WesGhost, Red Leather, Eurotripp - 9/25/26 - Fresno, CA - Strummer's

Eurotripp was the first band of the night, and I got there when their set was mostly over. From what I saw, they are a high energy trio that is part pop-punk, part hip hop, part nu metal, and always with a lot of energy. They closed their set with their song Where's Your Head At which I recognized and has tens of millions of streams on spotify. They're fun and high octane.

Red Leather was up next. He's a dude wearing a red fringed cowboy hat (or mayge a lamp shade) on his head. He’s got a backing band made up of a guitar and drums. And the backing band has a backing track that includes the bass line and at various other times violins and assorted other instruments. He’s mostly singing but sometimes he picks up a guitar and plays it. The influences in his songs span a really wide range. One song sounds like Seven Nation Army. Another has the unforgettable vocal melody of Home by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. Then there’s one that sounds like Zombie by Cranberries. And the last song would sound at home on a Nirvana album. He's got a strong song book, but not strong enough to warrant a 60 minute show. 

He has a decent voice and is an alright guitar player, but his strength is in his ability as a performer. This is where he shines. He’s got stage presence and charisma and easily got the crowd engaged and involved. His drummer and guitarist were both great, and you couldn't help but wonder why he didn't have a bass player.

WesGhost was very similar to the preceding acts as expected. He was the most hip hop of the three. He was also the most pop punk of the three. He had his own version of disguise, which was a ski mask.

Wes (I'm just going to call him Wes) was also similar to Red Leather in that he had a drummer and a pretty good guitar player, but there was no bass player. The guitar player also only ever played an electric guitar, but there were times when they played over a backing track of an acoustic guitar. This is truly confusing to me. Did the acoustic guitar get stolen? Why can't they find a bass player?

At any rate, Wes put on a fun show with a ton of energy. He got the crowd moving and dancing and singing along. He's definitely got the showmanship.

The very last act was a mashup of the two of them called RedGhost. They had a handful of songs that they played, and this was the best part of the night. But that's not to say the rest of the night wasn't great. It was, but this part was just the best. The songs were better. The energy was better. The bands were even better, because they were able to use both guitarists and so when someone needed to play an acoustic guitar they were able to make it happen. Maybe the spare drummer can learn how to play bass? Or maybe the keys? There's a lot of potential with this RedGhost project. They both have flair as performers and they're able to feed off each other. I'm looking forward to seeing where they take it going forward.