placebo”, “Home Again”, “Warm Coat”, “Flower”, and “How To Fly”. Current band members include Cayden Linares (lead vocals, guitar), Colin Lucier (Bass) and Christian Tucker (Drums).
The Santa Pub Crawl is always an awesome event that the people of Reno look forward to every year. The Rockbar Theater has some very good shows coming up soon, go to their website to see the lineup.
And remember to support the local bands and venues … Go To a Show!
