ALL SOULS PREPARES FOR ITS CLOSE-UP
If you haven’t seen the mural painted on the east wall of the
Rialto Theatre, you might think that Sunday’s show there is just
another Calexico concert (not that there’s anything wrong with
that). It is not.
Sunday is, of course, the day that this year’s annual All Souls
Procession—the Día de los Muertos (Day of the
Dead) parade—will take place, and this year’s procession itself
looks to be more special than usual: It’s the 20th anniversary of the local event, so look for the masks to be even maskier, and the
floats to be even floatier.
And, as for that mural, it reads: “Rialto Theatre Presents Calexico
and the Filming of Flor de Muertos.” Which means, yes,
that Calexico will be performing at the venue following the parade, but
also that the event and performance are being filmed for a documentary
directed by local filmmaker Dan Vinik. (For more on that, see
this week’s cover feature.)
As such, this won’t be the usual Calexico show. The Rialto itself
will be decked out to resemble a street scene from the parade, with the
stage being transformed into a shrine. The musicians will hold their
own mini-procession inside the venue—and we’re not just talking
about the members of Calexico.
Calexico’s set will include a number of guest performers including
Barcelona, Spain’s Amparo Sánchez, Salvador Duran,
Sergio Mendoza y la Orkesta and Mariachi Luz de Luna.
Molehill Orkestrah will open the show.
Tickets are going quickly—as of this writing, balcony seats
had already sold out—so get in on the action when Calexico and
friends perform at this very special show, which begins once Flam
Chen has performed its traditional parade finale, around 8:30 p.m.,
Sunday, Nov. 8. General-admission floor tickets are $30 in
advance, or $32 on the day of show. The Rialto is located at 318 E.
Congress St. For more information, call 740-1000.
… FOUR, FIVE, ELECTRIC SIX
Time to grow out those Freddie Mercury mustaches, kids: Electric
Six are coming back to town.
The Detroit-based band garnered attention following the release of
its debut album, 2003’s Fire (XL), when it was rumored that Jack
White had sung on the single “Danger! High Voltage”—a rumor that
has never been fully resolved. And then there was that video that
showed Viking kittens singing the song “Gay Bar”: “I wanna spend all
your money / at the gay bar, gay bar, gay bar.”
Cute? Yes. A little disturbing? You bet.
Further attention came when the band released a video for its cover
of the Queen song “Radio Ga Ga” that showed E6 frontman Dick Valentine
dressed as Freddie Mercury at the Queen singer’s grave. Some took it to
mean that Valentine was dancing on Mercury’s grave, but Valentine
claimed that the intention was to resurrect the ghost of Mercury for
inspiration, and that he’s a fan.
If you get the impression that Electric Six like stirring the pot,
you would be correct.
And why not? They’re one of the few bands around today that can
write songs that are just downright goofy and hilarious, yet still rock
your shorts off. Somehow, the jokes don’t get old. You haven’t really
lived until you’ve seen a grown man (pseudo) earnestly and urgently
sing, “Fire in the disco! / Fire in the Taco Bell!”
Last month, the band issued its sixth album, Kill (Metropolis), which features such future classics as “Rubbin’ Me the
Wrong Way” and “The Newark Airport Boogie.”
Electric Six performs at Plush, 340 E. Sixth St., on
Monday, Nov. 9. The Gay Blades and Millions of
Brazilians open at 9:30 p.m. Admission is $10. Call 798-1298 for further details.
For those of you who want to up the fun level a bit, the
Freddies—a group of locals who dress up like Freddie
Mercury for the band’s shows—will gather at Hotel Congress at 7 p.m. for a pre-party. Freddie accoutrements will be provided in a
limited capacity.
LUCY, THEN KATHY
A pair of notable female singer-songwriters are headed our way this
weekend for two separate shows, on two consecutive nights.
In the late 1970s, Lucy Kaplansky was drawn from Chicago to
New York City by the allure of a resurgent folk-music scene there, and
she did pretty well for herself, performing at mainstays like Gerde’s
Folk City. A few years later, though, she decided to become a
psychologist and began pursuing her Ph.D., even as she and Shawn Colvin
were performing as a duo in clubs.
Eventually, after practicing psychology for a time, she realized
that being a full-time folksinger was the way to go, and she recorded
her debut album, 1994’s The Tide (Red House), with Colvin at the
helm. Since then, she’s released five more critically lauded albums of
original compositions and cherry-picked covers by the likes of Steve
Earle, Gram Parsons and the Louvin Brothers.
Lucy Kaplansky performs an all-ages show at Old Town
Artisans, 201 N. Court Ave., on Friday, Nov. 6. Kathleen
Williamson opens at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $20 in advance, or $23 at
the door, and may be purchased at rhythmandroots.org. Head there for
more info, too, or call 440-4455.
The following night, the commercially and critically successful folk
and country singer Kathy Mattea performs. Since her self-titled
debut was released in 1984, Mattea has released more than a dozen
albums that veer from leaning toward pure folk and bluegrass to more
pop-oriented commercial country concerns, earning her countless country
radio hits and some Grammy Awards in the process.
Mattea grew up in West Virginia, where both of her grandfathers were
coal miners, and her latest album, Coal (Captain Potato, 2008),
is a rather bleak exploration of the coal-mining life inspired by both
her upbringing and the 2006 Sago Mine disaster.
Kathy Mattea performs at 8 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 7, at UA
Centennial Hall, 1020 E. University Blvd. Tickets range from $15 to
$44. To order tickets, head to uapresents.org, or call
621-3341.
SHORT TAKES
The new location of the Eric Firestone Gallery, at 403 N.
Sixth Ave., opens with a bang on Friday, Nov. 6. At 6 p.m., the
gallery presents its inaugural show, titled Coatings, featuring
works by Clif Taylor, Olivier Mosset and Jeff
Bursey. Later that night, Taylor’s garage-soul band Blackwood
and Co. will perform. Admission is free.
Calling all music nerds! The Fifth Annual Tucson Record Show,
which will feature more than 20 exhibitors hawking records, CDs, tapes
and other music memorabilia, will take place from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on
Sunday, Nov. 8, at Las Cazuelitas Event Center, 1365 W.
Grant Road. Admission is $4; children 12 and younger get in free. For
more info, e-mail Gordon-allinger@hotmail.com or
cassidycollectibles@earthlink.net.
Tucson’s Ghost Cow will celebrate its fourth anniversary with
a headlining spot at Vaudeville, 110 E. Congress St., on
Saturday, Nov. 7. Opening the show at 10 p.m. are the Tone
Monkeys and The Modeens. Admission is a fiver, and your
questions will be answered by calling 622-3535.
ON THE BANDWAGON
Numerous great shows are coming our way this week. Here are some
more worth your time and effort: Good Rockin’ Live: A Tribute to Sun
Records featuring Mr. Boogie Woogie, Robert Shaw,
Steve Grams and Danny Krieger, at the Berger
Performing Arts Center on Monday, Nov. 9; Hanson at
the Rialto Theatre on Tuesday, Nov. 10; Fourkiller
Flats, Monahans and the Sand Rubies at Plush on Saturday, Nov. 7; D.R.I. at The Rock on
Friday, Nov. 6; Everclear, Clayton Senne and
Tongue Dried Sun at the Rialto on Friday, Nov. 6;
Hot Buttered Rum at Plush next Thursday, Nov. 12;
Red Elvises at The Hut on Wednesday, Nov. 11;
Sugar and Gold, the Runaway Five and Mean Beans at
Club Congress on Tuesday, Nov. 10; the New
Heathers, Meece, Ha Ha Tonka and Without a
Face at Plush on Tuesday, Nov. 10; Lenguas
Largas and Hank Topless at the Red Room at Grill on
Tuesday, Nov. 10; fun. and The Jakes at Club
Congress on Friday, Nov. 6; Tracy Shedd and
Stephen Budd at Hacienda del Sol on Saturday, Nov.
7; Mostly Bears, Nico Vega and The Ghost Dove at Plush on Friday, Nov. 6; Band Jam, a benefit
for Christina Miranda, at Old Town Artisans on Sunday,
Nov. 8.
This article appears in Nov 5-11, 2009.