What do puppets, troubadours, low riders, Latin soul music steeped in Motown ethos and a mechanical bull have to do with Labor Day?
Well, if you’re Curtis McCrary and the folks at Hotel Congress, everything.
Throughout the second annual Club Congress Weekend, Thursday, Aug. 28, through Labor Day on Monday, Sept. 1, the historic downtown hotel will roll out what it is billing as a five-day extravaganza “for the discerning cultural consumer.” Events will be held on the Plaza stage, at the iconic Club Congress and in the hotel Lounge.
The lineup includes a puppet troupe from Oregon, a Latin soul band from Los Angeles, a dark cumbia DJ from Tucson and 25 Tucson musicians creating music on the fly for a good cause.
“The thought was, ‘let’s just group some things together that represent the eclectic spirit with which booking has traditionally taken place here at this club over 40 years’,” said McCrary, who took over the role of Congress talent buyer in January. “There’s not a specific genre or style or format of entertainment that we are not interested in; if it is weird and eclectic, we’re interested. It can be anything, and literally I mean any genre or style of music, we can usually find a home for it. That’s what people have come to expect from Congress.”
A crowd filled the Hotel Congress Plaza for last year’s inaugural Club Congress Weekend. The event returns this weekend with an added day on Thursday, Aug. 28.
McCrary replaced longtime Congress entertainment director David Slutes, who left in spring 2024. In October, he will launch La Rosa, a concert venue he and a partner are creating at the old Benedictine Monastery.
Taking the reins of live entertainment at Congress is a full-circle moment for McCrary, who started his talent-buying career there in the early 2000s before migrating across the street to the Rialto Theatre in 2004. McCrary spent 16 years at the Rialto before leaving as its executive director in 2020.
His career took him to Dallas for several years before he came home in January.
Hotel Congress launched Club Congress Weekend last year as a replacement for HoCo Fest, the four-day Labor Day weekend music festival that featured national touring bands and local artists. It ran for 20 years until its finale in August 2023.
Club Congress Weekend events will be held at Hotel Congress, 311 E. Congress St. For tickets and details, visit hotelcongress.com.
Thursday, Day 1
- Puppeteers For Fears “Robopocalypse: The Musical” with special guest Blunderbusst; 8 p.m. at Club Congress; $30 preferred seats, $20 general admission in advance.
Oregon’s Puppeteers for Fears kicks off Club Congress Weekend with its “Robopocalypse: The Musical” on Thursday, Aug. 28.
You have to be at least 21 to catch this puppet show, which should tell you all you need to know about the folks from Oregon’s “all puppet cyber-punk spectacular of your fever dreams.”
In their latest show, launched earlier this year, AI has gone wild and the robots are taking over. No, we’re not talking “I’ll be back” terminators; it’s the appliances that plucky teen hacker Jolie Daniels, screen-name Ha.G., has accidentally loosed onto the unsuspecting world. It’s on her and her bot, made from spare parts Jolie found in her parents’ garage, to stop the toasters and coffee pots from destroying human civilization.
The show includes Puppeteers For Fears’ signature catchy songs, snappy dialogue and sci-fi horror and thrills, which has been a cornerstone of the Oregon-based comedy troupe since it started producing original horror and science fiction rock’n’roll musicals in 2015.
This is the first time the group will perform in Tucson.
Friday, Day 2
- “Boots & Cats: Back to School Bash,” 6 p.m.-2 a.m. in Club Congress and on the Plaza stage, 9 p.m.-2 a.m. in the lounge; starting at $12.36.
What better way to kick off the new school year than a massive multivenue party with DJs, giveaways, go-go dancers and local vendors. Oh, we forgot to mention the mechanical bull, which McCrary said could very well be a first for Hotel Congress.
The party is presented by Good Day Good Night, Ben’s Bells, DUSK music festival, Ape House, Club Congress, Visionary House Market and Yes Good Pony.
Saturday, Day 3
- HOCO Record Fair, 10 a.m.-3 p.m., with vendors spread out in Club Congress, the Century Room and the Lounge.
Desert Island Records and Hotel Congress host some of Southern Arizona’s top vinyl collectors and merchants that will have thousands upon thousands of new and used records to choose from.
The HOCO Record Fair has been a staple of Hotel Congress’s Labor Day weekend events for at least 20 years, says Carl Hanni, who has helped coordinate the event since the beginning.
This year’s vendors feature several Tucson record store,s including Hurricane, Wooden Tooth, Old Paint and Desert Island, as well as collectors bringing an array of vinyl in all genres of music, from blues and bluegrass to country and rock.
Admission is free and the fair features a Bloody Mary bar and DJs spinning deep cuts.
- Tucson Rock Lottery, 6-10 p.m. on the Plaza; $15.45.
This is one of those only-in-Tucson events: 25 Tucson musicians will be randomly selected at 9 a.m. Saturday to form new bands and each will have less than 12 hours to write and learn three original songs and learn one cover that they will perform in a benefit concert for KXCI Community Radio.
“We’ve got 25 different amazing local musicians participating, and it’s super fun,” McCrary said.
The first-ever Tucson Rock Lottery was hosted by the old Plush nightclub on East Sixth Street in 2011 and featured a number of now-prominent Tucson musicians, including Gabriel Sullivan and Brian Lopez of XIXA. As far as we can tell, last year’s resurrection at the inaugural Club Congress Weekend was the only other time it’s been done.
- Indie pop singer Yuno with special guest Windser, 6:30 p.m., Club Congress; $22 in advance.
Yuno just released his genre-blending debut Sub Pop album “Blest,” mixing what promoters describe as “dream-pop, trap and psychedelia” into an “expansive, widescreen pop drama suited for big movies and bigger stages.”
Sub-pop singer Yuno is at Club Congress on Saturday, Aug. 30, with Windser.
Rising indie-pop singer Windser opens the show.
Sunday, Day 4
- DosVidas Car Club “Labor Day Kick Back Car Show,” 5 p.m., Hotel Congress Plaza and Maynards parking lot; free.
Tucson’s DosVidas Car Club is bringing out some of the city’s most talked-about classic cars and low riders. Trophies will be awarded.
- Los Yesterdays, 7:30 p.m., Plaza stage; $20–$35.
The LA Chicano soul band has been on McCrary’s radar since he first heard them several years back.
The Los Angeles Chicano soul band Los Yesterdays is making its Tucson debut at Club Congress Weekend. They perform in the club on Sunday night.
“That’s the thing I am most excited about,” he said, describing Los Yesterdays as a “throwback to a Motown style of music, but with a Latin edge.” The band blends sweet soul ballads with deep cultural roots in what McCrary describes as a heartfelt tribute to the oldies and the spirit of the Southland.
“I think it’s just a terrific style,” he said. “They have this really terrific video for a song called ‘Nobody’s Clown’ that’s super fun. It’s got marionettes so it kind of ties into the puppet thing on Thursday.”
The Latin soul genre, born in the 1960s through a marriage of Latin rhythms and American soul and R&B, has re-emerged over the past five years, gaining popularity with bands including Los Yesterdays. Their show on Sunday will be their first in Tucson.
- Gloombia by Gorville Wreck, 8 p.m.-midnight, Club Congress; free for 21 and older.
Scroll through Glombia’s Instagram and it becomes instantly apparent what you’re in store for: a night of “dark cumbia” perfect for dancing in the shadows.
Monday, Day 5
- Salvador Duran, 6:30 p.m., Plaza; free.
The legendary Tucson musician closes out the weekend on a soulful, poetic note under the stars.
- Spaceface and Jesika Von Rabbit with support from Kulululu, 7 p.m., Club Congress; $20 in advance.
California-based Jesika von Rabbit is the desert glam to the psychodelic dream pop band Spaceface. The pair share the Club Congress stage on Labor Day.
While Duran serenades the audience outside, Jesika Von Rabbit will be lighting up the dance floor inside with her mind-bending, electro pop balanced by the cosmic groove of co-headliner Spaceface. McCrary describes it as psychedelic dream-pop meets surreal desert glam. Throw in Portland, Oregon, experimental art-punk, ska-punk, hardcore and avant-garde band Kulululu, and you’re in store for one eclectic night that will likely make for great morning-after coffee klatch conversations.
DJ Walters the Don is one of the DJs on hand for Club Congress Weekend’s “Boots & Cats: Back to School Bash” Friday night.
Dark cumbia DJ Goombia (Gorville Wreck) will close out Sunday with a 21-and-old dance party in Club Congress.
Kulululu dons masks and costumes for its live shows, and its music is described by its hometown Portland Mercury as “art-punk operating within the parameters of free jazz” with elements of garage rock and psychedelic rock, characterized by “pogo-stick rhythms” and unexpected saxophone freak-outs.
