Saturday, May 28, 2011

Flor de Muertos with Calexico at The Loft

Posted By on Sat, May 28, 2011 at 9:04 AM

Calexico performing at The Loft cinema
  • Michelle Hotchkiss
  • Calexico performing at The Loft cinema
The Range caught Circo at The Loft last night. It's a terrific film—an award-winning documentary about a Mexican circus that paints an extraordinarily intimate portrait of the struggles faced by the Ponce family's traveling circus in today's hard world.

The big bonus: A performance by Calexico, who provided the soundtrack for the film. (Director Aaron Schock told the audience he couldn't imagine the film without Calexico's contribution.) It was a delightfully raw set that included favorites like "Across the Wire" and "Crystal Frontier," along with a soulful cover of Bob Dylan's "Goin' to Acapulco," which seemed appropriate to the evening, and the haunting lullaby "All the Pretty Little Horses," which is probably getting some play in Joey Burns' household, seeing as he's the new father of two twin girls. Congrats, Joey!

Circo is playing all next week at The Loft, so if you've got time for a movie, make it this one.

Tonight, The Loft's Calexico-themed double-feature continues with the premiere of Flor de Muertos, director Dan Vinik's documentary that looks at Tucson's All-Soul's Procession, the ever-climbing number of people dying in the desert as they attempt to cross into the United States, and the general attitude toward death in the Mexican culture. It's all set against Calexico's spectacular 2009 Dia de los Muertos concert at the Rialto Theatre. Word is: Members of Calexico will be back tonight to talk about the film with Vinik and others, but they won't be performing.

If you want to go, you'd better call ahead to make sure there are still tickets left. Last night's show was a sell-out. Details here.

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