From local metal bands to Texas country, Tucson stages hopping this weekend

If you’re into 1970s-’80s pop radio, there’s a show for you this weekend on a Tucson stage.

World music’s your thing? We got that.

Or how about some red dirt country from one of the biggest names in Texas country music?

Tucson’s music scene this weekend has a little bit of everything, from a local drummer making his small-stage comeback to the multiplatinum ’70s pop rockers Little River Band and local metal bands banging their heads and drums at the Rialto.

Here’s what you can expect:

Rising country star

Texas country singer Bri Bagwell kicks off the weekend on Thursday, Aug. 10, when she brings her “Hello Highway Tour” to the Maverick King of Clubs, 6622 E. Tanque Verde Road. Tucson’s own Mamma Coal and her band opens the 21-and-older show.

Bagwell, who charted nine No. 1 songs on the Texas music charts and snagged multiple Texas Female Vocalist of the Year awards, comes here with her 2022 album “Corazón y Cabeza” (Heart and Head). The album, her fourth full-length and one that Bagwell has said is her most personal, includes some nods to neo-trad country (“Hello Highway,” “Happy New Year”) and Spanish flair (“Josefina”) intermingled with the rocking country that has earned Bagwell legions of devoted fans in her adopted home state.

Doors open at 6 p.m. for Thursday’s 21-and-older show. Tickets are $15 through tucsonmaverick.com.

Metal Fest

Seven Tucson heavy metal bands will share the stage at the Rialto Theatre, 318 E. Congress St., for “Metal Fest 25” on Friday, Aug. 11.

The all-ages show, produced by Local Love Presents, features the heavy-metal/pop punk band Hell Doubt; Inherit the Downfall; thrash metal band Ash to Dust; metal rockers Dedwin; The Wind Below — the longtime metal band Harlette that is playing its first show under its new name; the pop rock/funk and dance band Tonight’s Sunshine; and metal rockers the Crown Syndicate.

Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Friday and the first act is on stage at 7:30. Admission is $5 in advance through rialtotheatre.com, or $8 at the door.

’70s-’80s pop rock

Back to homepage

Subscriber Login

Keep reading with a digital access subscription.

Subscribe now

Little River Band was one of those bands that when you heard their songs on the radio, they would get stuck in your brain and play over and over again.

That’s when you’d find yourself walking around waxing nostalgic about dancing in the dark and walking in the park reminiscing.

Even though the 1970s-’80s pop rock band’s chart-topping days are well behind them, they still have a way in their live shows to take you there and plant those songs in your subconscious. We’re sure that after they play Desert Diamond Casino, 1100 W. Pima Mine Road, on Saturday, Aug. 12, the audience will leave the venue humming those songs.

Little River Band takes the stage at 8 p.m. Tickets are $30-$50 through ddcaz.com.

Drummer goes solo

On and off since moving to Tucson from his native Los Angeles, drummer Carlos Solorzano has played with bands of all genres.

On Sunday, Aug. 13, he’s ditching the band and going solo, just him and his drum kit and a few musical tricks up his sleeve, for a show at Thunder Canyon Brewery, 220 E. Broadway.

“This is a solo thing where I get to go out and do my thing,” said the 51-year-old St. Augustine Catholic High School theology and percussion teacher. “I’ve done master classes and I was in an African-jazz (event) in Phoenix recently, but I haven’t played in a night club for a while.”

Solorzano’s shows include original compositions mixed in with covers, where he plays the drums to a pre-recorded track from a popular artist. One of those songs by Michael Jackson will include Solorzano’s keyboard and bass with some sound affects.

“It’s stuff people have heard and it’s songs I love,” he said, comparing his shows to those of DJs who take popular songs and remix them live.

In one of the songs by a small African combo, he adds live drums to change the dynamic of the song, he said.

Solorzano is returning to solo gigs after landing grants from the Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern Arizona and Arizona Commission on the Arts to buy new equipment.

“I’m finally able to get going on this again and the artist in me really wants to do my own thing,” he said.

Sunday’s show, which starts at 7 p.m. and is free, is one of several Solorzano has on the books in the coming months including an Aug. 19 show at the Maverick and an encore show at Thunder Canyon in September. Visit desertdrummer.com for more information.