Raul Pacheco turned on the news that Saturday in January and watched the drama in Tucson unfold like a bad dream.
Six people dead, another 13 injured in a hail of bullets that lasted all of 15 seconds.
"We just felt it was a horrible thing," he recalled last week.
For the first time in nearly a year, Pacheco and his Los Angeles Latin rock band, Ozomatli, felt sympathetic for Arizona - a state the band had vowed last May that it would not step into until Arizona eased its anti-illegal-immigration stance.
But this singular event and its ripple effect gave the band an excuse to change the subject for one night.
Tonight, they'll join folk-rocker Jackson Browne and a diverse cast of musicians from Delta bluesman Keb' Mo' to singer-songwriter Dar Williams in a concert for the upstart Fund for Civility, Respect and Understanding.
"This seems like a cause that's worthy. It supercedes other issues that are happening, and it ties into it in certain ways," Pacheco said, confirming that the band is still part of the boycott over the controversial Arizona law known as SB 1070. "We feel it's important to be able to stand up in that arena and say that it's important to support the people affected by that tragic event. The boycott is about tax money. Most of this money is going to a cause we think supercedes all that."
Social causes are nothing new for the seven-piece multicultural Ozo, which has a long and loyal following in Tucson and was a regular to our stages over its 15-year career. The culture-mashing band - which fuses salsa, hip-hop, African, cumbia, samba, funk and urban Latino into a hugely energetic party - was born during the heated labor disputes in its native Los Angeles in the 1990s.
Over the next several years the musicians became the city's unofficial ambassadors through appearances at pep rallies and protest marches and on five studio albums rich in musical activism. (The city will honor the native sons with "Ozomatli Day" on April 23.)
They've also played free concerts for victims of China's 2008 earthquake, as well as in a U.S. State Department-sponsored swing through Myanmar, Vietnam and Thailand, where they extended humanitarian aid at HIV and AIDS clinics and orphanages, and through refugee programs.
Pacheco said Ozo got involved in tonight's civility concert with a phone call from headliner Jackson Browne's camp. It took very little persuading. It was a chance to "bring people together for a moment" with one mission: redefine the way we treat one another.
"Civility is being able to express your opinions without violence," Pacheco said. "In an event like this (the Jan. 8 shooting), there's a lot of ripple that's going in many, many different layers. Whatever the difference of our opinion, this is something that we feel we can all agree on. The basic fact of helping … everyone who was affected by this and bringing attention to it and raising money for it - that's what it's about."
Since Ozo last played Tucson, the band has released the critically acclaimed record "Fire Away" and has launched a series of family-friendly Ozo Kids Concerts.
"I find it to be very, very energizing," Pacheco said of the three kids shows the band has done since late last year. "It's a different kind of energy. It's way less aggressive. It reminds me of why I play music, the joy of it."
By year's end, the band hopes to release a kids' record and add more family-friendly shows.
