By most accounts, more than 1,000 people showed up to the parking lot at The Station Pub & Grill in Marana on May 1 when Tucson ‘80s metal cover band The Dirt Band played an outdoor show.
They had expected several hundred people, or maybe a few more than the 650 who showed up for their first show at the Station right before COVID hit.
But when they went on the makeshift stage in the parking lot of the sports bar/restaurant at 8235 N. Silverbell Road, every inch of the asphalt lot and the small plaza’s walkways were packed.
Some guys in the audience knew some folks at the AVA at Casino del Sol, and one call led to another, and in July The Dirt drummer Andy Saenz got an improbable invitation: Would he and his fledgling band want to headline a Tucson stage that’s normally reserved for national acts?
“I was shocked and surprised,” said Saenz. “I couldn’t believe they would let us do it ... because we weren’t opening for another band. I had known that they don’t normally let local bands (headline).”
On Friday, Oct. 1, The Dirt will play the biggest — and only their fourth — show of its career at the 5,000-capacity AVA.
The Dirt formed just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit and played a single show before they were forced to put the brakes on plans to channel all the big hair metal bands the band members had grown up with in the 1980s and ‘90s.
After that May 1 gig in Marana, they had a few shows on the books that were canceled as the pandemic ebbed and flowed throughout the state.
Earlier this month, they played a show in Yuma and they have another planned in Mexico on Oct. 9.
The Dirt’s appeal lies in their resolution to take audiences back to the days when they heard the big hits from Guns ‘N Roses, Mötley Crüe, Def Leppard, Poison, Warrant, Ratt, Skid Row and other 1980s arena rockers. They dress the part with big-hair wigs and bandanas and tight spandex and leather pants, and they come on stage with one goal in mind: Stay true to the songs.
“We’re not giving it our own spin. We’re not editing it or changing it. We’re doing it the way you heard it on MTV or the album,” said Saenz, who is also in the popular Tucson country cover band Backroads. “We try to make sure that every song is dead on.”
Saenz said The Dirt’s concerts are big ole sing-alongs. It takes the band two or three notes before the audience figures out where they are going and joins in.
The Dirt will share the AVA stage with a trio of Tucson rock bands — the popular nü metal band Lethal Injektion, Alice In Chains tribute band Empty Fossils and the arena rock cover band Sozzled Sally.
Saenz said they priced tickets for the show — $9 for the lawn, $10 to $15 for reserved seats — similar to the prices he paid to see concerts in the 1980s.
