We wish we could tell you who’s behind the gauze of the funk-rock band Here Come the Mummies when they play Fox Tucson Theatre on Sunday, March 17.
Apparently, it’s a well-guarded secret that the rotating cast of nine, sometimes eight, sometimes 10, has kept since the band formed in the early 2000s.
Look HCTM up on Wikipedia — their website, herecomethemummies.com, has very little beyond tour dates and a link to buy merch — and you’ll find dozens of former members with names like Jo Jo Ma, Bone Air,w Sousa Claus, Miracle Mummy and Teste Verde. The lineup coming to the Fox includes Mummy Cass, Eddie Mummy, K.W. TuT, Spaz, The Pole!, Midnight Mummy, Dr. Yo, Highlander and “H-POD” (High Priest of Death).
We’re told that the anonymous members, all dressed like 5,000-year-old Egyptian mummies, are accomplished musicians hailing from Nashville, Tennessee, blasting out brassy funk beats with sax, trumpet, beat box, keyboards, percussion and bass. Some are rumored to be Grammy-winning studio musicians — a fact that we cannot confirm or deny — who are forced to remain nameless due to contractual issues.
But what is undeniable is the appeal HCTM has with audiences. Their shows are often described as electrifying and raucous.
“... Don’t let the band’s gimmick fool you; beneath those bandages lies a treasure trove of musical talent,” gushed Loud Hailer.
“Whatever their real story may be, the band is worth seeing,” advised Cincinnati Magazine. “Their live shows are characterized by showmanship and fast-paced playing — especially impressive for a bunch of (un)dead guys.”
Sunday’s show starts at 7 p.m. at the Fox, 17 W. Congress St., which set aside the front section of the stage for standing-room-only dancing. Tickets are $20 to $55 through foxtucson.com.
The return of Altan
The Irish band Altan will swing into Fox Tucson Theatre on Friday, March 15, featuring eight step dancers from the Tucson Celtic Steps School of Irish Dance.
When they were here in November 2022, the traditional Irish band Altan made us feel like we were in the throes of St. Patrick’s Day, with lush ballads and laments, a few drinking songs and those dynamic reels and jigs that made us want to dance in the aisles of the Fox Tucson Theatre.
That’s likely how we will feel when the band takes the Fox stage on Friday, March 15, for a pre-St. Patrick’s Day concert; the quintessential Irish holiday is actually Sunday, March 17. The show is a coproduction of Fox and In Concert Tucson, which regularly brings traditional roots and world music bands like Altan to Tucson.
The band, hailing from County Donegal in Ireland with its fiddle-rich musical heritage, is in the midst of a spring U.S. tour that stops in 15 American cities through the end of March. The band is led by fiddler and vocalist Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh, who founded the group with her late husband Frankie Kennedy in 1987.
The band — Mhaonaigh, bouzouki player Ciarán Curran, Dáithí Sproule and Mark Kelly on guitar, Máirtín Tourish on accordion and the newest member, Clare Friel, on fiddle — is largely regarded as the world’s leading traditional Irish band. Over the past 30-plus years, the band has played for U.S. presidents and accompanied Irish presidents abroad and has introduced traditional Irish music to audiences worldwide. The band’s music is influenced by traditional Irish language songs and folk tunes from their native Donegal put in a wholly contemporary context that has boosted traditional Irish music’s worldwide popularity.
Eight step dancers from Tucson’s Celtic Steps School of Irish Dance will join the band in concert beginning at 7:30 p.m. Friday at the Fox, 17 W. Congress St. Tickets are $20-$47.50 through foxtucson.com.
The Fox Tucson Theatre has been a Tucson landmark for decades. Its history has been captured in photos since the 1930s, when it opened as a vaudeville venue and movie house. Video by Pascal Albright / Arizona Daily Star
