Ten cool things to do in Tucson this weekend (August 3-August 6)
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Ten fantastic ways to fill your weekend.
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Rob Thomas can’t help but feel a bit jinxed whenever he and Counting Crows frontman Adam Duritz get together.
“I don’t know what it is, man, but with me and Adam, we have the weirdest things happen,” the Matchbox Twenty lead singer/songwriter said during a phone call last week. “Like on the last tour” — his solo outing last summer with the Crows — “we had to cancel a show because a giant storm had taken a fan blade at the top of the auditorium and broke it and then flew it up under the rafters and they were afraid it was going to come down and fall on the crowd. So they had to cancel the show.”
He was calling last Tuesday from the San Francisco Bay area, where he and his 22-year-old pop band were getting ready to do a makeup concert at the Shoreline Amphitheatre after they had to pull out of a scheduled July 21 gig. Damage to a road near the venue made it impossible to bring their trucks and equipment to the venue, Thomas said.
“I’ve never had it happen before where a show got cancelled — well, I’ve never had a show get cancelled for a sinkhole, ever — and we just happened to have a day off less than a week later that we could fit it into and make that happen” said Thomas, noting that their tour mates, Counting Crows, couldn’t make the makeup due to a prior commitment. “I think (Durst) and I together just have some weird mojo.”
Matchbox Twenty, which hasn’t toured together since 2013, has been on the road with Counting Crows since the two bands launched their co-headlining “A Brief History of Everything World Tour” in Spokane, Washington, on July 12. The tour runs through Oct. 1.
On off dates, Thomas and his bandmates are sneaking in headlining shows, starting Thursday, Aug. 3, at the AVA at Casino del Sol. Pop singer-songwriter Matt Nathanson opens.
During our phone call with Thomas last week, we asked what we can expect on Thursday and whether the band, which split briefly in spring 2016 before reuniting in March 2017, was planning to record any new material.
It’s like we never left: “Everywhere we go we get to play music. Everywhere you go you’ve got this group of warm people that are welcoming and really nice. I think we have a very biased and skewed version of the world. We think everybody’s really nice and just loves people because we go places and we have an initiated group of people to see us. ‘Wow, people are nice all over.’ And my wife’s like, ‘No they’re not. They’re really not.’”
Cheers to the past: “It’s right at or a little past the 20th anniversary of our first record (1996’s ‘Yourself or Someone Like You”) and right at the 20th anniversary of our first single that really ever hit when ‘Push’ came out. So this is just kind of us wanting to go out and to celebrate the idea that for 20 years, we’ve managed to be able to go out on the road and have people still wanting to come see us play.”
Packing 20 years into two hours: “When you’ve got 20 years of hits there are some things that aren’t going to make it. You want to get all of the singles in, but at the end of the day we’re in the hospitality industry. We have a group of people there who are hardcore, initiated fans and know every deep album cuts. Then we have a lot of fans that were just casual fans that want to hear ‘Push’ and they want to hear ‘Disease’ or ‘If You’re Gone,’ so we want to play those songs. … It’s really a little dance you play around the setlist every night just trying to figure out what you’re going to put in and what you’re going to play tonight. And you just have to know that every night you’re going to have a small group of people that are going to be disappointed. That’s what we do, we disappoint people for a living. That’s our job.”
Learning to be patient: “I think it’s one of those things that kind of got Matchbox Twenty back together, that feeling of everything is not the end of the world. And sometimes it’s OK to just go and have a good time and play some music and not take everything so damn serious all the time.”
Looking toward the future: “Kyle (Cook) is putting out his Rivers and Rust record next year. I’m finishing up the songs for a solo record I want to put out sometime early next year, and Paul (Doucette) has been film scoring and has a few different projects lined up for next year. We’re going to get through that cycle of doing our own thing that we’ve already got in the pipeline so that we can really focus attention (on a new Matchbox Twenty album). At this point, it’s not like we are pressed to have to put something out right away to follow something up. If we’re going to do it we want to make sure it’s the best record we can make and the only way that’s going to happen is if we are 100 percent in.”
- Cathalena E. Burch
Details:
What: Matchbox Twenty in concert.
Featuring: Matt Nathanson.
When: 8 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 3.
Where: AVA at Casino del Sol, 5655 W. Valencia Road.
Tickets: $35 to $99 through tickets.casinodelsol.com, with VIP packages available.
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In the alternate universe of the film "The Dark Tower" the last of the late, great gunslingers (Idris Elba) squares off against the Man in Black (Matthew McConaughey) as evil threatens to bring down their world and ours.
The thriller is the latest film to be adapted from a Stephen King novel, several novels in fact. It comes across as a fun watch, even if you aren't necessarily a fan of King's style.
"The Dark Tower" will screen at theaters across the city starting on Thursday.
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You can do all kinds of things at the Tucson Museum of Art this Thursday, August 3, except maybe see works of art.
The main galleries, at 140 N. Main Ave., are closed until Oct. 21.
Instead, the museum is inviting folks to participate in six rounds of Geeks Who Drink trivia starting at 6 p.m. There will also be art-making stations, music and two historic properties for you to explore. Follow that up with a screening of "Do the Right Thing" in the same space at 7:30 p.m.
Admission is free. More information can be found here.
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If you love the blues — if you really love the blues — then you won’t want to miss KXCI’s House Rockin’ Blues Review.
It’s slated for Friday, Aug. 4, at the El Casino Ballroom. The historic space seems perfect for a bangin’ blues concert.
And that’s not the only reason to go. The headliners are guitarist Kid Ramos and the 44s.
Kid Ramos is a dazzling electric blues guitarist. He’s played with The Fabulous Thunderbirds, James Harman and Roomful of Blues, among others. Ramos quit music for a while (he wanted to spend more time with his family), and a bad bout with cancer sidelined him in 2012-13 (and brought a flood of support from blues musicians and fans from around the world). But the blues bug is hard to ignore. That’s good for us: His sometimes raucous, sometimes smooth, always dazzling guitar playing makes for a knock-’em-out concert.
The Los Angeles-based 44s are hot and getting hotter. The group’s blues-roots-rock music has won raves for its concerts and albums. “From rockabilly to an L.A.-meets-Chicago version of Piedmont slow blues, the 44s blast out of LA like the Dirty Harry namesake pistol,” gushed americanbluesscene.com about the band’s “Americana” album.
The concert’s opening act is Mike Hebert and his Prison Band, which plays songs about the rural South, Texas and Southeastern Arizona.
The concert is slated for 7:30 p.m. Friday at the El Casino Ballroom, 437 E. 26th St. Tickets are $15-$25 at all Bookmans locations and KXCI.org.
- Kathleen Allen
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Tucson's hottest new foodie neighborhood is at .... Oracle and Ina? With two major openings this month, the northwest-side is quickly becoming a destination not just for Foothills and Oro Valley, but downtown millennials as well.
Earlier this summer we welcomed the brunch spot Teaspoon, and just last week we said hello to Tap & Bottle North at the shopping center caddy-corner to Casas Adobes. And now, upscale Southern classics at Bird Modern Provisions and Bar, 7109 North Oracle Road.
The "modern" Southern restaurant is the brainchild of successful downtown restaurateur Brandon Katz, of Obon and Goodness. Katz enlisted chef Daniel Thomas of The Abbey and 47 Scott to design the menu, which focuses on sharable small plates.
Early favorites from our soft-opening dinner were the hushpuppies, fried balls of doughy heirloom corn with a sweet pepper jam for dipping, $7. The grits are also a must: Get them as an appetizer, $6, or an entree along with Cajun shrimp and plump slices of Andouille sausage, $18. They're creamy yet thicker than your Waffle House variety, with a depth to them that comes from sharp Vermont cheddar cheese.
Mussels with a chunky tomatillo broth and bright bulbs of fennel, $14.
The cocktail menu is hefty but mostly on the traditional side, with plenty of whiskey classics like the Manhattan, Old Fashioned and whiskey sour. The star here is the Tucson Julep, $12, with local Whiskey Del Bac and two different tinctures: creosote and spicy serrano peppers. The cocktail recently took home first place at the Whiskey del Bac Showdown at downtown's Scott & Co.
Designed by André Joffroy and A23 Studios, the new space feels airier with more natural lighting than Frogs. The restaurant is divided up into three rooms, with a long bar flanking the middle.
It's just doing the dinner service this month, but starting Aug. 28 it will be open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays, and 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sundays. Happy hour will be 4 to 6 p.m. daily, with various specials including yesterday's fried chicken served cold for $3 apiece. Phone: 520-441-9509.
- Andi Berlin / This is Tucson
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Mark Twain was a funny man; just ask Mark Twain.
Or Val Kilmer, who channels the long-dead American writer, humorist and icon in Kilmer’s one-man play “Citizen Twain.”
Kilmer brings his 90-minute self-penned play to Rialto Theatre on Saturday, Aug. 5, for “Val Kilmer Live Presents Cinema Twain,” to screen a film version of the play. The actor (“Tombstone,” “Top Gun,” “The Doors,” “Batman Forever”) is expected on Saturday to introduce the 90-minute film and take questions from the audience afterwards. VIP ticketholders can meet Kilmer at the end of the night for selfies and one-on-one time.
Here’s the 4-1-1 on the show:
- When, where and how much: 8 p.m. Saturday at the Rialto, 318 E. Congress St. Tickets are $36 general admission, $71 VIP at ticketfly.com
- What: Kilmer reinvents himself as the famous humorist, from the bushy mustache to the shock of fuzzy white hair. Dressed in a white three-piece suit, he channels Samuel Clemens and his alter ego Twain — the film was shot before a full house in Pasadena, California, in 2013 — for 90 minutes, recounting Clemens’s life with humor and poignancy while inserting modern-day political and pop culture references.
- Yes, I’ll be your Huckleberry: Kilmer utters that famous line from “Tombstone” — “I know the story you want to hear. ‘I’ll be your huckleberry’ “ — before sucking on a vapor pipe that he later explained was his attempt to create the “thick pea soup” fog. “But Val Kilmer can’t afford a fog machine in Pasadena apparently,” he told the audience, which busted out laughing.
- And speaking of huckleberry: Kilmer is taking part in the inaugural Doc Holli-Days in Tombstone Aug. 12 and 13. He is expected to be the special guest at the VIP Doc Holliday Birthday Party Aug. 12. Very few if any tickets ($150 apiece) remain; check out valkilmer.gallery/product/doc-holliday-birthday-party-vip-tickets
- Cathalena E. Burch
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We don't have to remind you that Saturday is National Mead Day, do we?
We do?
Oh, OK. Well, it is.
In honor of such an occasion, 1912 Brewing Company, at 2045 N. Forbes Boulevard, is hosting a mead and bacon pairing starting at 4 p.m.
Three different bacons will be paired with 3 types of Mead from Superstition Meads.
More information can be found on the Facebook event page.
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Micheladas, those alcoholic beverages made with, among other ingredients, clamato juice and beer, take centerstage with the Fourth annual Michelada Challenge at the Tucson Convention Center, 260 S. Church Ave., this Saturday.
Bartenders from across Southern Arizona will compete to see who makes the best of the best with the ingredients given.
Attendees get to sample the drinks, then vote on which of the micheladas is their favorite.
The event runs from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. More information can be found here.
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Longtime local drummer Dan "The Deacon" Bunnell holds blues jams at Rockabilly Grill, 3700 N. Oracle Road, every Sunday from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Here is what Star writer Kathleen Allen wrote about the jams this week:
Dan “The Deacon” Bunnell believes in magic.
And the magic is the music.
Bunnell, long a professional drummer, is immersed in the magic when he leads music jams. He does that twice a week: Sundays at Rockabilly and Tuesdays at Chicago Bar. Though the bars have changed over the years, he has led jams in Tucson since shortly after he moved here from Los Angeles in the early 1980s.
“I love watching him,” says musician Amber Gaia, who has been joining the jams for about two years. She was at the Chicago Bar, in the middle of the dance floor and moving to the music.
“I go to the jams a lot and don’t even bring my guitar because I love what he creates.”
Actually, Bunnell, 70, doesn’t know exactly what he will create each night. Musicians from around the city come in and sign up with the hopes of playing. Some he knows, others are new. He matches the musicians with each other and the music. Those who have come to jam play three songs; if the sign-up list is short and the musician good, there’s a chance of more time on stage.
Each jam has a “core band” — it changes according to availability. Those professional musicians, including Bunnell, step in to play when it is needed, backing up players with less experience but as much passion.
“I love how Deacon puts people together to play and have fun,” says Gaia, who did a few solo songs at a recent Tuesday night jam.
“He’s a master bandleader. I love to sit back and watch what he does and how he puts people together. ... He creates a wonderful time for everyone.”
For Bunnell, a member of Arizona Blues Hall of Fame, it’s all about keeping the magic alive.
In the beginning
Bunnell’s first decade was spent in rural Kentucky. “We were dirt farmers,” he says. It was there he discovered a knack for banging on drums. “I was good at it,” he says. “I just had a natural talent for it. I would beat up my mother’s furniture with knives and forks.” He was so good, in fact, a cousin signed him on to play drums in a bluegrass band.
When he was 10, the family moved to Louisville. He dove more deeply into music.
“I learned how to read and write music and play classical,” he recalls. “I played in the marching band in high school — I was the drum leader.”
Bunnell had no doubt what his future would hold.
“I didn’t have any what-am-I-going-to-be crisis,” he says. “I knew I was going to be a drummer.”
He was in love with the music that was created in the late ‘50s — The Drifters, Bo Diddley, Little Richard. And, especially, James Brown.
“I stole hubcaps one time to get James Brown tickets. That’s how foolish I was,” says Bunnell, who was about 15 at the time.
“James Brown was practically the second coming — his band changed my life. I had always known I would be a musician, but I was lacking inspiration. James had it.”
High school ended with a joke he can’t remember.
“I got into a little row with the English teacher. I made a joke about a dangling participle. It got me kicked out of class and that was the end of my high school career.”
He drifted around Kentucky, getting into minor trouble with the police. Then came the time, in about ‘64, that he found himself in front of a judge who figured the young man needed some direction.
“The judge ‘requested’ that I join the military,” says Bunnell.
He enlisted in the Navy and much of the time during his 1964-68 service he was on a ship off the shores of Vietnam.
But he never forgot music.
“I played around here and there with different bands, getting my chops together. I knew I wanted to start music when I got out.”
The L.A. years
He got off his last Navy ship in Long Beach, California and immediately started searching for music gigs in the Los Angeles area. Fame was not his goal; playing music was.
“I didn’t care if I were a star; I kept searching until I found musical work.”
He played at hotels, bars and clubs. Often he was called upon to be a backup musician on recordings.
“I called myself an unrepentant musical prostitute,” he says. “I’d play polka in a cow pasture if I got paid.”
He also started putting together jams in the Los Angeles area.
“The idea is the networking,” says Bunnell.
“If you are in touch with a lot of musicians and see what’s happening, it can be very beneficial. I knew a jam would do that. l did it for networking and to help fill an off-night.”
His childhood resolve to make a living as a musician had become a reality.
But Los Angeles was becoming glutted with musicians. It was a too-packed scene that no longer appealed to him. In the early ‘80s, Bunnell moved to Tucson.
The Tucson jams
Once here, Bunnell continued to play music, joining a variety of local bands.
By 1985, he had started his first jam here. In the ‘90s, he headed up the jams at the now-closed Berky’s, where he packed in musicians and fans for about 15 years.
It’s also where his reputation as a master jam host grew.
Amo Chip Dabney used to grab his sax and join those jams. These days, the Grammy-nominated musician is often too busy to jump on stage for the jams, but he makes sure to go to them as frequently as possible.
“We go to the jams to see new musicians in town,” says Dabney, who recently spent a fair amount of time on the dance floor at a Chicago Bar jam. “We have a wealth of talent here in the Old Pueblo.”
But he also goes to see Bunnell in action.
“It’s not as easy as it looks,” says Dabney about leading the jams.
“Deacon is so good at it. Everyone feels involved and invited and there’s a real connectivity there with jammers. Deacon is masterful at coordinating people who have shown up, being aware of instruments they play, and he has a pretty extensive song book they can play. It’s his specialty.”
At a recent Chicago Bar jam, Bunnell stands on stage with his core band for that night: Koko Matsumoto on bass and her husband Bryan Dean on guitar — they are two-thirds of the popular Bryan Dean Trio.
Bunnell has a train conductor’s cap on — his trademark at the jams — and a t-shirt with an image of Goofy on it.
He has turned the drums over to another musician, but keeps a cowbell nearby — if he starts beating it, you know someone has lost the beat and he is trying to get the music back on track.
Bob Richards, who has been playing jams hosted by Bunnell for about 10 years, straps his guitar around his neck and the band breaks into “Mustang Sally.” Bunnell’s bluesy voice growls while the musicians sound, well, as though they’d been playing together much longer than just this night.
“Take it Bob,” Bunnell says to Richards, a retired civil engineer with a gift for playing guitar. Bunnell makes sure musicians get their time in the spotlight.
While there are other jams to go to in town, Richards prefers the Bunnell-led ones.
“Deacon is always at the jam early, setting up the drum kit and the p.a. and making sure everything is ready to go,” says Richards.
“He takes it very seriously. He calls it a ‘pro jam.’ You do not have to be an expert but you had better be professional in behavior. And he will get in your face if you are not paying attention to the cues. Everyone is welcome, young and old alike. It is all about producing good-sounding music.”
Good-sounding music is why Cindy Mullozzi attends the jams as a fan.
“I like the variety of musicians,” she says. “The music is always good — well, almost always good. And it’s good to dance to. I hope the jams last for a long time, or at least as long as I am able to go.”
The following Sunday, Bunnell is on stage at Rockabilly. He has his conductor hat on, and this time a t-shirt that says “Thou shalt not snivel.” “It’s the eleventh commandment,” he explains with a chuckle.
On this Sunday, the core band consists of Kenny Wheels and John June, both professional musicians with extensive experience and striking chops.
“Thank you all for believing in live music,” Bunnell says as he opens the jam. He plays drums and sings on the first song — “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door.” He dedicates it to the late musician Eric Garcia, who regularly sat in on the jams.
Soon, Terrence Kelly steps up to play harmonica and wail the blues. The veteran musician knows how to hold a stage and demand attention.
Bunnell, who has turned the sticks over to another drummer, walks around the outskirts of the dance floor, checks the sign-up list, and leans back against a pool table as he listens. This is one set where he does not need his cowbell.
“He gives everyone a chance to interact, a chance to connect,” says Wheels, who has jammed with Bunnell for about 19 years.
But there are a few rules, he adds.
“Make sure your instrument is tuned before you come up, and if you can’t sing, don’t try.”
Bunnell doesn’t discriminate; he tries to give all musicians a chance to play.
“If you’re only a beginner, you’ll have some trouble,” Bunnell says. “But I do my best to help beginners out.”
And the key to making musicians who have never before played together sound as though they had?
“Simple songs,” he says.
“If you have real good players and you do simple tunes, then it’s pretty easy to come together. There’s a lot of 12-bar blues tunes — ‘Johnny Be Good’ is a 12-bar format. It’s a certain pattern of chord progression that is standard. You can go to Afghanistan and have that same progression.”
Why he does it
For most, there’s not a lot of money in making music, or hosting jams.
But money doesn’t motivate Bunnell; music does.
“It’s the last vestige of magic left on the planet,” he says with a fervor. “Without it, I think I would have been dead many years ago, so God bless the magic of music. Watch those jams and you’ll find something magical two or three times a night, and that’s what you are seeking.”
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“Today, I’m going to give you the food of Somalia,” Chef Samiro Elmi says to her practice cooking class. “Are you ready to eat?”
Elmi is preparing for the 3-hour class she’ll be teaching in partnership with the International Rescue Committee and the Tucson Jewish Community Center.
Elmi is a Somali refugee who moved to Tucson last March.
“America is a peaceful country; that’s the experience I’ve gotten,” Elmi says with the help of translator Fardoso Mohamed.
Elmi is originally from Somalia, but spent eight years in Kenya before moving to Tucson to receive a better education for herself and her three children.
“Tucson is a nice place,” Elmi says. “It’s a bit hot, but I like it. I don’t miss much about Somalia, even the food, because I can make it all myself.”
Elmi, who works full-time preparing tamales for Tucson Tamale Company, learned to cook from her mother when she was very young. This will be her first time teaching a cooking class.
Her enjoyment for cooking is quite simple. “I like to cook because everyone likes food,” she says. She doesn’t plan to open her own Somali restaurant in Tucson; she says her children love her cooking, which is more than enough for her.
Elmi says the upcoming cooking class is important to her and to Tucson because she wants to teach Tucsonans about the cuisine and culture of Somalia.
“There are a lot of different foods in Somalia, but I can’t show it all in one day,” she says. “But the foods I will show are important to me.”
One of Elmi’s favorite meals is bariis, a Somali rice dish. The dish usually consists of Basmati rice, veggies, and spices such as cilantro, garlic, and cumin. Elmi serves the dish with raisins and a homemade chile pepper sauce with a freshly cut salad on the side. Bariis is often served with a banana, which isn’t meant to be eaten separately.
The beauty of bariis is how different it can be prepared, says Elmi. She often uses different vegetables and spices, and sometimes adds different meats.
Although spices are important in Somali cuisine, Elmi says that vegetables are the key. Even in a simple dish like scrambled eggs, Elmi likes to add in tomatoes and onions.
Another one of Elmi’s favorites is baasto, which is pasta served with a thick tomato sauce, vegetables, sometimes a banana, and “a lot of meat,” as Elmi says. She also likes to serve bariis with baasto.
As for an American favorite of Elmi’s, she says she loves good ol’ Kentucky Fried Chicken and wouldn’t mind learning how to make the chicken herself.
“I’m a good learner,” she says. “If you show me once, I’ll get it.
The JCC has previously worked with the IRC to present two Syrian cooking classes, both of which sold out. This is the first Somali cooking class offered.
“This collaboration pays homage to the history of the JCC’s legacy as a support site for immigrants,” says Barbara Fenig, the JCC’s director of arts and culture.
According to Fenig, Tucson is home to 900 refugees from around the world.
“Food brings people together,” Fenig says. “What better way to celebrate a community partnership than to gather around the table to share a cooking lesson, a meal, and conversation between people from all backgrounds, faiths, and ages?”
Besides the Somali class, the JCC will work with the IRC to offer four more Syrian cooking classes in the fall, in addition to Congolese and Iraqi classes in the spring. Each class will be led by a refugee.
- Gloria Knott
Details:
What: Somali Cuisine Cooking Class with Chef Samiro Elmi.
When: 12—3 p.m., Sunday, Aug. 6.
Where: Tucson Jewish Community Center, 3800 E. River Road
Cost: $65 for members, $75 for non-members.
More information: tucsonjcc.org.
Et cetera: The JCC’s upcoming Syrian cooking classes will take place Sundays, September 17 — October 8.
Rob Thomas can’t help but feel a bit jinxed whenever he and Counting Crows frontman Adam Duritz get together.
“I don’t know what it is, man, but with me and Adam, we have the weirdest things happen,” the Matchbox Twenty lead singer/songwriter said during a phone call last week. “Like on the last tour” — his solo outing last summer with the Crows — “we had to cancel a show because a giant storm had taken a fan blade at the top of the auditorium and broke it and then flew it up under the rafters and they were afraid it was going to come down and fall on the crowd. So they had to cancel the show.”
He was calling last Tuesday from the San Francisco Bay area, where he and his 22-year-old pop band were getting ready to do a makeup concert at the Shoreline Amphitheatre after they had to pull out of a scheduled July 21 gig. Damage to a road near the venue made it impossible to bring their trucks and equipment to the venue, Thomas said.
“I’ve never had it happen before where a show got cancelled — well, I’ve never had a show get cancelled for a sinkhole, ever — and we just happened to have a day off less than a week later that we could fit it into and make that happen” said Thomas, noting that their tour mates, Counting Crows, couldn’t make the makeup due to a prior commitment. “I think (Durst) and I together just have some weird mojo.”
Matchbox Twenty, which hasn’t toured together since 2013, has been on the road with Counting Crows since the two bands launched their co-headlining “A Brief History of Everything World Tour” in Spokane, Washington, on July 12. The tour runs through Oct. 1.
On off dates, Thomas and his bandmates are sneaking in headlining shows, starting Thursday, Aug. 3, at the AVA at Casino del Sol. Pop singer-songwriter Matt Nathanson opens.
During our phone call with Thomas last week, we asked what we can expect on Thursday and whether the band, which split briefly in spring 2016 before reuniting in March 2017, was planning to record any new material.
It’s like we never left: “Everywhere we go we get to play music. Everywhere you go you’ve got this group of warm people that are welcoming and really nice. I think we have a very biased and skewed version of the world. We think everybody’s really nice and just loves people because we go places and we have an initiated group of people to see us. ‘Wow, people are nice all over.’ And my wife’s like, ‘No they’re not. They’re really not.’”
Cheers to the past: “It’s right at or a little past the 20th anniversary of our first record (1996’s ‘Yourself or Someone Like You”) and right at the 20th anniversary of our first single that really ever hit when ‘Push’ came out. So this is just kind of us wanting to go out and to celebrate the idea that for 20 years, we’ve managed to be able to go out on the road and have people still wanting to come see us play.”
Packing 20 years into two hours: “When you’ve got 20 years of hits there are some things that aren’t going to make it. You want to get all of the singles in, but at the end of the day we’re in the hospitality industry. We have a group of people there who are hardcore, initiated fans and know every deep album cuts. Then we have a lot of fans that were just casual fans that want to hear ‘Push’ and they want to hear ‘Disease’ or ‘If You’re Gone,’ so we want to play those songs. … It’s really a little dance you play around the setlist every night just trying to figure out what you’re going to put in and what you’re going to play tonight. And you just have to know that every night you’re going to have a small group of people that are going to be disappointed. That’s what we do, we disappoint people for a living. That’s our job.”
Learning to be patient: “I think it’s one of those things that kind of got Matchbox Twenty back together, that feeling of everything is not the end of the world. And sometimes it’s OK to just go and have a good time and play some music and not take everything so damn serious all the time.”
Looking toward the future: “Kyle (Cook) is putting out his Rivers and Rust record next year. I’m finishing up the songs for a solo record I want to put out sometime early next year, and Paul (Doucette) has been film scoring and has a few different projects lined up for next year. We’re going to get through that cycle of doing our own thing that we’ve already got in the pipeline so that we can really focus attention (on a new Matchbox Twenty album). At this point, it’s not like we are pressed to have to put something out right away to follow something up. If we’re going to do it we want to make sure it’s the best record we can make and the only way that’s going to happen is if we are 100 percent in.”
- Cathalena E. Burch
Details:
What: Matchbox Twenty in concert.
Featuring: Matt Nathanson.
When: 8 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 3.
Where: AVA at Casino del Sol, 5655 W. Valencia Road.
Tickets: $35 to $99 through tickets.casinodelsol.com, with VIP packages available.
In the alternate universe of the film "The Dark Tower" the last of the late, great gunslingers (Idris Elba) squares off against the Man in Black (Matthew McConaughey) as evil threatens to bring down their world and ours.
The thriller is the latest film to be adapted from a Stephen King novel, several novels in fact. It comes across as a fun watch, even if you aren't necessarily a fan of King's style.
"The Dark Tower" will screen at theaters across the city starting on Thursday.
You can do all kinds of things at the Tucson Museum of Art this Thursday, August 3, except maybe see works of art.
The main galleries, at 140 N. Main Ave., are closed until Oct. 21.
Instead, the museum is inviting folks to participate in six rounds of Geeks Who Drink trivia starting at 6 p.m. There will also be art-making stations, music and two historic properties for you to explore. Follow that up with a screening of "Do the Right Thing" in the same space at 7:30 p.m.
Admission is free. More information can be found here.
If you love the blues — if you really love the blues — then you won’t want to miss KXCI’s House Rockin’ Blues Review.
It’s slated for Friday, Aug. 4, at the El Casino Ballroom. The historic space seems perfect for a bangin’ blues concert.
And that’s not the only reason to go. The headliners are guitarist Kid Ramos and the 44s.
Kid Ramos is a dazzling electric blues guitarist. He’s played with The Fabulous Thunderbirds, James Harman and Roomful of Blues, among others. Ramos quit music for a while (he wanted to spend more time with his family), and a bad bout with cancer sidelined him in 2012-13 (and brought a flood of support from blues musicians and fans from around the world). But the blues bug is hard to ignore. That’s good for us: His sometimes raucous, sometimes smooth, always dazzling guitar playing makes for a knock-’em-out concert.
The Los Angeles-based 44s are hot and getting hotter. The group’s blues-roots-rock music has won raves for its concerts and albums. “From rockabilly to an L.A.-meets-Chicago version of Piedmont slow blues, the 44s blast out of LA like the Dirty Harry namesake pistol,” gushed americanbluesscene.com about the band’s “Americana” album.
The concert’s opening act is Mike Hebert and his Prison Band, which plays songs about the rural South, Texas and Southeastern Arizona.
The concert is slated for 7:30 p.m. Friday at the El Casino Ballroom, 437 E. 26th St. Tickets are $15-$25 at all Bookmans locations and KXCI.org.
- Kathleen Allen
Tucson's hottest new foodie neighborhood is at .... Oracle and Ina? With two major openings this month, the northwest-side is quickly becoming a destination not just for Foothills and Oro Valley, but downtown millennials as well.
Earlier this summer we welcomed the brunch spot Teaspoon, and just last week we said hello to Tap & Bottle North at the shopping center caddy-corner to Casas Adobes. And now, upscale Southern classics at Bird Modern Provisions and Bar, 7109 North Oracle Road.
The "modern" Southern restaurant is the brainchild of successful downtown restaurateur Brandon Katz, of Obon and Goodness. Katz enlisted chef Daniel Thomas of The Abbey and 47 Scott to design the menu, which focuses on sharable small plates.
Early favorites from our soft-opening dinner were the hushpuppies, fried balls of doughy heirloom corn with a sweet pepper jam for dipping, $7. The grits are also a must: Get them as an appetizer, $6, or an entree along with Cajun shrimp and plump slices of Andouille sausage, $18. They're creamy yet thicker than your Waffle House variety, with a depth to them that comes from sharp Vermont cheddar cheese.
Mussels with a chunky tomatillo broth and bright bulbs of fennel, $14.
The cocktail menu is hefty but mostly on the traditional side, with plenty of whiskey classics like the Manhattan, Old Fashioned and whiskey sour. The star here is the Tucson Julep, $12, with local Whiskey Del Bac and two different tinctures: creosote and spicy serrano peppers. The cocktail recently took home first place at the Whiskey del Bac Showdown at downtown's Scott & Co.
Designed by André Joffroy and A23 Studios, the new space feels airier with more natural lighting than Frogs. The restaurant is divided up into three rooms, with a long bar flanking the middle.
It's just doing the dinner service this month, but starting Aug. 28 it will be open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays, and 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sundays. Happy hour will be 4 to 6 p.m. daily, with various specials including yesterday's fried chicken served cold for $3 apiece. Phone: 520-441-9509.
- Andi Berlin / This is Tucson
Mark Twain was a funny man; just ask Mark Twain.
Or Val Kilmer, who channels the long-dead American writer, humorist and icon in Kilmer’s one-man play “Citizen Twain.”
Kilmer brings his 90-minute self-penned play to Rialto Theatre on Saturday, Aug. 5, for “Val Kilmer Live Presents Cinema Twain,” to screen a film version of the play. The actor (“Tombstone,” “Top Gun,” “The Doors,” “Batman Forever”) is expected on Saturday to introduce the 90-minute film and take questions from the audience afterwards. VIP ticketholders can meet Kilmer at the end of the night for selfies and one-on-one time.
Here’s the 4-1-1 on the show:
- When, where and how much: 8 p.m. Saturday at the Rialto, 318 E. Congress St. Tickets are $36 general admission, $71 VIP at ticketfly.com
- What: Kilmer reinvents himself as the famous humorist, from the bushy mustache to the shock of fuzzy white hair. Dressed in a white three-piece suit, he channels Samuel Clemens and his alter ego Twain — the film was shot before a full house in Pasadena, California, in 2013 — for 90 minutes, recounting Clemens’s life with humor and poignancy while inserting modern-day political and pop culture references.
- Yes, I’ll be your Huckleberry: Kilmer utters that famous line from “Tombstone” — “I know the story you want to hear. ‘I’ll be your huckleberry’ “ — before sucking on a vapor pipe that he later explained was his attempt to create the “thick pea soup” fog. “But Val Kilmer can’t afford a fog machine in Pasadena apparently,” he told the audience, which busted out laughing.
- And speaking of huckleberry: Kilmer is taking part in the inaugural Doc Holli-Days in Tombstone Aug. 12 and 13. He is expected to be the special guest at the VIP Doc Holliday Birthday Party Aug. 12. Very few if any tickets ($150 apiece) remain; check out valkilmer.gallery/product/doc-holliday-birthday-party-vip-tickets
- Cathalena E. Burch
We don't have to remind you that Saturday is National Mead Day, do we?
We do?
Oh, OK. Well, it is.
In honor of such an occasion, 1912 Brewing Company, at 2045 N. Forbes Boulevard, is hosting a mead and bacon pairing starting at 4 p.m.
Three different bacons will be paired with 3 types of Mead from Superstition Meads.
More information can be found on the Facebook event page.
Micheladas, those alcoholic beverages made with, among other ingredients, clamato juice and beer, take centerstage with the Fourth annual Michelada Challenge at the Tucson Convention Center, 260 S. Church Ave., this Saturday.
Bartenders from across Southern Arizona will compete to see who makes the best of the best with the ingredients given.
Attendees get to sample the drinks, then vote on which of the micheladas is their favorite.
The event runs from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. More information can be found here.
Longtime local drummer Dan "The Deacon" Bunnell holds blues jams at Rockabilly Grill, 3700 N. Oracle Road, every Sunday from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Here is what Star writer Kathleen Allen wrote about the jams this week:
Dan “The Deacon” Bunnell believes in magic.
And the magic is the music.
Bunnell, long a professional drummer, is immersed in the magic when he leads music jams. He does that twice a week: Sundays at Rockabilly and Tuesdays at Chicago Bar. Though the bars have changed over the years, he has led jams in Tucson since shortly after he moved here from Los Angeles in the early 1980s.
“I love watching him,” says musician Amber Gaia, who has been joining the jams for about two years. She was at the Chicago Bar, in the middle of the dance floor and moving to the music.
“I go to the jams a lot and don’t even bring my guitar because I love what he creates.”
Actually, Bunnell, 70, doesn’t know exactly what he will create each night. Musicians from around the city come in and sign up with the hopes of playing. Some he knows, others are new. He matches the musicians with each other and the music. Those who have come to jam play three songs; if the sign-up list is short and the musician good, there’s a chance of more time on stage.
Each jam has a “core band” — it changes according to availability. Those professional musicians, including Bunnell, step in to play when it is needed, backing up players with less experience but as much passion.
“I love how Deacon puts people together to play and have fun,” says Gaia, who did a few solo songs at a recent Tuesday night jam.
“He’s a master bandleader. I love to sit back and watch what he does and how he puts people together. ... He creates a wonderful time for everyone.”
For Bunnell, a member of Arizona Blues Hall of Fame, it’s all about keeping the magic alive.
In the beginning
Bunnell’s first decade was spent in rural Kentucky. “We were dirt farmers,” he says. It was there he discovered a knack for banging on drums. “I was good at it,” he says. “I just had a natural talent for it. I would beat up my mother’s furniture with knives and forks.” He was so good, in fact, a cousin signed him on to play drums in a bluegrass band.
When he was 10, the family moved to Louisville. He dove more deeply into music.
“I learned how to read and write music and play classical,” he recalls. “I played in the marching band in high school — I was the drum leader.”
Bunnell had no doubt what his future would hold.
“I didn’t have any what-am-I-going-to-be crisis,” he says. “I knew I was going to be a drummer.”
He was in love with the music that was created in the late ‘50s — The Drifters, Bo Diddley, Little Richard. And, especially, James Brown.
“I stole hubcaps one time to get James Brown tickets. That’s how foolish I was,” says Bunnell, who was about 15 at the time.
“James Brown was practically the second coming — his band changed my life. I had always known I would be a musician, but I was lacking inspiration. James had it.”
High school ended with a joke he can’t remember.
“I got into a little row with the English teacher. I made a joke about a dangling participle. It got me kicked out of class and that was the end of my high school career.”
He drifted around Kentucky, getting into minor trouble with the police. Then came the time, in about ‘64, that he found himself in front of a judge who figured the young man needed some direction.
“The judge ‘requested’ that I join the military,” says Bunnell.
He enlisted in the Navy and much of the time during his 1964-68 service he was on a ship off the shores of Vietnam.
But he never forgot music.
“I played around here and there with different bands, getting my chops together. I knew I wanted to start music when I got out.”
The L.A. years
He got off his last Navy ship in Long Beach, California and immediately started searching for music gigs in the Los Angeles area. Fame was not his goal; playing music was.
“I didn’t care if I were a star; I kept searching until I found musical work.”
He played at hotels, bars and clubs. Often he was called upon to be a backup musician on recordings.
“I called myself an unrepentant musical prostitute,” he says. “I’d play polka in a cow pasture if I got paid.”
He also started putting together jams in the Los Angeles area.
“The idea is the networking,” says Bunnell.
“If you are in touch with a lot of musicians and see what’s happening, it can be very beneficial. I knew a jam would do that. l did it for networking and to help fill an off-night.”
His childhood resolve to make a living as a musician had become a reality.
But Los Angeles was becoming glutted with musicians. It was a too-packed scene that no longer appealed to him. In the early ‘80s, Bunnell moved to Tucson.
The Tucson jams
Once here, Bunnell continued to play music, joining a variety of local bands.
By 1985, he had started his first jam here. In the ‘90s, he headed up the jams at the now-closed Berky’s, where he packed in musicians and fans for about 15 years.
It’s also where his reputation as a master jam host grew.
Amo Chip Dabney used to grab his sax and join those jams. These days, the Grammy-nominated musician is often too busy to jump on stage for the jams, but he makes sure to go to them as frequently as possible.
“We go to the jams to see new musicians in town,” says Dabney, who recently spent a fair amount of time on the dance floor at a Chicago Bar jam. “We have a wealth of talent here in the Old Pueblo.”
But he also goes to see Bunnell in action.
“It’s not as easy as it looks,” says Dabney about leading the jams.
“Deacon is so good at it. Everyone feels involved and invited and there’s a real connectivity there with jammers. Deacon is masterful at coordinating people who have shown up, being aware of instruments they play, and he has a pretty extensive song book they can play. It’s his specialty.”
At a recent Chicago Bar jam, Bunnell stands on stage with his core band for that night: Koko Matsumoto on bass and her husband Bryan Dean on guitar — they are two-thirds of the popular Bryan Dean Trio.
Bunnell has a train conductor’s cap on — his trademark at the jams — and a t-shirt with an image of Goofy on it.
He has turned the drums over to another musician, but keeps a cowbell nearby — if he starts beating it, you know someone has lost the beat and he is trying to get the music back on track.
Bob Richards, who has been playing jams hosted by Bunnell for about 10 years, straps his guitar around his neck and the band breaks into “Mustang Sally.” Bunnell’s bluesy voice growls while the musicians sound, well, as though they’d been playing together much longer than just this night.
“Take it Bob,” Bunnell says to Richards, a retired civil engineer with a gift for playing guitar. Bunnell makes sure musicians get their time in the spotlight.
While there are other jams to go to in town, Richards prefers the Bunnell-led ones.
“Deacon is always at the jam early, setting up the drum kit and the p.a. and making sure everything is ready to go,” says Richards.
“He takes it very seriously. He calls it a ‘pro jam.’ You do not have to be an expert but you had better be professional in behavior. And he will get in your face if you are not paying attention to the cues. Everyone is welcome, young and old alike. It is all about producing good-sounding music.”
Good-sounding music is why Cindy Mullozzi attends the jams as a fan.
“I like the variety of musicians,” she says. “The music is always good — well, almost always good. And it’s good to dance to. I hope the jams last for a long time, or at least as long as I am able to go.”
The following Sunday, Bunnell is on stage at Rockabilly. He has his conductor hat on, and this time a t-shirt that says “Thou shalt not snivel.” “It’s the eleventh commandment,” he explains with a chuckle.
On this Sunday, the core band consists of Kenny Wheels and John June, both professional musicians with extensive experience and striking chops.
“Thank you all for believing in live music,” Bunnell says as he opens the jam. He plays drums and sings on the first song — “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door.” He dedicates it to the late musician Eric Garcia, who regularly sat in on the jams.
Soon, Terrence Kelly steps up to play harmonica and wail the blues. The veteran musician knows how to hold a stage and demand attention.
Bunnell, who has turned the sticks over to another drummer, walks around the outskirts of the dance floor, checks the sign-up list, and leans back against a pool table as he listens. This is one set where he does not need his cowbell.
“He gives everyone a chance to interact, a chance to connect,” says Wheels, who has jammed with Bunnell for about 19 years.
But there are a few rules, he adds.
“Make sure your instrument is tuned before you come up, and if you can’t sing, don’t try.”
Bunnell doesn’t discriminate; he tries to give all musicians a chance to play.
“If you’re only a beginner, you’ll have some trouble,” Bunnell says. “But I do my best to help beginners out.”
And the key to making musicians who have never before played together sound as though they had?
“Simple songs,” he says.
“If you have real good players and you do simple tunes, then it’s pretty easy to come together. There’s a lot of 12-bar blues tunes — ‘Johnny Be Good’ is a 12-bar format. It’s a certain pattern of chord progression that is standard. You can go to Afghanistan and have that same progression.”
Why he does it
For most, there’s not a lot of money in making music, or hosting jams.
But money doesn’t motivate Bunnell; music does.
“It’s the last vestige of magic left on the planet,” he says with a fervor. “Without it, I think I would have been dead many years ago, so God bless the magic of music. Watch those jams and you’ll find something magical two or three times a night, and that’s what you are seeking.”
“Today, I’m going to give you the food of Somalia,” Chef Samiro Elmi says to her practice cooking class. “Are you ready to eat?”
Elmi is preparing for the 3-hour class she’ll be teaching in partnership with the International Rescue Committee and the Tucson Jewish Community Center.
Elmi is a Somali refugee who moved to Tucson last March.
“America is a peaceful country; that’s the experience I’ve gotten,” Elmi says with the help of translator Fardoso Mohamed.
Elmi is originally from Somalia, but spent eight years in Kenya before moving to Tucson to receive a better education for herself and her three children.
“Tucson is a nice place,” Elmi says. “It’s a bit hot, but I like it. I don’t miss much about Somalia, even the food, because I can make it all myself.”
Elmi, who works full-time preparing tamales for Tucson Tamale Company, learned to cook from her mother when she was very young. This will be her first time teaching a cooking class.
Her enjoyment for cooking is quite simple. “I like to cook because everyone likes food,” she says. She doesn’t plan to open her own Somali restaurant in Tucson; she says her children love her cooking, which is more than enough for her.
Elmi says the upcoming cooking class is important to her and to Tucson because she wants to teach Tucsonans about the cuisine and culture of Somalia.
“There are a lot of different foods in Somalia, but I can’t show it all in one day,” she says. “But the foods I will show are important to me.”
One of Elmi’s favorite meals is bariis, a Somali rice dish. The dish usually consists of Basmati rice, veggies, and spices such as cilantro, garlic, and cumin. Elmi serves the dish with raisins and a homemade chile pepper sauce with a freshly cut salad on the side. Bariis is often served with a banana, which isn’t meant to be eaten separately.
The beauty of bariis is how different it can be prepared, says Elmi. She often uses different vegetables and spices, and sometimes adds different meats.
Although spices are important in Somali cuisine, Elmi says that vegetables are the key. Even in a simple dish like scrambled eggs, Elmi likes to add in tomatoes and onions.
Another one of Elmi’s favorites is baasto, which is pasta served with a thick tomato sauce, vegetables, sometimes a banana, and “a lot of meat,” as Elmi says. She also likes to serve bariis with baasto.
As for an American favorite of Elmi’s, she says she loves good ol’ Kentucky Fried Chicken and wouldn’t mind learning how to make the chicken herself.
“I’m a good learner,” she says. “If you show me once, I’ll get it.
The JCC has previously worked with the IRC to present two Syrian cooking classes, both of which sold out. This is the first Somali cooking class offered.
“This collaboration pays homage to the history of the JCC’s legacy as a support site for immigrants,” says Barbara Fenig, the JCC’s director of arts and culture.
According to Fenig, Tucson is home to 900 refugees from around the world.
“Food brings people together,” Fenig says. “What better way to celebrate a community partnership than to gather around the table to share a cooking lesson, a meal, and conversation between people from all backgrounds, faiths, and ages?”
Besides the Somali class, the JCC will work with the IRC to offer four more Syrian cooking classes in the fall, in addition to Congolese and Iraqi classes in the spring. Each class will be led by a refugee.
- Gloria Knott
Details:
What: Somali Cuisine Cooking Class with Chef Samiro Elmi.
When: 12—3 p.m., Sunday, Aug. 6.
Where: Tucson Jewish Community Center, 3800 E. River Road
Cost: $65 for members, $75 for non-members.
More information: tucsonjcc.org.
Et cetera: The JCC’s upcoming Syrian cooking classes will take place Sundays, September 17 — October 8.
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