Club Congress in Tucson recently turned 21 and Hotel Congress decided to sponsor a huge three day party. Three days of live music was fun but exhausting. I wanted to hear as many of the bands as possible. Highlights on Friday for me, were Centro-Matic (Denton, TX), Limbeck (Orange County, CA), David Dondero (Brooklyn, NY) and Sidewinders (a local favorite). I couldn’t catch all I wanted to see since three stages were all going at the same time. Other great bands included Chris Holiman and the Downtown Saints, Star Crunch, The Jons, Dave Alvin and the Guilty Men (LA, CA), Broken Horse (San Francisco), Borts Minorts (San Francisco), Gram Rabbit (Desert, CA), Pork Torta, and Weird Lovemakers. Friday night’s music was David Slutes night (Sidewinders fame & Club Congress Booking Agent).
Saturday’s line up was curated by local country music favorite Al Perry. Making the most of it, he joined many of the bands on the outdoors stage. I loved Fishbone (LA, CA). In my opinion they were the best show for all the bands I saw. Pollo Elastico (San Francisco, CA), and Mankind, were also high energy, and had great sound on the Rialto Stage (Rialto Theater just across the street from Hotel Congress). There was great crowd response to all of these bands, and Fishbone was brought back with lots of cheers and clapping for an encore. Other great sounds that night included Namoli Brennet, Eric Bachman (Chapel Hill, NC), Richard Buckner (Brooklyn, NY), River Roses, Fraidy Cats, Andrew Collberg, Hecklers (Al Perry on guitar), David Insley (Austin, TX), Lonna Kelly, Gila Bend, New Drakes, Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players (NYC)-I missed this one and really wanted to see their slideshow, Mother Truckers, (Austin, TX) Fish Karma and Jello Biafra (Bush Hates Him).
Sunday was local favorite Howe Gelb joined several bands on the outdoors stage. Golden Boots started off the outdoors set, followed by Luca (who I thought was a refreshing sound this night). Vic Chesnutt (singer/songwriter from Atlanta) was joined later by Howe Gelb, Kristin Hersh (LA, CA) & John Doe (LA, CA). Both Kristin and John also had their own sets and the music was wonderful in the Tucson outdoors monsoon-threatening evening coolness (Luca was favored by Mother Nature with a beautiful, pink sunset). Four Killer Flats wound up the outside stage performances. Inside Club Congress, the stage was faster paced with some amazing music from Billy Harvey (Austin, TX), Steve Poltz (San Diego -some happy energy here), Ian Moore (Austin, TX), Al Foul & the Shakes and Doo Rag.
I thoroughly enjoyed all the wonderful music, especially the variety (solid country, alt country, bluegrass, country rock, to hip hop /punk, funk, ect). I found it challenging to keep up with names with different musicians jumping in and out of differing band sets; but, that made it all the better!! Gotta love that Harmony!
