The Punk Collective is building out the museum with a performance space, a merch store, wedding/wake chapel, a tattoo parlor and a bar
UPDATE: The Punk Rock Museum recently announced a new opening date will be March 10, 2023. Early 2023 general admission tickets will be available. Tickets for guided tours are coming soon with tours slated to begin on April 1, 2023.
If you were to break down Las Vegas by music genre, downtown would definitely get stamped with the punk label. It’s all in the way the downtown scene is randomly stitched together, with a finger-to-authority attitude that completely, and purposely, lacks the spit and polish of the Strip.
So it’s fitting that the forthcoming Punk Rock Museum will plug its amp into a 12,000-square-foot building on a stretch of Western Avenue—next to I-15 and the Little Darlings strip club—in an edge-of-downtown neighborhood that has, to be polite, seen better days. Think CtPaTown before it was gentrified.
But that’s punk, and that’s the point. When NOFX vocalist/bassist “Fat Mike” Burkett and former Warped Tour manager Lisa Brownlee bring their vision to life next year, the museum will be a destination for legions of fans to honor the decades of depravity that their favorite sound has wrought.
If You’re Not Sneering, You’re Not Celebrating
Burkett and Brownlee conceived the museum alongside friends and peers in the industry, including Less Than Jake co-founder Vinnie Fiorello, Pennywise guitarist Fletcher Dragge, and producer Bryan Ray Turcotte. The group, collectively known as the Punk Collective, is packing the museum with a treasure trove of punk memorabilia—donated by the artists, (likely torn) clothing, artwork, and more—for what’s described as a “hands on” punk rock experience that “proudly shoves in your face the history, culture, and absurdity of rock n’ roll’s bastard step-child.”
So, your enjoyment depends on how much you like getting things shoved in your face.
Please Expand on the ‘Hands On’ Thing
Yes, you’ll actually get to touch, and play, guitars and basses owned by the artists—donated by members of NOFX, Rise Against, Pennywise, Sick of it All, and Strung Out, among others—in the museum’s Jam Room. And if you break your instrument because you don’t know what you’re doing, management says, “we fix it—just like we did on tour.”
Punk Rock Museum Artifacts
To bolster its appeal, the Punk Collective is building out the museum with a performance space (perhaps a punk band will finally get a Vegas residency?), a merch store, wedding/wake chapel (those two things are antithetical), a tattoo parlor and a bar. The building is still in the middle of a food desert, but at least you’ll be able to get a drink. Just don’t expect some kind of fancy VIP table service.
The Deets
- Deborah Harry’s “Vultures” tee
- Devo helmet molds
- DC Scream amp from “Faith/Void” cover
- Sum 41’s chainsaw
- FEAR’s saxophone
- The Used artist Alex Pardee mask from the “Lies for the Liars” tour
- Iron Cross founder Sab Grey’s jacket leather jacket
- Johnny Thunders’ 1959 guitar
- And much more
Buy Tickets, Get Warm Beers
In advance of its debut, the Punk Rock Museum is selling ticket packages on its website, ranging from $100 to $25,000. At the $100 “Crustie Package” level, you’ll get two tickets, commemorative merch, and two warm beers from the bar. For $25,000, the “In the Shitter” package gets you, among other perks, a drink named after you, a plaque in the bathroom, your name on the Wall of Founders, even more commemorative merch, a tattoo done by Burkett or Dragge, and four free beers every time you visit, for life.
P. Moss, the owner of the Double Down Saloon and Frankie’s Tiki Room, and Double Down crew member Chris Andrasfay will run the museum’s bar, Triple Down. For anyone unfamiliar with the edgy Double Down and its iconic “a** juice” shots, Moss and Andrasfay are the ideal duo to lead the punk rock bar.
Las Vegas’ Punk Rock Museum opens Friday, January 13, 2023. Coincidentally, that’s the same day Johnny Cash recorded his live show at Folsom State Prison. The man in black wasn’t known for combat boots and metal studs on his jackets, but that dude was punk rock, and he’d be welcomed here.