Halloween gig - Las Vegas Mermaids

Just before we go to press we get a strange phone call from a certain Max Von Wiener, representing the Las Vegas Mermaids, who are playing at the Lansdown on Saturday to headline the pub’s Halloween night. Mr Von Wiener conducts the whole interview in a Charles Bukowski-like accent. “Halloween is appropriate for the band for many reasons,” he says. “For one thing, there is nothing spookier than a mermaid which comes from the desert. Another thing: I first met the Mermaids during their first gig in the Snowdrop seven years ago. The gig was a Halloween gig. Since then the band have had a special relationship with the night.”

For the uninitiated the Mermaids are a three-piece band whose act is part gig, part cabaret, part what-the-hell-is-going-on. They incorporate a screen in their set, behind which they manage whirlwind costume changes. They use a lot of comedy props. “The show will consist of three parts, which will give the audience plenty of time to drink,” continues Mr Von Wiener. “There will be music and film and even a couple of games, including ‘eat the doughnut off the tree’. In the middle of the show there will be a performance from the anarcho-punk band Lenin’s Virulent Muscle. They won’t talk to me. They call me a capitalist pig dog. I have large gambling debts. I am hoping to reduce them from this show”. Mr Von Wiener would not reveal just how large his debts were. Dress up, join in, should be fun. DL