Hello Rockstars!
It’s my favorite time in September and that is the Life is Shit Festival!
Life is Shit Festival is one of Vegas’s best indie and local music festivals here in town and I got a chance to interview Life is Shit founder Jack Evan Johnson, and here’s what he told me about what we can expect for the 2025 lineup, the history of LIS and what the future will be for this amazing one of a kind festival! Enjoy! xoxoxoxox
All Concert Photos Courtesy of: Tiffany Salerno! 🙂
VMS:
Tell me about the beginnings of Life is Shit Festival. I know you all have been doing this since 2013 and every year it gets better and better. What gave you the inspiration to start this festival, and who are the amazing people behind the scenes who put this all together.
LIS:
When Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh and his Downtown Project development group moved into downtown Las Vegas in 2012, many of the local artists and musicians felt displaced. DTP, with limitless resources from Hsieh’s private fortune, began buying up downtown property in an effort to turn working-class downtown Las Vegas into Hsieh’s vision of a tech bro utopia, without much input from community stakeholders already living and making art there.
They just saw it as a run-down part of a culture-free city they could do whatever they wanted with. When Downtown Project started hiring people from outside Las Vegas to make decisions in the music scene (which we had been building up for years), and Downtown Project’s massive, corporate music festival Life is Beautiful was announced, a small group of us locals decided that we needed our own festival.
That’s how Life is Shit was born. The Dive Bar, my favorite independent venue in Las Vegas, didn’t hesitate to give us a home for the festival, and it has taken place there every year since we started in 2013, with the exception of 2020, when we hosted a 24-hour telethon, and 2021, when we made a Life is Shit TV special (thanks to Covid).
Check out the Official Life is Shit Festival Spotify Playlist:
VMS:
What inspired you to create the Life is Shit Zines, and how do you decide your themes for them each year.
LIS:
Who knows where the inspiration came from??? We did a few years of Life is Shit before we started the zines. But punk rock and zines are like peanut butter and jelly…. it only seemed right.
Publish a picture of your ass and take the power back from our tech overlords, ya know?
To purchase a Life is Shit Zine please visit their site!
VMS:
I love that you fundraise money for Girls Rock Vegas, which is an amazing Camp for underprivileged girls to learn how to play rock music. I think it’s a wonderful program and it helps nurture our next generation of performers. How did you guys start this collaboration with them.
LIS:
I can’t recall how it all started, but Life is Shit is about community. Also, GRV executive director Heather Rampton has been involved in the Las Vegas music scene for a long time, and there’s nothing cooler than young people who rock. It seemed like an obvious choice to support them back then, and nothing has changed. This year we’ll even have a band of GRV campers, Dead King Rises, performing on the outside stage.
For More information about Girls Rock Vegas and how you can help, Please visit their website. 🙂
VMS:
Tell me a little bit about what we can expect this year at Life is Shit Festival 2025!
Any changes or additional things added to the show this year.
LIS:
Same old shit this year. We experimented with a Friday night kickoff party last year, but we’re back to one day this year. There will be over a dozen bands playing on the inside stage, beginning at 4 p.m. and going till after 2 a.m. This year we have bands from Nashville, Los Angeles, and New York, as well as a bunch of locals.
A few years ago, we added poetry to Life is Shit, so, in between bands, local poets will be reading on the “Outhouse Poetry Stage” in the parking lot. The poetry lineup is curated this year by poet Andrew Romanelli.
(Poet Andrew Romanelli participating at Life is Shit in 2024, Photo Courtesy of Tiffany Salerno.)
A huge part of Life is Shit every year is the raffle benefiting Girls Rock Vegas. The prizes are different every year, but past prizes have included tattoos, guitars, and even a toilet! It just depends on what is donated to the raffle. (If any local businesses or artists have anything cool to donate to the raffle, they can reach out to us). There are usually a lot of raffle prizes, so it takes all night, with us hopping on stage in between bands, to raffle everything off. It makes for a night of non-stop action, whether you are inside or outside.
VMS:
I know it’s incredibly hard to put on such a huge festival in a place like Las Vegas, but you guys are doing an amazing job! How has the local scene been responding to this festival, and what do you think needs to be improved on this city for our local artists in general.
LIS:
Thank you! We’re a small festival, but ever since we first announced Life is Shit Festival, back in 2013, the response has been overwhelmingly positive. Like I mentioned earlier, our city was being taken over by wealthy outsiders, and people rallied together to support the local scene. I think artists need to get off Instagram and go for a hike. It feels good. But take some pictures on top of a mountain to promote your next show. It’s good for the algorithm.
VMS:
I know you have stiff competition in this city when it comes to festivals, what separates yours from the other ones.
LIS:
We don’t see ourselves in competition with any other festivals, since we’re just a group of old friends throwing a party. We’re, like, in the back of the room, laughing at all the other festivals.
(Vegas Indie Powerhouse Same Sex Mary participating at Life is Shit in 2023.
Photo Courtesy of Tiffany Salerno.)
VMS:
I love that venues like The Dive Bar always support the local Vegas music scene!
How did this collaboration come to be?
LIS:
It might sound surprising now, but there was a split in the community when Life is Shit was founded in 2013. Some of the bands in town, desperate for any sort of outside recognition, lined up to suck the tit of big festival “opportunity” that Life is Beautiful promised local bands.
The Dive knows that underground music culture is the only real music culture, and were the obvious partner for Life is Shit. We asked if they wanted to start this little anti-fest called Life is Shit, they said yes, and we’ve been happily married ever since.
VMS:
What are your plans for the future of Life is Shit Festival on a whole.
LIS:
For Life is Shit, we’re going to keep it going as long as the community asks for it. Tony Hsieh has died and Life is Beautiful has been cancelled, so I think we were on the right side of history with our original messaging, but Life is Shit has always been more pro-community than anti-capitalism… well, it’s both actually. Eat the rich!
(Rock Band Pussy Velour participating at Life is Shit in 2024. Photo Courtesy of Tiffany Salerno.)
For More Information about Life is Shit Festival and to see the amazing lineup this year, please check out their Instagram or Bad Moon Booking’s Website!
—VMS xoxoxoxo