MUSIC FESTIVAL MANIA

Music festivals aren’t exactly rare around these parts, but they’re
not all that common, either. So what are the odds that a single
weekend, this one, would bring us five music festivals in the
course of three days? Pretty slim, I’d wager—that is, if I didn’t
have information to share with you about five music festivals happening
this weekend.

The biggest and best (my editor flogs me mercilessly if I don’t say
that) is, of course, the Tucson Weekly‘s own Fall Club
Crawl®, on Saturday, Oct. 3, which takes over venues and
stages all over downtown and Fourth Avenue, and features roughly 80
bands, both local and national. I’m not going to spend too much time
telling you about this one, simply because there’s an insert in the
issue you’re holding (or, if you’re reading online, a mere click or two
away at ClubCrawl.net) telling you everything you could possibly want to know. Gates open at 7
p.m., and you should pick up an advance wristband at either Zia Records
location if you want to save yourself a coupla bucks: They’re $8 at
Zia, or $10 at the gates.

Although you can certainly dance to many of the acts playing at the
Fall Club Crawl®, one genre the Crawls admittedly aren’t so great
at representing is dance music. And so, for the last few Crawls, local
promoters have kicked off the weekend with Dub Crawl, an
electronic music festival presented at Hotel Congress. This
installment of Dub Crawl runs from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. on Friday, Oct.
2, and the schedule looks a little something like this:

Hotel Congress outdoor plaza (all lineups are listed in reverse
chronological order): Hercules and Love Affair DJ set (nu disco,
New York), Cowboy Mike (trance, San Diego), Sonario (Latin electro, Tucson), Tony Roberts and Corbin Dooley (live
set with guests, Tucson) and R’Mani (cosmopolitan house,
Tucson).

Club Congress: Lee Coombs (breakbeat and electro, London),
Simply Jeff (breakbeat, Los Angeles), Mike Traylor (emotronic glam, Las Vegas) and Damian Mntle (dub, hip-hop and
minimal techno, Tucson).

The hotel lobby will feature jungle from Tommy Tarzan, and
drum and bass, dubstep and funk from Whiteboi, both from
Tucson.

Advance tix are available for $8 at the hotel desk or online at
hotelcongress.com; they’ll be
$10 at the door. For more information, head to hellaphat.com or blendevents.com, or call
622-8848.

Arizona Lotus sister stations KFMA FM 92.1 and KLPX FM 96.1 each
have their own festivals this weekend, and both take place at the
Pima County Fairgrounds, 11300 S. Houghton Road.

First up, on Saturday, Oct. 3, it’s KFMA’s Fall Ball,
the station’s turn to show off its “awesome” taste in music with this
“killer” lineup: Rise Against (8:40 p.m.), The Used (7
p.m.), Flyleaf (5:20 p.m.), Misfits (4 p.m.), Paper
Tongues (3:10 p.m.), Eyes Set to Kill (2:20 p.m.) and
Fallborn (1:30 p.m.). Gates open at noon, and advance tickets
are available for $30 at all Catalina Mart locations until Oct. 2. For
the full scoop, head to kfma.com.

Then, on Sunday, Oct. 4, it’s KLPX’s turn to take over the
fairgrounds with KLPX Fest (aka X-Fest), a celebration of the
station’s 30th anniversary—congrats!—that features a rather
impressive lineup of dinosaur rockers. Here’s your schedule: REO
Speedwagon (9:10 p.m.), Styx (7:30 p.m.), War (5:45
p.m.), Eddie Money (4 p.m.), Ratt (2:20 p.m.) and
Great White (1 p.m.). As with the Fall Ball, doors for
this one open at noon, and $30 advance tickets are available at all
Catalina Mart locations. For more info, point your browser to
klpx.com.

Finally, we come to Catapalooza!, a benefit for homeless
animals in Pima County. Why, you ask? Because according to Casa de
Los Gatos, Arizona’s largest no-kill cat shelter and the folks who
are putting on the event, there are an estimated 200,000 homeless
animals in Pima County. While admission to the two-day festival, which
takes place from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 3, and
Sunday, Oct. 4, is free (though donations of cat food, kitty
litter and dog food are encouraged), there will be many opportunities
to spread a little love in the form of monetary donations via kids’
activities such as face-painting and cakewalks; artisans selling tons
of stuff like candles and jewelry; a barbecue for both vegetarians and
omnivores; a bake sale; firewood for sale; and raffles and silent
auctions aplenty. It’s also the perfect opportunity to adopt a furry
new best friend, as discounts and incentives will be provided. Here’s
the schedule of performers:

Saturday, Oct. 3: Last Call Girls (3 to 5:45 p.m.),
Nobody, et. al. (1 to 2:45 p.m.), Jacob Acosta (noon to
12:45 p.m.), Patricia Morrison (11 to 11:45 a.m.) and Johnny
Cashew (10 to 10:45 a.m.).

Sunday, Oct. 4: Kevin Schramm (5 to 5:45 p.m.), Annie
English (4 to 4:45 p.m.), Bright and Childers (3 to 3:45
p.m.), Denise Lane (2 to 2:45 p.m.), Songdog (1 to 1:45
p.m.), Johnny Cashew (noon to 12:45 p.m.), Kristie
Cunningham (11 to 11:45 a.m.) and Barbara Crummit (10 to
10:45 a.m.).

Catapalooza! takes place at 10700 E. Tanque Verde Road, east of
Houghton Road. For more information, go to casadelosgatos.org.

SOLAR CULTURE SHINES AGAIN

A couple of weeks ago, we told you about a few rather interesting
experimental shows happening at Solar Culture Gallery, the
art/performance space run by Steven Eye at 31 E. Toole Ave. This week,
the good stuff continues in the same space with a trio of shows more
geared toward indie types. You can read all about one of the bands,
Former Ghosts, in our feature article by Gene Armstrong. Here’s
a bit of info about the other two.

David Bazan grew up with a pastor as a father and followed
the same road of Christianity growing up. His band Pedro the Lion
explored themes of faith over the course of four acclaimed full-length
indie-pop albums and a slew of stray tracks. In 2006, he dropped the
Pedro the Lion moniker and released a solo EP under his own name, and
on Sept. 1, he released his debut LP, Curse Your Branches (Barsuk), which seems to attempt to reconcile his faith with his
predilection for sin (or the predilection for sin of his narrators,
anyway) and has garnered some of the best reviews of his career.

David Bazan performs an all-ages show at Solar Culture Gallery on
Monday, Oct. 5. Say Hi opens at 9 p.m. Admission is
$10.

Albuquerque-based duo A Hawk and a Hacksaw includes violinist
Heather Trost and multi-instrumentalist Jeremy Barnes, who is perhaps
best-known as the former drummer for Neutral Milk Hotel. The group
specializes in mostly instrumental music informed by American and,
especially, Eastern European folk music. In May, the pair issued its
fifth album, Délivrance (Leaf), which, like its
predecessors, has received excellent reviews.

A Hawk and a Hacksaw performs an all-ages show at Solar Culture on
Tuesday, Oct. 6. Tucson’s Chris Black, who has been
writing original music for each of his recent shows (he wrote to tell
us that he’s particularly excited about the songs he’s written for this
one) opens at 9 p.m. Admission is $8. For additional information about
either show, call 884-0874.

ON THE BANDWAGON

Pitbull at the Rialto Theatre on Sunday, Oct.
4; Dr. Dog and Jeffrey Lewis at Club Congress on Wednesday, Oct. 7; Looner at The Hut on
Tuesday, Oct. 6; The Subdudes at the Rialto on
Wednesday, Oct. 7; Charles Feelgood at Level
Lounge on Saturday, Oct. 3; Mark Mallman at
Plush on Tuesday, Oct. 6; The Runaway Five‘s
first-ever acoustic show at The HangArt on Friday, Oct.
2; Marianne Dissard‘s tour kickoff with Courtney Marie
Andrews and Mark Growden at Plush on Wednesday,
Oct. 7; The Intelligence, Sad Horse and The
Bugs at Club Congress next Thursday, Oct. 8; The
Quick and Easy Boys at Plush next Thursday, Oct. 8;
Flametrick Subs, Last Call Brawlers and the High
Rollers at Surly Wench Pub on Friday, Oct. 2;
Round the House at Auld Dubliner next Thursday, Oct.
8; Warren Teagarden at Shot in the Dark Café on Tuesday, Oct. 6.

This article appears in Oct 1-7, 2009.